Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. [US] ** Spoilers **

pixelburp

CaptainNegative wrote: »

I like Ward - they need his type of character (the wooden hero) at the beginning. I think the idea is we warm to him as Skye does.

But for the audience to warm to a character, you have to give them something, anything to latch onto. Some semblance of personality or likeability. Ward, and specifically the actor, has neither of those things; he's an interchangeable hunk with a dead, CW pout and a line delivery to match. I wouldn't care so much if it weren't for the fact he's being forced down our throats as the main character (with Skye part of an obvious will they/won't they thread)

I get the idea of having the straight man for the more outlandish characters to spar against, but look at the equivalent character in Firefly: Simon was clearly the straight man, but at least the actor had a charm about him & tread a nice balance between deadpan sarcasm and straight-edged earnestness. I understand the reason for Ward, I just genuinely think it's a massive misstep. If Whedon continues his fondness for character deaths, I hope Ward is the target.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

pixelburp wrote: »

But for the audience to warm to a character, you have to give them something, anything to latch onto. Some semblance of personality or likeability. Ward, and specifically the actor, has neither of those things; he's an interchangeable hunk with a dead, CW pout and a line delivery to match. I wouldn't care so much if it weren't for the fact he's being forced down our throats as the main character (with Skye part of an obvious will they/won't they thread)

I get the idea of having the straight man for the more outlandish characters to spar against, but look at the equivalent character in Firefly: Simon was clearly the straight man, but at least the actor had a charm about him & tread a nice balance between deadpan sarcasm and straight-edged earnestness. I understand the reason for Ward, I just genuinely think it's a massive misstep. If Whedon continues his fondness for character deaths, I hope Ward is the target.

Yeah ok, that's a fair argument - I was hoping that he'd fade into the background a bit more after the first few episodes (kinda like Harry Lennix's character in Dollhouse) I don't want a will they/won't they arc with him and Skye... I'd be cool with him being killed off early on (and not brought back, obviously)

CastorTroy

I was thinking Skye needs to go swimming more often.

Well Melinda said

Coulson died so maybe she knows the truth or does he believe he died for a bit

?

Also

Graviton incoming

at some point? Hope they don't go the route of X Files and Buffy where they had episodes ending leaving it open but never returning to it. I'd say they will go back to him though. Not sure if will be a big bad or if just occasional appearance.

wampyrus77

wampyrus77 wrote: »

dont spoil it some of us cant see number 3 until friday like myself ,

Maybe you could follow your own advice in future and not post up spoilers before its aired here

expectationlost

a reason to watch

titan18

She's hot alright, still annoying as hell and doesn't give off a hacktivist vibe. Coulson is the only decent character so far

Patty O Furniture

expectationlost wrote: »

a reason to watch

It's a good thing its a warm climate, as the first thing i thought of was, the poor thing will get her death of cold with the wet clothes on

Kirby

pixelburp wrote: »

I understand the reason for Ward, I just genuinely think it's a massive misstep. If Whedon continues his fondness for character deaths, I hope Ward is the target.

CaptainNegative wrote: »

I'd be cool with him being killed off early on (and not brought back, obviously)

It was forced on him due to Glenn Quinn's drug problem, but they killed off Doyle really early on in Angel and used it as a great plot device with Cordelia getting the visions instead and also making her more integral to the team/show.

There is no reason to think they couldn't do that here with a character/actor who isn't working or resonating with fans. Have them end "the will they, wont they" and get together at the end of season 1 and then BAM, he dies on mission in the same episode. This leads to her fully committing to shield etc. Use it. Clichéd but it would work in the context of the show and drop some dead weight.

Alternatively, they could turn him bad. Have him be a mole or bad guy. It's the easiest way to spice up a boring character. ANYBODY can play a bad guy decently, even a poor actor.

Rovi

CaptainNegative wrote: »

I like Ward - they need his type of character (the wooden hero) at the beginning. I think the idea is we warm to him as Skye does.

I've warmed to him already.
I mean, come on, how could you NOT warm to someone who can make a double barrelled side-by-side shotgun make the 'CHACK-CHACK' noise of a pump-action shotgun being racked!

TheIrishGrover

Well, Whedon does like killing off major characters but it all depends on his involvement on the series. I don't think he's that much involved.

that episode was OK. I'm still going to give it time. We are only 3 episodes in and I really enjoyed the pilot. I do agree though that it does need to pick up a bit. As someone posted earlier (Last week sometime) the big problem is that you are not really interested in the other characters yet. Ming Na and Coulson (and especially agent Casper... I mean Phil) are the most interesting by far.

