Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 1)

[Sxottlan]

I think this show turned a corner with "F.Z.Z.T." Real strong acting there. And now with "The Magical Place," we have another strong entry imho. Nice work by Clark Gregg. Production is still kind of cheesy in spots. The test town is an example. I liked the weird feel of it, but it also seemed rather slapdash.

[

Show Spoiler

It was good to finally see some of Coulson's missing time. Kind of a freaky scene. And glad Peterson survived, but now he belongs to Centipede.

]

[Morris Schæffer]

Not watching this, but Bill Paxton joins the cast.

[Mara]

Catching up and so far liking it better than last week. Cracking up at how much the boiler room is The Bronze. Like, exactly.

[Mara]

And yet again pleasantly surprised. The premise was ridiculous, but I think we all know you can't go far wrong with a train heist episode. Splitting the narrative was a clever way to let the characters shine individually (with my personal favorites being Simmons' over-prepared undercover work and Fitz grouching about how unsupportive Skye is as a fake girlfriend.)

[Thirdmango]

I really liked the past two episodes, they're delving deeper into some of these characters and doing some fun things.

[Sxottlan]

Agreed. It does feel like the show is finally getting its sea legs. The very nature of SHIELD seems to be ever changing and hard to pin down; these myriad facilities with code names right out of Lost appear to denote a worldwide network. And it looks like this episode kicks off a storyline running up to The Winter Soldier, so perhaps SHIELD is about to get even more shadowy.

And sooo, in the Guest House, [

Show Spoiler

was that a freaking frost giant they were harvesting?!

]

[EyesWideOpen]

I saw a commercial for this yesterday and had forgotten it was even still on the air. After the first couple episodes I haven't heard anyone talking about it.

[Qrazy]

I thought the last ep wasn't very good. The writing is so bad on this show the plot has become utterly asinine.

[slqrick]

Stopped watching around episode five, but decided to check in after hearing good things about the past couple of episodes. This last one was...pretty good, actually. The team actually felt like a team, the characters seem to have a purpose, and the overall story (at least for this episode) felt much tighter and better written.

I may have come back in with much lower expectations, but it was a pleasant surprise to see it actually functioning as a show.

[Mara]

I did not realize that Ming-Na Wen (Melinda May) was the speaking voice of Mulan.

[EyesWideOpen]

I did not realize that Ming-Na Wen (Melinda May) was the speaking voice of Mulan.

That's pretty much the only thing I know her from other then being the voice of Finn's mom in Adventure Time.

[[ETM]]

She had a large role on Eureka.

[Henry Gale]

Had this episode on in the background while someone else watched it, and I'm pretty sure it spoiled major aspects of Winter Soldier for me.

Do they really expect every viewer of the series to have already seen the movie in its opening 3 or 4 days? I mean, as tacky and exploitive as it could be, a message of sorts up front to let people know it takes place directly after the events of the Captain America would make sense in a case like this, even if it could just as easily turn away a portion of the live audience immediately.

[Qrazy]

The plot twists on this show make zero sense.

[number8]

Ironically, by introducing that out of nowhere reveal, everyone's saying that Ward is interesting for the very first time.

[slqrick]

Well, he kind of is. I feel like that was the sort of thing they ideally would have revealed at the end of the pilot, but knew they had to wait till Winter Soldier came out. I'm intrigued by how things played out.

[number8]

Well, congratulations, Winter Soldier. I am now officially invested in this show for the first time. Turns out Agent McChiseled Boringface makes for a pretty fun villain. He's got way more chemistry with Bill Paxton than any of the regular cast.

[slqrick]

Yeah, the show is really benefiting from having the shackles off. It could go in a few interesting places, although the new black dude is so Hydra it's not even funny.

[number8]

On the other hand, I was reading about how many hints of Hydra and Ward's undercover are in the pilot alone and also throughout the first half of the season, and it makes me kind of befuddled. Because that means they've been waiting to drop this on viewers for 6 months and were basically doing fillers until Winter Soldier comes out. Kind of a weird way to do a TV show.

[Thirdmango]

But not really weird for a Whedon production. This show consistently reminds me of a elongated Dollhouse in that regard.

[number8]

Amy Acker. Always good for a sappy moment or two.

[number8]

Last night's episode was exactly the kind of show I was expecting when they announced this.

[slqrick]

Yeah this was just an awesome episode. My wife doesn't watch much Marvel stuff at all but she was invested as soon as she saw Cobie Smulders in the opening scene.

[number8]

It's nice to know that the show can deliver its best episode yet on its own terms. The praise on "Turn, Turn, Turn" was deserved, but that episode largely hinged on the fact that it's directly tied to the events of The Winter Soldier. This episode, on the other hand, is still about the after effects of the movie, but all the best scenes are payoffs to plots that it established itself, like Fitz' relationship with Ward, Deathlok, and the whole TAHITI project secret. Good on them.

[slqrick]

I hope they go full villain with Ward instead of trying to rehab his character.