Tag Archives: S.H.I.E.L.D.

Instant Reaction: Agents of SHIELD – “Shadows”

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*Update: My full recap of “Shadows” is now live.  Read it here!

Agents of SHIELD is back!  I don’t know about you but I was an energizing mix of excited and nervous for the premiere, full of questions but eager to finally get back into my favorite show.  Would the new season live up to the first?  What’s the status of all of the mysteries left over from last season?  What’s going to happen to Ward?  What happened to Fitz?  How will Skye’s new hairdo look?  We got some glimpses at the answers to these questions along with a whole host of new mysteries for season 2 in tonight’s episode, “Shadows.”

I’m going to be trying something new this season as a result of SHIELD‘s later timeslot and in an effort to maintain a more human sleep schedule.  After a new episode airs I’ll post an “instant reaction” like this one, and in the following day or two I’ll put up my full recap as usual, going into more depth than this quick reaction and covering the entire episode, with my customary S.H.I.E.L.D. thoughts to cap it off.  Please be patient with me, as it will probably take me a little while to find the right balance between the two (and please offer any suggestions you might have on how to improve things).  These quick reactions will be in the form of bullet points, not necessarily in order, and will hit some of the big moments from the episode along with anything that catches my eye.  Some of them will pop up again in my full recap while others will only live here.  Once my full recap is posted, I’ll update this post to include a link to it.  So without further ado, here are my thoughts about “Shadows.”
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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Looking back at season 1 and forward at season 2

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We’re just one week away from the season 2 premiere of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I can’t wait to see what this season has in store.  SHIELD quickly became my favorite show on TV last year, and despite some early struggles the final stretch of episodes were fantastic.  I had fully intended to write an in-depth recap of the first season, going through the major plot points and character progressions, looking at where the show succeeded and where it could use some work, but some unexpected illnesses and a fair amount of travel kept me from doing that.  (I also wanted to rewatch the first season before this one started, but the DVDs were released too late for me to fit it into my schedule.)  But I still wanted to post something before the next season starts, so here’s what you’ll find below: links to all of my recaps of season one, my top moments from the first season, some general thoughts on what I liked about season one and what I’d like to see from season two, and, most importantly, a request for feedback on what you’d like to see from my weekly episode recaps this season.

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Recap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “Beginning of the End”

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I’m just going to go ahead and say it: I’ve never seen a more exciting, emotional, badass, hilarious, sweet and special finale to a show’s first season.  Not only that, but tonight’s episode of Agents of SHIELD is already up there on my list of top season finales of any show ever.  I have to give full credit not only to the writers and showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, but the cast, crew and everyone involved in the show for doing a truly spectacular job.  In an hour they managed to wrap up the dangling storylines left from last week and the entire season, not only as far as plot but also with the characters, set things in motion for next season by completely changing the direction of the show, work in the show’s best guest appearance thus far, while managing to surprise and send a fist straight into the chest of my emotions, pulling out one of my ribs in the process.  I could go on and on (and I will), but I might as well just jump right into tonight’s season finale, “Beginning of the End,” written by Jed and Maurissa and directed by David Straiton.

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Agents of SHIELD moving to a new time in the fall; Agent Carter to air midseason

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Just a quick update on the news from today’s ABC upfront about the scheduling for Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter.  The first news is that Agents of SHIELD will be moving from 8pm to 9pm, presumably in the hopes of improving its ratings.  For most of the 2013-2014 season, Agents of SHIELD has gone head-to-head with NCIS, the most watched show on TV most weeks.  This can’t have done the show any favors, even if there isn’t a whole lot of overlap in the target demographics of the two shows.

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Recap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “Turn, Turn, Turn”

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A lot has happened since we last left Coulson’s crew just one week ago.  In the real world, Captain America: The Winter Soldier was released this past weekend, setting box office records and generally getting rave reviews.  In the process it changed almost everything about the Marvel Cinematic Universe and by extension our beloved Agents of SHIELD.  (Needless to say, there will be spoilers ahead for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.)  Never before has a film had this level of impact on a TV show, and tonight’s episode resolved several mysteries, altered the lives of our heroes for good, and set the show on its path going forward.  So without further ado, let’s jump into “Turn, Turn, Turn,” written by our married showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen and directed by Vincent Misiano.

