Man, am I going to get sick of typing that acronym.
I think the new show based off of the Marvel movie franchise on ABC might just have the silliest title for a TV series I've ever seen. With all of the hype behind it, why do they need to clarify it's "Marvel's" agents? Is there another S.H.I.E.L.D. out there that I haven't heard of? Are there people who like Marvel comics but have not seen a single one of the previews, interviews, movies, or comic book ads to be aware that this is a show for them?
You don't see other comic book properties titled this way. "Image's The Walking Dead." "DC's Smallville." "DC's Arrow." "Ben Edlund's The Tick." "D.C. Cab"
Wait, was the last one not part of it? I just remember it was made by Joel Schumacher.
Anyway, with the second episode airing tonight, I feel it's about time I gave my opinion of the first episode of the series. Its strengths, its weaknesses, and the things that make my brain twitch.
Let's get the basic fact out of the way: I like Joss Whedon's work. As a storyteller, there are few writers in Hollywood who can bring the same level of complexity to a character without simply shoehorning them into a standard TV trope. The twists and turns he can bring through a story are some of the few still able to surprise me in today's programming, and it's pretty hard for me to think of a project of his I didn't like on at least some level.
Hard, but not impossible.
Now, speaking as a fan of Joss Whedon, and being aware that every new series pilot tends to be rather shaky, there are two things I need to get off my chest.
1) I liked the show.
2) I didn't like a lot of the Whedonisms.
Let me explain: When I was watching Buffy (in reruns), Angel (ditto), or Firefly (on DVD), there were frequently times I found myself laughing or gasping as things that I was certain were going to happen were twisted completely around. The possible return of Dracula as a huge Buffy threat is squashed when the lead marches back in while he's reforming and yells at him, making him slink away again. A musical episode is pulled off without making it seem ridiculous. He even managed to have an episode based around puppets, and it somehow worked. Moments of suspense were frequently foiled by a character using actual common sense instead of simply following a scripted moment, and what would become huge misunderstandings were cleared up by one character simply going "Wait, when you say X, do you mean..."
Here, though, I found myself predicting every single "twist." A few felt forced, like an early moment utilizing the standard "emerge from the shadows" trope. At first it worked, but after that second beat when another joke is added on, I found myself sighing. A dramatic event where a character is posting an online video and narrating while you see the agents preparing to head out on a mission has a twist at the end that I saw coming from the moment it even started, and I found myself silently repeating "and the door opens.....now. Okay, now. Now."
But that might easily be nitpicking. Let's look at the series as a whole.
The whole time I was watching the show, I was constantly reminded of the major events happening in the news in recent months. When the show was recorded, nobody knew the name "Edward Snowden." They had no idea there was going to be a huge uproar at the idea of the government spying on everybody in order to "keep us safe." While some programming seems willing to confront the idea of a gigantic network monitoring everything that happens within our nation's borders (Person of Interest), this program takes a bit more of an outside role. They manage to dodge multiple moments where someone could reference global spying or monitoring of everything from social media to cell phone networks. They speak openly and honestly with a character who accuses them of being "Big Brother" and go into great detail about why they are, in fact, "good guys."
However, the moment that saves them is the moment that the man they're hunting starts hurting people, because then they immediately go from anything close to "evil government suits" to "heroes trying to save people" (including the guy they're chasing). It's going to be a delicate balance the show will have to maintain to keep us, the viewers, from swinging back to the other point of view, though I suspect that was the entire reason for introducing the character of Skye.
Speaking of the cast and characters, some I liked and some I'm still a little "enh" on. Clark Gregg does fine as Agent Coulson, though I found myself thinking the moments he's supposed to be firm with other characters were a bit lacking. He's so naturally soft-spoken and unassuming that it might take some time for me to genuinely trust him as a solid leader, though him admitting "we don't know what that is" during a briefing in the preview for the second episode leaves me leery.
Ming-Na, who of course we all remember from her stellar role as Chun-Li in Street Fighter ("Capcom's Street Fighter" if it's going to be a TV series), is also a character I didn't warm to immediately. As soon as she was told "all she has to do is drive the bus" I figured "well, we found our ass-kicker." No surprise, I was right. While I do like the idea of the team having a combat expert around, the idea that they're setting up the character to be the "last resort, waiting on the transport until needed to save the day" reminded me of all the times really powerful characters in comics need to be "taken out" early so the fight doesn't end after just two panels.
I enjoyed Chloe Bennet and Brett Dalton in their respective roles, but Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge as Fitz and Simmons rubbed me a bit the wrong way. The fact that they seemed to simply now be getting used to the idea of being anywhere near the field, the fact that they're both your typical "Whedon-esque" banter-ers (banterer? Bantee?), the fact they act cutesy with each other, or maybe it's the fact that they both have accents from the Isles (they couldn't have one be from another part of the continent? Or black?), I'm left feeling like somehow an English version of Xander and Willow from the early seasons of Buffy found their way into an "elite force." Hopefully they'll grow on me as well.
Story-wise, I look forward to seeing this look at the blooming "live-action" Marvel Universe and seeing how the events of movies and other projects will influence it, plus seeing how the series might influence the movies. It's an extremely brave endeavor for any franchise to take on, and I can't really think of any other franchise that tried it, though now I'm left wondering if any of the Star Trek movies that featured the "Next Generation" crew came out while the series was still active.
A few of the set-pieces looked like they were built to be part of a studio back-lot, which I think was a departure for me in only that I'm used to the complex sets from the movies. I'll need to constantly remind myself that a TV series has nowhere near the same budget as a summer blockbuster. Well, unless you're paying the cast of Friends to stick around for one more season at the end of that run.
I'll be there to watch the second episode, but the first one didn't knock my socks off the same way the movies did. It is a smaller project, and they are trying to slowly work people in who might not have followed the movies (the means of simply having a character point out the archetypes who showed up in the Avengers movie was cutely done). A bit of the message was heavy handed considering where the character they were hunting stood as he gave his "big speech," but I'm willing to let it slide.
Here's hoping they get stronger as they go, because I'm genuinely hoping it's going to be a fun ride. I need a new fix now that Burn Notice has ended.
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