Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D
 

Anyone else watching this?

I'm enjoying it. Cheesy fun. Love Agent Coulson.


I haven't seen any of the Marvel movies. Should I?

I'm liking it, but I don't think it's hit its stride yet.

I like what Marvel is doing with the movies; standalones that have their own genres leading up to the ensemble piece. It lets them make a variety of movies in various styles that all share a universe. It's what I've been hoping comic book movies would do for a while; instead of constantly rebooting, get the introductions out of the way and then start telling some stories!

I'm really liking it. I agree, i don't think it's quite hit its stride yet. It has the potential to be more than it currently is. But what it is, is fun.

Favourite characters so far are Coulson and Fitz.

It took two or three episodes to click with me who was playing Fitz: Iain de Caestecker. I was so impressed with the kid when he was the lead in BBC3's brilliant but short lived series, The Fades..

There was an attempt by fans to campaign for a second series, but BBC3 was in the middle of a cost cutting exercise and could only manage one original drama production per season and they chose to do a final series of Being Human instead. Someone should have picked Fades up, it was really good. And ended on a cliff hanger in anticipation of a second series.

Yes. They're enjoyable, cheesy fun. I recommend Iron Man and Iron Man 2, Thor (just to see Chris Hemsworth), and The Avengers. I'm not much for Spiderman, myself.

I'm watching this show now because of this thread. :D

I agree with ortho, both Iron Man movies and The Avengers were worth it, and I say that as a very lukewarm viewer of superhero/action movies.

Just watched the season finale!

Well - I'd say overall a success - some elements took way too long to come together and start to feel like a coherent story, and things definitely wandered a few eps in, but they really did bring it all together in the second half.

I do wish though that series wouldn't get broken up so much. Bad enough to split the season in two with a hiatus in between (seriously I'd rather just have shorter series that told a self contained story than split story arc like that) - but they split the halves with mini-breaks. Comes back after the hiatus, gets a couple of eps in then off again for a few weeks. They've done the same with Arrow as well. very annoying.

anyhoo - the second half of the series really kicked arse and the finale was awesome.

The kids and I watched Fantastic Four: The Rise of The Silver Surfer.

It was pretty fun. I'm looking forward to more Silver Surfer, he was my favorite comic book hero.

Yeah, they really opened up the plot for action on many fronts. Looking forward to next season.

Finally watched the last couple episodes of the season. Edge of my seat through the whole thing.

Yeah those last two or three episodes were nailbiting. Glad I stuck with it when it wavered. I like how they have allowed characters to change and develop - some of them felt a little by the numbers at first (the characters, not the actors). Skye, for instance, I didn't really care that much about initially - didn't dislike her, but she wasn't particularly compelling. But they really allowed her character to become central to the group in a nice way, and become a much more complex character en route.

Still mainly watching for Coulson, mind :p

I, too, have a thing for Coulson.

Loving the new season so far!

What they've done with FitzSimmons is brilliant. And both of them have put in fantastic performances. Also, major props to Brett Dalton, as Ward. Some of the conversations with Skye are really creepy.

Overall, I think it's grown into a really interesting and fun show.

Well - from that last post things kind of went downhill for me with this show.

The whole inhumans storyline leaves me cold. Just not feeling it. I've watched a few since it returned from hiatus but I've found them a bit of a chore. I actually turned off halfway through the last ep I tried to watch (14 - Love in the Time of Hydra).

I daresay it might all resonate more with me if I was watching the films too - but I really don't want to watch them.

I'm going to give it one more try to get back into it, because I really did like the first half of the season. It's possible it suffered against the Lost / Person of Interest addiction.

You're gonna have to gut it out, hon, because you are in for a whole heap of WTF shark jumping activity at the end.

For trues.

Does one of the sharks have stupid blades welded onto her finger tips?

You're thinking of Wolverine.

Nope I'm thinking of that inhuman chick that Cal recruits - along with shouty man, strong man and tech genius. S.H.I.E.L.D made her wear permanent gloves to keep the blades on her fingers covered.

I missed that. I need to go back and watch.

You really don't. They were a fairly unimpressive bunch of inhumans.

How is she even a fucking inhuman? They refer to her as 'gifted' - all she's done is have blades surgically grafted onto her fingertips. Thoroughly unimpressive.

