Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 1 Episode 2: 0-8-4 (Spoilers)

Cafe Society
1

Picking up from the end of last episode the group travels to an ancient site in Peru to investigate a strange object. While there they find an old friend of Coulson’s and get drawn in to a battle between her rebellion forces and the Peruvian army. The old friend and her soldiers come on to the SHIELD jet and, predicitably, try to take it over so they can grab the object. The SHIELD team finally finds a way to work together under fire and regain control of the ship. They deliver the object, that turned out to be a WW2 era super weapon, to SHIELD and watch it get shot into space.

I liked this episode as much as the first one. I’m glad they picked right up where they were last episode, and that is obvious that there will be plenty of running stories throughout the season, but the episodes themselves will probably stand alone just fine. I like using drama to have the team come together and work. I also liked The Cavalry and how impressed Fitz-Simmons was when they figured out that’s who she was. The Samuel L. Jackson cameo was a lot of fun, but I am guessing (and somewhat hoping) that this will be the last cameo they have for a while and we will be watching where they go each episode.

I was a surprised by how violent the battle in Peru was. When the two first captured a few guys with some kung fu, I said to myself “Oh, I guess Disney doesn’t want gunfire at 8pm” and then ten seconds later I was proved wrong.

What is Skye going to do? and How did Coulson come back? seem to be the big questions that the show is asking right now. On top of that will be the regular drama of the team getting better working together, and finding more of Don’t Call Me The Cavalry’s back story. I like how things are fitting together right now, and I look forward to seeing how the show goes forward. Although, I have to admit, that I was somewhat disappointed by Skye’s “I’m in…” response. They’re friends! They found a way to work together! But, I guess a show about a team working together wouldn’t be terribly interesting. And, even if she does betray the team at some point, that always leaves room for redemption later, and redemption stories are always pretty interesting.

As it is an early season episode they still have to build up the characters and let us learn more about them. I thought this was good, but I expect the episodes to get better as the season goes on and they won’t have to show us as much.

2

I liked it better than the pilot. Then again, I’ve liked almost every one of Whedon’s serieses better than their pilots (including The Train Job - best pilot ever, but not the best episode of Firefly by a long shot.)

Ming-Na’s character reminds me sooooo much of W from Good Eats, though. Not just in the beautiful Asian woman thing, but the stonefaced pinched lip impatience with dim witted mere mortals who pollute her presence way. It’s pulling me out of the show a little bit.

3

Meh–I liked the first ep better. This didn’t…hold together…for me.

The team needs…someone. Lose either Frick or Frack and replace whichever one is snuffed with someone snarky. There’s some missing element (not from an effectiveness standpoint, from a “the show doesn’t feel complete” perspective. Imagine “How I Met Your Mother” without Barney)

I’m getting bored with “Tesseracts” and “Gamma Radiation”. You have so many other elements of the Marvel Universe to play with that…c’mon guys…give us more than that.

Regarding the two nerds, I was able to understand him better than her this ep. Which is exactly the reverse of last ep. They both need to turn their accents down by about 40%. And one of them is still superfluous.

Also, was anyone even remotely surprised that Coulson’s ex-squeeze was a Traitor In Their Midst? I called it during the first fire-fight. And also? She’s possibly the worst actress. Or act. Or. Who’s ever been on. TV. Ever. You could actually. See her read. ING! From. Cue-Cards. I mean, she was worse than Babylon 5, first season bad.

And the dialogue…it was…wooden. From Joss, I expect dialogue that sparkles…this didn’t. It just sorta sat there. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good either. Certainly not up to what I expect from Joss.

I don’t know…I’m not trying to be a downer here: I really, REALLY, REALLY want to love this show. And all I’m feeling is “Meh–it’s kind of entertaining, sorta.” That said, I’m gonna keep watching and see if it coheres…jells.

(Also, I did not buy the life-raft thing. I can buy a flying car, but not that. :wink: )

For what it’s worth, I love Coulson, like Skye and whatshisname. And I kept expecting Coulson’s old squeeze to get zapped by the mystery gamma laser and have her hair turn green, making her Madame Hydra. As terrible as she was*, I’m very glad I was wrong about that one.
*And watch: it’s gonna turn out she’s some world-famous Oscar winning actress or something.

4

Really, got to agree this one was somewhat phoned in; the best bit by far was SLJ’s cameo.

A few random thoughts; I’ll admit that I was a bit distracted while it was on and may have missed some subtleties.

How did Fitz know the alien weapon was going to just blow a hole in the side of Serenity–I mean the Bus, rather than bring it down?

