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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.


ShadowDog
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I wonder if it is just slow to find its groove like many of the shows done by the writers and producers before. I mean it's totally not clicking. In my Hulu queue it is the last show I want to watch. If it would decide what it wants to be and go with that it would be good. Many people say it should have a Hydra or something but that's what Red Tide is for whatever that alternate secret entity is.

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So I was really stoked about this show when I saw the previews. I've been a big fan of this expanding Marvel universe, so I figured this would be a great extension of that. I just can't really commit to TV though, I don't watch it with any regularity. But the other night I happened to have the boob tube on when SHIELD was coming on. Unfortunately, I didn't really watch the episode. I just tuned it out while I played on the internet. This is not saying that it's a bad show, but it failed to draw me away from my ever-addictive internet.

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I'd remember a name like Hydra! I am such a nerd it has probably ruined me for this show.

 

I think part of the problem here is that, with the exception of Graviton, so far the show seems really focused on either (a) borrowing concepts that were already in the movies or (b) creating its own brand new, inherently inferior concepts. It's a shame, but understandable from a budget/greed standpoint -- why pay royalties to other people for using the toys they made up in decades past, when you can save money by making up your own?

 

But a lot of their new ideas -- Centipede, Scorch, the Rising Tide (if they're even a real thing), various characters without codenames -- have so far been mediocre knockoffs of things we've all seen before. When they name-checked Centipede in the last episode, I totally forgot what that was till a few hours later when something on Twitter reminded me they were the same organization that gave Gunn super-strength in the pilot.

 

It's not a good sign when I have to be reminded that recurring villains are recurring.

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Saw some previews and it looks like Titus Welliver is gonna be on the show as the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent he was in the Item 47 short with Lizzy Caplan and Jesse "I was in a few of the early non-Sorkin West Wing episodes" Bradford.

 

It's a shame, but understandable from a budget/greed standpoint -- why pay royalties to other people for using the toys they made up in decades past, when you can save money by making up your own?

 

Is that so? I thought there's a cut-off point somewhere for Marvel in that they don't owe money for the use of lot of the stuff that was created in the early decades but somewhere in the 90s that changed and now any time a creator makes up a character for Marvel they're credited and paid (something) for its use in merchandising and adaptation. I assumed the reason they're not going full nerd with the classic S.H.I.E.L.D. material and other assorted Marvellanea was so as to avoid stepping on the toes of the people who've earmarked the cool stuff for upcoming movies rather than out of any commitment to frugality.

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They can, but the Big Two comic book companies aren't always enthusiastic to have to dole out the extra cash that they promised in past contracts. And TV shows are still expected to stick to their own budgets, regardless of company performance on other projects.

 

From what I've read online in recent years, Marvel tends to be better about royalties and creator participation than DC, at least. Case in point: when Arrow introduced Felicity Smoak on the show -- an obscure 1980s character from Fury of Firestorm -- her creator Gerry Conway had to find out about it from fans on Twitter. [source] Not really a good way to do business.

 

Then again, Marvel hasn't had a live-action TV show since The Incredible Hulk, so who can say what'll become their standard procedure here. Going forward, I'll be curious to see if they do use very many preexisting characters -- and, if so, how well they remember to treat their creators. But considering how expensive SHIELD looks, especially in light of its declining ratings, I can easily imagine them cutting corners on non-FX expenditures to compensate wherever possible.

 

If I'm wrong and the next ten villains are all straight out of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, cool. I'm not getting my hopes up anymore, though.

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The acting on Arrow is pretty much as wooden as you would expect a CW network show but it's good cheese compared to SHIELD. So much potential was wasted because I love Coulsons' character and think he deserves better.

 

My SHIELD gripes:

 

Why do they have to have two british nerds supporting the field with lab work?

 

Too racy with the lacy underwear (I'mma school teacher and think that this would appeal to kids if it had less bedroom type scenes).

 

Back to the rule of twos: Why do we have to have two characters that can kick ass? I love former ER star but her and the guy agent together seem like overkill.

 

It has not been too memorable. I don't go back and rewatch any episodes like I do others to see what I missed.

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Thor: The Dark World tie-ins NOT likely to happen:

 

Darcy. There's your outsider foil to SHIELD's intentions. Smart cookie but not uber-hacker. Don't ignore the fact Kat Dennings is no stranger to television.

 

Selvig. He's worked with SHIELD before, and used correctly Stellan Skarsgård could bring some Fringe/John Noble-esque eccentricity to the show. (An aside: He needs some kind of vacation after the treatment he's received in two films. Sheesh!)

 

It seems to me that Marvel could be building this show in the same pattern as the MCU films leading up to The Avengers film. We don't get Rick Jones, but there's enough to populate the show picking from characters in the main films and its shorts like "Item 47." (Titus Welliver returning is a great start.)

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Haven't seen the new Thor movie yet. Was yesterday's episode some kind of cross-over? Is that next week's episode? Is it safe to watch yesterday's episode without having seen the Thor movie first? I'll take my answer off the air.

 

Crossover episode is next week. This week's takes nothing from the movie and, once again, has no memorable villain. Not that you asked the latter, but that's this post's special bonus feature.

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Thanks.

 

I realized that just as Ming-Na Wen's character Agent Melinda May has a typical Marvel Universe name so too Brett Dalton's Agent Grant Ward has a typical DC Universe name (e.g. Bruce Wayne, Barry Allen, Hal Jordan). Actually, so does the male half of Fitz-Simmons come to think of it. Not sure what this means --- though it does go some ways towards explaining the aura of superfluous unnecessity which floats about their characters like a fine mist --- they really don't belong on the show at all in nearly every way always all times.

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