The guy with the voice that can kill could have been interesting - but was really underused. Cal's whole team came across as piss poor and his big bid for vengeance against Coulson and his crew was a damp squib.


It's ep 13 if you're interested - 'One of Us'

I'm not recognizing any of the things you are talking about. Is this season 3?

The last episode I saw was when Raina and Sky were in the underground temple and things went boom and agent Triplet died.

Weird, I jsut read the plot summary on wiki and I don't remember any of it. I need to see if I actually watched season 2 or just DL'd it.

Sounds like you left off at the mid-season break.


I actually quite liked a lot ofthe first half of season 2 - some of it was junk, but some of it worked well.

Since it came back it has lost some of its energy imo. It's too fragmented. Far too plotty and not nearly enough character development. The character development that is there is kind of clunky and forced.*

Having said all that - I ended up quite enjoying ep 14 on last night's rewatch. It seems to be clawing the disparate strands together and hinting at a potentially intriguing development. Also Admiral Adama turned up, and that's always a good thing.




*with some honourable exceptions - particularly Simmons - and though the writing makes for forced development, the actors are good enough, for the most part, to make it more or less work.

I suspect, with the hints dropped in ep 14, that some of that less comfortable character development and general air of .... 'offness' will be contextualised soon.

They've either totally jumped the shark in an attempt to satisfy the hardcore fans, or they've done something clever. Given the second half of season 2, I'm hoping for the latter.

But but. if she didn't shred the toilet paper... or herself... that's impressive.

Well - I struggled through the less interesting stuff - honestly, it was like homework - but am really glad I did, because the inhuman storyline turned into something genuinely interesting.

Spoilers below for anyone not uptodate:










The series took a definite upswing for me when they sent Simmons off to another world and then had Fitz rescue her and bring her back - in particular, the Ward transformation has been really great.

i think it probably helped that I fell off it again for a while, so when I did return I was about 6 eps behind and bingewatching really helped with the immersion - also, when bingewatching, it doesn't matter as much if an episodedoesn't quite hit - because there isn't a week's wait to see if the next is any good.

Mostly though, I think the inhumans became a whole heap more interesting when they were less about Skye/Daisy's weird family, and a bunch of special people living in a retreat and more about an ancient and powerful evil plotting world domination.

Can't get enough of evil Hydra-Ward - the actor totally nailed it. Really fucking creepy and genuinely unnerving. Also makes the idea of the organisation, Hydra, make a lot more sense.

"Hydra-Ward's" name is Hive, and it inhabited Grant's body after Phil killed him.

Grant Ward is he's played by Brett Dalton.

Hive! yes, that was it. Also - Brett Dalton - thanks.

I realise he isn't actually Ward anymore - but he does have his memories (and all the other peeps)

I do think Dalton plays a much better bad guy than good guy. Creepy as fuck - especially when he first came back.

I had thought Brett Dalton was a somewhat one-dimensional actor until he became HIVE, now I am impressed with how subtle his performance can be. He's not Anthony Hopkins or Michael Caine, but he's young yet. I wonder if he can do comedy?

I've been watching Arrow and the actor who plays Damien Darhk, Neal McDonough, is super fucking evil. The only other movie I saw him in was Red 2, where he played the same type of villain. I wonder if he is typecast or has a greater range.

I am really struggling with Arrow. I like elements of it still - I really like Detective Lance. Paul Blackthorne really brought it in the episode before last. And the last episode I thought was much stronger than it's been for much of this season.

Watching Daredevil and Jessica Jones has kind of ruined Arrow for me a bit.

I dunno - I just haven't felt that invested in Oliver Queen just lately. I liked him better as the batmanesque troubled hero - billionaire playboy by day and kick-ass vigilante by night, with just a couple of people who knew his secret. Instead of this Green Arrow crap (yes, I know that's the original comic book character), where he basically leads the world's least competent scooby gang.

And the new suit sucks. Did I already mention that I hate the new suit? Looks fucking ridiculous.