I cracked up when the Cavalry–I mean Ming-Na, flashed a Power Rangers pose in the middle of the initial fight with the Peruvian soldiers. Also, damn she looks fine in that jumpsuit. Also also, that must be a pretty hard job description to fill anywhere outside of TV action shows: “wanted – world class martial artist with min. 500 hrs pilot-in-command of large military aircraft”.

Already mentioned in the other thread, but I’m kind of enjoying the Jonny Quest vibe that seems to be developing, whether intentionally or otherwise (but fortunately leaving out the semi-sentient, comic relief dog).

I’m just not seeing the sexual tension between Skye and Ward that the plot seems to building up to. It could be funny if Ward suddenly revealed he’s got an unrequited crush on Simmons, or better yet Fitz.

OK, I’ll shut up now.

5

I like the show so far. It’s popcorn TV. Yes, pushing the nose down into a steep dive would put negative G on the airplane, and the characters should have been floating around the cabin instead of standing on the floor brawling. Yes, cranking back on the yoke like that may have ripped the wings off a normal airplane. Yes, a survival raft probably is not going to effectively seal a gaping hole in the side of the airplane. Yes, I choose to ignore those details and enjoy the show for what it is…a live action series in a comic-book universe.

Not sure what Skye’s deal is. Don’t really want her to be a traitor. Maybe she has a secret deal with Coulson to be a double agent, so she stays in the loop with whatever that group is, and will let him know if they get into something that could become a real problem, or involves super-villains?

6

Probably because he didn’t write this episode. He’s only the “executive producer” and while he did write the pilot, I bet the rest of the series (aside from a few special eps he might write here and there) will feel very non-Joss.

7

Loving it so far. I agree that stock femme fatale was a sucky actress, and that she was a baddie was telegraphed from the moment she arrived. I liked the HYDRA references. They will probably show up in some form before too long. The accents are still hard to follow, but they’re getting better. My first thought on seeing everybody tied up next to Lola was that they’d use her to escape when the rear ramp went down. Glad they nixed that idea. The cameo was great, and I hope, like others, that it’s the last for a bit. Agent Hill needs to return in about 5 episodes, then save the cameos for just before the season finale.

It will stay on the Tivo list until it gets cancelled, I think. Even ordinary Joss is better than 99% of what’s out there elsewhere.

8

I was thinking this as well. They have the whole Marvel U. as their sandbox and they keep going back to the Tesseract and Gamma radiation as their go-to. I imagine that they’re just world building right now and they’ll start branching out because they’re just two shows in, so hopefully they’ll be able to include some other tech. Maybe they could get an assignment to guard somebody and the Beetle or Madame Mask or Dr. Bong shows up (OK, maybe not Dr. Bong).

In any case, this was a decent episode. I don’t want to see Skye be with Rising Tide so I imagine there’s a mid-season or end of season showdown brewing. I can’t imagine SHIELD letting her walk away in a situation like that unless she’s a double agent for Coulsen but we’ll see.

And speaking of Coulsen, this is the second time that he refers to Tahiti as a magical place. This reinforces the thought that he was rescued from Hel or taken to Asguard or something else supernatural. Unless it’s a swerve.

9

This was a by-the-numbers episode - okay but certainly not going to blow anyone away. It did serve the purpose of showing the individuals getting together as a team. So I’ll cut the show some slack and say it’s still a work in progress.

10

Jed Whedon (Joss’ brother) and his wife Maurissa Tancharoen are also executive producers; they are Whedon-verse veterans and will probably handle the lion’s share of writing for the show (they wrote this episode along with Jeffrey Bell, who also wrote for Angel). So the Whedon vibe should be present, even though the Marvel universe has to be adapted for television.

11

Several people have talked about the show being set in the Marvel universe. But how true is that? The show is obviously set in the same universe as The Avengers movie and the other movies in that series but far does it go beyond that? Are the Fantastic Four and the X-Men and Spider-man active in this universe? This series may be set in a very stripped down version of the Marvel universe - one where superheroes exist but are far from routine.

12

My understanding is:

The X-Verse/Mutants (except for maybe Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch) are completely, totally off-limits. And even if they use Wanda and Pietro, they can’t use the word “Mutant”

The Spider-Man-verse is technically open to them, but they don’t have movie rights to him, only TV rights, so it’s unlikely he’ll show up.

I’m pretty sure the same applies to the FF-Verse (hence “Chitauri” instead of “Skrulls”). The TV rights are available, but the movie rights aren’t.

Other than that, any other Marvel character who’s been in the Avengers, or SHIELD should be open to them.

(note=I’m recalling something I read (on Newsarama, maybe?) so please take this with a grain of salt)

13

That matches my understanding as well. They’ll likely branch out a bit soon, and introduce TV-only villains and heroes.

