Showing posts with label Agents of SHIELD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Agents of SHIELD. Show all posts
11/26/13
View Logs: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "The Well"
Directed by Jonathan Frakes. Commander Riker himself.…well, I’ve nothing more to say about that.
11/25/13
View Logs: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "The Hub"
Been a busy week for me, so you may have noticed that these posts are late. Sorry about that.No more time for sorry, though, we’ve got Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to talk about!
11/7/13
View Logs: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "FZZT"
"FZZT," huh? That's the same sound my drink made when I opened it at the beginning of the episode. Said drink was some kind of strawberry daiquiri wine-cooler-type-thing, so I was not watching this episode entirely sober, but not technically drunk. Heh, I'm typing a View Log on an episode called FZZT while buzzed. Don't know if that's ironic, and I don't much care! Let's begin!Actually, quick tangent first. So, Cablebox, you thought “Uh… Oh… Ah…” or whatever it was had a stupid name? At least those are sounds that the human mouth makes! I mean, “FZZT”? You might as well name the episode “Pkhkh.”
Um, that’s the sound of a gunshot or something as done by my mouth.
And then typed.
Poorly.
This is completely irrelevant to everything, but I wonder if the blue-with-white-gloves S.H.I.E.L.D. uniforms from the comics will ever appear.
Oh, yeah, the episode. Let's talk about it.
10/24/13
View Logs: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "The Girl in the Flower Dress"
Can I just say before we begin I don't know anything about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?Any references to that in this episode, if there were any, went over my head.
Sorry.
10/17/13
View Logs: Agents of SHIELD, "Eye Spy"
Let’s get the first part of this out of the way. I enjoyed "Eye Spy." At this point in time, I recommend the episode. Now, I want to get a little more analytical.A lot of people don’t know what “high concept” really means. It doesn’t mean the concept has to be anything fancy, it just means that the concept behind a work is the driving force behind the plot. The plot follows the concept, instead of the other way around. For example, despite what some may say about its quality, Torchwood: Miracle Day is high concept. ("What if everyone were immortal?") Star Trek: TOS is high-concept (a "wagon train to the stars"; or "Horatio Hornblower in space"). Dog with a Blog, Die Hard, Snakes on a Plane... Heck, Hot Tub Time Machine is high concept (it's a hot tub that's also a time machine). But more relevant to comics, Superman: Red Son is high concept. The story begins with "What if baby Kal-El landed in Soviet Russia?" and everything that happens stems from that core idea. High concept stuff can be boiled down to a single sentence, because that single sentence is at the core of the whole shebang. It’s not a complex idea, but the idea is what drives the plot forward, and it’s followed to logical conclusions… mostly.
Is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. high concept? …eeehhhh.
10/10/13
View Logs: Agents of SHIELD "The Asset"
I'm not a huge TV guy. I watch a few things, like Doctor Who, Agents of SHIELD, and a couple others. I've never seen Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, or any of those HBO shows. Being a full-time college student, I only have time for so many obsessions. As such, I can't really analyze this show in the same vein as the Critbox; I can't view this alongside and compare it to award-winning drama. All I can do is watch it and tell you how it adapts the source material and, more importantly, whether or not I enjoyed it.As some of you may know from my own site, I dislike "reviewing" new things because I feel that proper evaluation requires time to let initial feelings settle so things can be looked at critically. As such, I plan to eventually re-watch and review AoS at season's end. But for now?
Let's look at my initial reactions to Episode 3, "The Asset."
10/3/13
View Logs: Agents of SHIELD "0-8-4"
Well, this is a little late, I know.There’s been a lot of hate going around for this last episode, and the show in general, so I wanted to really think this one over.
I read the Artsy Core’s response to the Agents of SHIELD pilot. I can say that I learned a few things.
First of all, Artsy Core is a male robo-sphere. Go ahead and insert your own “ball” joke there. Good to know; I always have trouble figuring out which pronouns to use to describe robots that lack genitalia.