Also Olicity pretty much killed Arrow for me. That and the fact that it sometimes just seems to be mainly a staging post for other shows to launch from. I'm hoping that Felicity and Oliver can just get on with being good friends who once were together - that'd be ok. If I have to watch another season of will they-won't they-oh they did-now they don't-now they do again bullshit, I may have to abandon it in disgust. Which is a shame, because I loved Felicity as a character. She was awesome. But they made her really irritating.

I still watch it , because...I dunno - every so often I get that good Arrow vibe from it again. But it's like a chore for several episodes at a time interspersed with good stuff.

I quite like Dahrk. he's pretty evil and presents a credible threat. Which is good, because they've basically reduced Malcom Merlin to pantomime villain.

I agree that they've seemed to lose sight of what made the characters compelling and sympathetic. Even the new intro by Oliver sounds like he is apologizing for being a shittier, less interesting character.

My chief complaint is that far too often it goes well beyond straying into, and immigrates into soap-opera. The camera angles, the flat delivery as though reading lines, and even the dialogue itself has failed this series And sometimes it feels like Barrowman is just phoning his lines in, but who can blame him, how many times can you say, "I'm not the man you think I am." with feeling?

The inch and I joke that the series should be called People Who Are Not Who You Think They Are. We hear that at least once a show.

I am still only up to episode 8 of season 4. I accidentally saw, in a google search, a possible spoiler pertaining to Felicity's father.

Also I can't wait for Jessica Jones to come back because that is a great show, but again, will they need to evolve her out of what makes her badass?

Oh so true!

Also - the opening voiceover makes very little sense now. They'd have been better altering it completely, rather than trying to sort of keep it as it was but updated for the new setup. It's like they lost the intro by a process of chinese whispers.

Ha! excellent.


As to Jessica Jones - yeah, I am psyched for that. I wonder what they're going to do with that, now that Kilgrave is gone. Will there be another season big bad - or is it going to be more of a weekly detective thing? The dance between those two was such a big part of the first season - it was such a personal battle - I do hope they manage to find something equally compelling.

I guess the advantage of the Marvel and DC universe is that they can play free and easy with the back story.

K- I'm well and truly back on the AoS horse.

I kind of puttered about through some of season 3 but kept dropping off it. Then didn't touch it for over a year - maybe even a year and a half - I left it with just a handful of episodes left of S3

The one thing I really liked about S3 was Brett Dalton as Ward/Hive - truly creepy and unnerving.

Started watching again about a week and a half ago - ripped through the remaining eps of S3 and am now approaching the S4 finale.

This back half, Agents of Hydra, is awesome.

Everybody has really stepped up their game, and Iain de Caestecker deserves an Emmy nod for his portrayal of Fitz in this season. I've always liked him as an actor - from the very first thing I saw him in (which I think was The Fades) I've anticipated him doing great work. But, I think the Fitz avatar is some of the best I've seen from him. He really does have great range.

The story is great too - the whole season has been great.

Ah man - loving season 5. It's really good storytelling. And no characters that bore me to tears whenever they're on screen (which is what hampered seasons 2 and 3 somewhat) - they've balanced the different narrative strands and character development much better in later seasons.

Seasons 4 and 5 are a real step up in story for me. They've really found their voice - so obviously viewing figures are slipping and rumours of cancellation abound.

If this ends up being the last season of shield, they look like the're going out on a high. This season has been superb.

The Devil's Complex (last week's ep) was so tense. The directing, the writing, the acting - it came together brilliantly. Iain de Caestecker is awesome. So are Henstridge and Bennet. The whole cast are great this season, but de Caestecker in particular is knocking out of the park.

That whole sequence from dark Fitz taking Daisy to the big reveal was pitch perfect.

Just watched a review of that episode and it made an excellent point. Spoilers below:





It was a very ballsy decision not to leave any kind of question mark over Fitz's culpability. They could have had Hydra Fitz as a manifestation like the other threats appear, do the deed and then leave our Fitz picking up the pieces. Or they could have had Fitz going through this psychic break but not being brought to awareness until after the deed was done. It would have been him that did it, so he would have had to wrestle with that, but there would be some reading possible in which he was not fully culpable.

Instead they had the psychic break get him to the brink - but it was fully our Fitz that did that to Daisy - no room for confusion, he did it, it was him, and he still believes it was the right thing to do even though it was reprehensible and a complete betrayal of his friend.