Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (ABC)

[gokujr1000]

After the second episode it feels like the show is trying to copy Firefly. The only redeeming quality was Samuel L Jackson at the end, if only he was leading the show instead of Clark Gregg.

 

[FireEmblemGuy]

I will say that this week's episode was more enjoyable than last's, but it's still nothing great. No show's at its prime right at the beginning, but I'm probably only give this another couple episodes to pick up before dropping it.

 

[Deleted_171835]

Seen the second episode and honestly, I preferred the pilot.

My number 1 gripe with the show is the portrayal of the Shield team. I don't know much about the Marvel Universe aside from the films but from the Iron Man films and The Avengers, they've always come across a professional elite team. Here, they're depicted as a bunch of bumbling goofballs that fit every cliche in the book. I'm supposed to believe that these are the people protecting us from aliens, gods and other supernatural shit? That's a bit of a stretch.

I'm not saying they all have to be super-badass character-less robotic elite supersoldiers like that one Chinese chick but goddamn, at least show some professionalism that fits within the established universe. To go from the completely badass group that's shown in the films to this is a stretch too far.

Even if you consider the fact that they're a newly put-together team, you'd expect them to act like actual "agents", not a bunch of amateurs fresh out of the police academy. I dunno, it's the second episode so I guess I'll wait to see if this improves as the show progresses.

The whole situation with Skye bugs me too. Why would you let a chick who was part of some rogue vigilante hacker group trying to take you guys down join your super-secret government team after one meeting with her. You're telling me no one thought that might be a bad idea? And the show isn't exactly doing a good job of selling her as a former computer hacker who lived out of her van. Unless I'm just not aware of the fact that most homeless computer hackers manage to take the time to do their makeup and look great.

The only redeeming factor of this episode was Samuel L Jackson but I'm not going to write off the show just yet. The pilot was good so I'll give it a few more episodes.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Seen the second episode and honestly, I preferred the pilot.

My number 1 gripe with the show is the portrayal of the Shield team. I don't know much about the Marvel Universe aside from the films but from the Iron Man films and The Avengers, they've always come across a professional elite team. Here, they're depicted as a bunch of bumbling goofballs that fit every cliche in the book. I'm supposed to believe that these are the people protecting us from aliens, gods and other supernatural shit? That's a bit of a stretch.

To be fair they also do a horrible interpretation of how SHIELD is from the comics or the movies. They make them too good when really SHIELD is very much a "for the greater good" and "acceptable losses" type of organization, not exactly the kind that says "Random South American rebels! Come aboard our top secret jet base!"

The SHIELD in this show is a mixture of baffling incompetence, lawful good, and more quirkiness than a LGTBQ club bake off.

So yeah the show is kinda shit.

 

[Cyan]

I don't know the comics and watched only the movies. I just watched both episodes and I agree with Guild, the SHIELD is not professional, the events are not realistic (hacking the shield from a van, closing a hole with a sheet of plastic? really ?).

I would have preferred a strong story with "to be continued" on each (Avenger-like) episodes, instead of multiple independent 40min episodes.

I'll keep watching as I'm curious of Marvel's universe and want to see where it's going. it will spend time until next big movie.

 

[FAST6191]

I don't know the comics and watched only the movies. I just watched both episodes and I agree with Guild, the SHIELD is not professional, the events are not realistic (hacking the shield from a van, closing a hole with a sheet of plastic? really ?).

I would have preferred a strong story with "to be continued" on each (Avenger-like) episodes, instead of multiple independent 40min episodes.

I'll keep watching as I'm curious of Marvel's universe and want to see where it's going. it will spend time until next big movie.

If we complained every time someone in a TV show handled a weapon in a completely stupid way then we would need to find better screenwriters, on computers though they make for some of the more amusing presentations in hacker conferences.

"a strong story with "to be continued" [after each episode]"
Alas the ABC in the title means that is not going to happen. TV shows where such things happen seem to be reserved for expensive cable channels* in America.

*

 

[calmwaters]

After the second episode it feels like the show is trying to copy Firefly. The only redeeming quality was Samuel L Jackson at the end, if only he was leading the show instead of Clark Gregg.

Agent Coulson is leading the show? What kind of fucked up bullshit harebrained idea is that? Nick Fury is the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. End of discussion. I've heard weird things about the show, but that's ridiculous. Or maybe Samuel L Jackson doesn't want to be associated with this shit doomed television show.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Agent Coulson is leading the show? What kind of fucked up bullshit harebrained idea is that? Nick Fury is the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. End of discussion. I've heard weird things about the show, but that's ridiculous. Or maybe Samuel L Jackson doesn't want to be associated with this shit doomed television show.

