Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[Mistwell]

No need to act all dumbfounded. As I said, I watched the teaser. I didn't go look up their biographies or anything. If that's what 49 is supposed to look like at a glance, I gotta get back in the market.

Yeah I thought the same thing about Ming-Na

 

[Felon]

Anyway, it neither fell short of nor exceeded expectations. No compelling villains or "dark" characters, so there's no real sense of menace or betrayal, which are the ingredients that make a show like this most palatable.

it didn't help that very little happened that wasn't already spoiled by the trailers. One-liners aren't terribly funny when hearing them for the thirtieth time.

Then again, it would have to have been pretty darn bad to break my resolve not to watch it for a while.

 

[Kramodlog]

Hopefully, it won't go into vilain of the week mode just yet.

 

[Bullgrit]

Watched it last night with my whole family -- me, wife, two boys age 12 and 8. Found it decently good, not fantastic, not bad. I'll watch again. But it's just a first episode, just learning to walk. One thing my boys commented on, and I agree, it was hard to tell the women apart from each other. Four women all thin, attractive, with long straight dark hair.

Agent Coulson and Tahiti - From the various comments, I suspect Agent Coulson actually did die, but was brought back to life somehow.

Bullgrit

 

[Ahnehnois]

Kind of disappointing, really. It had some entertainment value, but two things really bugged me. One, wow this show is really white (J August Richards is just a guest star). Two, in one episode they pulled their punches two times: one foreman who seemed to be killed in a fit of rage, and one character who seemed to be shot in the head. Both are apparently fine. I don't like being lead to believe the show will examine the negatives of having superpowers and then being let down. If you're going to go there, go there.

The best thing for me was the music.

 

[tomBitonti]

Kind of disappointing, really. It had some entertainment value, but two things really bugged me. One, wow this show is really white (J August Richards is just a guest star). Two, in one episode they pulled their punches two times: one foreman who seemed to be killed in a fit of rage, and one character who seemed to be shot in the head. Both are apparently fine. I don't like being lead to believe the show will examine the negatives of having superpowers and then being let down. If you're going to go there, go there.

The best thing for me was the music.

Ditto on the show being really white. There seems to be very little cultural, racial, and economic diversity in the parts. That the guest was black, and working class, and struggling, only amplifies the lack of diversity. Not going to get into it, but the show seems to have positioned itself at the center of some very divisive social issues. The show highlighting the lack of diversity through the lead off story seems to make this deliberate (which is strange to me).

Hard to say more within the ENWorld guidelines. I did find the episode to be enjoyable. The scope of jokes and of story points -- very quick -- seems to fit the shorter attention spans of modern audiences.

I'm willing to give the show more episodes to prove itself. Nice that there are plot points that carry over into new episodes:

Spoiler

Who is behind Centipede; what really happened with Coulson; what was Skye doing with the memory chip that she stashed away? Also, is the tie-in to Iron Man III a correct understanding of the technology in use?

Thx!

TomB

 

[Umbran]

It may seem very white - one actress is from Macau, another is Chinese-American - but they potentially have done well on the gender-balance. We'll have to see as the characters develop, of course.

With a cast of six, two of which may turn out to be kind of minor (the scientists, I fear, may never get really fleshed out, but we'll see) it is going to be difficult to be diverse in every possible way.

That the guest was black, and working class, and struggling, only amplifies the lack of diversity.

Given Richards' monologue at the end, it seems more like that's a specific point being made than the normal mindless (or racist-pandering) lack of diversity seen in most shows today. They know darned well what the team looks like, and made a point of that. We'll have to see if it becomes a theme...

 

[tomBitonti]

Given Richards' monologue at the end, it seems more like that's a specific point being made than the normal mindless (or racist-pandering) lack of diversity seen in most shows today. They know darned well what the team looks like, and made a point of that. We'll have to see if it becomes a theme...

That seeming self awareness is what made it all strange (to me, at least). I get it that they are kind-of making a comment about their own lack of diversity. But, they still have that lack of diversity. I'm left trying to understand the point, hence the strangeness.

I do dig Ming-Na Wen (Macau) and Chloe Bennet (half Chinese). Loved when Ming-Na showed her fighting skills on the balcony. Appreciate that Ming-Na is a strong character. The other two ladies seemed a bit ditsy. Not sure how to take the scene where Skye is vamping it up to interrogate Dalton. Didn't really get a good sense of the two techies, other than to be amused by their interaction.

Thx!

TomB

 

[Ahnehnois]

With a cast of six, two of which may turn out to be kind of minor (the scientists, I fear, may never get really fleshed out, but we'll see) it is going to be difficult to be diverse in every possible way.

True, and the token minority characters that pop up sometimes aren't much better. One can't just fill in a bunch of demographic blanks when scripting/casting any show.

Then again, for the movies, they went so far as to change Nick Fury to being black.

I'd have felt better about it if the people they did cast stood out as amazing actors, frankly. Whedon's usually had a great eye for talent and a lot of actors from his shows have had big success afterwards, but I'm not feeling it with (most of) these supporting characters.

 

[trappedslider]

True, and the token minority characters that pop up sometimes aren't much better. One can't just fill in a bunch of demographic blanks when scripting/casting any show.

Then again, for the movies, they went so far as to change Nick Fury to being black.
.

The movies are based in part on the Ultimate line of comics,where Nick is indeed black and done purposely on Jackson's likeness ot the the point where they had to let him play the role in the movies to use it.