Yeah, yeah, you caught me. Time to (munch) eat my words (munch). At least my thread title had proper spelling and capitalization.
Timeslot of D.E.A.T.H., opposite N.C.I.S.
You know, tbqh, while I’m happpy SHIELD is go and the Marvel Universe is conquering the world, if we’re only allowed one superheroish thing on telly at any one time, and if I’d had my druthers, I’d’ve rather had another season of Alphas too. I really liked that ensemble.
Hey ho, I’m sure this will be great.
Hell, I still miss Heroes, in spite of its missteps.
First episode was okay but not really great. I didn’t like how it started or ended, but the most of the middle was decent. At times, it seems like they’re trying a little hard, and others the tech, for one way or another, really gets in the way (the little helicopters and Coulson’s car are kinda dumb and the latter just looked amateurish). There’s the genuinely funny stuff that’s Whedon traditional, and it does ably pick up right where The Avengers and Iron Man 3 end. And I didn’t like Bear McCreary’s soundtrack at all. Oh, and uh… SHIELD ought to be using something a little more beefy than RSA data encryption (mentioned by name).
— Alan
The car? That’s the moment that made me the happiest (beyond my usual whine that it isn’t a Porsche 904).
But yeah, okay, not really great. Tried a little too hard, went for the comedy relief a little too strongly.
Oh. And how comic-book fantasy is it when a car is parked on a dirt road and there’s not a speck of dust on it. Perfect. Concours d’elegance ready. Coulson must love that car. ;-)
Edit in: Looks down a few posts at Jag’s gif. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about! I waited almost 50 years to see that. Childhood fantasies do come true sometimes (but a Porsche 904, dammit!).
I liked almost everything about the show with the notable exception of everything about the “villain” of the episode. The writing for him was rubbish, particularly the way long speechifying at the climax. Holy crap was that awful, not to mention boring. If they’re doing that sort of stuff every week this will be tough to watch. Otherwise the show has lots going for it. The two science nerds are funny and charming, Clark Gregg is good, and Ming-Na offers potential for badassery. I like that they made it funny, too. There are far too many procedurals on television that lack a sense of humor. A show like this needs it to stay interesting over the long haul.
I thought this was pretty terrible, but I’ll give it another shot next week. The corvette would be worth more if it was all original.
Thought the pilot was decent, but only because it didn’t last very long. Over a season this crime-drama/super-powers mash-up is going to get old really quick, no matter how hot Chloe Bennet is. I’ll give it a few episodes to see what kinds of twists they throw at it.
Your post is really confusing to me because I like cornbread but I hate these words in that order about this show.
One thing I found pretty annoying was Coulson’s little: “Don’t ever tell me it’s impossible. It’s on you.” speech. It’s piss-poor leadership to just yell at the tech people when you don’t like the available options and just assume a kick in the pants will generate a last-second miracle.
He might as well have just said “Hey guys, you know we’re on a TV show right? The plot demands that we come up with a last-second solution that doesn’t have any downsides, so just act like you’re under pressure for a bit and everything will be fine.”
Saw it, enjoyed it, although the criticisms upthread are valid. In particular, there was too much comic relief and not enough that needed relieving. Was good to see Ron Glass and J. August Richards, though, and the “what happened to Coulson?” question was largely answered by Glass’s comments and the way he dodged the van door.
T-1000 agent also mentioned going to Tahiti. It’ll be interesting to see how they play that out.
I was disappointed to see that Richards’s character was just hyped up on Extremis. I know they want to leverage off of the movies, but I would have thought they’d go for something a bit more original there for the pilot. It made it feel like this team was the B team dealing with the leftover fallout, something that I thought they didn’t want it to look like.
Didn’t care for it much but I guess I shouldn’t have expected to on some level. I don’t dig the Avengers universe, but I thought The Avengers movie was surprisingly decent overall. I think I like Joss Whedon, but I’m starting to realize I might just like Joss Whedeon the one time he really struck gold for me with Firefly.
Pilots are tricky and usually clumsy, so I don’t mind giving SHIELD one or two more episodes, but given how the pilot was trying waaaay too hard sometimes, my fear is that there’s Joss Whedon, and then there’s Joss Whedon’s brother and sister-in-law trying to emulate Joss Whedon. I also think I might be a little tired of the Whedon Group Dynamic Blueprint.
edit: Also, like a lot of Whedon stuff, a decent chunk of the actors are not very good. Luckily he didn’t get a lot of choice with The Avengers (but still managed to get a Cobie Smulders in there).
doesn’t really help that every character except coulson seems like a douchebag. A ludicrous, implausible douchebag.
I wish this was a similar show not in the Marvel universe. Just don’t care for it. Also kinda agree that Coulson seems to be the only non dick.
I attributed all the characters except Coulson being intolerable as a result of the pilot showing the team forming. At least I hope so.
Like others, I was meh but will give it a few more episodes.
Corsair, the reason they could not use a 904 is probably 99% of the audience would not know what a 904 is. Sadly.
I imagine the cost would be horrific to acquire one. The production run was basically the absolute minimum to qualify itself as a production car for racing (about one hundred as I recall it). Not to mention it kind of follows the Archer theory of being a spy: “What good is it if you are an internationally famous spy and can’t tell anyone?” I mean, a car more exclusive and high profile than an Aston-Martin? Talk about drawing attention to oneself.
Which doesn’t stop me from complaining, but I knew it wasn’t going to happen from the word go.
Coulson is the guy carrying the opening. All the young actors don’t quite know how to act yet (they know how to look good, but that’s about it).
This first episode was an odd duck to me and that scene was a prime example of why. This guy’s style is comical but encouraging, then he suddenly snaps on them, what the hell? That kind of thing really doesn’t fit into the rest of it.
Which is also the problem I had with their first mission. That ‘superhero’ was too depressing. That back story they gave him ultimately served no purpose other than to kill as much joy as possible.
Also other little things make no sense. How can they NOT know exactly where her van is at every moment? They just left it alone, didn’t bug it or otherwise use high tech surveillance gadgets on it? Isn’t that the core of what they do?
The pluses are that it’s fast paced and damn there are some good looking women on that show. Not since the days of Twin Peaks have I seen such an assemblage of tv eye candy.