We don’t have TV, so thank goodness for Hulu.
LOVING IT SO FAR!
I admit that the first episode of Agents of SHIELD had the biggest squee factor for me. The second Coulson stepped out of the shadows, I bounced up and down in my seat like a kid. Even the Geek Husband What Rules says he got a little misty seeing him again. Like a lot of Whedon shows, or Whedon-influenced shows, the character development is taking time, but the third episode seemed to be where they were finally actually getting INTO the characters. Ward is finally starting to feel more than just an abrasive jerk with an elevated opinion of himself, and Skye is finally getting a real personality apart from superhero fangirl.
I adore FitzSimmons. They are adorable, and one or both of them will end up dead by or before the quarter point of Season 2, if the show survives that long.
The CGI is ok, not awesome in spots, but mostly pretty good. The one liners are quick, the patter is snappy. Coulson is a little more… cocky than in the Avengers, but I guess that can be explained by thinking you survived an attack by a god. Ok, so this is where the GHWR owes me five bucks. I stated at the end of The Avengers, in no uncertain terms, that there was no way Coulson was gone. That he either survived or would be back as either a clone, or the Vision.
I’m really looking forward to finding out more about Melinda May, and FitzSimmons.
Again, yeah, there are the occasional plotholes, but this is comics made life just like the movies, and I’m ok with that. Really, honestly, I’m pretty easy to entertain, just don’t completely fuck up continuity, and don’t slap me in the face with shit I can’t rationalize away.
HOWEVER, having just seen a preview for the next episode, I have to say that three of the four villains so far being people of color is more than a little worrying, and problematic. Seriously, guys, I’m glad you have Melinda on the team, but she’s vastly outnumbered by white people, though I suppose Skye could almost look ethnic of some sort if you squint (yes, I know she’s part Chinese, but she looks really white). But three of your four villains being POC is more than a little bullshit. Fix it. And no, having Samuel L. Jackson make a cameo at the end of episode three is not the fix you’re looking for. Try harder.
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So glad to see someone online who actually enjoys this show as much as I do. I seem to see people hating on it everywhere (and saying how much they prefer “Sleepy Hollow”. I mean really? I’ve only seen the trailer, but that show looks awful…).
On the POC issue, I’d say that Gunn in the first ep wasn’t exactly a ‘villain’. The revelation was that he wasn’t a hero. I think there is still room for him to return later in the series as a good guy. (Looks up actual actor’s name… J. August Richards. But wasn’t it cool to see Gunn from Angel in something after all this time, eh?)
As for the second ep, I think there would also have been problems having a Peruvian villain who clearly isn’t from Peru. I’m sure there are white people living there, but the point was that they had genuine struggles in Peru to worry about, while Coulson is the decadent white figure who thinks he can just waltz in and take whatever he wants without consequence. I’m really enjoying how the baddies are often more subtle than normal. (Though unlike Gunn, she is a genuine villain this time.)
The third ep also had some level of ambiguity in the villain, but in the end the villains (since there are two similarly major ones there) are BOTH definitely villains in that one. I haven’t seen the fourth episode so I cannot comment on that one.
I’d say that the bigger problem is not so much the prominence of POC bad guys, but rather the lack of POCs in the good guy cast. There’s what, one? (I know you mentioned that. Just saying I think it’s the more important point.)