They are building on the whole Coulson thing nicely. I could do with less blatant references (Do they have to mention every episode that he died). But little touches like his inability to eject the round in the gun chamber was nice.

Overall, a "meh" episode. I still think the series has great potential and I think (I hope) that the series will kick into second gear in the second half of the series. We still probably have another couple of establishing episodes (Fitz/Simmon's episode, May's story and Ward's story) before Coulson's story and the main story proper starts


Edit: Oh, and Ian Hart needs to work on his accent: Speaking nasally does not an American (or Canadian) accent make

expectationlost

titan18 wrote: »

She's hot alright, still annoying as hell and doesn't give off a hacktivist vibe. Coulson is the only decent character so far

she was all go rebels,corporates die in the first ep an in this one she was like quinn is a notorious good guy his charity endowments are billions as if an activists wouldn't see through that

Greyjoy

pixelburp wrote: »

I get the idea of having the straight man for the more outlandish characters to spar against, but look at the equivalent character in Firefly: Simon was clearly the straight man, but at least the actor had a charm about him & tread a nice balance between deadpan sarcasm and straight-edged earnestness.

Completely agree. Maher sold the character of Simon WAY better than Dalton does as Ward. Besides, Ming-Na/May already fills the role of 'straight man' / combat expert in the team. Ward seems to be there simply to have a younger hunk for Skye to become romantically attached to.

Gbear

The latest episode was a marked improvement on what we've seen so far.

Still plenty to prove but I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for this season based on what I saw.

Agree with the fact that they're shoving the whole "Coulson died" thing down our throats a bit too much. If they had stuck with the simple Coulson not being able to get the muscle memory with the gun right, then it would have been much more subtle.

DeWitt

Three eps in and I'm still not connecting with any of the characters, and I'm kind of sick of them pushing the whole Skye/Ward 'romance' down our throats.
I kinda want to bail, but I have to believe there's some emotional depth to these characters.

TheIrishGrover

Well, it's been greenlit for a full 22 episode season so at least they can get their teeth stuck into a proper story. (Not sure how many they had made up to now. 6 or 7 I suppose)

http://www.deadline.com/2013/10/marvels-agents-of-shield-full-season-pickup-abc/

The drama domination this fall continues with another pickup for a freshman hourlong series. ABC has given a back 9 order to Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., bringing its first season to 22 episodes. The series premiered as TV’s highest-rated drama debut in nearly four years and, while it has slipped in Week 2 and Week 3, still ranks as the No. 1 new show of the 2013-14 season among adults 18-49 with solid DVR gains (4.0 Live+Same Day rating/5.7 Live+3 rating). Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. joins Fox’s Sleepy Hollow and NBC’s The Blacklist as the third new series this fall to get a pickup (second season and full-season for the other two dramas, respectively). Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., which marks Marvel’s first television series, was co-created by The Avengers’ Joss Whedon, along with Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen, who serve as executive producers along with Jeph Loeb and Jeffrey Bell. ABC Studios is co-producing with Marvel.

*dammit, I sound like Richard Dower

TerrorFirmer

Darko's post pretty much summed it up perfectly for me. Not offensively bad but short of even acceptable entertainment given what it should have been, and the characters and dialogue are very poor. Very disappointed, hopefully it'll turn around. I do remember thinking Arrow was similarly poor, but after sticking with it, I somewhat warmed to it, though ultimately, as very forgettable, brainless entertainment. Can't see this ever stacking up as a memorable TV show, even if it does improve.

Watched Episode 1 of Sleepy Hollow as well earlier, and by comparison, I found that it gripped me far better, despite its own absurdities.

AlmightyCushion

Deleted User wrote: »

Agree with the fact that they're shoving the whole "Coulson died" thing down our throats a bit too much. If they had stuck with the simple Coulson not being able to get the muscle memory with the gun right, then it would have been much more subtle.

Even that part shoved it down our throats with the couple of mention of muscle memory. If they had just showed him not being able to do it and leave it with him saying he must be getting rusty and only do it once it would have been better.

pixelburp

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

Well, it's been greenlit for a full 22 episode season so at least they can get their teeth stuck into a proper story. (Not sure how many they had made up to now. 6 or 7 I suppose)

http://www.deadline.com/2013/10/marvels-agents-of-shield-full-season-pickup-abc/

Jeez, 22 episodes. I know I chided others for bringing up Breaking Bad et al, but if there's one thing I've come to appreciate in this era of TV is just how much better a shorter 10-13 episode run can be; shows like Breaking Bad have proven this. If it's not a sitcom, 22 episodes feels like an utter chore and even the best scriptwriters will struggle to maintain a coherent, compelling narrative all the way through. 13 episodes concentrates minds and the action.

