Author Topic: Agents of Shield  (Read 36874 times)

Kaos Arcanna

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Agents of Shield
« on: September 25, 2013, 01:14:24 AM »

No spoilers, but I liked it.

 ;D

beveri8469

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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2013, 02:29:19 AM »
very awesome. enjoyed it and i liked all the characters.
plus since joss whedon is exec producing it will be awesome.
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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2013, 02:44:35 AM »
I want to like it, and I did like some of it. But Coulson's governmental-steamroller approach gets in my way. "We'll get what we want, and we'll flatten anyone to do it. We'll even misuse one of our own team." I mean, I know that SHIELD have a job to do, but I just bristle at that sort of thing, especially from government. (There's also Coulson's smiling while he takes what he wants. Someone's going to take a swing at him, if he keeps that up.)

It was the same way for me with the one-season show, "Threshold". Given the premise, I REALLY wanted to like it. But the way that the scientists, and others, were "recruited" for the project by, essentially, being abducted by the government and forced into it, really left a bad taste in my mouth.

If I were a superhero approached by SHIELD, and they said that they needed my help, but made it clear that working with them was entirely up to me, I'd likely want to help. But the more they tried the steamroller, the more resistance they'd get.

I'd like the show a lot more if they toned down the government's bully-boy tactics. Real life has too much of that.
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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #3 on: September 25, 2013, 02:46:34 AM »
They might be using that theme as part of the set up for Avengers 2.
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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2013, 04:29:47 AM »
Last minute.  Lola.  SQUEEEE!

For the most part Coulson's team are hand picked SHIELD agents with the exception of Skye.  And SHIELD is use to "containing" the situation as fast as they can, so toe stepping is involved.  Don't forget that Skye was the one who indirectly put Agent Ward in danger in Paris so him black bagging her was somewhat appropriate.

Joss is vicariously living through Coulson.  The dry humor was a half a beat off sometimes, forced, but it's the pilot, it'll take some time to get into the flow of things.

I think that was the last Firefly crewman who hadn't appeared in another Joss's shows, or at least another SciFi/Fantasy series since Serenity.

Teared up a bit at the Mutant Enemy card.
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Night-Hawk07

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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2013, 05:11:21 AM »
I think Skye might be my new celebrity crush.  O_O

I enjoyed the show. There was "something" about it that made it not quite feel.....complete, I guess, to me. Really didn't detract from the overall show though. Honestly, I'm far more excited about Season 2 of Arrow than I was for this, but I certainly won't stop watching anytime soon.

Besides, with Summer Glau (bless her) on Arrow, I'm going to need a new show to watch by next season anyway....

Battlechimp

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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2013, 10:47:32 PM »
I liked it a lot. Fun and not bad on the pacing.  Managed to introduce the main cast in a way that not only showcased what sort of characters they are and what they can do without feeling like a Mickey Mouse roll call.

I did like they way they made references to things from or about the comics as well as the references to movie lore. Without being to spoilery
skye's line about  "Are you going to take me in your little journey into mystery"  (for those that don't know that's the comic that introduced Thor). Or her name dropping of project Pegasus. I would absolutely geek out if they had a cameo or mention of SHIELD agent Wendell Vaughn.  Or even working in Agent O'Grady as a cameo, especially with the Ant man movie coming down the pipe

And have to agree with Night-hawk.  Skye may very well be my new celebrity crush:-)  wow is she beautiful
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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #7 on: September 26, 2013, 12:52:31 AM »
Speaking as the guy who renamed SHIELD for Mark Gruenwald at Marvel in 1990, I'm getting a real kick out of these replies...
(oh, sorry -- thought I was on FARK for a moment)

Obviously I liked it (hey, they kept 3 of my words) but I also expect the standard episodes will be better than the pilot with all that set-up and backstory work to cram in.  I just assume that what Coulson "must never know" is that he's an LMD which makes his slightly strange affect interesting (of course it's not inconsistent with the previous performances, either) -- but then I could be wrong.

Oh yeah, and I SQUEEE'd at the car too -- the King lives on.

In Columbus Ohio, right after the building explosion at the beginning, we had a "breaking news bulletin" interrupt with a report of an explosion at Columbus police headquarters (it turned out to be that some cop fired his weapon -- probably accidentally-- in the building and wouldn't admit it) -- but it made for a weird coincidence.  Some day I'll have to watch the five minutes we missed.
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Kaos Arcanna

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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #8 on: September 26, 2013, 01:44:30 AM »
They're rerunning the pilot tomorrow if you missed it.

eabrace

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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #9 on: September 26, 2013, 01:57:35 AM »
It's also up on Hulu now, too.
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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #10 on: September 26, 2013, 03:48:31 AM »
I'm guessing that LMD will now mean Life Model Duplicate.  They won't want be calling Coulson a Decoy.  On the other hand they might just want fans to be assuming that he's an LMD when it's really something else like he was dead for 24 hours and they used some sort of regeneration device on him or something.

