Watched it and wasn't impressed to with the Jiaying bit at the end. I get they wanted to start a conflict between SHIELD and the Inhumans but a simple refusal to be indexed would have gotten them that and made the conflict more interesting with the audience even more divided on who to support with no clear cut good or bad guys.

Her actions feel like a cop-out to make SHIELD the good guys and a neat solution to the problem that the Inhumans are bad for starting the conflict bla bla bla. It also feels like a cop-out in the sense that what she did came out of nowhere and totally out of character from before.

 

Didn't Jiaying say in the same episode that she felt like the people would not follow her into a war just on her word?

What Jiaying did was still crazy, but at least it explains why she did it. To her it was compliance with their demands or war. SHIELD would not have left them alone if they simply refused to be indexed. Gonzales would not have just left them alone.

But hey, at least there is an upside. We don't have to listen Gonzales anymore.

 

I kinda really love the long con with Jiaying. Last year, Raina said that the massacre of that Chinese village was caused by the baby's parents. Parents plural. We meet Cal and we totally get where his massacre-y behaviour comes from, and we see through flashbacks that Jiaying is apparently dead. Big plot hole, right? Why would it be parents plural? Nope! Chick was stitched back together, and mentions a few times that she did some things in the name of finding Daisy. A part of her gave up when she saw what she'd become, and she went back to protecting her people, while Cal kept searching and going even crazier, but the dark side remained. Maybe after living a hundred-odd years and then finding happiness and then losing that happiness might make someone a mite murder-y.

I wasn't expecting the dark side to come out again. I was expecting Raina to take over, because that would've been a satisfying arc too. Raina ascending to full villain status? Neat! But Jiaying's fear coming back on account of HYDRA cutting up her people again, SHIELD wanting to tag them, and the fact she's got her daughter to protect? Hell of a twist that makes total sense, is satisfying as hell when pieced together with everything, and will set up some great goddamn drama. If she doesn't die in the finale, which I don't think she will (Cal, on the other hand. Poor Cal), I'd be very happy to have her stick around as a recurring Magneto-like figure.

But anyway. I'm hyped as fuck for the finale, but I'm also hyped as fuck because of the official confirmation that Agents of SHIELD has been officially picked up for a third season! Agent Carter gets a Season Two, which is the nicer surprise 'cause it wasn't as guaranteed. Yeah we knew Season Three was going to happen for a bit, but still nice to hear. Oh, and also? There's also rumours that the spinoff for AoS that was supposed to star Bobbi and Hunter has been scrapped, so I imagine they'll be sticking around in AoS instead. Was cool with either outcome, really!

Also. Fun fact: this is the first Whedon produced TV show to get a third season since Angel did in 2001. Wow. Based Marvel.

 

Spoiler

Oh Gemma.

 

That was physically and emotionally exhausting as all hell, had some great little hints for next season, and then topped off with a lovely "haha fuck you ".

... Is it September yet.

 

Hail Ward...

 

Yup, season done.

 

Well, that is definitely how you do a finale... though I did get a feeling that they had a checklist that they kept from last year:

One 'smart' character ends up physical trouble? Check.
One knock-down, drag-out fight with Ward? Check.
One character gets a permanent injury? Check.
Coulson and Skye take a ride in Lola? Check.

However, everything was nicely twisted from the previous iteration, went at a good pace, and I even like the final fates of all the characters we won't be seeing again... even Cal, who got a measure of redemption.

Only thing missing was Patton Oswalt.

 

Holy shitnuggets. Aside from the big blue monster, SHIELD season 3 premier was on point! The writing is a completely different animal from previous seasons.

 

^ Haven't caught it yet. The previews I've seen did look tantalizing though, any high points you want to cover via spoilers?

 

Spoiler

Because of their actions a season or two ago, a substance is being released into the environment(ocean) that is causing people to activate their alien gene, and develop powers.

Another organization seems to be trying to capture these people but the monster keeps getting to them first. Shield was able to save one of these new guys who has the power to instantly melt metal. Don't know much about him except that he's gay, has a temper, and got knocked around like a rag doll by Skye(who's now called Daisy)

Daisy now has very good control of her powers and is using them instead of whining about having them.

Fitz is turning into a badass on his quest to search for Emma, who's lost on some desolate planet that seems to have something after her(I'm sure there is a name for this place, I just don't know what it is)

Not sure the spoilers are necessary, but seeing as it's just a plot highlight list without any real discussion or opinion, I figured I'd put them there anyway.

