I'm disappointed so far with this show and will probably give it one or two more episodes only because of the Whedon name but this seems like a watered down\dumb version of his. Or maybe he's hit his evolution point and can't improve on his apex.

The Marvel branded show feels like it would have been cool in the 90s but now it just seems dated and cheesy. There are obvious comparisons to be made with Heroes, which had its own share of problems, but was much cooler or at least felt fresh.

Coulson is highly overrated and not given much more than one-liners.

Hacker girl is a rip off of Eliza Dushku and talks like an idiot. She is cute but not given a role that suits her voice\form.

Unmemorably named muscles is highly generic.

The two scientists could just have been one bumbling, nervous nerd.

Asian chick is strong and silent and really really boring. She's a pilot and muscles. Pilots should be funny (like Firefly or Kotor or ME or anything really) because watching them flip switches is really boring.

They needed more or maybe different people in the team to make it seem less meh.

Someone asked about similarities to Buffy (didn't really follow Angel so can't comment on that). In Buffy and Firefly and to a lesser extent Dollhouse, Whedon provided:

- A team or crew with distinct characters that fit and broke archetypes (rebellious hero, mentor with a twisted past, strange dreamy girl with a killer instinct, nerdy girl, cowardly guy with a heart of gold, beauty queen with baggage, etc.)
- Funny and often snarky humor
- "Episodic" in that each episode had a baddie\mission of the week which was often just the background for character development and relationships and theme\idea exploration
- Charm, charisma

I'm not sure if, again, its because Whedon has already hit his high point or the show seems generic because of network interference.

Makes me miss Heroes minus that last crapfest season when they went to a carnival.

 

For me the problem isn't campness and lightheartedness. I think we could use more of it in TV these days. But campness shouldn't be an excuse for generic characters and predictable plot. I don't expect much. Just a small twist here and there to keep things fresh.

EDIT:

It's a little weird that they decided to made two characters that easily could be just one and because of that I think one of them will be out before this seasons ends. It would be classic Whedon.

 

Skye may be a double agent, but I bet Coulson is hoping to turn her into a tripple agent, he is just that cool.
Is there anywhere with a good picture of the 084? apparently there is a hydra symbol on it, but I never saw it? AM I the only one that think instead of destroying the weapon, the missile was a fake, and it is now secretly being studied by SHIELD.
That weapon was based on the weapons created with the help of the tesseract, so how is it still working with the magic cube on asguard. It could be the secret to how to recreate all those Hydra weapons, as well as, re enginneer the chitari tech they salvaged.

HAs any one seen the picture of Franklin Hall? He seems kinda old to go the villain route.

 

Just the last season? Having recently gone back through it, every season except the first (and even the finale for that was kind of weak in some ways) was pretty much a letdown for me. Heroes is basically "Wasted Opportunity: The Show."

But as for this show, yeah, it's very by-the-numbers so far. It's like they're trying to appeal to everyone, and that reeks of executive meddling to me.

 

WHOA spoilers!

No seriously I know it happens but I'm just starting Season Five of Buffy this month even though I know generally what happens (including Joyce dying) and saw all of Angel (which I hugely prefer)

I know that was meant to be rhetorical, but in Season 2 when Willow and Xander get caught, I'm pretty sure at the same time that Willow takes a huge stabby thing through her, that's a pretty serious one. But I'm so hazy on if that's all the same episode and which season and all because it's been about 3 or 4 years since I watched it.

But you've convinced me to watch my *ahem* "DVR'd" S.H.I.E.L.D. eps.

 

You don't get to call spoilers on a TV show that ended years ago.

Anyway, there are a few serious episodes in there, though they're pretty rare. The first episode of season two was pretty serious, what with the PTSD and all. Later seasons tend towards drama more than camp as well, which is understandable given what they're up against.

Still, campiness is a big part of Buffy/Angel and it seems to be the same for this one. We're seeing a definite throw back to the old Wheden episodes.

 

I was definitely kidding . Are there any SHIELD characters played by Whedon show (esp. Buffyverse) alums?

 

Ron Glass (Shepherd Book) has already been mentioned, having made an appearance as a background scientist in the first episode. Other than that, I haven't noticed anyone familiar in that respect.

 

J. August Richards who played Michael Peterson (the super-powered guy in the pilot) played Gunn in Angel. All the alums have been guest stars and cameos though so far.