I did love the show but two bits I didn't like that much.  The trope/cliche/whatever of the good guy volunteering for an experiment that changes him.  Doc Ock, Lizard, Morbius, etc...  Sure all of those guys experimented on themselves but it is still the same thing.  Good guy turned dangerous by an experiment meant to do good.

And then they followed it up with the old routine of you think somebody killed him but is just administering the cure.

But I suppose I have to expect comic book cliches in a comic book show.

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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #11 on: September 26, 2013, 04:28:16 AM »
It's obvious that "Tahiti" never happened.  But I'm sure "it's a magical place" is a hint about how Coulson is back.  There was also another off the cuff comment about "magic, but not really it's science" by Fitz.  And Skye's sass against authority reminds me a bit of Faith.

Favorite quotes:

Maria Hill: "Everything's changing.  A little while ago, most people went to bed thinking the craziest thing in the world was a billionaire in a flying metal suit.  Then aliens invaded New York and were beaten back by, among others, a giant green monster, a costumed hero from the 40's and a god."
Agent Ward: "I don't think Thor's technically a god."
Maria Hill: "Well, you haven't been near his arms."

Skye: [to Mike] With great power comes ... a ton of weird crap that you are not prepared to deal with."

Agent Coulson injects truth serum into Agent Ward
Agent Ward: "Hey!  What the hell?!"
Agent Coulson: "I'm sorry.  Did that hurt?"
Agent Ward: "No.  But you've lost your mind.  You should never do that to a member of your team.  And, yes, it did hurt a little bit.  But I always try and mask my pain in front of beautiful women 'cause I think it makes me seem more masculine.  My God, this stuff works fast."
Agent Coulson: [to Skye] Don't trust us?  Ask him whatever you like.
« Last Edit: September 26, 2013, 04:51:31 AM by FatherXmas »
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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #12 on: September 26, 2013, 03:08:35 PM »
<Spoilers, obviously, I hope >

So, I got a chance to watch it and overall it was a little uneven, but it's a pilot so that's to be expected.  I'm curious about the histories of Coulson and Melinda May.  Ming-na did a fantastic job!  I'm very curious to the circumstances which lead to an obviously very skilled field agent taking a desk job and showing a marked aversion to any action.  It was telling that she broke her rule to save people from the gunman.

Fitz and Simmons were a little cookie cutter, but I'm sure they'll be developed further down the line.  Loved the drones skimming around the scene; nice to see that they can casually do these things in TV now.

Ward was fun.  It's interesting that a typical Shield special agent appears to be a fish out of water in Coulson's group.  The fight at the start of the episode was very "Bourne Identity".  Loved the woman just walking out of the apartment in disgust.

The sooner the character Skye pulls a Coulson (dies horribly to motivate the team) the better, IMO.  The character, motivations and skillset made very little cohesive sense.   For someone who is incredibly vulnerable personally, she doesn't do anything to try and protect herself.  There's no reason she couldn't have sent text messages to Mike and monitored him by remote. 

The trick with the GPS encrypted files (while making no sense on it's face) is a fundamental limitation (staying in one place) for someone who should be on the move.  Her only defence is not to be found.  She also seems more in the know that Shield about the secret things going on; why would she join them?

I liked the references to the movie power origins and how Mike thought he was a superhero in his origin story.  Of course, he's going crazy, but I liked that inversion.  I'm curious about what will be coming from Centipede, the scientist, etc.  I really liked the effects for the powers they used.  I am hopeful they will have lots of variety as the season progresses.

Nice to see Gunn and Book showing up in a Whedon show.  Were they the last who had not?

eabrace

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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #13 on: September 26, 2013, 03:19:27 PM »
The trick with the GPS encrypted files (while making no sense on it's face) is a fundamental limitation (staying in one place) for someone who should be on the move.  Her only defence is not to be found.
Interesting that you mention that.  The first time I watched through the episode I wondered how that would work.  It wasn't until the second time through that I caught her saying her van was always parked "around the corner" to Mike when she met him face to face.  I suppose if the van's always parked in the same spot, everything works until you (or someone else) move the van.
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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #14 on: September 26, 2013, 06:02:22 PM »
She likely has a back door that she wasn't willing to reveal.  Or it was a ruse to get back to a wifi hot spot.  Question is what did she stash in her shirt?  As for her skill set, I think they made it clear she's the uber hacker.  I also think she's suppose to be the viewer proxy, the outsider being let in behind the curtain.

