Agents of SHIELD - Season 7

Cafe Society
1

Didn’t see a thread here. Correct me if I missed it. Spoilers ahead…

I love this show greatly, and was really excited by the season premiere. Seemed a big step up from season 6, which was kind of hit or miss. But then I watched the second episode, and I guess this season is hit or miss too, because man, something seemed really off. My wife agreed, but I was surprised to see some reviews online praising it. There were good moments but…

May didn’t seem right, and I know, something’s obviously supposed to be not right with her, but Ming Na’s usually stellar acting didn’t seem to be pulling it off. Maybe it will become clear when we find out what’s wrong with her, but I blame the direction. It almost seemed like no one told her what was wrong with May, so she just played it completely blank. Not traumatized-blank, or replaced-with-LMD-blank, or possessed-by-the-ghost-of-Izel-blank. Just plain blank and boring, and oddly threatening.

Same for the fight scene of May vs. Enoch. I expect more from this show. It was super clunky and slow, with both actors and/or their stunt doubles moving deliberately from set piece to set piece. It didn’t feel like an organic fight. Watch the amazing Daisy vs. LMD Mace fight from S4, and compare it to this Robot vs. Trained Martial Artist Badass fight and tell me I’m wrong.

Yo-yo failing to catch the bottle was really odd, and I’m glad they addressed it, but it seemed tacked on and then brushed aside. I hope more explanation is coming that makes it work.

Daisy was way out of character in ordering Deke to shoot Freddie. Is this the same Daisy that gave YoYo crap about killing Ruby? Is this the same, “we’re not Hydra, Leopold!” Daisy from S5? The same Daisy that saw good in Sarge? She’s emotional and prone to snap decisions, yes. But she put Mack in charge for a reason. She told Coulson that Mack makes the final call in this very episode. And then tried to make the call herself. I don’t buy it, it felt off. Yoyo, I’d believe would do that. May, I’d believe. recent seasons Simmons, I’d believe. But Daisy? no way. (not to mention that when she shows up at the end, she silently joins the fight to save Freddy, rather than going after him to do what Deke couldn’t.)

And then the whole countdown thing at the end really felt off in timing. They could really fly the Zephyr to that location, drive up in an old-timey car, have a gun fight, then get back into the car and back the the Zephyr in 16 minutes? With stops for quips and arguments? And the ride back took less than 2 minutes? Seemed like artificial pressure that wasn’t paid off. (reminds me of Rise of Skywalker’s supposedly 24-hour timeframe)

Are my wife and I alone here?

2

That bit seems certain to have followup.

Loving the Enoch humor.

This season seems to be the reverse Quantum Leap, with the Chronicoms leaping from time to time, trying to put wrong what once went right.

3

I agree that the first episode was much better than the first, but it seems that’s often the way with the season premiere, especially for a show like AoS where they set up a completely new story line each season. I agree May seemed odd, but I assume that we’re going to learn more about that in upcoming episodes.

I also agree that Daisy ordering Deke to shoot Freddy was way out of character, but frankly, I watch this show in spite of Daisy, not because of her. So I’m going to chalk that up to another “that’s just Daisy!” moment.

I’m desperately hoping for an Enoch & Ernest Koenig spin off where they just run the speakeasy. Patton Oswalt & Joel Stoffer could easily go 5 seasons, with a few Emmys along the way.

My predictions: It was actually hundreds of years before Jemma picked up everyone else, which is why she and Enoch keep sidestepping the “How Long” question. And Jemma is an LMD. Fitz, of course, is purely an AI personality now. Which is a shame, since he’s my favorite actor on the show.

4

Yeah, it’s definitely been a LONG time. I don’t know if Jenna is necessarily an LMD, but there’s a reason they won’t just come out and say how long.

5

Much better episode 3 than 2. Loved seeing Enver Gjokaj as Sousa again. (love seeing him in anything, really. He was amazing in Dollhouse.) Something still feels off here and there (May’s acting, the fight scene with May, Yoyo and the Chronicom at the tower, the interrogation scenes) but not as much as episode 2. And the Coulson/Chronicom fight scene was pretty good too. I wonder if budget is to blame for Yoyo’s issues with her powers. Daisy also seems to not be using her powers as much. She could have fought the Chronicom with Coulson, but instead the plot had her assisting Simmons with the EMP. I missed it until I read something about it this morning, but that EMP disproves the Simmons LMD theory. She was at ground zero and wasn’t affected. Neither were Daisy, May, or Yoyo, who were all in range, in case anyone was wondering about them being replaced with Chronicoms or LMDs. Love that Deke called Daisy out on the events of last episode. She’s still coming off unusually childish, which is a shame, since she’s my favorite after the MIA Fitz. (still in the credits, I think, so we’ll have to see him eventually, right?) She was very good as Ms. “C.” “I.” “A.”, though.