 

I honestly hope this show gets its legs, but I'm just not feeling it yet. No matter the character, the lines have been cheesy and the characters archetypal to a fault. Even SLJ's cameo felt off.

Spoiler

The line about how nice the bar was felt nothing like the character they built in Iron Man 2 and The Avengers.

The team that they are building is nothing like the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D that I expected. It's essentially a group of civilians and two seasoned babysitters. From Thor to the Avengers, Coulson has always led a team of highly disciplined and skilled professionals who have only failed at controlling gods and billionaire geniuses. This is not that Coulson.

We have a supposedly masterful assassin/espionage specialist who is compared with the Black Widow, yet has absolutely zero social skills. The ability to charm and deceive others is a necessity for espionage. It makes no sense.

The writers are trying to play off of Coulson's fan base from the movies, but they don't seem to realize that his witty, sarcastic personality was secondary to his serious nature. He's a closet goofball, not a constant source of one-liners. For every joke, there's either a serious undertone or a subtle threat.

We have two, nearly identical nerd archetypes who jabber meaninglessly and try to imitate Tony Stark's technology. Not only do they fail at everything that makes Tony interesting and funny, they are redundant. Hopefully the fact that one is an engineering expert and the other an alien biologist will diversify their characters over time.

The pilot and weapons expert, Melinda May, hopefully becomes one of the deeper characters. She's incredibly boring as of now yet is the closest member of the team to my concept of a S.H.I.E.L.D member.

The only seemingly interesting character, Skye, is the most civilian of them all. She's potentially the link to some awesome plot devices, though she could also be the Selena Gomez of this series: a liability and a constant source of needless drama. I guess time will tell.

 

THose little floating scanner bots, they must have scanned the extremis virus and the the Hydra weapon, so while the old versions are likely to have been disposed of, who wanna bet that shield has labs working on those scans this very minute?
I was just thinking the tesseract might not be the only thing from odin's treasure vault still on earth. He has the infinity gauntlet, but the gems may yet be on earth. Also, while he has much of the tablet of life and time, it is not intact, so the pieces may yet still be on earth.
THe next episode apparently has Dr fraklin hall so every one is thinking that we will see graviton, this makes me think that sometime in the future, we might see the creation of the wendigo.

 

After the 2nd episode I couldn't even name one redeeming element of this show and that's really disappointing. The production quality and directing in the Peru sequence felt like watching the A-Team. Nothing there looks or appears realistic or professional. Model toyboy/girlnerd are plain annoying and swim catalog girl officer and her peru army squad looked like as if they came just out of a cheap costume rental. If I didn't know better I would assume this is a misguided parody.

Any X-Files episode has more atmosphere and production quality in the closing credits.

 

The music is pretty awesome, though.

 

The show is too slick and styled without the substance beneath to back it up. The gunfight in Peru was atrocious. The dialogue and characters seem to have their bumps all polished away. It really doesn't feel like one writer or director's vision. It feels like it's been Networkised to be completely uncontroversial with widest possible appeal at the price of substance and depth.

I'll watch another handful of episodes before casting judgement, but only because Whedon is one of the showrunners. I didn't like Dollhouse at first either, but the series grew on me, so I suspect that SHIELD will improve too.

 

Snarf, about Ward having no social skills I don't think he was ever supposed to. The impression Ive gotten so far is that he was trained to be less Bond and more Bourne. He's not the guy they call when they need someone to go deep undercover with bad guys, he's the guy they call when shit has hit the fan and they need someone who is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way of completing his assignment.

 

Honestly from what I've seen so far they would of been better off with Maria Hill as part of the team instead of May because at this point I'm really only watching in the hope that someone cool either from the movies or comics shows up.

 

Hey! No talking shit about Mulan.

 

It's not that she's bad or anything I just don't like that show is basic just a bunch of OCs with no connection to the rest of the marvel universe outside of Coulson.

 

He pretty much said this himself in episode 1, although with different context.

"Shield's experimentation brought an alien invasion"
"Fair point"

laughed more than I probably shouldve.

 

That is a perfect description. I haven't gotten back and watched it yet but until the third season I was still waiting for it to turn around.

Then there's the fact that idea wise there was so much "cool factor." They didn't shy away from giving characters amazing powers, at least the first season.

I am giving Shield a few more episodes. I took me until the short second season to start appreciating Dollhouse even though it never became as good as Firefly.