14

Thinking about it, my concern is that SHIELD will follow the same doomed trend as the Flash TV show in the '90s. Remember that? Stunning graphics (for the time), a decent actor, a solid time-slot…and doomed to fail because, largely, they had Flash wasting his time (and ours) stopping white collar criminals or spouse abusers and other low-key/real world crap like that. Same thing that The Hulk TV show did but without the Sad-Walking-Away music at the end.

Towards the end of the show’s only season, they figured out “Hey! Super-Villains!” and had Captain Cold and Trickster show up. But it was too little, too late.

I’m worried that SHIELD will fall into the same trap. Too mundane. This whole second episode was about a big laser/bomb. That’s it. No Cosmic Cube, no MODOK, no Cask of Ancient Winters…just a big unstable laser.* The whole point of the show should be about the (pardon me) Marvelous things that they find…not about lasers. It needs more of a Fringe vibe with regards to each episode’s macguffin.
And…what was with the hysteria about it? Why shoot it into the sun? It’s a big laser with a gamma-power source*. And…? They never made it clear why the level of terror was so high. Also, if it was so unstable that shaking it might set it off, a rocket is a bad idea. Just dump it in the desert somewhere and set it off.

**PSS: From last ep–guys? Gamma radiation (or any other kind of radiation) is a real thing. And it doesn’t drip. I can suspend my disbelief with the best of them, but dripping puddles of electromagnetic radiation? I can’t stretch it that far. We’re in “Space 1999 Bad Science” territory. (Again: gamma radiation making Hulks? Fine. Electromagnetic radiation building up and blowing half the moon out of orbit faster than light (without killing anyone?) or “dripping”? No.

15

IMO, Skye is too young. I mean, I know that she is young (the actress is 22), but to me she looks like a teenager. It’s hard for me to take her seriously, as either a useful member of the team or as anyone’s love interest (except possibly Fitz…or Simmons). I like the character well enough so far, and the actress is gorgeous, I just wish she were/looked a little older. I’d like to see a team of grownups, and so far it’s half-and-half (Coulson/Ward/May vs Skye/Simmons/Fitz).

16

I’m enjoying the show in a way like I enjoyed Chuck. It is nothing special but it is enjoyable to watch. Much of last night’s episode was predictable but that is not always a terrible thing.

17

It was built by Hydra at the end of WWII and sold to the Peruvians. So it’s actually powered by tesseract energy, which we decided in the Avengers movie is a bad thing.

Simmons said “It’s just dripping with gamma radiation, and now it’s actually dripping” when the goo started coming out of it. The first dripping was figurative, as in “it’s giving off lots of gamma radiation.”

Maybe I’m just getting old, but I’m not happy with the Whedon-esque rapid fire banter between Fitz & Simmons. It’s actually approaching Sorkin levels, and their accents make it pretty incomprehensible.

18

I don’t think they can destroy it, nor do I think they’re trying to. The name of the place they launched the rocket was “The Slingshot,” and they shot it towards the Sun. Perhaps this is some sort of gravity-assisted means of transporting the device to an extra-terrestrial, and perhaps even extra-solar, facility to keep it from being used for further destruction here on Earth. Who knows; maybe they’ve got a treaty that obligates them to return all Tesseract materials to Asgard.

19

Heh, I wonder if British viewers are sitting around discussing how incomprensible everyone but Fitz and Simmons are.*

*Just kidding; I’m aware a Scots accent may be incomprensible to someone from southern England as well.

20

I thought this was a big step down from the pilot, although still fun. I also thought it had some fairly large plot holes:
-wouldn’t a trained archaeologist be able to tell the difference between something that had been there for 1500 years and something that had been there since the 1950s?
-Peruvian lady’s plan suffered from the typical comically-over-elaborate-villain plot which depends on the heros taking actions that she could not possible anticipate before everything began. Particularly galling when those actions are taken by a team which was literally only assembled yesterday which belongs to a top secret organization
-And the whole thing depended on everyone being incompetent. First the SHIELD people give these Peruvians who they’ve never met before free run of their top secret plane, then the Peruvians, who got the drop on and overpowered the SHIELD agents, tie them up in as insecure and unmonitored fashion as humanly possible

Add all that to a fairly trite and obvious story about learning to work together, and I’d give it a C- at best.
On another note, I suspect I’m a fairly typical viewer of the show, in that I’ve seen and enjoyed many of the Marvel movies recently, and know some vague bit about the various heroes and so forth, but don’t know ANYTHING about the extended Marvel Universe. So I hope that references to existing Marvel IPs are kept on the cute-winky-nod-if-you-caught-it level rather than the entire-parts-of-this-plot-depend-on-knowing-who-Dr-Bing-is level.