Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Part Deux

[DaveSumm]

In the UK, and I guess a lot of the rest of the world, this idea of certain networks producing certain types of shows is very alien to us. I get the feeling a lot of US viewers go in with expectations about shows based on the network, like Arrow is good *for a CW show* and the impossibly pretty people and emotional drama don't factor as that's to be expected of a CW show. I suspect AoS is probably good for an ABC show and it gets forgiven certain ABC-like traits. The rest of us really had no way of judging what kind of show it would be, so the pilot was all the more disappointing. Here, there's nothing to distinguish between channels, they're all capable of different tones and different qualities (except when they align themselves with particular networks, like Sky Atlantic and HBO).

There are plenty of worse shows, but I just can't seem to find a core substance that excites me about it. It's as if it's made up entirely of tertiary characters and I'm waiting for the real cast to show up, there's no central relationship I can rally around. What are we hoping for next week? What eventuality are we rooting for? I don't even know, I just don't care enough about any of them.

[Jon AS]

There are plenty of worse shows, but I just can't seem to find a core substance that excites me about it. It's as if it's made up entirely of tertiary characters and I'm waiting for the real cast to show up, there's no central relationship I can rally around. What are we hoping for next week? What eventuality are we rooting for? I don't even know, I just don't care enough about any of them.

This is definitely the show's biggest weakness. They could easily replace the entire cast and I wouldn't care. Or more accurately I would probably hope that I'd care more about the new people than I did the old ones.

It might be down to the fact that the show seems to have been created around the assumption that everybody loves Coulson unconditionally and therefore the audience would take its cues from him: if Coulson cares about a character, so would we.

[The BlackBear]

KREE!

Glad Mack is getting to unleash his formidable size. I thought he was wasted as a mechanic, so him getting called into the field, and unhesitatingly knocking Hunter out was cool.

Overall though not too much really happened I don't feel. But Skyes 'gift' is now out in the open which is good.

Preview for next week: Hyde and the SUPERVILLAINS!

Which is all well and good but it looks like Raina and Skye mentor man who's meant to be on his way is probably not coming next week.

Additions:

Oh and I think it's worth pointing out we'll have four episodes after Avengers 2 is released.

Ward and 33 are back in the episode after next weeks.

[DaveSumm]

So, help me out here: is Inhumans a term that can be applied to various types of super people, or are all of them one-time Kree army potentials? Can we assume the 40's dig by HYDRA mentioned in this episode led to them finding the diviners, giving one to Baron von whatsits for experimentation, and him producing Quicksilver and SW? Would they have had to go to the temple, or did HYDRA find a way round that? All this is already a pretty big tie in to A:AoU assuming they give those two even a small explanation (I doubt they'll just assume people watched the post credits of CA:WS).

[The BlackBear]

So, help me out here: is Inhumans a term that can be applied to various types of super people, or are all of them one-time Kree army potentials? Can we assume the 40's dig by HYDRA mentioned in this episode led to them finding the diviners, giving one to Baron von whatsits for experimentation, and him producing Quicksilver and SW? Would they have had to go to the temple, or did HYDRA find a way round that? All this is already a pretty big tie in to A:AoU assuming they give those two even a small explanation (I doubt they'll just assume people watched the post credits of CA:WS).

Inhumans are only the supers who are the products of terragenesis (caused by terragin mists, from the crystals inside the diviners.) The dig has to be where Whitehalls one came from, Baron Strucker might have one, or he might have captured the twins by himself. I prefer to think HYDRA only ever had the one Diviner that Whitehall dug up, or why would Whitehall not know what to do with it, or it be so important he gets that particular one. We know the blind fellow had one, and he was talking on the phone to someone who also had one, so that's three accounted for. I'd like to know if the diviners are reuseable, they'd have to be if we're going to get a decent number of Inhumans for their movie. Maybe the one we saw would have resealed, but trip knocked it off the pedestal destroying it? :dunno:

It's already removed from the comics, where the mist is released when the crystals are exposed to water.

I feel there must be more than one temple, as the eyeless guy was transformed then taken to china (I assume given Skyes mum was there, and going by the decor.) That's a bit of a trek, considering this is in the 80's as well. And why did the Kree only notice this recent occurance and not any of the previous ones?

As far as tie ins go it'll be interesting to see. If you hadn't seen Cap 1 going into the Avengers you wouldn't really know much about the Tesseract, but they still made it work.

[Jaxom 1974]

I was actually glad to see they didn't drag out the Fitz helping Skye hide the powers.

I wad disappointed in this group of people. They've seen pets. They work with Asgardians. They exist with Captain America and the Hulk. But suddenly powers are a bad thing?

[The Mance]

I wad disappointed in this group of people. They've seen pets. They work with Asgardians. They exist with Captain America and the Hulk. But suddenly powers are a bad thing?

Is Skye's gift actually a usable power, though? It sounded more like she'd been weaponized with a dangerous uncontrolable condition.

[The BlackBear]

Is Skye's gift actually a usable power, though? It sounded more like she'd been weaponized with a dangerous uncontrolable condition.

If she is similar to comic-book Quake, she pretty much is. Earthquakes are a little hard to aim.

[The Mance]

If she is similar to comic-book Quake, she pretty much is. Earthquakes are a little hard to aim.