Second of all, we apparently disagreed on more than a few points regarding the show. AC called Fitz/Simmons annoying, thought Ward was bland, and though that Skye barely had a personality beyond being the sassy foil.
Do I see where he’s coming from?
Yes.
Do I agree?
Well, I agree that Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May was underused. As of yet, her role as Ellen Yin in the WB’s The Batman was better developed. I will concede that some of the characterization, wit, and humor is not where it should be for the level of quality that Whedon is known for, and the episode was a little overly referential.
However, Artsy Core, yes. Scientists have to be quirky. Or evil. Or both. Dr. Hank Pym has kinky, shrunken sex with Janet Van Dyne (seriously, it’s in an issue of Avengers), Dr. Reed Richards is an absent-minded professor who uses his stretching powers in bed (noticing a pattern…), Dr. Will Magnus chews on a pipe that he doesn’t smoke and gives his robots souls, Tony Stark’s a womanizing alcoholic, Dr. Arnim Zola walks around in a robot body with his face on a chest-screen, Dr. T.O. Morrow makes death rays out of junk because he’s bored, Dr. Sivana and his half-evil-and-ugly-half-beautiful-and-good family…. Quirky scientists are as much a part of super hero universes as colorful costumes and alien invaders.
Although, I can see where Fitz/Simmons got on your nerves. I do. In fact, I would say that the weakest part of the pilot was the characterization, shockingly enough. Not that the characterization was bad, just clumsy. The characters’ archetypes are all well and good, but they need to have more than archetypical behavior.
But I liked the pilot.
I did.
Now, many shows are going to need some breathing room before they become what they’re remembered for. Star Trek: TNG wasn’t good until Riker grew his beard, after all.
As of the end of the first episode, I liked the show and was ready to give it a chance. Now that we’ve reached the end of the second episode?
Well, I’ll get there.
9/29/13
View Logs: Agents of SHIELD S1 Episode 1
Believe it or not, Agents of SHIELD falls right in line with stereotypical mainstream procedural shows. Really a lot of TV is more high concept than most people think. There's been multiple shows of supernatural detectives (Medium, Dresden, Pushing Daisies). Plenty of paranormal investigation team shows (X-Files and it's copycats Fringe, Warehouse 13, and Sanctuary). Fairy-tale adaptations are now pretty huge with Once Upon a Time, Grimm, Sleepy Hollow, Teen Wolf, Supernatural, and Wizards versus Aliens (YES THIS IS A REAL THING... LOOK IT UP NOW!). On top of all that, superheroes shows are actually no strangers to TV either. Really, they aren't. Especially the "realistic" non-costumed hero types.Anyone remember Heroes? What about Syfy's Alphas? No? There's plenty more. The Batman spinoff Birds of Prey, James Cameron's Dark Angel, Mutant X, The Cape, Smallville, Arrow, Bionic Woman (yes I count that), NightMan, Blade: The Series (yes I count that too), WitchBlade, the Highlander TV spinoffs. (Most of these suck BTW and yes I've watched almost all of these...) and there's the British Misfits. Oh and The CW is premiering The Tomorrow People this coming TV fall season.
Which, as far as I can tell, is basically The CW's (shittier) version of the X-Men.
Anyways I can even go a little further with superhero stuff. If you'd like to count shows that are practically superhero stories but aren't written specifically with that genre in mind, you can easily count Person of Interest (seriously, this is the TV Dark Knight and it is GLORIOUS!), Painkiller Jane, Le Femme Nikita, and the last season of 24 (LOLJACKBAUERMASK!). These are not really a huge stretch from certain figures in comic books like The Punisher.
And I didn't even list the Saturday morning cartoons.