Well Fury leads the organization but the show is more focused on the agents. Coulson is just a higher ranking agent, he directs those in field work.

Like The Office is about the people at Dunder Mifflin Scranton and their boss, it's not about the people at Dundler Mifflin Scranton and the CEO of Dundler Mifflin across the country.

 

[Deleted_171835]

Actually enjoyed this episode, even if it was a little heavy-handed at parts

"Oh we're in Malta, SHIELD can't get us here"
"Yeah we're in Malta, SHIELD can't get us"
"You're such a genius, SHIELD can't get us in MALTA"

I'm paraphrasing a bit but literally 5 minutes after, Coulson is like "oh snap they're in Malta, SHIELD agents can get shot on sight there." Yeah, I think we got it the first time.

And then there's Ward's super cheesy sob-story, "my brother beat me up once for eating his cake and that's why I'm such a personality-less tool boo fucking hoo"

But aside from all of that, the episode wasn't bad. Looking forward to the next one.

 

[gokujr1000]

Agent Coulson is leading the show? What kind of fucked up bullshit harebrained idea is that? Nick Fury is the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. End of discussion. I've heard weird things about the show, but that's ridiculous. Or maybe Samuel L Jackson doesn't want to be associated with this shit doomed television show.

Agent Coulson IS leading the show, I'm literally talking about the television show when I say that. Did you think I was saying Agent Coulson is the head of SHIELD?

 

[calmwaters]

Agent Coulson IS leading the show, I'm literally talking about the television show when I say that. Did you think I was saying Agent Coulson is the head of SHIELD?

No I didn't: I said Nick Fury is the head of SHIELD and therefore should be the leader of the show. The show might be focused on the agents, but those agents have a leader. And considering the kind of star Samuel Jackson is, you'd think (or at least I would) that they would make him the front man instead of Agent Coulson.

 

[gokujr1000]

No I didn't: I said Nick Fury is the head of SHIELD and therefore should be the leader of the show. The show might be focused on the agents, but those agents have a leader. And considering the kind of star Samuel Jackson is, you'd think (or at least I would) that they would make him the front man instead of Agent Coulson.

Ahh I read your post in the wrong context. I thought you were trying to tell me Coulson wasn't the lead of the show xD

I agree with you 100%

 

[McHaggis]

Except hiring Jackson would have pretty much blown the majority of their budget before they started. Like Guild said, the show isn't really focusing on SHIELD, but rather surprisingly, the agents of said organisation. Besides, I think Gregg has done a decent enough job of transitioning the character from the big screen, it's mostly the writing that's letting the show down for me.

Despite the disappointment, I'll probably watch it to the end of Season 1 in the hope that it will get better.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Why isn't everyone here taking a shit on it.

The show is going in... different directions. On one hand it's putting some pieces in place for a decent finale. On the other hand it still has some baffling stupid things.

I guess SHIELD isn't stupidly good any more but now they're just plain stupid. Spoilers relating to the latest episode ahead:

Spoiler

Like the whole thing with Scorch. Why did Coulson bring only one clip with him? Why didn't May have a gun as well? Why didn't they also carry standard pistols? I find it quite stupid that their "final resort" was overdosing him on Centipede Serum and letting him blow up. Why didn't Coulson just have a fucking gun? Put one in between his eyes? That would stop the explosion and get rid of him. Even when Scorch put up the wall of fire to stop the tranqs, how dumb is Coulson to just unload his clip into it? I thought they were trained well, you only need one shot if you're good. And they make it clear that Coulson is good.

Also the whole Skye bullshit made my eyes roll straight out of my head. Like May is literally outside the door while she basically says "WELL I'M ON THE INSIDE NOW." and they don't acknowledge this at all. Unless May snuck into the room between her saying that and her saying "I was trying to save you!" Also it's really damn clear that Skye was playing double agent all along and they're still too daft to realize it. Unless they leads up to some bullshit "It was a method of reverse interrogation to get Rising Tide info!" twist.

Skye's "b-but muh parents" shit was the merriest of Mary Sues.

Also dat fan-pandering Skye in her undies wow can you be a show designed for idiot grognards any more.

Agents of SHIT still a relevant title.

 

[Jamstruth]

Spoiler

Like the whole thing with Scorch. Why did Coulson bring only one clip with him? Why didn't May have a gun as well? Why didn't they also carry standard pistols? I find it quite stupid that their "final resort" was overdosing him on Centipede Serum and letting him blow up. Why didn't Coulson just have a fucking gun? Put one in between his eyes? That would stop the explosion and get rid of him. Even when Scorch put up the wall of fire to stop the tranqs, how dumb is Coulson to just unload his clip into it? I thought they were trained well, you only need one shot if you're good. And they make it clear that Coulson is good.

