Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Some thoughts from Trinitytwo and Qwill

Marvel's Agent's of S.H.I.E.L.D airs on Tuesday nights on ABC (in the US). Read what Trinitytwo and I think of the first 2 episodes below.  There are a lot of SPOILERS so only click 'Read more..." if you are ready to be spoiled!

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Trinitytwo:

Episode 1:  Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. set a really high bar for itself by being a spinoff of the hugely successful Avengers franchise. Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen created this action packed series for ABC bringing back fan favorite, Agent Phil Coulson, from the dead. His mission, to put together a small team of agents, who will be able to handle a world in turmoil following the events from the first Avenger movie, referred to as the "Battle of New York". The cast is interesting. At the start, I didn't like Skye, played by Chloe Bennet, the civilian hacker with ties to the Rising Tide, who is enlisted by Coulson, against his top agent's wishes. Agent Ward, Coulson's Black OPs specialist is portrayed by Brett Dalton. He is the stereotypical "testosterone-laden, reluctant agent", but it was made fresh and handled quite cleverly during Skye's "recruitment". It ended up being a very enjoyable sequence. The jury is also out on Melinda May, Min Na Wen. She seemed perpetually annoyed or ticked off and there is obviously a huge backstory there. She redeemed herself in my book with her badass moment during the show's climatic showdown. I'm hoping that her personality deficit will evolve into something interesting sooner rather than later or it will get old quickly. Simmons and Fitz, Elizabeth Henstridge & Iain De Caesteckerthe, are the life science and weapon techs respectively, they banter like twins with their own secret language, which was amusing and at the same time difficult to understand. I am looking forward to some cool tech from Fitz, jury is still out for me on Simmons.

As team leader, Coulson played by Clark Gregg, is the shining star of this ensemble cast. I loved everything about him and am also intrigued to know "the secret that he can never know" about the mortal injury inflicted on him by Loki. The overall writing was terrific, if you take into consideration this episode was mainly the "Set Up". Yes, there were a few predictable moments but also some surprising and fresh ones too. I must admit that I hardly watch television anymore, although there are quite a few worthy shows out there. I was excited about Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and it did live up to my expectations. Time will tell if I am just a "Coulson Groupie" or if the cast can click to make Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. a must watch. I hope the first episode is only a precursor of some good television.


Episode 2:  Marvel's Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s second episode has aired. Sorry, but the honeymoon is over for me and what a disappointment. I really wanted to love this show but it centered around Coulson's newly appointed team assigned to their first mission and it bored me to distraction. The team checks out a report of alien technology located in a archaeological site in Peru. Skye moved her stuff into the plane greeted by Fitz and Simmons like a newly anticipated member of a sorority. Ward and May make their objections to Skye's participation, which is virtually ignored by Coulson with the clever line "Frown noted on my report." If you are looking for action, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. delivers, but not in a way that engaged me. I groaned when the female Peruvian commandant, Camilla was lounging around in her sexy black wife-beater. I wouldn't have a problem with it, but none of her men disrobed. Also, the plot was such an obvious set up for me. The whole episode was written with the purpose of forging these very different personalities into a well oiled, if unconventional team. It had some highlight moments and I was happy that Fitz and Simmons' dialogue finally became coherent. In my opinion the story was just too weak and Coulson did not have enough charisma in this episode to carry it. For the most part it fell way off the mark of my expectations. The last three minutes were terrific due to a special cameo. Otherwise, it was not enough to draw me back next week.

Qwill:

Episode 1: I was really looking forward to Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. tv show, which premiered on September 24, 2013.

The first episode did not wow me. Was I expecting too much? Probably. I'm a huge fan of Agent Coulson, but after watching Episode 1 three times and Episode 2 twice, I am not sure he is a big enough character to carry a TV show.

Let's start with Episode 1: It's filled with all sorts of mysterious hints about almost all of the characters - Coulson can't know about what happened after he was stabbed. Supposedly he was in Tahiti. Is he really Coulson/? Is he an LMD? If so is the real Coulson dead? Or was the Coulson in The Avengers not the real Coulson? Who knows and I am not sure that I entirely care yet.

Agent Ward - something happened to his family. I've no idea what it is but he'd doing okay despite it. Another backstory mystery!

Agent Melinda May - doing paperwork because of something that happened to her in the field. Recruited by Coulson. And yet another backstory mystery.

Last but not least - Skye who is part of the Rising Tide, an organization apparently opposed to S.H.I.E.L.D. You just know she is going to be recruited and be an apparent double agent (confirmed in Episode 2).

So Episode 1 was all about building the team. I get that, but it was a bit boring. Coulson of course had the best line when he said he was stabbed by "the Asgardian Mussolini." See The Avengers movie for that.


Episode 2: Now on to Episode 2 which was not about building the team but team building. The team goes on their frist mission (in Peru) and have to learn to work as a team. There is an artifact (Hydra technology powered by Tesseract energy - see Captain America: The First Avenger) that had to be recovered. The team comes under attack and the local military (lead by a former friend/ally of Coulson - Camilla Reyes) comes to help. Everyone escapes and the military team survivors are also brought aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. jet. Coulson and Camilla have apparently had a relationship in the past. I just did not buy it. I did however like getting a glimpse into Coulson's past. She and her team want to take the artifact. Everyone on the S.H.I.E.L.D. team is tied up, they work together, they prevail. Skye, who is now a consultant to the team, helps of course. Yay! They are a team. Boo. Boring predictable plot.

Honestly the best part of Episode 2 was the scene at the end with Nick Fury. He was upset about the damage to the S.H.I.E.L.D. plane and concerned about Skye being a risk. Everyone knows the latter.

As you can tell, I am so far not a huge fan of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but I will continue to watch. Why? 1) I think I've had huge expectations for the show based on the Marvel movies. It's a different format and may take a while to get up to speed. 2) Maybe now that the team stuff is a mostly out of the way they will have more interesting stories to tell. I think I'm looking for something like the A-Team but with superheroes and otherworldly objects. and 3) I adore Agent Coulson!