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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D - Hope springs eternal, we're all Tantalus here


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Looks like things might be turning around:

"Agents of SHIELD" EP Says Upcoming Episodes are "More in the Marvel Direction"

A common thing people seem to want from the show is more characters from the comics incorporated, and more tie-ins with the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- we've seen some of both, but going forward to the next crop of episodes, would you say viewers can expect more of that stuff? Around the same amount?

I would say, in general, I think fans will experience the episodes as being a bit more "Marvel." I mean that on several levels. I think we're always looking to find characters either from the Marvel movie universe or the comic universe that fans would recognize. I think bringing the tension and suspense of the movies is something that we're looking to do as our characters become more confident.

The other thing that seems to be happening, just based on the fact that what felt like standalone were in fact for us setting up a lot of different pieces of the puzzle, I think you're going to feel more momentum from the stories, episode to episode. Occasional cliffhangers, which I feel are more like a Marvel Comic ending than, "it's all neatly tied up in a bow." So I think on a few levels, fans will feel it's moving a bit more in the Marvel direction.

And there will be more hints towards the Coulson mystery coming up, as well?

Yeah. We'll be turning over cards for that in the next few. I'll be curious to hear people's responses to where we're going with that, because everybody has an opinion!

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I actually thought it was good.



The twist at the end with Coulson caught me off guard.



Beyond that:



The May-Skye antagonism makes more sense now that I can see why May switched up how she acts toward Skye.



Good use of past episodes.



Whether or not the Clairvoyant is actually psychic allows us to make sense of why there was such skepticism relating to people with mental powers in prior episodes.



Didn't feel like there was any glaring stupidity this time around.



Hope Simmons gets some dark chocolate, though things don't look too good at the moment.


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They were laying it on so thick with Mike and his son that I thought even this show couldn't possibly play that straight, but it looks like that's exactly what they did. Can't decide if that's funny or disappointing.



Other than that this almost felt like a minor reboot. With all the callbacks and explanations of who everyone is, this is basically the episode people who gave up early on could jump back in with. Or maybe that's just a function of there finally being something of an overarching plot.


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I enjoyed it. Anyone know why there was a two week gap?



May seemed pointlessly hostile in this episode.



Mike's outfit was terrible, that they kept saying how cool it looked was the thing I had the most trouble accepting.



Also Mike asks if he beat Caps time at pushing the bulldozer, and is told he's no where near. I get Cap is strong, but he's not that strong. According to the wiki Captain A can bench press 1,200lb, that bulldozer must weigh at least 25 times that much, possibly much, much more. It seems like way too much.


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Of the possible nitpicks in the episode you decide on questionable fashion sense and the question of how much Steve Rogers can bench press? Talk about making way too much effort.:P



How about SHIELD agreeing to swap one of their most valuable human assets for a little kid? Or superspy Ward (best marks since Romanoff!) setting up in a place where he can't see the location the exchange is supposed to take place? Or that, after they'd decided that involving more personell would be too risky, they hadn't even bothered with sattelite support? I know they had that tracer gimmick, but surely SHIELD is aware of the value of redundancy?


Though maybe SHIELD is simply not as competent as one would assume. Superspy May apparently doesn't grasp the meaning of the words "strategy" and "tactics", declaring prison-escapee an "expert in tactical strategy" (or was it strategic tactics?).



We could also wonder about Coulson being puzzled by the concept that there is "a whole course on women" being taught at that college where convenient plot device sister is a student. Admittedly that's taken slightly out of context, but considering that every female character in the episode is either bitchy, whiny or swooning over a guy possibly not that unfair.



But yeah, by the standards of this show this wasn't terrible. Even if the cliffhanger for the Christmas break is apparently "maybe next time you'll finally learn something new about how Coulson survived, instead of just getting hit over the head with 'hints' that there was something fishy about that". The writers seem to think that this is and Skye's parentage are compelling mysteries, but really how outrageous could the answers possibly be?


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Of the possible nitpicks in the episode you decide on questionable fashion sense and the question of how much Steve Rogers can bench press? Talk about making way too much effort. :P

Well I like to take the road less travelled. I agree with most of the ones you said, but you have things like lack of SHIELD personnel, the exchange, and Wards bad positioning to help the plot work. So I let some of those things slide. :P

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Of the possible nitpicks in the episode you decide on questionable fashion sense and the question of how much Steve Rogers can bench press? Talk about making way too much effort. :P

How about SHIELD agreeing to swap one of their most valuable human assets for a little kid? Or superspy Ward (best marks since Romanoff!) setting up in a place where he can't see the location the exchange is supposed to take place? Or that, after they'd decided that involving more personell would be too risky, they hadn't even bothered with sattelite support? I know they had that tracer gimmick, but surely SHIELD is aware of the value of redundancy?

