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

Ep 1 was okay, but what I'm really intrigued about thus far is what Hill said about Coulson not needing to know what happened to him. Does it mean that Coulson actually did die? If so, is the one that exists now a clone? Was he reanimated after death? Is he a cyborg/android now? Guess I'll have to wait and see.

I loved it and so did my sister. We especially liked all the Easter Eggs and reference back to the movies. For most part, I felt it was good start, though not perfect, but pilot rarely are.

I'm really interested in the different characters and their backgrounds such as who Skye really is and why Melinda May left the field. Of course I want to know what really happened with Coulson, but I’m guessing that going to be kept a secret for a while.

Crap, I missed it.

damn it all...

And streaming is out because I don't have the bandwidth to handle it (satellite).

*sigh* Hopefully I can pick up with ep 2. *marks calendar*

I liked it. I've loved all the recent Marvel/Avengers tie-in movies, and I've been a big fan of Agent Coulson (What's this Phil stuff? His first name is agent.) ever since seeing "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer" on the Captain America DVD. And I've loved Joss Whedon since the MOVIE "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" came out.

So, there was no way I wasn't going to be into this series. I'm not exactly an objective observer.

I did think Coulson was a little too full of snappy one-liners. Juuuust a little over the top. I hope he dials down a bit for the series - just so he sounds like a real person and not like an assemblage of how clever Joss Whedon can be.

I think the Steranko review hits the major points--especially tying all of those threads together in a series premier--but the fangirl in me cares not

And yes, Tahiti what? Implanted memory? Why? TELL ME NOW! I'm so impatient.

ok. Finally watched it. I have to agree with Steranko. I like Coulson (and I think he did die and this is an LMD) but his character is too milque toast. They do need a dynamic leader. And I didn't care much for the Skye character (aside from her looking like every other woman in the show). The while stereotype of the young, angry computer genius who can hack anything and make the government's best of the best look silly is tiresome. Not did I like the nerd cliche for the geek Bobbsey Twins. And why is SHIELD just 5 people? Its supposed to be a massive intelligence agency but it felt like it was just this one group running independently.

And have we seen the Melinda May character before? They kept referring to her as if her backstory was common knowledge.

Overall, considering the hype and expectations, I felt let down, especially by a pilot that should have grabbed everyone by the throat and shouted, "FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS!" Instead it tapped us on the shoulder and mumbled, "I don't mean to bother you, but could you, you know, maybe watch for a bit?"

Yes, more Ming-Na Wen. And I say that in a totally male sexist eye candy sort of way.

And regarding the Geek Twins, what sort if accent was the guy trying to portray? He needs to either tone it down so he's understandable or they need to put up subtitles.

Despite my criticisms, I still have my DVR set to record.

I finally read the Steranko review this morning with my coffee. I'm confused. What exactly was his problem with the Hooded Hero being black? During the episode it didn't even register with me (honestly, my first thought was "That's Gunn!").

I saw it. I liked. It seem interesting.

I've been following Joss' work religiously for 15 years now, so I won't be much use for criticism. I'm in for the awesome!

Lots of small stuff that made me laugh out loud - the truth serum scene, the cosplay joke, Agent Hills's drawing that totally wasn't poop with knives sticking out. Because it was a pilot, they didn't go deep into much yet, and we've yet to see about half of the team to really register as characters, but I trust the Whedons to make that work over the season - team shows have always been one of Joss' strengths.

That said, I couldn't help but notice most of the characters reminded me of ones he wrote before. There's a lot of Kayleigh in Simmons, some Topher in Fitz, quite a bit of Caroline in Skye and so on. So, as the characters emerge, they won't just have each other to grow distinguishable from.

For the near future, I'm hoping they won't stick solely to the Centipede thing and make it more of a spy show. But I'm also hoping for more Cobie Smulders, and that doesn't look likely. So I'll be okay whatever they come up with.