So I hoped I've showed you why I found people saying that everything about Agents of SHIELD is "new" and "unique" to be irritatingly inaccurate. The only thing unique about Agents of SHIELD is the fact that it's set in the Marvel universe. So really the flashy skin on top of it. Sure, Agents of SHIELD isn't generic like The Cape or Alphas. But under all that gloss and faux-novelty is a show that is a little more standard than most people would like to admit (or allow themselves to see).
So what is it about Agents of SHIELD that I found so standard? Let's take a quick look at the writing shall we?
9/27/13
View Logs: Agents of SHIELD, "Pilot"
Well, it's me, Newt.
Remember me? I said I'd be doing guest posts on Agents of SHIELD?
Anyway, There's a little phrase that I went back and forth over whether or not I should use it when posting these View Logs.
Remember me? I said I'd be doing guest posts on Agents of SHIELD?
Anyway, There's a little phrase that I went back and forth over whether or not I should use it when posting these View Logs.
"In the comics"
I firmly believe that this show must work on its own merits.
...
...but I still think that the over 60 years of publication
history is important to at least touch upon.
Besides, we've got the Artsy Core him?/her?/it?self for the non-comic
reader's perspective.
Still, I'll keep in mind that not everyone will know
everything I know about the comic history.
 |
| Yes, there were Agents, and they were of SHIELD. The title is accurate. |
9/2/13
View Logs: Agents of SHIELD Promo #1
I know I’m a little bit late to the party for what I’m going
to be bringing up, but I prefer to think of myself as early to the party for
the stuff that hasn’t happened yet!
I finally saw the 2-minute promo for Agents of SHIELD, and I’m
quite impressed.
From the little bits and pieces I can gather, the team will
have problems at first, but need to find a way to work together. (Uh oh, Artsy Core.)
But I’m more interested in the things that they hint at
beyond the team forming.
There’s a superstrong black man running around saving
people. Is this Luke Cage?
One of the team members is recruited after she’s detained
for acting out against SHIELD… will we be seeing a resurgence of HYDRA? Coulson did say that the fight went global….
On a more technical note, the effects look REALLY good, and
thank Odin for that, because people are going to be comparing the effects to
the films, no doubt.
Really, I’d love to speculate on the plot and events more,
but this is Joss Whedon.
Here’s the relevant scale of predictability in writing:
(10= never predictable, 0=same story every time)
Joss Whedon- 8
Steven Moffatt- 9
Grant Morrison- 10
I don’t think anyone can put together what’s going to happen
for the show at this moment (unless they pirated it already, or something). But waiting for the plot twists is going to be
half the fun! Whedon’s twists are always
shocking. Even when you see them coming,
you didn’t see it happening like that.
September 24.
Can’t wait.
Can’t wait.
8/18/13
View Logs: Agents of SHIELD Prologue Rebuttal
Hello, all you Artsy Core readers!My name is Newt, and I'm new!
Well, I'm new here. Over at the NewtCave, I've posted Reviews/Recaps of TV Shows, and various articles on comic book characters, comic book deaths, and more.
As you may have figured out, I do love me some comic books, and I've a bit of experience with the Blogtubes, and the Facetweets, and the Tumblrupons, and the whatnots. And so, I've been brought on by the Artsy Core him?/her?/it?self to provide a counterpoint analysis of ABC's upcoming Avengers spin-off, Agents of SHIELD, not only as a non-spherical-flesh-and-blood-person, but also as a comic book fan.
The original plan was to send me up to space on this bone-shaped Satellite they salvaged back in the late 90's and send me episodes to watch with these two robots, but I vetoed that. Unlike some of the Artsy Core's ilk, I have no desire to go to space.
Don't like space.
Space too big.
Now, before I begin to give my opposing view on Agents of SHIELD, I would like to stress that just because I may disagree with Artsy Core, I'm not saying that AC's wrong. I've written a post addressing the subject before, but it bears repeating: people are allowed to have their own opinions. I will probably be disagreeing with the Artsy Core on numerous points. Let's make one up for an example! (I wish to stress that I'm making this up off of the top of my head; I do not know if my example will be true. Probably not.)
