Granted the first couple were crap, but it HAS been improving. It's fun enough to have on in the background while working.
I do watch every bloody episode because I want to know what's going on in the Cinematic Marvelverse, but I do lots of other stuff to keep me busy, much as Forbin said. Has it been improving? Well, baba would sometimes post links to inetresting computer games I hadn't tried yet. Those posts were, technically, and improvement over the rest of his posts. So Iguess SHIELD has been improving.
I think they might have something to work with if they'd just go ahead and admit that May is Skye's mom, because that's clearly what they are telegraphing (albeit, that could be a smokescreen for some big reveal) - what would be cool is if the big secret was that Tony Stark was her dad (you KNOW he's got love babies all over the world!) but still, the thing I'm struggling with more than anything is that I'm not warming up to any of the characters. There's just zero chemistry. and if saving Coulson doesn't create some, i don't know how they can do it.
They need to get rid of the three worst actors: Skye, Fitz and Simmons. Give the others something to do that goes beyond stock cardboard character shots. And get in some screenwriters.
I don't think that ABC has officially renewed it for a second season. At least, my Google-Fu hasn't produced anything saying that. The best I could come up with was this Nov. 13 article talking about how ratings have been dropping and it might be a candidate for cancellation: http://www.adweek.com/news/television/another-ratings-skid-marvel-s-agents-shield-153837 I do think it would require a serious meltdown for it not to be renewed. No matter how mediocre the show is or how badly it does in the ratings, what else does ABC have? I don't think the actors who play Fitz and Simmons are bad. I just think that they need to have more to do. In "FZZT," for example, they were fine. I think the Skye actress isn't great, but the problem there is her character. They have designed her to basically be annoying and Mary-Sueish. There are lots of possibilities. Coulson and May know more about Skye's parentage/being dropped off at the orphanage than they are saying. Hypothetically, either could be the parent, or they could both be the parent, or they could have dropped Skye off or could have killed Skye's parent, among other possibilities. I personally would prefer the notion of Skye being Coulson's kid if they have to go the parent route because that would explain how much he coddles her. In terms of the characters, I like May, Simmons and Ward at this point. Coulson too when he's not dealing with Skye. Fitz could grow on me if he gets more to do. I would be happy if Skye had some sort of personality transplant or got Poochied.
Just because an agent dropped off baby Skye doesn't mean that was her parent. Maybe she's the kid of a villian and an agent kidnapped her? It doesn't have to be an obvious answer.
Where do you get that she's May's kid from? Tony Stark as her dad would be cool, but totally groundless and random. I'm gonna doubt that he would have left over love babies... a guy that smart takes precautions. I think Tamar's guess is closest.
Skye seems to be working off the presumption that the woman who dropped her off at the orphanage is her Mom. But she has made a number of random and unsupported leaps of logic. For instance, that her mother was a SHIELD agent at the time of the drop-off, and that she was of a certain age and marital status (at least, she tells us that she wrote a program to screen for SHIELD agents by age and marital status). Generally, though, the show has given off the vibe of "Skye's usually right." So rather than this being an example of, say, Skye being over-eager about her search for her parents and blinding herself to such obvious reality as a woman could want to put a child up for adoption whether she's married, single, divorced or widowed, I think we are supposed to believe Skye is on the right track with her program and her suppositions. In terms of the notion that May is the mom, a few bits of circumstantial evidence, which are not by any means conclusive: 1. Coulson brings her into his confidence as to what Skye's about. He didn't have to do that unless she was directly involved somehow. 2. May is presumably about the right age to be Skye's mom -- at least, Ming-Na is about 50, and Skye is supposed to be 24ish. 3. It may not be coincidence that Chloe Bennett is biracial white/Asian. It could be meant as a sign that Skye is also supposed to be biracial white/Asian, and thus making it possible that May is the mother. 4. May's reactions to Skye trying to find out who her parents in the last episode were particularly harsh, even for her. That could be because she doesn't want to own up to being the mother. (Of course, it could just be because May has a point and is sick of seeingi Skye coddled like the rest of us.) 5. It's a trope/cliche that people are surprised to find that someone that they have been working aside is in fact someone related to them. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LongLostRelative If that's going to apply here, the most likely two options for Skye's parents we've seen so far are Coulson and May.
