{"id":40478,"date":"2014-01-07T21:44:38","date_gmt":"2014-01-08T04:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/07\/considering-marvels-agents-of-shield.html"},"modified":"2014-01-08T13:50:45","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T20:50:45","slug":"considering-marvels-agents-of-shield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/07\/considering-marvels-agents-of-shield.html","title":{"rendered":"Considering "Marvel's Agents of SHIELD""},"content":{"rendered":"
MAoS hasn't been a hot mess. But it's been a tepid mess.<\/p>\n

It should have everything going for it — direct ties to the highly popular Marvel Cinematic Universe … Agent Phil Coulson in the driver's seat … Joss (and Jed) Whedon in the executive producer slots …<\/p>\n

But, honestly, while I've enjoyed it a hell of a lot more than anything<\/i> I've seen advertised during the commercial breaks on whatever the hell network it runs on, it's tended toward … well, the amusing, the somewhat interesting, the bit intriguing, the promising, the … mediocre.<\/p>\n

Tonight's episode, "The Magical Place," was a tick upwards, distinctly. We got deeper into the Coulson \/ Tahiti subplot, a major villain was involved and dealt with, there was a portentious epilog … it was all fun and interesting and entertaining.<\/p>\n

Just not as much as it could or should have been.<\/p>\n

The "Coulson's team vs Victoria Hand's by the book methods" major conflict was weak. The team seemed to be going through the motions. Skye had some nice moments, but even her subplot just didn't have the tension and element of fear of actual failure that it should have. \u00a0The Coulson stuff was powerful, yes, but as much expository as anything else — it didn't have the punch in the gut, slap to the face aspect, that it should have had (or, to the extent it did in a couple of scenes, it should have had so much more).<\/p>\n

It wasn't bad<\/i> by any means. It was just good<\/i> … and not great<\/i> in a way that an episode with so many pay-offs should have been.<\/p>\n

I really don't know the answer, if I were the showrunner. \u00a0Swapping out\/in cast members feels like a desperation move, even though one of the problems is that the "team" still doesn't feel like one.\u00a0Amping up the suspense and "Who can you trust?" vibe is a tricky move that might simply be an un-nuanced cranking of the volume to 11 if not handled well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One thing that might help is more vigorous ties to the Marvel Universe. You still have to explain what's going on to the straights, but, honestly, aside from some Avengers name-dropping, references to the "Avengers" movie, and, of course, Nick Fury and Phil Coulson, this could be "ABC's Agents of SECRET" and you'd never know the difference. \u00a0Why "Centipede" instead of "Hydra" or "AIM"? Is the Clairvoyant someone we know (and, if so, why be so coy; and, if not, why not)?<\/p>\n

That kind of thing won't make up for other flaws in the writing and acting, but it will at least generate a bit of buzz. And maybe the answer to the other is to get Joss to take a few weeks off of whatever new project he's on and focus some creativity on this show.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, this was only episode 11 of the show. \u00a0I've been doing a "Babylon 5" rewatch of late with my daughter — and, honstly, the first dozen-plus episodes of the first season are a hot mess, with some glimmers of goodness but lots of awkward ensembles, dubious newbie acting, and contrived plots. \u00a0Sometimes it takes a while for things to gel, for actors and writers and producers to see what works and what doesn't — even (or perhaps especially) if you have a master plot in mind.<\/p>\n

I'm still willing to go along with the show. Heck, even at its current level, I'm happy enough to plot along.\u00a0Clark Gregg could just come on and read the phone book and I'd be sufficiently entertained. \u00a0But I definitely want more.<\/i> I want this to be a show I hear people talking about excitedly, not one I hear people complaining about or being bored by. \u00a0I don't know how much patience the network (ABC, of course) has, but I'd be getting worried about now, or considering when I can ratchet up whatever my master plan is.\ufeff<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MAoS hasn't been a hot mess. But it's been a tepid mess. It should have everything going for it — direct ties to the highly popular Marvel Cinematic Universe … Agent Phil Coulson in the driver's seat … Joss (and Jed) Whedon in the executive producer slots … But, honestly, while I've enjoyed it a … Continue reading “Considering "Marvel's Agents of SHIELD"”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,525,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-marvel-cinematic-universe","category-media-tv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42043,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/16\/agents-of-shield-as-we-move-onward.html","url_meta":{"origin":40478,"position":0},"title":"Agents of SHIELD — as we move onward","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 16-May-14 11:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, so, watched the season finale, so likely some spoilers down below. To those still catching up ... come back later.All right.So, viz the below video, Clark Gregg is such an incredible fanboy, it's just a joy to watch him geeking out over the stuff happening to him, let alone\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136436,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/14\/agents-of-shield-get-a-final-renewal.html","url_meta":{"origin":40478,"position":1},"title":"“Agents of SHIELD” get a (final?) renewal","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 14-May-18 1:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It will be coming back next year on ABC in a truncated (13-episode) season. AoS has been frustrating at times, hogtied by the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies taking precedence in so many things, and also by Marvel Comics \/ TV's Ike Perlmutter being so, um, not-working-and-playing-well-with-others when it comes to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/agents-of-shield-may-and-coulson.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":38813,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/26\/agents-of-shield-is-off-to-a-good-start.html","url_meta":{"origin":40478,"position":2},"title":""Agents of SHIELD" is off to a good start","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 26-Sep-13 11:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"We watched it on DVR last night, since I was away on business the premiere evening. \u00a0And ...... okay, it's not squeefully perfect. \u00a0It's the premiere episode, and so it has all the normal rough spots: contrived introductions of characters, a truncated plotline to accomodate same, actors\/writers still feeling around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43790,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/23\/all-avengers-action-for-just-one-quarter.html","url_meta":{"origin":40478,"position":3},"title":"All-Avengers Action for just one quarter!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 23-Jul-14 3:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Awesome adaptation of the Avengers movie as 8-bit and 16-bit video game scenes. \u00a0Coulson, watch out for Loki's trick move!\u00a0\ufeff View this post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27697,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/01\/loki-loves-the-stock-market.html","url_meta":{"origin":40478,"position":4},"title":"Loki Loves the Stock Market","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-May-12 11:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While the Dems are crowing about the DJIA closing the highest in four years with Obama in the White House, and the GOP are claiming it's because of their business-truckling legislative proposals, clearly the real reason the Dow closed up so much higher is because Loki rang the Opening Bell.(Well,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28666,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/07\/27\/tweets-from-2012-07-27.html","url_meta":{"origin":40478,"position":5},"title":"Tweets from 2012-07-27","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 27-Jul-12 10:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Still like Disney's \"Mulan\" an awful lot. Esp. when Mushu is not on screen. # Rewatching \"Iron Man 2\", enjoyed the SHIELD personnel (Fury, Coulson, Romanoff) best. Rest is entertaining but pretty muddled. # Apparently, Macaroni Grill has decided dinner should be romantically dark. Aka too dim to read the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40487,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40478\/revisions\/40487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}