What I loved about Fitz-Simmons was the rapid banter.  And to be clear they aren't a couple they threw in the Fitz's nerdy way of asking Skye out.

The little bit with Ward and Fitz-Simmons in relax mode, eating take out, Ward out of the suit, Simmons belting back a brewski was an interesting touch.  Not all suits and lab jackets.

As for the Whedon acting pool of regulars, there's quite a lot who haven't popped up in one of the other shows or movies he's been involved in.  Most of the cast of Buffy, some of Angel, Dollhouse and Firefly.  Thing is most of them have been on successful TV shows or at least one scifi/fantasy series or movie.
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eabrace

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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #15 on: September 26, 2013, 06:48:05 PM »
Question is what did she stash in her shirt?
Why did I start laughing when I read that?
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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #16 on: September 26, 2013, 09:58:26 PM »
The more I think about it, the more I hate the hacker.  Her lies caused every problem in the episode.

Spoiler for Hidden:
Mike needed a job, and treatment to regulate Extremis. SHIELD offers him both at the end of the episode. If that insufferable brat hadn't lied to him about SHIELD in the beginning they would have been able to help him before he attacked his old boss and endangered everyone at the airport. (Incidentally, her description of SHIELD as "men in suits, scary, scary bad." was really out of place Whedon-speak. It was kind of jarring.)

 The truth serum "gag" is another sore spot. I hate mind controllers, and if he'd jabbed me with it and turned me over to the enemy like that I'd have attacked him immediately.

 I saw the teaser for the upcoming season. It looks like Coulson is going to use the hacker as a canary, flinging her face first into danger so he doesn't risk decent people. I can live with that.

AIM had almost perfected Extremis before they were taken out by the Iron Legion, so I figure this new group is either the Power Broker or Hydra (hinted at by the assassin in the pilot and the Red Skull gang in the teaser). The Secret Empire as an outlier.

L.M.D. was my theory, until I had a revelation.  He died while fighting a Norse god and went to "a magical place."  Einherjar?

Battlechimp

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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #17 on: September 26, 2013, 10:22:41 PM »
But see the thing is, at that time Skye was not lying to Mike.  Her impression of SHIELD was they were scary men in black suits that covered up secrets and made people "disappear".  That is a perfectly legit and logical way for an outsider to view SHIELD when she's seeing all their cover ups and stories. 

It wasn't until her sit down with Ward that her impression of them changed, which you can see was what Coulson was trying to accomplish.  That was full disclosure in a way that proved they weren't holding things back, and could show why they were doing things in a way that just seeing reports just would not convey. It was to show that they were the good guys, not just say "we're the good guys. Trust us when we say that"

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FatherXmas

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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #18 on: September 26, 2013, 10:49:03 PM »
The more I think about it, the more I hate the hacker.  Her lies caused every problem in the episode.

Spoiler for Hidden:
Mike needed a job, and treatment to regulate Extremis. SHIELD offers him both at the end of the episode. If that insufferable brat hadn't lied to him about SHIELD in the beginning they would have been able to help him before he attacked his old boss and endangered everyone at the airport. (Incidentally, her description of SHIELD as "men in suits, scary, scary bad." was really out of place Whedon-speak. It was kind of jarring.)

 The truth serum "gag" is another sore spot. I hate mind controllers, and if he'd jabbed me with it and turned me over to the enemy like that I'd have attacked him immediately.

 I saw the teaser for the upcoming season. It looks like Coulson is going to use the hacker as a canary, flinging her face first into danger so he doesn't risk decent people. I can live with that.

AIM had almost perfected Extremis before they were taken out by the Iron Legion, so I figure this new group is either the Power Broker or Hydra (hinted at by the assassin in the pilot and the Red Skull gang in the teaser). The Secret Empire as an outlier.

L.M.D. was my theory, until I had a revelation.  He died while fighting a Norse god and went to "a magical place."  Einherjar?

So do you send in the T-1000 with no personality skills or the cute girl with absolutely no digital footprint?
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Re: Agents of Shield
« Reply #19 on: September 27, 2013, 02:55:48 PM »
So do you send in the T-1000 with no personality skills or the cute girl with absolutely no digital footprint?
Apparently she does have a digital footprint as they were able to track her through her youtube video to her van in an alley...