Agents of SHIELD; thoughts, theories and fixes
SPOILERS. PROBABLY. BUT WITH CUTS.
I want to like SHIELD. And sometimes I really do. It’s just…
It has managed to combine the Whedon patented slow start with network sci-fi phobia and a lack of overt direction or long story, which is pretty much the thing Whedon does best.
The good…
Agent May. I love Ming-Na, and actor love goes a long way with me. I just want more of her. More. MORE. MORE!
FitzSimmons. I don’t ship them, but I love them. In fact the more Fitz and/or Simmons the more likely I am to like the episode.
Ward. He’s a little bland, but I like him. I like him and Jemma. He could use some major backstory. But so does everybody, really.
Raina*
The bad…
Skye. Skye bores the crap out of me. The actress is bland. She’s every reason I don’t want most shows on CW. Her story is trite. I don’t question her loyalties to SHIELD. She’s not mysterious. She’s an orphan. And unless Coulson or Tony Stark or an alien turns out to be her father, I don’t care who her parents are.
*To make matters worse, Raina is the character I thought Skye was going to be. She’s interesting. She’s ethnic. (I really thought Skye would be a PoC. Don’t know why but I really did.) She’s a bad guy, but I could see her flipping. Or being the cellist. Or something. In short, I like her even if she is a mass murderer.
The plotting, pacing, general story. I said last night on Twitter that I wish this whole arc with Coulson being abducted had run the last half of the first ten episodes, only spread out over three-ish episodes. Everything about last night’s episodes was interesting. Only then it was over and I have very little faith at this point that we’ll go back to interesting for a few weeks. Ugh.
The ugly… Or my potentially unpopular opinion.
This really isn’t quite a scandalous as I make it out to be. Well, on the surface it is maybe, but I’ve thought this since the beginning so here goes…
We need less Coulson.
In the beginning, I thought no Coulson. He pulls focus both as a character and as a story. But I’ve been watching The Good Wife. A show that raises the Irregular Regular to an art form. Irregular Regulars are characters that are big, splashy, necessary and wonderful, but not every episode.
Coulson needs to get off the airplane.
I mean, imagine a plane with May and Ward vying to be the leader. Like it’s Ward officially, but everyone really knows it’s May, except Ward. The bounding between the team members was the best I’ve ever seen in this last, Coulson separated episode, which kind of furthers my argument.
And his story moved to the back burner, to 13-15 episodes in the season actually becomes more interesting because it’s not a nagging line all the time, it’s story.
Now, I like Coulson. I don’t want him off the show, but he’s not Giles. He’s a known quantity with his own following and I would just like him better if he were more special instead of the show trying to make him kind of not special.
So there you go. My feelings on SHIELD.
I want to like SHIELD. And sometimes I really do. It’s just…
It has managed to combine the Whedon patented slow start with network sci-fi phobia and a lack of overt direction or long story, which is pretty much the thing Whedon does best.
The good…
Agent May. I love Ming-Na, and actor love goes a long way with me. I just want more of her. More. MORE. MORE!
FitzSimmons. I don’t ship them, but I love them. In fact the more Fitz and/or Simmons the more likely I am to like the episode.
Ward. He’s a little bland, but I like him. I like him and Jemma. He could use some major backstory. But so does everybody, really.
Raina*
The bad…
Skye. Skye bores the crap out of me. The actress is bland. She’s every reason I don’t want most shows on CW. Her story is trite. I don’t question her loyalties to SHIELD. She’s not mysterious. She’s an orphan. And unless Coulson or Tony Stark or an alien turns out to be her father, I don’t care who her parents are.
*To make matters worse, Raina is the character I thought Skye was going to be. She’s interesting. She’s ethnic. (I really thought Skye would be a PoC. Don’t know why but I really did.) She’s a bad guy, but I could see her flipping. Or being the cellist. Or something. In short, I like her even if she is a mass murderer.
The plotting, pacing, general story. I said last night on Twitter that I wish this whole arc with Coulson being abducted had run the last half of the first ten episodes, only spread out over three-ish episodes. Everything about last night’s episodes was interesting. Only then it was over and I have very little faith at this point that we’ll go back to interesting for a few weeks. Ugh.
The ugly… Or my potentially unpopular opinion.
This really isn’t quite a scandalous as I make it out to be. Well, on the surface it is maybe, but I’ve thought this since the beginning so here goes…
We need less Coulson.
In the beginning, I thought no Coulson. He pulls focus both as a character and as a story. But I’ve been watching The Good Wife. A show that raises the Irregular Regular to an art form. Irregular Regulars are characters that are big, splashy, necessary and wonderful, but not every episode.
Coulson needs to get off the airplane.
I mean, imagine a plane with May and Ward vying to be the leader. Like it’s Ward officially, but everyone really knows it’s May, except Ward. The bounding between the team members was the best I’ve ever seen in this last, Coulson separated episode, which kind of furthers my argument.
And his story moved to the back burner, to 13-15 episodes in the season actually becomes more interesting because it’s not a nagging line all the time, it’s story.
Now, I like Coulson. I don’t want him off the show, but he’s not Giles. He’s a known quantity with his own following and I would just like him better if he were more special instead of the show trying to make him kind of not special.
So there you go. My feelings on SHIELD.