Artsy Core: I thought that the cameo of Doctor Doom was unnecessary, doing little more than shouting at the viewer. "HEY! THIS IS MARVEL COMICS, REMEMBER?!"
Newt: While a bit gratuitous, I thought that the inclusion of a Doctor Doom cameo was a nice little bone to the fans who want to see him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, despite the movie rights to the Fantastic Four and such characters being owned by Fox.
Who's right? Neither of us; there is no "right" or "wrong" in this sort of case, there are only opinions. I could wax on for pages and pages on the merits of authorial intent, audience interpretation, etc., but the point I'm trying to stress is that at the end of the day, I will have my opinion, and Artsy Core will have his?/hers?/its?opinion.
And that's fine.
Now let's begin!
 |
| Well, we do know that the title will be accurate. |
For example, let's take the Firefly episode "The Train Job"
Plot: Hired to rob a train. They do so, but two of them are left behind. Before they're rescued, they discover that they stole medicine. They give it back, they send a message to their hirer that they're not bad guys. Also, subplot stuff.
That's a plot that could be applied to many, many different shows. But the plot is elevated by the construction/pacing of the story, which is itself elevated by the character interaction and dialogue. Artsy Core has mentioned of the plot of The Avengers that
""these people have problems... but they can put it aside to save the world". Yawn..."
I would argue that it's not the fact that they don't get along, then put aside their differences, but the journey in how they do so is why many people, including myself, enjoyed the film. Whedon's stories are not just about WHAT happens, but enjoying HOW it happens. It's like riding a roller coaster, and then focusing on the fact that you're back where you started; you're looking in the wrong place for your enjoyment. However, I wish to stress again that opinions are not facts; the journey taken may turn out to be WORSE than the destination for some, and that's fine.
Even though no episodes will be arriving until September, information has been release regarding the "tone" of the stories, if you will. Personally, I think the premise itself is a rather unique one for TV. We're currently inundated with all these shows (now that TV can have the budget for good CGI) focusing on characters in the thick of global catastrophe and actively fighting the terrors involved.
Agents of SHIELD will be about the people left over. There was a short included with The Avengers Blu-Ray where SHIELD tracks down a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde using a left over alien gun... and they give the two a job for making the broken thing work. That sort of story should be the norm on AoS; dealing with the leftovers of larger conflicts, or the things that the Avengers are too busy to deal with.
Maybe some old man finds a Norn Stone after a Thor battle and tries to remake the world into the 1940's?
Maybe a vampire bit this guy named Michael Morbius before being destroyed by Hawkeye?
Maybe all the Avengers are busy, but Titanium Man's attacking the White House?
Maybe the Purple Man has his own TV show?
Perhaps a few of the agents have been taken to Arcade's Murderworld in secret? (Although, something like that may very well be Executive Meddling to capitalize off of the Hunger Games.)
Maybe agents are being replaced with evil Life Model Decoys?
Whedon has proven, in my opinion, time and time again that he is in his element when he's working with an ensemble cast with different personalities all bouncing off of each other, and that's what Agents of SHIELD has. Whedon himself put it best when they said that the show has to not only appeal to fans of the films, but also has to stand independently on its own merits.
Will it?
I honestly can't say. I agree with Artsy Core that Whedon's had hits and misses. Only time will tell which one this will be. Do I expect this to be a groundbreaking bit of TV history?
No. But I'm really hoping for another Firefly.*
Character depth, nuanced storytelling, and clever interaction that can elevate the plots, even if they're not the best plots around. Actually, the characters are already Firefly-like, if you go from their show descriptions.
 |
| You can't take the sky from them. Unless you destroy the Helicarrier. |
Agent May- Zoe (Ace pilot/fighter)
Agent Ward- Jayne (Gruff foil to the team)
Skye- River/Kaylee (Bubbly and weird, but highly competent)
Agent Fitz- Jayne/Wash (Weapons guy, in relationship with...)
