Marvel Cinematic Universe

That final scene!

I liked this even more than the pilot. Ward's rough edges were sanded off, Skye wasn't quite as annoying, and May and Coulson were still awesome. Fitz/Simmons even started showing a little differentiation. Though for some reason, when they were tied to the cargo door, there was a moment where Simmons was talking and my brain kind of shorted out and thought, "She's Mary Poppins."

I liked the last moment as they watched the 084 get launched towards the sun, beers in hand. Even the obligatory "Skye's a wild card!" moment didn't detract from it.

And then that final scene. Those are the moments I will watch this show for. "We gotta kill the fishtank."

Yes. This was a much stronger entry. It didn't have the Pilot's focus-grouped-to-beigeness. More like this, and we're in good shape.

NICK FURY! I'm still squeeing.

I enjoyed it. I figure it will take a few episodes for everything to gel like any other Whedon show. Of course then I made the mistake of going to TWoP and who knew this show's continued existence was basically an insult to anyone who ever watched tv. Some of them act like Clark Gregg owes them money. Jeez, lol.

I really liked this episode, although finding out what Skye is up to made her character even less likable. I wish she could be swapped out for J. August Richards, tbh.

Definitely a better episode, but it felt workshopped to death. The theme of crowdsourced solutions was a bit too on-the-nose, but I suppose I shouldn't be looking for narrative sophistication in a show with Nazi weapons "powered by evil." Tee hee. The show has a fun feel, and it makes me laugh, so for now I'll try to put away my critical tendencies and settle in for the hypnotainment.

And remember, folks--if you introduce a safety brochure in the first act, it had better be put to use by the third act!

I agree - this was an improvement on the pilot. And I was unspoiled, so the ending was filled with awesomesauce and squee.

I do have to call shenanigans on Skye, though. There is NO WAY she'd be allowed to keep and use her own cell phone like that (well, really, there's no way she'd be there in the first place, but you know what I mean). I've gone places in my oh-my-god-so-boring day job where I've had to surrender my cell phone, so I'm pretty sure the tech wizards of SHIELD are up to the task of blocking her.

Which means we're going to find out that Coulson is already on to her (which he is, because Phil is All-Knowing).

I was kinda bored...

So many of them are just soo bland. Skye should be edgier. I feel like she is supposed to be counter culture but she seems like every other female lead on the CW. It's like they were trying for punk rock but got Avril Lavigne instead.

Ward is also bland but would work better if they just committed to making him an asshole (and if worried about no one liking him then let the truth serum scene from last week be an opportunity to humanize him with only the audience and Skye being privy to it). As it stands now I think they are trying to make him likeable and it's not working.

Fitz and Simmons are conjoined squawking birds and need to be split apart - I think they should have also cast them more as physical opposites or something and have them bonded through the science.

May is great as she is but I'm worried that her big reveal is going to fall flat.

Coulson is getting a bit too smug...he needs someone to react to. That is what made the scene with Fury so great. Why can't they make all the character scenes feel dynamic like that?

Grr. I want to love this so much. But nonsensical Sleepy Hollow is bringing me more joy and I feel like they are doing it with like a quarter of the budget and no pedigree.

I liked it better than the pilot but still not really feeling it. I just can't get behind Sky and Ward, both the characters and the actors, the conversation they had had me rolling my eyes.

A lot of the dialogue just seems really forced.

Muggsy, I agree with everything you said. I found last night's episode more lackluster than the pilot, aside from the great Coulson/Fury scene.

It feels like a show made by committee. Which it probably is. I've liked both of these episodes but it isn't really a good show. It could get there, but it needs work. I wish it would get weirder but I doubt it will.

I really liked this episode. I thought it was even more fun than last week. It's still obviously a very new show, but I like it so much already, I'm so excited to see what's next. Plus, I've finally figured out who the actress who plays Skye reminds me of, so that's no longer bothering me (she looks like Alona Tal in the mouth and chin area, but nowhere else, which is why she seemed only vaguely familiar and why it took me so long to figure it out).

Also, whenever Melinda May is on screen, I get cartoon hearts coming out of my eyes.

Agree about Melinda May. She is made of awesome.

(Also, it was fun when I was able to tell my 16-year-old daughter "That's the voice of Mulan." She was like "... really? Whoah.")

I've pretty much crushed on Ming-Na since early E/R, so I love what she's doing here something fierce.

bbridges wrote:It feels like a show made by committee.

And there's my problem. Help me like you more, show. It's all so 'safe.' The two nice dull young people, two nice quirky young people, two adults who can act.

Okay, so I'll make you a deal, show. I'll keep watching because Coulson is amusing and Melinda May is awesome, as long as you never solve the various mysteries of characters various mysterious pasts. The rest of them are too young to have 'a past', they have history. Agent Shiny Hair (ht Backlot) being a plant is fine, that's plot.