Also the whole Skye bullshit made my eyes roll straight out of my head. Like May is literally outside the door while she basically says "WELL I'M ON THE INSIDE NOW." and they don't acknowledge this at all. Unless May snuck into the room between her saying that and her saying "I was trying to save you!" Also it's really damn clear that Skye was playing double agent all along and they're still too daft to realize it. Unless they leads up to some bullshit "It was a method of reverse interrogation to get Rising Tide info!" twist.

Skye's "b-but muh parents" shit was the merriest of Mary Sues.

Also dat fan-pandering Skye in her undies wow can you be a show designed for idiot grognards any more.

Agents of SHIT still a relevant title.

Spoiler

I agree that they did pull some major-league stupid with this one. Getting rid of Scorch could have been done cleaner and with a single bullet (it probably would have had the same effect of blowing him up too.

As for Skye... They did call her on the bullshit. They know she's been playing Double Agent and feeding info to the outside hence she now has a similar bracelet to the one they gave the other hacker. Possibly they should have dropped her in Hong Kong too but Coulson's been acting well outside the regulations already and they actually care about her.

The parents "twist" also had very little to do with anything thus far. Coulson does seem to care about it though. She's just an orphan trying to find out about her parents and she thought she needed to lie to get that information. Mary Sue? Not exactly. Cliché? Fuck yeah it is.

If anybody's seen the new Captain America: Winter Soldier trailers they seem to be taking the main body of SHIELD down a very authoritarian path. The SHIELD series' part in the Movie-verse may be to give it a point to rebuild from. Coulson is breaking regulations and trying to be as empathic as possible in taking care of these missions rather than just snatching people away or whatever.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

By definition a Mary Sue is cliche. They're supposed to be edgy and tragic. She is VERY Mary Sue.

And even dropping her boyfriend off in Hong Kong was dumb. They should've dropped him in a dark hole somewhere and beat whatever information they could out of him. Same with Skye instead of still keeping her on the bus.

 

[calmwaters]

Why isn't everyone here taking a shit on it.

The show is going in... different directions. On one hand it's putting some pieces in place for a decent finale. On the other hand it still has some baffling stupid things.

I guess SHIELD isn't stupidly good any more but now they're just plain stupid. Spoilers relating to the latest episode ahead:

Spoiler

Like the whole thing with Scorch. Why did Coulson bring only one clip with him? Why didn't May have a gun as well? Why didn't they also carry standard pistols? I find it quite stupid that their "final resort" was overdosing him on Centipede Serum and letting him blow up. Why didn't Coulson just have a fucking gun? Put one in between his eyes? That would stop the explosion and get rid of him. Even when Scorch put up the wall of fire to stop the tranqs, how dumb is Coulson to just unload his clip into it? I thought they were trained well, you only need one shot if you're good. And they make it clear that Coulson is good.

Also the whole Skye bullshit made my eyes roll straight out of my head. Like May is literally outside the door while she basically says "WELL I'M ON THE INSIDE NOW." and they don't acknowledge this at all. Unless May snuck into the room between her saying that and her saying "I was trying to save you!" Also it's really damn clear that Skye was playing double agent all along and they're still too daft to realize it. Unless they leads up to some bullshit "It was a method of reverse interrogation to get Rising Tide info!" twist.

Skye's "b-but muh parents" shit was the merriest of Mary Sues.

Also dat fan-pandering Skye in her undies wow can you be a show designed for idiot grognards any more.

Agents of SHIT still a relevant title.

That's spoilers for the next show? I'll plan to do something else so I don't have to watch it. Seriously, there are so many things wrong with it.

 

[mysticwaterfall]

I'm officially done with this show after watching Avengers again today. In the movies, Shield might make some dumb moves but is at least a formidable force and fairly competent. In the show, Shield is bafflingly moronic and incredibly understaffed. It's amazing everybody on this team wasn't dead in 5 minutes. Like, the 2nd episode, where they send a whopping 3 people with combat experiance to sec ure a deadly weapon. Really? How many people did they have guarding Thor's hammer? That's not even considering all the stuff mentioned by Guild.

I realize you can't have the same budget as a movie but come on. Take 24 for instance. Jack might have done everything, but at least you knew CTU had muscle and comptent employees when he needed it.

 

[FAST6191]

I am bored enough to consider watching this. Did it ever even get to be passable or would it be another example of why I should obey my "only watch shows when they have finished or made it to series 3" rule?

 

[calmwaters]

I am bored enough to consider watching this. Did it ever even get to be passable or would it be another example of why I should obey my "only watch shows when they have finished or made it to series 3" rule?

After two months of silence in this thread, I'm guessing it's not improved. I would follow your example and wait for it to be finished to watch it then.