I think I'm the only one who isn't a Whedon fan. I thought Buffy was mildly interesting and I did not like Firefly at all. So I keep hoping he'll be able to overcome those shows and make this one something I'll want to keep watching.

I didn't understand the cosplay joke. What was it in reference to?

JohnnyGottaKeyboard said:

I finally read the Steranko review this morning with my coffee. I'm confused. What exactly was his problem with the Hooded Hero being black? During the episode it didn't even register with me (honestly, my first thought was "That's Gunn!").

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I don't know who Gunn is, but my first thought was the hooded guy was Luke Cage/Powerman. But I don't know what Steranko meant. I can only surmise he meant nearly the entire cast is white except for the one antagonist. *shrugs*

Shadow_Ferret said:

I can only surmise he meant nearly the entire cast is white except for the one antagonist. *shrugs*

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The only black guy is an unemployed, desperate, single parent who goes on a rampage--a television role that would normally be seen as damning and un-PC for this type of setting--but then they twist it into a good guy trumps inner evil super hero type ending. Seems totally contrived to me, too.

Edit: The political allegory at the end, and Coulson's reply (going so far as to say "privileged" about his super heroes), plays into it all, too.

Edit 2: Hell, when I was watching this, The Pursuit of Happyness popped into my head very early in.

Shadow_Ferret said:

I didn't understand the cosplay joke. What was it in reference to?

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The cosplay joke referred to the legions of women that Tony Stark always has at his beck and call and how they are now showing up in various versions of the Iron Man outfit, revealing their "assets" to their best benefit.

It goes back to the Iron Man movies in that respect.

I guess I still don't get it. Was that scene of cosplay shown in Iron Man 3? That's the only one I haven't seen so far.

We've just had the first one and I thought it was.... meh. As You Know Bobs all over the place and a plot as old as the hills. I'll give it one more go but don't think it's my sort of thing.

And I loved Firefly and Buffy, BTW.

I liked it. Geeked out at several of the references, particularly "Journey Into Mystery." *possible spoiler*I just hope they downplay the whole LMD thing. I aways thought that device was such a cop out.*end possible spoiler**

Shadow_Ferret said:

I guess I still don't get it. Was that scene of cosplay shown in Iron Man 3? That's the only one I haven't seen so far.

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There wasn't an actual scene. It was a joke. Because Iron Man (in rl too, but in this reference in the Marvel Universe) has a lot of fans. Tons of silly googly-eyed fans who would likely dress up for Iron Man cosplay in many different silly (and sexy) ways. And like paparazzi and people with a lot of fans, they swarm and hold up silly signs and act silly and giddy when they think they might have a chance to even look upon the awesome beautifulness that is Tony Stark.

I thought they tried to cram to much into one episode, but as a Whedonite, I think the show just needs to get a few episodes under it's belt to really get going. I feel like a lot of Joss's recent shows have been like that. But I'm excited to see where they go with it. They left a lot of open questions in the first episode.

I was bored. I think, after Firefly got cancelled, he's tried to go with a different approach for a first episode and there were lots of nice-on-paper sequences but not much to actually involve me in the characters.

I'll give it another couple of eps to see if it gets better.

If we stick with the Buffy theme for a minute, I actually preferred David E Kelley's The Crazy Ones (based in an ad agency) - Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar, which I expected to hate, but was kind of funny.

The third pilot this week featuring Whedon offspring was The Blacklist (and I really hope Harry Lennix is going to stay on). Too early to say much about that yet, though.

Not sure about The Crazy Ones yet. It's nice to see both Gellar and Williams being funny again (been a while, or two), but I'm not sure about the show itself yet. Funnier than House of Lies, though, which it sounded like a family friendly rip-off from.

Watch to the end of the credits for Ep 2. Marvel's teasing there's an Easter egg coming.

I'm loving it. It makes me feel like a 12 year old on new comic book day.

I liked this episode better but villainess whatsername was right about all the cute young agents. They are cast that way to make him extra cool.