So unless they sort out some of the awful characters in this, I may not last the whole way through.

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Even that part shoved it down our throats with the couple of mention of muscle memory. If they had just showed him not being able to do it and leave it with him saying he must be getting rusty and only do it once it would have been better.

I'm also a bit fed up with the clunky name-dropping of the Avengers all the time, just to remind the hard of thinking in the audience that this is a spin-off from the movies. "You forget, I fought with the Avengers". Yeah Coulson, we know, all of that one time, stop bringing it up.

FreudianSlippers

Interesting that people liked episode 3; I thought it was the weakest so far

FortuneChip

pixelburp wrote: »

I'm also a bit fed up with the clunky name-dropping of the Avengers all the time, just to remind the hard of thinking in the audience that this is a spin-off from the movies. "You forget, I fought with the Avengers". Yeah Coulson, we know, all of that one time, stop bringing it up.

One time, and it killed him!!!
I don't see this keeping my interest. I know it's usually the second season when a show like this develops (i.e does away with villain of the week), but I don't fancy waiting 22 episodes for the ball to get rolling

wampyrus77

when i saw the truck fly in mid air i thought magneto cause the truck into fly in mid air not crazy scientist gadget come this is world of marvel wheres supervillains and superheroes theres hasnt be one supervillain or superhero in it so far, i hope they show well known supervillain or superhero from marvel comics soon.

Mr.Nice Guy

DeWitt wrote: »

Three eps in and I'm still not connecting with any of the characters, and I'm kind of sick of them pushing the whole Skye/Ward 'romance' down our throats.
I kinda want to bail, but I have to believe there's some emotional depth to these characters.

I agree and I think this is the show's biggest problem. None of them are actually likeable in any way from what I can see. They are either sombre, moody types or eccentric cliches.

It might have been a good idea to do character focus for each episode as Lost managed to do quite well in the early seasons. It will take some doing now to make the viewers identify with the team.

The most interesting character so far imo was the father from the first episode (who played Gunn in Angel). He has been one of the few characters to show signs of weakness and vulnerability. Most other characters go around on the show with a poker face and convey an attitude that they'd rather be anywhere else. Not a good sign.

Deano7788

wampyrus77 wrote: »

when i saw the truck fly in mid air i thought magneto cause the truck into fly in mid air not crazy scientist gadget come this is world of marvel wheres supervillains and superheroes theres hasnt be one supervillain or superhero in it so far, i hope they show well known supervillain or superhero from marvel comics soon.

There was a supervillain in episode 3, just he hadn't got his power yet. He's also one of Marvel's most powerful human villains. There was a definite hint at the end that Franklin Hall is going to become Graviton, just like the comics.

brianregan09

Was just about to post that ^^^ Hope they follow through on it

Agent Coulson

I think now after seeing this episode with Coulson talking about muscle memory they will be making him

Life Model Decoy

CatInABox

Have to admit, I don't know the history of Marvel all that well, but so far, all I can it say is that it is promising.

It really seems that they came up with the idea far before any storyline, so I'd say the second season, or the second half of this season, will be the one to actually be the start of the integration with the rest of the marvel universe.

So far, i'm enjoying it, despite recognising it's many flaws.

Mark Hamill

Deano7788 wrote: »

There was a supervillain in episode 3, just he hadn't got his power yet. He's also one of Marvel's most powerful human villains. There was a definite hint at the end that Franklin Hall is going to become Graviton, just like the comics.

I had to go watch this video after the episode ended (It has some potential, I don't think AoS will ever do it better ).

Deano7788

Mark Hamill wrote: »

I had to go watch this video after the episode ended (It has some potential, I don't think AoS will ever do it better ).

I loved that show, really wish it hadn't been cancelled for Avengers Assemble, which is terrible compared to it . I was thinking of that as well; it would be interesting to see how they handle someone like that and his power level on AoS.

mymo

Well I'm still waiting for this to grab my attention, it's a bit dull because the only characters I like are Coulson and May. The younger characters are too glossy and shiny, I think they should have gone for an older crazy scientist with younger assistant, would have been more interesting to see the way they came together and worked on problems from the older more experienced angle with the young fresh ideas angle.
I really dislike Ward and Skye, I really hope they grow as characters, cos right now I think they are putting me off.
Interestingly my daughter and her friends (15-18yrs) are losing interest too, for similar reasons.

I wasn't expecting big super hero story lines every week, but a good mystery with lots of ground work, interesting characters, leading into a great storyline for end of series would be great, no need for loads of special effects (especially not just for the sake of it), if it's well written it'll grab attention.

I'll hold on for a bit longer, but if it doesn't pick up in the next 4 or 5 eps I may give up.