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Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

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I have to say that I wasn’t particularly thrilled by Captain America: The First Avenger.  As the last film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be released before The Avengers, it felt like just one more piece in the puzzle rather than a compelling story in its own right.  That’s not to say that I disliked the film, or that it was particularly bad (still a big step ahead of Iron Man 2), it just wasn’t as interesting to me as Thor or Iron Man.  It was another solid origin story, with a strong cast and a fun setting, but the end result of the film seemed to just serve as setup for The Avengers.  (In a recent rewatch of that film, I’ve realized that I might have judged it a little too harshly upon my first viewing.)  Three years and four movies later we now have Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which might be the most complex and interesting film Marvel has made to date, not to mention one of the most entertaining, and it’s a game-changer for the universe its predecessor helped to create. Continue reading →

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns tonight!

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Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back tonight following its winter hiatus with an episode titled “The Magical Place”.  It promises some big revelations, particularly about Coulson’s resurrection, and will have major consequences for the rest of the season.  SHIELD really hit its stride with the last half of the episodes we got in the fall, and the cast of characters had started to gel, so I’m excited to see what tonight’s episode holds.  It looks like our patience is starting to pay off.

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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t need fixing, just patience

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Entertainment Weekly ran an article today about “How to fix ‘Agents of SHIELD’”, which brought up many of the common complaints about Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. along with a variety of suggestions for how the show to improve.  I’ve spent some time perusing forums and comment sections and have seen most of these complaints before, and I thought I’d take some time to answer some of them.  I should preface this by saying that I’m hardly an unbiased observer.  I’m already attached to SHIELD, and I’m obviously enjoying it.  I want to see it succeed, but even more than that I want the writers and creators to tell the story they want to tell without trying to bow to internet grumblings.  (This would obviously be different if the show had a problem of a social variety, such as racism, misogyny or a negative attitude towards LGBT issues.  I would say that the show is pretty darn white, though of the 6 leads one actor is Chinese and another is half Chinese, so that’s something at least.  As for LGBT characters, I have faith in Joss and company if not in ABC, considering it took huge ensemble show Once Upon a Time three seasons before we got an LGBT character.)  Suffice to say I’m invested in SHIELD and I think it’s doing a lot of things right, and while I’m not a big fan of audience blaming I think some of the criticism is unfair and shortsighted.

Before I get to addressing Darren Franich’s specific complaints/suggestions, I should say that I think SHIELD’s creators have a different approach to “genre” television than what is commonly seen on TV in the 2010’s and what audiences expect from “genre” television in general these days.

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Recap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “Pilot”

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When Marvel and Disney decided to combine the Marvel Cinematic Universe with cult favorite writer/director Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog), the result was The Avengers, the 3rd-highest grossing movie of all time.  When you combine that film with the rest of the MCU, including the Iron Man series, Thor and Captain America and their upcoming sequels, it’s an obvious choice for Disney/Marvel to want to expand the empire that has brought them such commercial and critical success.  And who better to give the reins to their new TV series to than Joss and his team, which in this case includes his brother and sister-in-law, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen (also known as J-Mo)?  The result is the awkwardly titled Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which I will from here on refer to as something that’s easier to type.  SHIELD is not the story of the superheroes that get their own films but of the government agents who are forced to deal with them “to protect the ordinary from the extraordinary”, people who have no superpowers of their own yet who are constantly in contact with those who do.  And who better to anchor that story than Agent Phil Coulson, who was stabbed through the chest by villain Loki during the events of The Avengers and presumed dead?  But instead of getting ahead of myself, why don’t we just jump into tonight’s episode, boringly titled: “Pilot”.

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Trailer Tuesday: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

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Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies, since I’ve always found them to be endlessly fascinating.

(Update: A new trailer has been released and you can read my thoughts on it here.)  Yes, I realize that Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is not a movie and that this is not technically a trailer.  But too bad, because I could not be more excited about S.H.I.E.L.D., the expansion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe which continues the story from The Avengers and is being overseen by the incomparable Joss Whedon.  Take a look: Continue reading →