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

[Sci-2]

To be fair: they didn't pick her up at random from the street, she had been targetting SHIELD and put herself in their crosshairs through that.

Though it is a bit disgusting to watch all her supposed interest in privacy of the citizen vanish now that she's got SHIELD to give her what she's really after.

Skye's backstory as a techno-path (as hinted strongly in the pilot) isn't that interesting to me as her convictions are now limited to kissing Coulson's ass, hoping for May's approval, and maybe getting a chance to fuck Ward.

I'm not even 100% sure where I stand on the NSA, but the cheerleading of this show is bizarre.

[Jon AS]

Though it is a bit disgusting to watch all her supposed interest in privacy of the citizen vanish now that she's got SHIELD to give her what she's really after.

Skye's backstory as a techno-path (as hinted strongly in the pilot) isn't that interesting to me as her convictions are now limited to kissing Coulson's ass, hoping for May's approval, and maybe getting a chance to fuck Ward.

I'm not even 100% sure where I stand on the NSA, but the cheerleading of this show is bizarre.

Yeah, I saw the same potential in the character originally. But clearly the writers never, ever intended to go that way. Which is weird since the next Captain America film seems to do exactly that. But on this show SHIELD is always right and always acting to protect people, even when nobody working at the organisation is even aware of it.

[red snow]

I just want Deathlock to turn up again. Pretty sure he'll be back in a couple of episodes though.

Is the Clairvoyant even human? It could just be some form of AI predicting things based on probabilities like in Person of interest. Whatever it is, it'll either be an AI that only technomage Skye can take down or it's one of her parents (that only she can take down).

I thought it was nice to see a villain wanting his own evil weather machine. That's old school.

Coulson is becoming ever more dull with his good guy routine and lack of effort in working out what happened to him despite agomising over it for 5 mins every episode.

I also like how the "top secret" SHIELD organisation can be applied to through various disciplines.

Hey! At least Clark Gregg is an optimist...

You'd hope they'd at least address the difference between TV SHIELD and film SHIELD. It looks like they'll feature a lot in the Captain America film. I wonder whether we'll get a cameo from Coulson?

[denstorebog]

That being said, what a HUGE monumental coincidence that they stumble on to her and she happens to have been protected by SHIELD as a 084.

You want a coincidence? What about Skye looking at the SHIELD memorial wall and deciding, for no reason, to read aloud a random name from it, and that name being Bucky Barnes. For the sake of those who don't know why that's a 'funny coincidence' at this point in time, I won't say more, but that was pretty hamfisted.

[Jerol]

I just want Deathlock to turn up again. Pretty sure he'll be back in a couple of episodes though.

Is the Clairvoyant even human? It could just be some form of AI predicting things based on probabilities like in Person of interest. Whatever it is, it'll either be an AI that only technomage Skye can take down or it's one of her parents (that only she can take down).

I thought it was nice to see a villain wanting his own evil weather machine. That's old school.

Coulson is becoming ever more dull with his good guy routine and lack of effort in working out what happened to him despite agomising over it for 5 mins every episode.

I also like how the "top secret" SHIELD organisation can be applied to through various disciplines.

You'd hope they'd at least address the difference between TV SHIELD and film SHIELD. It looks like they'll feature a lot in the Captain America film. I wonder whether we'll get a cameo from Coulson?

If Coulson does appear in the new Captain America it raises the question, were the Avengers ever told of Coulson's resurrection? I'd hate to be the one to break that to the guy with anger management issues.

[Sci-2]

If Coulson does appear in the new Captain America it raises the question, were the Avengers ever told of Coulson's resurrection? I'd hate to be the one to break that to the guy with anger management issues.

In the pilot he stops Michael Richards from destroying a public train station in the daytime, so it would be weird if they didn't. That said, it is odd that the Avengers coming to visit him (or not) hasn't been brought up.

But then the show often makes it feel like SHIELD is less equipped than the Fringe Division...

[lupis42]

Though it is a bit disgusting to watch all her supposed interest in privacy of the citizen vanish now that she's got SHIELD to give her what she's really after.

...

I'm not even 100% sure where I stand on the NSA, but the cheerleading of this show is bizarre.

Yeah, I saw the same potential in the character originally. But clearly the writers never, ever intended to go that way. Which is weird since the next Captain America film seems to do exactly that. But on this show SHIELD is always right and always acting to protect people, even when nobody working at the organisation is even aware of it.

I've been assuming that a big part of the arc of this season is Coulson &co's drifting apart from SHIELD as SHIELD gets ever more dark/suspicious/evil. The agents on a private jet, answerable only to Coulson, insulated from the huge organization are meant to be our window into it's corruption.

[Winterfell is Burning]

Just when I was ready to quit this show, they managed a good episode. Everyone except Agent Robot had some development.

[Jon AS]

I've been assuming that a big part of the arc of this season is Coulson &co's drifting apart from SHIELD as SHIELD gets ever more dark/suspicious/evil. The agents on a private jet, answerable only to Coulson, insulated from the huge organization are meant to be our window into it's corruption.

