But his style is also “don’t think you’re less than the supers just because you’re normal”. Admittedly, the whole Tahiti thing might throw it off later, but for now, the team is decidedly “normal people can do extraordinary things.” To me, it’s less him snapping at them than him telling them that the new world he mentions is one where the impossible is possible.
Just read an article that mentioned this is slotted at the same time as NCIS and NCIS:Los Angeles? Thats pretty ballsy, but probably also pretty stupid. The article mentioned CBS dominated the evening again with those two shows, which it probably will continue with. I’ve never understood decisisions like this - its like the old “Put your strongest horse against their middle horse” old riddle and tv stations often seem to not understand how to do just that.
Well, SHIELD got a huge number for the 18-34 demo and I’m sure that’s all ABC cares about. The senior citizens can watch as much NCIS as they like. Actually, it’s pretty good counter programming. Blacklist, Hostages and Castle all going against each other, now that’s cannibalizing your audience.
Is there a place to see all these numbers? I read the article on my phone so didn’t see any links to anything.
I’m just going off this news story: http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/28811/-s-h-i-e-l-d-proves-a-ratings-hit
So this is really isn’t full on Whedon show – he wrote the pilot, created the show, but he’s just an executive producer and is focused on his cinema stuff. He’s not writing the other episodes or anything.
This isn’t like Firefly where he had his hands in every single ep, both as writer and director in more than one.
Coulson goes off on Fitz-Simmons I think because when someone mentions that something is impossible to him, it sets off a nerve–possibly related to his perception of his recovery, which might have also been deemed impossible. Or maybe the fact that he’s seen way too many impossible things.
As for the women, sure, eye candy. Ming-na though is showing her age; not to mention the fact that she practically sleptwalk through the entire episode and looked completely bored and disinterested. Practically the least interesting person around.
Whedon didn’t write a lot of Firefly episodes either; hell he barely had any real story input on a lot of them.
— Alan
Correct. He’s not show runner on this. His brother Jed and sister in law who co-wrote Dr Horrible are at the helm with Jeph Loeb and Jeffrey Bell also Executive producing, but at various times Joss was less hands on for both Buffy and Angel. Schedule permitting he might come back to write/direct specific episodes, especially if the have big Marvel Film Universe tie-ins they want to do.
Ming-na is starting to become a genre TV casting cliche. And when I heard she had been cast I did think it was strange given her age. I’m not crazy about the casting overall. Seems very bland, very safe, very white-bread. Even Dollhouse had some really fantastic and inspire casting surrounding Dushku. Enver Gjokaj and Dichen Lachman were brilliant finds, for example, and Fran Kranz, Olivia Williams and Harry Lennix all impressed right away. Maybe the Shield cast will grow on me as the show gets a chance to develop people, but I’m fairly skeptical. Maybe the show was too important to ABC and they interfered a lot in the casting process.
I thought Ming-na was playing to the character, who is supposedly not really happy about being on the team (or in the field at all). I assumed that over time the character will roll through that cliche of the reluctant participant that gets drawn into things despite herself.
I generally liked the pilot. There are some definite issues, but overall I liked the concept and setup. The show does enough with the action, but does not take itself way too seriously, which fits in pretty well with the Avengers/Iron Man movies.
Negatives:
The main thing I didn’t care for is Skye. Listening to the first bit of dialog between her and the “hero” in the diner immediately turned me off the character. I thought that was probably the worst performance of the episode. It was annoying and just poorly acted. I spent most of the episode hoping she wouldn’t be a main character. I’m also not sure her character fits well with the rest. Did we really need an outsider/hacker? I find it just a tad unbelievable that she’s constantly able to outsmart SHIELD.
Coulson’s outburst also seemed completely out of character, but I think we can hand wave that a bit until we find out about Tahiti.
“Hero’s” speech at the end. The bullet(?) should have come in 20 seconds earlier. I know they’re trying to make a point and establish some conflict, but it felt way too long.
I love the technicians (Fitz and Simmons), but they need to slow down their dialog a touch. Spoke way too fast in many cases to be understood.
Positives:
Despite my earlier comment about Skye’s character, I really liked the interrogation scene. I don’t mind Ward being so over-the-top if it means he gets taken down a notch every now and then.
I actually liked Ming Na’s character, but I would generally agree she’s not putting a lot into it at this point. I think it’s a good counter to all the other more “active” characters though. I especially liked her interactions with Coulson.
The effects aren’t great, but I think the action scenes are pretty decent considering it’s a pilot for a TV show (the scene with the wall climbing was probably the worst). Will be interesting to see if they can keep it up.
A lot of the little things, like naming the drones after the seven dwarves.
I also liked that they didn’t feel the need to explain everything in the first episode. Good to leave some mystery there.
So I’m in for at least a few more episodes.
I hope it picks up as the story arcs appear. Right now I feel the cast has zero chemistry (yay, another show that wants us to believe that hardened agents with elite training are hired directly from modeling agencies) and the story was just pieced together from Iron Man 3 and parts of the Avenger’s movie without attempting to create anything of their own.
All television shows have good looking casts. The supposedly ugly characters are 5’s and 6’s, the “average” ones are 7’s or 8’s, and the leads and those who are supposed to be hot are all in the 8-10 range. Sure, there’s an occasional exception, but they’re rare.
Yeah. It seems like Agents is Hepcat’s first TV show. Male leads in sitcoms are the only regular exception. Even then, the average joe plumber guy will have a ridiculously hot wife.
I guess that could be it. The thing I don’t like about that though it is comes at the cost of the tech characters. They said it was impossible, he yells at them, it becomes possible. So am I to understand they just didn’t feel like doing it at first, or were lazy? It’s not like he gave them some new ideas to try or other suggestions. So, in fact, they were lying when they said it was impossible.
And it seems like most of you guys only watch shows on CW.
There are shows with some good looking cast members…and then there are shows with ridiculously good looking cast members in every single reoccurring role (Caulson being the only exception).
I think you missed the part where this is a comic book-based show, which makes it even more mandatory that nearly everyone be hot. I think you may be looking for Downton Abby, which is thataway ---->
No, they were mistaken when they said it was impossible. I don’t get why it has to jump to lying. Coulson’s scene is dramatizing leadership. Is that any different than Kirk or Picard ordering that something be done in half the time? It doesn’t happen to that degree in real life, but it isn’t completely different than what bosses do fairly regularly. Of course, in the real world, the underling often doesn’t succeed and gets sacked.
Downton Abbey is a weird counter-point, as we all know British people aren’t really that beautiful either.
I just figured he was distracted while responding to me. I’m guessing by a show on CW. ;)
I think it’s precisely the latter coupled with the “Look, the world we live in just got impossible, and I can either roll over and whimper or man-up, thrust out the bravado, and prove there’s still a place for me.”
That type of “Everyday men and women with extraordinary devotion and access to the state of the art toys going toe-to-toe with gods” attitude is pretty standard for shield, and pretty likely to be a recurring theme. (And, depending on how much influence Whedon has, there should be the inevitable stumbles where people get smacked down for having the hubris to believe such things, although with Marvel behind the property I think it will be less permanent smackdowns than in Buffy or Angel or Serenity.)