Though maybe SHIELD is simply not as competent as one would assume. Superspy May apparently doesn't grasp the meaning of the words "strategy" and "tactics", declaring prison-escapee an "expert in tactical strategy" (or was it strategic tactics?).

We could also wonder about Coulson being puzzled by the concept that there is "a whole course on women" being taught at that college where convenient plot device sister is a student. Admittedly that's taken slightly out of context, but considering that every female character in the episode is either bitchy, whiny or swooning over a guy possibly not that unfair.

But yeah, by the standards of this show this wasn't terrible. Even if the cliffhanger for the Christmas break is apparently "maybe next time you'll finally learn something new about how Coulson survived, instead of just getting hit over the head with 'hints' that there was something fishy about that". The writers seem to think that this is and Skye's parentage are compelling mysteries, but really how outrageous could the answers possibly be?

All these things bothered me too but most especially that Ward took up a position where he couldn't see the exchange and then decided to just chill there instead of moving to a better position. So dumb. The competence this team exhibits is terrible yet we keep getting told how amazing they are.

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I watched through the scene where May walked in on Skye researching her parents, then fell asleep (I had been up since 3am). I then woke up to find Coulson captured with a promise to find out his death.



I guess I didn't miss any thing. :)


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So Centipede is actually AIM, right? Or HYDRA? That's where we're going.

I thought I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a rather large Hydra emblem during the promo for the show's return.

It was, by the standards they've established, a good episode and ending on something other than a neatly packages wrap up, they might just be going somewhere now.

They're victims of their own earlier fallacies though.

One item that's been bugging me, Thor exists, but mental powers are something to have heavy skepticism about? Then I thought about it and realized all powers, excepting Thor, in the universe created so fat have been technological in one way or another. Maybe the universe jumping guy last week...

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That linked article is a little encouraging. I still think they need new showrunners. There were some terrible faults in that episode as noted above but it did move things forward for once.



So the Avengers don't know that Coulson is alive. I can see where this would cause some trust issues and they aren't too trusting with SHIELD the way things stand. Not to mention Pepper Potts. Don't piss Pepper off. Just don't.


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Also Mike asks if he beat Caps time at pushing the bulldozer, and is told he's no where near. I get Cap is strong, but he's not that strong. According to the wiki Captain A can bench press 1,200lb, that bulldozer must weigh at least 25 times that much, possibly much, much more. It seems like way too much.

Considering there are real-life people doing airplane pulls, this is the one part of the show I have zero problems with.

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Well I like to take the road less travelled. I agree with most of the ones you said, but you have things like lack of SHIELD personnel, the exchange, and Wards bad positioning to help the plot work. So I let some of those things slide. :P

Yeah, I guess there was a lot of glaring stupidity after all but it felt like there was enough positive to make me ignore most of it.

I also thought Mike's son was in a secure location and that a mole had revealed this. But apparently the kid was with Mike's sister and no one thought Centipede would note Mike's survival and try to take the kid hostage?

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So at no point between the Scorch thing and this episode did anyone at SHIELD decide it was a good idea to ask Mike how he'd been recruited and whether this linked up with the account of the only other recruit they'd got their hands on? They're a really shit spy organisation, aren't they?


Also they're up against an enemy that's technologically over-developed and they're worried - an enemy with access to Extremis, no less - yet they haven't even mentioned Tony Stark. I get that they can't afford to actually use him, but at least acknowledge the issue in some way, ffs.

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So at no point between the Scorch thing and this episode did anyone at SHIELD decide it was a good idea to ask Mike how he'd been recruited and whether this linked up with the account of the only other recruit they'd got their hands on? They're a really shit spy organisation, aren't they?

Also they're up against an enemy that's technologically over-developed and they're worried - an enemy with access to Extremis, no less - yet they haven't even mentioned Tony Stark. I get that they can't afford to actually use him, but at least acknowledge the issue in some way, ffs.

Plot holes, not plot holes...you raise a point. Captain America and Thor get mentioned a lot. Hawkeye and Black Widow have gotten shout outs. Hulk? Not really that I can recall. Iron Man? Nothing, though didn't he get seen flying in the very opening seconds of the pilot. American Television Viewers, by and large, are not always the sharpest knives in the drawers, but mentioning Tony Stark w/o showing him? That's not going to confuse them.

Just an aside, a couple episodes ago, the one with the guy jumping dimensions, there was a Roxxon sighting with the gas station that blew up...maybe they'll be hehind Centipede and not Hydra? Do a riff on the "evils of big oil"... :p

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