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

[Umbran]

I'm now several episodes behind...

As for Coulson - he mentions at one point that a few skills are rusty, though he expects them to be in "muscle memory" - suggesting he's not in his original body.

I'm guessing he's a LMD - Life Model Decoy. They are solidly canon, and mentioned by Stark in the movie, even.

However, there's the whole stress on, "...Tahiti, it's a magical place...," that could speak to some other way to have him around.

 

[darrell_uk]

Given a number of, apparently, throw-away comments over the course of the shoe so far; "high iron", the woman with the x-ray eye asking the pilot what had been done to him, etc. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to go with the android/cyborg theory. In fact, I'm going as far as to suggest that he will in some way be linked to Ultron in Avengers 2.

 

[Kramodlog]

As cross promotion for the tv show?

 

[darrell_uk]

Figuring the end of the TV show.

 

[Derren]

Sadly this series is not what I expected. Except for maybe 2 episodes you hardly notice that it is Marvel. Just compare it for example with Arrow which is choke full of references. But here? A Fury cameo and 2 one shot- movie references, that was it.

But neither the protagonists nor the antagonists are tied to the marvel verse. I am also missing a continuous story which ties the episodes together. Yes, you have Coulson and the question about his ressurrection, but they drag that out too much. By now everyone understood that something fishy is going on, but they still only hint at that issue if it comes up at all. And the rest? Rising Tide appeared for a few episodes and vanished again, the Asgardians likely will to, etc.
In Arrow you had the list which was present in nearly every episode.

Imo the show also focuses a bit too much on the team and its members. That is actually a good thing but I find most of them pretty boring. So I am not exactly thrilled about hearing more about their feelings and histories.

I think some of the problems this series has is that it can only use a very limited amount of Marvel lore either because of rights issues with Fox and because of the entire setup where the Avengers are the only superpowered people on earth and can never meet Coulson so won't appear at all.

 

[Rabulias]

Did anyone catch the Dollhouse (another Joss Whedon show) reference in Coulson's dream?

He says: "Did I fall asleep?"

The masseuse replies: "For a little while."

This was the standard exchange when one of the "actives" (the "dolls" in Dollhouse) had had their mind wiped after a mission.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Yup. I wonder if it's a red herring for Dollhouse fans (probably a large part of the Whedon fan faction), or it' a hint. Not sure if a lifemodel decoy couldn't be considered a "doll", however ,so... I'll just keep guessing.

Maybe he's really just Coulson, returned to life with some fancy tech perhaps, and everything that seems different is due to him coming back from the dead. Heck, maybe he was actually still dead when he was in Tahiti, and it's just his memories of a kind of afterlife, which would be a throwback to Buffy's resurrection with Willow's magic.

 

[Umbran]

Given a number of, apparently, throw-away comments over the course of the shoe so far; "high iron", the woman with the x-ray eye asking the pilot what had been done to him, etc. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to go with the android/cyborg theory. In fact, I'm going as far as to suggest that he will in some way be linked to Ultron in Avengers 2.

It would be a natural route to the Vision, who becomes a long-time Avenger. And Coulson even kind of looks like the Vision.

Sadly this series is not what I expected. Except for maybe 2 episodes you hardly notice that it is Marvel. Just compare it for example with Arrow which is choke full of references. But here? A Fury cameo and 2 one shot- movie references, that was it.

I don't know why you expected more. They were pretty up-front that the show was going to be dealing with all the stuff the heroes *didn't*.

I am also missing a continuous story which ties the episodes together.

"Monster of the week", episodic progress is common for new shows - it helps keep the barrier to entry down during the first season of a show. You don't *have* two watch the first few episodes and can still jump in a bit later in the season.

 

[Derren]

Heck, maybe he was actually still dead when he was in Tahiti, and it's just his memories of a kind of afterlife, which would be a throwback to Buffy's resurrection with Willow's magic.

Lost!

 

[calronmoonflower]

Well if they downloaded his mind to a clone body or into an experiential LMD, then wouldn't that still be Coulson? After all there is more to being human that flesh and blood.