The direction/writing still just doesn’t have the same sort of “snap” that earlier seasons had. Everyone seems a bit tired and slow. I hope things improve before the end.

6

Yeah, that episode was a lot of fun, and it’s great to see Gjokaj again (and I agree he was great in Dollhouse). Can’t resist the nitpick - new car models come out in the fall of the previous year (I think this was true back in 1955) - so an advertisement for new 1955 models put the date at late 1954.

7

The best bit was when Coulson used the Voight-Kampff test on that poor woman on the bus.

The second best bit was Deke’s “white privilege”. This entire season was shot and completed last year, well before any of the current events had started. So it’s entirely coincidental but highly appropriate that this episode be aired now.

8

Fitz has been missing for half the season for the past four years now. What’s up with that? Where does Iain De Caestecker disappear off to?

9

Actually, there’s a worse timeline problem. In the trailer for next week’s episode, Coulson talks about how all Shield agents learn in training about Agent Sousa’s death while trying to expose Hydra infiltration - and it certainly sounds like Coulson is talking about what he learned in training. But Coulson was long out of training (and dead) by the time anyone learned that Hydra had infiltrated Shield (Winter Soldier).

10

So it looks like every episode or pair of episodes will be a different genre. Prohibition gangster movie, 50s UFO/scifi, and next week a hardboiled detective mystery.

I definitely agree this was a step up from the last episode. Simmons masquerading as Agent Carter was great.

“And that lady pretending to be Carter? Worst fake accent you’ve ever heard.”

“You should tell her that.”

I did hav a little trouble with Sousa, having just arrested two fake SHIELD agents, was so trusting of the CIA agent in his own office.

I wonder what was up with the long slow zoom (16 seconds) onto Coulson’s eye and a faint spark in it, with ominous music. We know he’s an LMD, so was this supposed to show something else is going on with him?

Actually, we never saw Simmons again after she triggered the EMP. So it’s still slightly possible that we’ll see a shocked Daisy standing over Simmons lifeless body at the beginning of the next episode.

11

Arent we done with time travel crap?

My goodness todays scifi shows have no imagination than to use time travel as the gimmick…

12

I did find the title somewhat amusing (Alien Commies From the Future) since there was a comic character who fit that description to a “T” but he was from DC.

13

I’m definitely interested in this season because after so many will-they-or-won’t-they seasons of cancellations, they finally were told “this is it” and had time to prepare.

I’ve watched this show enough that when it’s bad it’s pretty bad, but when it’s good it’s sooooooo good and almost always redeems itself. So I’m giving it a pretty wide berth. I’m also enjoying this season, but not loving it so far.

14

I think that one major problem is that the bad guys just aren’t that interesting. I mean, Enoch manages to make the whole “emotionless robot” shtick funny, but all the other chroni-somethings are just dull. I also don’t remember what their whole deal is - why do they want to destroy SHIELD, again? - and the show hasn’t bothered to remind us.

15

The Shrike destroyed their planet and they want to make Earth their new home. SHIELD is the only one that can stop them.

16

I just watched the promo. We’ll know for sure when it airs, but I think it’s two lines put together. Coulson says “Every recruit learns about the day Souza becomes the first fallen agent,” then there’s a pause and he says “He was going to expose Hydra so they took him out.”

17

Ah. That makes sense.

18

four years? Season 5 and 7 only as far as I can tell. Fitz was “missing” in season 6, but we saw his side of the story pretty much from the start of the season. Season 5 he was filming the movie Overlord. Dunno about this time.

Eh, it’s not such a stretch that “minor” Hydra incursions into SHIELD were detected and “foiled” in the past, but that by the time of Winter Soldier, everyone thought they’d been stamped out. (or that Hydra infiltrators high up enough in the hierarchy made that the official line.)

I’m guessing just to let us know he’s still “alive” and will be rebooting or whatever.

Is that so? I’ll have to go back and look at some point. I thought we saw her after. Still, I suppose if they really want to go that route, they could say she made a “shaped” emp field or something, that went around herself so she wouldn’t be affected. She was the one making the device anyway. No conclusive proof anyway, then. (Not to mention, it’s the sort of thing Fitz should be doing. not really BioChem related, so maybe it’s actually evidence of the reverse! ack.)

19

Just rewatched the end of the season 6 finale. Any idea who the people in the Hazmat suits that arrived with Simmons were? (SHIELD agents, I assume, but where’d they go?) They took some core samples from the monoliths, they carried May in the cryopod into the Zephyr, and then… never seen again? It doesn’t seem like there was another plane or ship for them to transfer to, at least not in the scene where the missiles destroy the Ziggurat. And it doesn’t seem like there are more agents than the core team on the Zephyr now in S7. Did I miss something?

20

Presumably they, along with Jemma and Enoch, came from the future from when they got their time machine; Fitz is likely still there as well. They probably all went back to the future so as to minimize disruption to the timeline.