I think it boils down to number 5 for me... it's too cliche, even for this show. Then again, the whole "looking for her parents" thing is also more than slightly cheesy.
This show is good. No, it's better than good. It's subversive. I keep hearing complaints. No big-name superheroes or villains, not enough tie-in with the Marvel cinematic universe, no character development. But you know what? It's there. It's just not a 2014 ADD in-your-face shiny splodey things cliche like so much of television is these days. It's well paced. It's taking its time to roll out the revelations. Bits and pieces building slowly. You know what this show really is? It's backstory for the whole frakkin' Marvel Universe. It's characters being *built* episode by episode rather than blasted whole-hog into your brainpan. It's being crafted. Tonite AIM and Bucky Barnes were mentioned. Not plastered all across the screen in a MAJOR EVENT THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING FOREVER OMG!!! that will be forgotten after the next commercial break. Just mentioned. These things are out there. We'll get to them. Either on this show, or one of the other shows that we've been told are coming, or in a movie. That's the genius of Agents of SHIELD. It's on a long timeline, not a ten-minutes-till-the-next-advertisement one. Patience will pay off. The show is great and getting better, getting deeper with each reveal. And I, for one, am loving it.
^^That sounds like a great show, but I'm not seeing any of that in the episodes we've had so far. Every character building moment is there only to serve the next excited bit of running around, and characters change at a moment's notice to serve the plot.
Lanz, I think you're giving the show too much credit, and I say that as someone who generally enjoys it. Mentioning Bucky Barnes, Hydra and AIM isn't so much building backstory for the Marvel Universe as it is name-dropping. Part of the problem is that the world-building or character-building isn't very imaginative or well-developed. To just use the latest episode as an example: We are taken to the SHIELD Academy for future Sci-Tech agents. The show could have shown us a fantastical place, like "Eureka," where super-smart people are constantly concocting crazy devices. It could and should have lived up to the nickname of "SHIELD Hogwarts" that was given to it. Instead, we got a bunch of generic stuff -- a trip to an ordinary swimming pool, a lecture, an "underground bar" that was like pretty much any conventional bar. They could have done more to show that Fitz and Simmons were considered rock stars. It should be sort of like if Tom Brady went back to Michigan -- there would be banners welcoming Fitz and Simmons back, people trying to get their pictures taken with them, people trying to sleep with them, people trying to get advice about their inventions, etc. etc. There was a touch of that, but not much. I think they could have really worked on defining Fitz/Simmons characters through that episode, but failed. At the same time, I don't see characters in the show changing to suit the plot like Packard suggests. The only change I have seen in the series was that they tried to define Ward as having no people skills when they really never showed him to actually lack people skills beyond perhaps the second episode.
To give just two examples: Skye's main plot point in this episode was her desire to be accepted into SHIELD as a surrogate family. The context is introduced by May telling her that "perhaps she shouldn't be here". This hurts her deeply, as being there is her one big goal in life, aside from finding out where she's coming from. Remember how she got to join SHIELD? She was working against them, and then they kidnapped her, and tried to win her trust. They are asking her to work for them. This is the opposite of what she did this week. Now, this could be an ironic, full circle bit of character devlopment (which should both change her and the SHIELD people around her, since "we want her and she's not so sure" has to become "she wants us and we're not so sure"). But that interesting story was never told. Skye has just transformed into what this plot needed. And what about May? She was heavily traumatized and unwilling to be in the field, remember? How did that change again? My memory says it changed because three episodes had gone by. Did anyone catch a better explanation?
The Ward thing I think illustrates my point. The guy was thrown in to what seemed to him to be a random group of non-hackers, except for Coulson and May. He was very reserved around the others, but as he gets to know them those walls are coming down. Coulson himself has had a very good arc so far, transitioning from SHIELD robot to real guy. Even May is coming along, as we keep getting glimpses behind her icy exterior. In the latest ep, the rock star treatment for Fitz/Simmons was just getting under way when the crisis erupted. I found that completely satisfying from a story perspective. As for the SHIELD Hogwarts, what did we really see of it? The entrance, the assembly hall, one dorm room and the Boiler Room. We never went to the parts that might have showed racks of cool tech and gadgetry. What we did get was the Wall of Honor (something my own real life agency has, btw) which advanced the story in general and Skye's arc in particular. No, I am very happy with the progress of the show so far. Only thing I'd really change is throwing out this "Centipede" thing and making the evil organization AIM. Packard, you also have to remember that this is an ensemble show with only a relatively few episodes so far. May just hasn't had the screen time to get into her issues. So far the focus has mainly been Coulson and Skye.