Yeah, that's rough. :lol:

[Jaxom 1974]

Is Skye's gift actually a usable power, though? It sounded more like she'd been weaponized with a dangerous uncontrolable condition.

Quake is a character that came about after I stopped reading comics in any way regularly.

However, my point is that with all they've seen and all they know, the first reaction to Skye's new powers is that she's a virus that needs to be eradicated. Where's the sympathetic ear? The general curiosity of what has happened?

[The Mance]

Quake is a character that came about after I stopped reading comics in any way regularly.

However, my point is that with all they've seen and all they know, the first reaction to Skye's new powers is that she's a virus that needs to be eradicated. Where's the sympathetic ear? The general curiosity of what has happened?

I never really followed the Avengers, so I'm sure you know the lore better than I do. I do agree that Simmon's whole virus freakout was out of character, but once Lady Sif and the blue dude figured out what was actually up Skye they were pretty clear that it was a Very Bad Thing ®

[RumHam]

It was nice of Loki to send Sif to protect earth from that Kree guy.

[The BlackBear]

I'm still not fully on board with Loki having got rid of Odin. I think he just impersonated Odin for that one scene. I could be wrong, but Loki killing or at least incapacitaing and hiding Odin, seems like too much of a deal to have off screen.

[RumHam]

I'm still not fully on board with Loki having got rid of Odin. I think he just impersonated Odin for that one scene. I could be wrong, but Loki killing or at least incapacitaing and hiding Odin, seems like too much of a deal to have off screen.

I'm pretty sure Loki is still impersonating Odin. They had to have it happen off screen to preserve the reveal at the end. Here's something from an interview Helmsworth did while filming Age of Ultron that seems relevant:

Given Thor: The Dark World ended with Loki on the throne of Asgard, and Thor evidently doesn't know about it, Hemsworth was then asked does the God of Thunder still has a connection to the otherworldly realm. "Up until kind of the third act or sort of halfway through Age of Ultron he begins to have suspicions about what’s going on here or what this bigger picture is here and who’s involved," reveals the actor. "He doesn’t know by the end of it but he starts to think something’s not right here. This is all a little too convenient why this has happened, which certainly points his focus back there [to Asgard]."

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/MarvelFreshman/news/?a=115946

[Bastard of Boston]

I don't think Loki sending Sif to help Earth is much of a hole. If you're impersonating someone, you need to actually convince people that you are that person. If you impersonate Odin, and suddenly doing the opposite of everything Odin would do, people will start to wonder. The best lies have elements of truth...that's when they're harder to figure out. Sending Sif to Earth to investigate some random Kree appearance also gets Sif out of Asgard -- less people watching him. I can see Loki sending the Warriors Three and Sif on all types of random missions, off world.

Guess who is coming back in a few episodes?

Lucy Lawless. I suppose it could be a flashback, adding background to whatever is going on with Bobbi and Mack, but it never felt legit to me that she was even dead. One random appearance and death seems beneath her.

[The BlackBear]

Also if Loki is running the long game he'd want folk around with reason to dislike the Asgardians, the Kree fellow and Lorelei from S1.

[Martini Sigil]

I hated Skye when the show first started... hell, she was just the worst character in a bland cast.... I don 't know if this was their plan all along, or if it was a course correction, but regardless, the Hydra and ensuing Inhuman storylines have turned this show around

[The BlackBear]

I hated Skye when the show first started... hell, she was just the worst character in a bland cast.... I don 't know if this was their plan all along, or if it was a course correction, but regardless, the Hydra and ensuing Inhuman storylines have turned this show around

The worst thing about Skye were the teams insistence she was special without actually showing it. Barely an episode went by without Coulson lauding her. They've actually let her do awesome stuff now, rather than just expecting us to agree with them. I'm pretty sure it wasn't their plan all along, but they certainly took note of the criticism, especially when they slipped in the joke about her birth name being Mary Sue.

[RumHam]

I don't think Loki sending Sif to help Earth is much of a hole. If you're impersonating someone, you need to actually convince people that you are that person. If you impersonate Odin, and suddenly doing the opposite of everything Odin would do, people will start to wonder. The best lies have elements of truth...that's when they're harder to figure out. Sending Sif to Earth to investigate some random Kree appearance also gets Sif out of Asgard -- less people watching him. I can see Loki sending the Warriors Three and Sif on all types of random missions, off world.

Guess who is coming back in a few episodes?

Lucy Lawless. I suppose it could be a flashback, adding background to whatever is going on with Bobbi and Mack, but it never felt legit to me that she was even dead. One random appearance and death seems beneath her.

I don't think it's a plot hole either. Just something I didn't realize until after the episode aired. He also must have sent her for that other Asgardian who could control men.

[denstorebog]

Another piss poor episode. It's like they're just rushing from scene to scene and having the characters say convoluted stuff in order to get the plot to some obscure point that's just bogged down in double and triple agendas and implausible motivations.

I'm a complete MCU geek, but everything about this show feels utterly fake The acting feels fake, the action feels fake and the drama feel ridiculously fake, with character motivations appearing and disappearing whenever it's convenient.

Any sense that the show was improving has dissipated; we're back to square one. Agent Carter showed us how to tell a meaningful story through a TV series within the MCU. This show is trash.