I loved it myself as well. There weren't any characters acting out of character, where was no whining or angst, there was interesting plot development, and the special affects are still on point.

 

After only seeing one episode this year, the show has a strange hollow feel to me. Part of it is that there's been so many changes from when it first began. The other part is that it somewhat feels as though the show backtracked.

I'll say this, Sky (Daisy) has come along pretty well in the show.

 

I only see this as a good thing.

 

In some ways, yes. It had to grow and evolve. In other ways, it feels almost like a different show but with the same characters. That part I'm just not too sure about.

 

I'd agree with that, but I'm all for the change, because that first season was pretty damn bad. The original 'secret agent team complete with sterotypical roles, bad dialogue, and romantic drama' concept was tired after a few episodes, and mind-numbing by the mid-season. The writers saw that and clearly took drastic steps to change it. I doubt that chars like Fitz and Ward and Skye would have diverged so far from their initial traits if fan response had originally been more positive.

The movement away from the 'skye is our only MC' mindset and the adddition of new cast really helped turn it around too.

 

Considering the Ward twist was planned from the start and they locked down that Skye would be Daisy Johnson with Marvel higher ups about eight episodes into filming (and only a few had aired at that point), fan response wasn't shit for it (The only thing I'm one hundred percent sure fan response was responsible for was renaming the Night-Night Gun into ICERs). They knew what they were heading towards with the Hydra turn, and I'd totally encourage rewatching Season One to see all the elements being set up for that season and later. Hell, Daisy's current role as cultivating powered talent was discussed way back in episode nine of season one, which also happened to feature Simmons glimpsing an image of an alien world... Wouldn't that just be the most hilarious thing.

About the show "changing too much"... It really hasn't, to me. Way back when, folk wanted it to be a show where the gang fought superpowers every week, but the MCU wasn't that far as everyone having powers, and SHIELD's first big threats were introduced very recently chronologically. It's Agents Of SHIELD. SHIELD is a spy agency. It's a spy show in a superhero universe, the little guys looking to save the day without being in the spotlight. So it's a show about twists and turns and lines being crossed and loyalties shifting. And it's about the spies themselves. The Agents. How they react, how they grow, how their relationships get worn down by the stress of the job. That'll never change. That's still there. This season is just adding the element of building a spy team of powered people. Outside of Daisy we've met two potentials, Joey and Lincoln, and the story's still focused on them as people.

But yeah, I've seen some of that complaint about changing too much around the block, although in most cases it's people - most of them Ward fans - who are still kinda stuck on those early season one dynamics (the happier times) and trying to reconcile the fact that the characters and circumstances have changed a lot. And they have, because they've had to and there's all this shit being thrown at them. But for my part, that's like, really satisfying? We're supposed to look at Fitz wielding a shotgun and think, "Holy shit if Season One Fitz could see him now" or look at Coulson's wardrobe and go, "Man remember when he was the stuffy company man?" and yet also remember what led them to these moments. Characters developing is good! Plots and themes have to evolve! There's core elements there, but if these things didn't change it'd come off as false.

Again, I'd highly recommend rewatching both seasons, and sorta chart the progression of things. It's all way more noticeably planned out than you'd think, I'd imagine 'cause it'd have to be to avoid crossing lines with other MCU elements. And it's just a good time!

Also, it's just the first episode. I loved it, duh, but it did the same thing as last year's premiere where it dabbled in mostly being about catch-up exposition and set-up. And last year things got off on that relentlessly awesome pace and built to one hell of a midseason finale (My prediction for this year's totally involves Ward bringing his New HYDRA buddies into The Playground and wrecking shit). We've yet to see how things'll shape up, but I'm hella confident in this writing team's ability after seeing the full pictures of the last two seasons.

(Also also, sorry Khan but Daisy's still totally the mainest character. Yeah it's a beautifully large ensemble and Coulson's the "touchstone" main character, but her development is the most significant of all the character storylines throughout and will continue onward to the embodiment of SHIELD itself going forward (Sorta like how The Walking Dead is Rick's show but it's Carl's development that'll embody the future of post-apocalyptic humanity). Given that Daisy Johnson is SHIELD director in the comics, I'd wager we're heading for the same to cap off the show, however long it lasts, and so she's got some crazy steps to take! Can't wait, personally.)

 

Im not sure if the Ward twist was planned right from the get-go or something they decided on half way through, some of the earlier things both make sense if you think of Ward as a traitor but at the same time, don't.

It was a fantastic opener. Its getting to the point that movies will start to having to reference the show instead of just the show referencing the movies.