I think you are being unfair. From the piilot, Skye was basically trolling SHIELD from her van with her Rising Tide broadcasts. When she was being interrogated she suggested that she let SHIELD find her. At some point she goes back to her van and she sticks a chip into her bra. We find out that she has been shuffled from foster home to foster home and never really had a sense of belonging. She had expressed interest in becoming a SHIELD agent from early on. (Now in retrospect, it's unclear how much of that was a pose to gain access to files and how much of it was genuine. But from what she was telling Miles in "Girl in the Flower Dress" when she thought the two of them were alone, she did have a growing admiration for SHIELD. Same with what she was telling Quinn in "The Asset." It comes out in "The Girl in the Flower Dress" that she was looking for her parents and a SHIELD document was her best lead. With the team feeling betrayed, she worked hard to regain her confidence. Because she does like the members of the team, even if she is sometimes conflicted about how SHIELD does stuff. TLDR: I think Skye isn't arbitrarily changing to suit a plot whim here. I think she has grown closer to the team members as a surrogate family. There was a scene early on where she expressed frustration about not being able to do anything handling the back end of things. So realizing she just needed to get over her issues to safeguard her team was probably the main thing. So, sure, these things could be developed better. But it's not the sort of arbitrary light-switching that some shows have done. It's a character arc. Now if they have May being afraid of combat again because that would serve a plot need for a specific episode and no other reason, then you've got a beef.
No, it's a badly written, character-cliche riddled mess instead... Stereotypical TV view of nerds? Check. Secret sexual liaisons between members? Check. Protege who is being controlled, and so not really a bad 'un. Check. Stern beefcake, with a side order of moodiness? Check. Stupid decisions for plot reasons(hey, *I* know, we'll fly the girl who may have telekinesis she cannot control! And tonights inflight movie will be Carrie!) Check. GilesCoulson and Mary SueSkye are about the only two having any meaningful arcs at the moment, the rest have a few moments to shine, but are pretty much hard to differentiate from the scenery half the time. And in Fitz/Simmons case, they tend to chew the scenery when they're not being it. And MulderSkye's arc may just end when heshe finds out what happened to hisher sistermother. It's not a bad show as such, it's just very mediocre, and the writing needs to improve rapidly. This show ought to be a Must See show, but it's a Meh one. They'd have been better off making it the 'glue' of the Marvel Universe, a good place for jumping off points - I mean, the pyramid one, perfect opportunity to give an oblique reference to Marc Spector. Just as with Graviton, casual viewers wouldn't have given much of a shit, but it opens the door to follow up later. Same with the Netflix series', have them in Hells Kitchen as a run-up to the launch. Not a crossover, but an introduction. I'm going to watch the rest of S1, but unless S2 sees a real upshot in quality I've got better things to watch.
For what it's worth, AoS is apparently going to have a few more Marvel tie-ins in upcoming episodes... Too little, too late?
Hey, that one was actually good! Still some awkward dialogue and too fast and explicit characterisation, but a strong plot, things are moving, we get answers and new questions and all of them interesting... Dare I hope it stays this way?
Interesting read. But I still feel that SHIELD isn't good or bad because of lots or few ties to the cinematic or the comics universe; it sucked because it was simply a bad show with mediocre plots, horrendous acting and euqally horrendous dialogue.
Gonna have to diagree with you on this. I've liked it from the beginning, and lately, it's gotten really good. The last few episodes were great! And I'm really looking forward to the next one ( Sif).
I disagree, I AIM is very at loose ends following the events of Iron Man 3. I think it's much more likely that "centipede" is really an arm of a resurgant Hydra, who were always SHIELD's main antagonists anyway. Edit:
Looks like the blue alien has been "outed" as being Kree. This opens up some interesting possibilities for Skye . . . Ms Marvel? And what of Coulson?
my understanding from spoilers is that SHIELD itself is now compromised and presumably that will drive the story arc going forward.