Agent Simmons- Zoe/Simon (Smart, doctor, in relationship with the former)
Also, Ron Glass (aka Shepherd Book) is showing up.
Yep, looks like Whedon set the Firefly formula to shuffle. At this point, despite my exhaustive pondering, all I can do is hope for the best. So, hope for the best, I shall.
*Not like that; Let's not even get into Whedon's cursed history of TV cancellation.
8/14/13
View Logs: Agents of SHIELD Prologue
This is going to be a long one because I have a lot of explaining to do...I'm going to lose like all my viewers saying this (which is probably like 3 people)... but I don't like Joss Whedon. I don't hate him and I don't think he's a bad writer. But I don't think he's really that special. He's great at handling high concept witty dialogue characters but I don't think he can do much beyond that. The first season of Parenthood was alright. Buffy was alright. Firefly and Serenity were great. But Dollhouse sucked. I actually didn't really like The Avengers. To me the movie just seemed like one massive third act action fest and the dialogue, beyond being witty banter, didn't develop much beyond "these people have problems... but they can put it aside to save the world". Yawn...
So there you have it. You must keep in mind that I'm a machine. I'm made of wires, circuits, metal and science. So huge action set pieces of "characters being awesome by punching things" just don't appeal to me. It's nothing there for me to cognitively dissect and analyze... it's just... there. I guess the biggest difference is that I don't treat TV and movies as entertainment. I treat human test subjects as entertainment... but not the screen fiction artform. So I always go into any piece of screen fiction expecting to learn something out of it. Doesn't always have to be profound or deep. Sometimes just seeing and empathizing with a new perspective is enough. Punching things and characters trying to be a smart ass is not enough. Atleast for a bucket of bolts like me.
So I don't have high hopes for Joss' new Avengers TV show. I've always thought that the marvel superhero movies were made almost like a tv show with their own segments split into a few different movies than actual stand alone movies. It's definitely a long story arc that's probably better suited towards a serialized TV format but the very low budget of TV probably didn't appeal to Marvel... then again... the low budget would force the writers to actually focus on the characters and drama rather than having a million things explode...
Anyways back to Agents of SHIELD, I expect the show to be mindless but occasionally "fun". You can probably tell by this point that my taste in stuff tends to be on... the artsy drama side. The very low key but internally intensive dramas of HBO, AMC, Showtime, etc. That said, I'm actually ok with very procedural mainstream network shows. I try my best to remove my bias against network shows and at times I'm actually surprised by how well written entertainment focused procedurals can be. So when I go into Agents of SHIELD, I'm not actively comparing it to Breaking Bad or Downton Abbey but I'll be actively comparing it to mainstream procedurals like Person of Interest and Elementary. I think that's fair don't you? After all, Person of Interest is basically what happens if Batman were two people and the setting was real life. Seriously Person of Interest is a superhero show...
So with that said, I'm not sure if Joss is able to rise up to the ranks of Jonathan Nolan (Co-wrote The Dark Knight with his brother and Person of Interet's showrunner). Despite some shlocky and overly cliched segments, Person of Interest is surprisingly deep. It draws a lot of the emotional and intellectual complexities that The Dark Knight movies were known for and utilizes it well in its world. A TV show that's exactly The Avengers is going to be mundane. Can Joss outdo his own material in The Avengers? I don't want to come back week after week just to keep watching high concept witty banter... again... that's fine and all... but there needs to be more. And I hope... underneath all that hype, gloss, and witty banter... there is something more. Let me truly feel these characters Joss, rather than have a good time hanging out with them. Let me look at Agent Coulson and see a complex person as I do with John Reese and Harold Finch. I must stress that I'm not calling for Agents of SHIELD to be grim and dark. No, grim and dark is what a bad writer does when he attempts to create drama. You can be light and still be really meaningful. Just look at Pushing Daisies.
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