Agents of SHIELD and Reign

[osprey_archer]

I've been watching season one of Agents of SHIELD, and I'm not sure why the internet hates this show so much. Maybe it's because I went into it with my expectations suitably lowered - I can see why it would be a disappointment if you went into it hoping for the second coming of television - but it seems pretty solidly entertaining to me. It's nothing special so far, but then I'm only a couple episodes in; and I can already tell all the characters apart, which is a lot faster than it took for me to tell apart the characters in, say, Reign.

I've given up on Reign, by the way. The surface is very glittery, but none of the more solid qualities I was hoping for ever materialized: neither coherent characterization nor the ability to plot one's way out of a paper bag, on the part of either the characters or the writers. (I knew better than to hope for a take on history that was either accurate or interesting.) When even Queen Catherine (who is quite the best thing on the show, unless the ridiculous fashion counts) became an incompetent schemer, I gently drifted away from the show.

Comments

[entwashian.livejournal.com]

YAY! SHIELD gets even better, though!

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

*clinks glass with you* To MAOS, and lowered expectations.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I'm really kind of looking forward to the episodes where it turns out that Ward has been a baddie ALL ALONG. It certainly puts all his rage about traitors into an interesting perspective. Doth protest too much, Ward?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I'm really wondering what people were expecting that made so many people react so badly. Firefly crossed with Marvel with a dash of Veronica Mars? And then they got a mere TV show and threw up their hands in disgust.

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

One thing I will venture: They were expecting a Joss Whedon show. And it isn't, and it bugs me how many fans don't get that simple thing. It's a Maurissa Tancharoen show, really, and we don't really know all of what that entails yet.

I'm worried because I do have absurdly high hopes for Agent Carter and it's so hard to lower them.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

I loved Agents of SHIELD from the beginning without necessarily thinking it was that good. For me, it's all about FitzSimmons being adorable and later [SPOILER REDACTED]) and May being glowery and hypercompetent, and Skye being a Mary Sue that I end up really liking and rooting for (I like Mary Sues in principle, if not always in practice). And while it starts slow, it ends up being pretty menacing and suspenseful.

The writing isn't always great, and in particular I feel like the writers use a lot of cheap tricks to keep SHIELD's place as the Designated Good Guys, but the character dynamics are really enjoyable for me, so I just kind of roll my eyes when necessary and keep on cheering for my favorites.

The second season ups the ante A LOT, and adds some excellent new characters (while BREAKING MY HEART with regard to some others).

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Since you're already spoiled for Ward's heel turn, I will add that his character becomes about 10X more interesting once the heel turn is effected.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I love FitzSimmons already. They are technically two people, but are they - are they really? (I've already seen the first couple episodes of season two, where Fitz is wandering around like he's had a limb amputated because Simmons is gone. Also because of brain damage, admittedly.)

Yeah, I've heard that the writers go to great lengths to keep SHIELD the good guys even when they're maybe not, and probably that will frustrate me. But we'll see!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I don't think high hopes are always a bad thing. I went into Veronica Mars after reading several articles about how it was the Platonic form of television (well, maybe the praise wasn't quite that high, but still), and I still loved it.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I've watched Agents of Shield when I've stumbled on it and have wanted to zone out with a TV story. The thing I've objected to is that the team is always imprisoning someone or torturing someone, or abandoning its own members. Seriously. I've seen it like three times, and each time, one of those elements (or more) has featured.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I haven't gotten to an episode where they've tortured anyone yet, but they did just kidnap a guy and then abandon him in Hong Kong. And I was like WHAT.

I used to be able to enjoy secret agencies stories a lot more, but now they always make me think ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY, you are showing us this process on the screen as it plays out and yet you seem to think your agency is still the good guys. So we'll see how that dynamic goes here.