Only that's not what's happening. Instead we've seen Skye abandon her alleged principles and Coulson question SHIELD for 5 seconds before having an epiphany about how awesome they are.

[red snow]

You want a coincidence? What about Skye looking at the SHIELD memorial wall and deciding, for no reason, to read aloud a random name from it, and that name being Bucky Barnes. For the sake of those who don't know why that's a 'funny coincidence' at this point in time, I won't say more, but that was pretty hamfisted.

I actually didn't notice that but it's a bit of a coincidence despite being a fun easter egg.

I hope Skye isn't a child of agent Carter.

[Jon AS]

Why is Barnes even on that wall, anyway? He was a soldier, not a SHIELD agent. And if he counts, shouldn't the star right next to his read "Steve Rogers", which would be way more interesting to anyone taking a casual look at the thing?

I hope Skye isn't a child of agent Carter.

I don't think "unknown origin" in this case is going to be something quite as pedestrian as "we just don't know who her parents are".

[red snow]

Why is Barnes even on that wall, anyway? He was a soldier, not a SHIELD agent. And if he counts, shouldn't the star right next to his read "Steve Rogers", which would be way more interesting to anyone taking a casual look at the thing?

I don't think "unknown origin" in this case is going to be something quite as pedestrian as "we just don't know who her parents are".

Well there should be a gap where Steve's star was :)

[lupis42]

Only that's not what's happening. Instead we've seen Skye abandon her alleged principles and Coulson question SHIELD for 5 seconds before having an epiphany about how awesome they are.

We're also less than halfway into the season, and they've managed to accomplish about 3 episodes worth of character development in that time, and about the same amount of worldbuilding.

What we've seen and heard from Agent Hand suggests a fairly ruthless and pragmatic agency, which could very plausibly go south quite quickly, and where the wrong director could do a lot of damage really fast.

That's not to say they'll pull it off, of course, but it would have a certain elegance if the season ends with Skye having been converted to the side of big brother as Coulson and the rest of team decide that they've had enough and break away.

[Jon AS]

Well there should be a gap where Steve's star was :)

Provided someone bothered to take care of that. SHIELD hasn't been the most detail oriented on this show.;)

Of course they could have brought Rogers' star up in some way to maybe fit their Winter Soldier plug into the episode slightly less hamfistedly. Have the camera linger on the spot where the star is/was while making sure that "Barnes" is clearly readable or something.

If they'd wanted to tie the episode's storylines together more they could then even have connected that to the crewmember who was recently pulled off of that wall himself, figuratively speaking.

We're also less than halfway into the season, and they've managed to accomplish about 3 episodes worth of character development in that time, and about the same amount of worldbuilding.

Actually we're at episode 12 out of 22. It may feel like less because there's been so little of substance delivered in those twelve episodes.

What we've seen and heard from Agent Hand suggests a fairly ruthless and pragmatic agency, which could very plausibly go south quite quickly, and where the wrong director could do a lot of damage really fast.

What we've seen of Hand suggests an agency that is incapable of pulling off an extraction plan as simple as "fly there, pick our guys up" and has never heard of this thing called "money". Really, you'd expect this organisation to constantly be on the verge of collapse.

[Mexal]

What we've seen of Hand suggests an agency that is incapable of pulling off an extraction plan as simple as "fly there, pick our guys up" and has never heard of this thing called "money". Really, you'd expect this organisation to constantly be on the verge of collapse.

The incompetence of characters that we're told are super competent is one of biggest issues with this show.

[SpaceChampion]

I'd hope Skye is something totally unexpected, like a She-Hulk.

[Myrddin]

She's actually a mutant who can shoot fireworks out of her finger tips. Jubilee!

Oh, wait. Fox has the rights to the X-Men....

[lupis42]

Actually we're at episode 12 out of 22. It may feel like less because there's been so little of substance delivered in those twelve episodes.

Only 22? I thought they were getting the full 25. Either would leave plenty of time, should they get their act together.

What we've seen of Hand suggests an agency that is incapable of pulling off an extraction plan as simple as "fly there, pick our guys up" and has never heard of this thing called "money". Really, you'd expect this organisation to constantly be on the verge of collapse.

The show suffers heavily from both http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConservationOfCompetence - in any given episode, only a small subset of characters are allowed to advance the plot, lest the plot run out.

[Jon AS]

Only 22? I thought they were getting the full 25. Either would leave plenty of time, should they get their act together.

I took that number from Wikipedia. That's usually the kind of thing one can rely on the hivemind getting right.

The show suffers heavily from both http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConservationOfCompetence - in any given episode, only a small subset of characters are allowed to advance the plot, lest the plot run out.

Yeah, helped by, as Mexal points out, plenty of Informed Ability.;)

[polishgenius]

The Skye reveal was actually pretty good, much better than I was expecting.

Everything else about the episode however was just farcical. I'm -><- this close to just dropping it till the last few episodes where I can find out who the Clairvoyant (another good piece of mythos-building, to be fair) is and hopefully the Coulsen and Skye plots come to a head too.


Trailer for the

- suggests that

someone is going to die. I hope it's Ward...