Coulson's Past: So he's an android/clone/revenant. Unless there's a bomb under the table that I'm not seeing, how is this important? He's Captain Jack? A Venture Brother? He has to return to the volcano once a year and chuck in a virgin? The scientists have to replace the hamster in his chest? It might be a fun bit of sci-fi/fantasy whatever, but why is it important? It worked, he's here, go.

May's Past. It's not a mystery to the characters, they either already know or could easily find out by snooping, should they be so nosy and unprofessional. But I'm not curious and intrigued (if that's the writerly intent), I want to respect her boundaries (which is more than Coulson does) and the teasing, drawn out reveal feels invasive. The lady said no. Again, unless she's a ticking time bomb who might snap and kill her entire crew (which I'm kind of in favor of) it strikes me as just gossipy and rude.

Meanwhile: Samuel Jackson. Was this a good idea or does it only highlight how the young people do not quite measure up? (No fault to the actors, to be sure).

Anyway. I'll shut up and hope for less Studio Homogenized Formula and for more risk taking. (Compare 'Sleepy Hollow" which is beyond absurd but is so much fun and /commits/ to it's absurdity...)

I'm another person feeling a bit underwhelmed by the show. I caught up by watching he show on demand, and my biggest complaint is that Skye and Ward are so freaking dull, I could care less about them. And man am I sick of the whole "hot girl is an awesome computer hacker" trope. At least Amy Acker had that geek girl "look". This girl is just straight up Hollywood good-looking. As of now, I'd much rather watch Coulson and May kick ass and take names without any of the others tagging along.

It reminds of when ST:TNG's writers all zeroed in on Wesley and it seemed like every damn episode was written around him for awhile, further adding to his already ample unlikeability factor.

Of course that show was, overall, a whole lot better than this one.

Dude, I would put these two episodes up against "Encounter at Farpoint" and "The Naked Now" for quality ANY DAY. Comparing anything else of TNG would be unfair.

RiverThames wrote:Dude, I would put these two episodes up against "Encounter at Farpoint" and "The Naked Now" for quality ANY DAY.  Comparing anything else of TNG would be unfair.

I'd go a bit further and say any two episodes from the first two seasons, and a significant chunk of season seven.

Also, I don't remember this stretch of Wesley-centric episodes. That seems to me one of those things that everyone assumes happened but, like Kirk getting it on with every space babe he came across, isn't actually how it went down.

There's more Wesley-focus in the first half of season one than he should have had, given that he's a 14-year-old kid. He does save the day in "Naked Now" by knowing which five buttons to push to turn the tractor beam into a repulsor, which is a spectacularly poorly-thought out plot point. It would have been as if Skye-- instead of having read the manual to know that there was a life raft-- just knew how to use FitzSimmons's toys to make a forcefield to save Ward, by "hacking" them.

Then you had "Where No One..." where the Traveller explains Wes is magic, "Justice" where he gets sentenced to death for falling in flowers, "Datalore" where only he figures out Lore is not Data, "The Battle" where he figures out how Picard is being mind-controlled by Daimon Bok. That's off the top of my head.

LEAVE WIL WHEATON ALONE

Which may actually be a valid point: no fault to the actor, who looks like what she looks like, and may be quite capable, but is performing the role as given to her.

Meanwhile: Amy Acker. Lemme tell you, as someone who has stood next to her (marching a writers strike picket line of all things), her greatest achievement was making Fred look plain.

While I'm not impressed with the character "Skye" -- another Whedon hacker pixie dream girl -- I do think the actress who plays her (Chloe Bennett?) does a very good job with what she's given.   The line in the pilot about the woman Mike saves, "She wants to thank you and possibly THANK you" comes to mind, but I imagine it takes good timing to deliver the Whedon dialogue.  

Ward, on the other hand, can get sucked out of the plane.  And not in the fun way.  Now that we've decided the show would be eleventy billion times better if J. August Richards was the SHIELD agent, I can't unthink it.

Ward, on the other hand, can get sucked out of the plane. And not in the fun way.

He really puts the "bore" into Boreanaz clone.

I'd go a bit further and say any two episodes from the first two seasons, and a significant chunk of season seven.

I know I'm veering off-topic here, but I just have comment and agree wholeheartedly. A friend of mine came to visit a few years ago when my cable TV was playing a few hours of TNG in order every day. We both had fond memories of the show and decided to take in a couple episodes.

Dude. Tasha Yar on stripper pole arena planet. Holy shit. It's a good thing this show came out when I was in my tweens and was able to overlook the stunning badness of seasons 1 and 2; otherwise I would have never made it as a DS9 fangirl. Or as a Trekkie at all.

I communicated my lukewarm reception to S.H.I.E.L.D. to that same friend and he just texted me to let me know that he thinks there's more to this show than I indicated, so I look forward to hearing his POV.

You'd think Coulson would know that's how super villains are made.