New TV shows, fall 2013: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Enjoyed it, but was left with a definite sense of Meh. Ok, the show gave us the quippy dialogue, the requisite "We are sponsored by Disney, here are some toys," bits, the requisite "We are sponsored by Disney, here are some quotes, along with a quick mention of Harry Potter so we don't sound too self-absorbed here," and a flying car (yay) and a broken newspaper stand (as I noted on Twitter, it's always the poor innocent newspaper stands that end up suffering the most in these things) and some little flying robots (more yay) and admitted at last what we've all been thinking: regardless of Thor's actual divine status, Chris Hemsworth has the arms of a god. (You could almost hear viewers respond with, "So, this means more than one shirtless scene in the upcoming Thor 2 flick, right?" I also liked the way the show admitted that blowing up most of New York is a pretty traumatic event even if Everybody Except the Architecture was mostly saved by a group of Kinda Scary People even if one of them is really Perfectly Chiseled.
Two problems, though: one, what with introducing all of the new characters and S.H.I.E.L.D. and catching us up and hinting at Dire Things and allowing all of the geeks to shout SHEPHERD BOOK AND GUNN ARE BACK and on the same show together, the main storyline felt incredibly rushed and unearned -- not the fault of the actors, but the fault of the timeline. Hopefully, now that the intros and info dumping are sorta over, the show can avoid that.
The real long term problem, however, is with two of the leads: Grant Ward (played by Brett Dalton), who is bland, bland, bland, without a hint of quirkiness or gloom or nobility or anything, really, to make him interesting, and Skye (Chloe Bennett) who is quirky and irritating. The show wants us to think they have instant UST and thus DRAMA but it's just not there.
It's a pilot, so we'll see, and it has a flying car, so I'll tune in again, and hope that either we spend less time with Ward and Skye, or they get more interesting, or both.
Two problems, though: one, what with introducing all of the new characters and S.H.I.E.L.D. and catching us up and hinting at Dire Things and allowing all of the geeks to shout SHEPHERD BOOK AND GUNN ARE BACK and on the same show together, the main storyline felt incredibly rushed and unearned -- not the fault of the actors, but the fault of the timeline. Hopefully, now that the intros and info dumping are sorta over, the show can avoid that.
The real long term problem, however, is with two of the leads: Grant Ward (played by Brett Dalton), who is bland, bland, bland, without a hint of quirkiness or gloom or nobility or anything, really, to make him interesting, and Skye (Chloe Bennett) who is quirky and irritating. The show wants us to think they have instant UST and thus DRAMA but it's just not there.
It's a pilot, so we'll see, and it has a flying car, so I'll tune in again, and hope that either we spend less time with Ward and Skye, or they get more interesting, or both.