What’s the backstory on Lola the Corvette? I’m so frikkin’ old that I remember when Nick Fury was recruited for SHIELD, the guy was driving a Porsche 904…
As has been noted, Ming-Na Wen is 49. By TV standards, that means she’s ancient.
And if you were to tell a Hollywood casting agent, this was a cast full of hotties, they’d look at you in amazement. They’re isn’t even a single blonde.
Coulsen was great. Rest were out of central casting with the exception of Fitz and Simmons , who were great, being quite original.
Skye “hacker-gurl” was the worst- not as hot as she was supposed to be (really, a dedicated agent can’t stop looking at* those *boobies? :rolleyes: geez, what would happen if a enemy agent had a *decent *set?;)) , and why trust her? And her “tech skilz’ are ‘madder’ than the whole of SHIELD?:rolleyes:
But yes, I liked it and will watch again.
When Skye told them they couldn’t break her encryption because it was tied to the GPS in the van, so they had to bring it back to where she had it parked, I was expecting and hoping that Coulson would have said “Hang on a minute”, got on the phone, and had entire GPS satellite constellation reprogrammed. Just as a little “We’re SHIELD. We have powers you haven’t even dreamed of” moment.
For those who missed it or want to watch it again, the pilot episode is now up at ABC’s website.
http://watchabc.go.com/marvels-agents-of-shield/SH55300807/VDKA0_xbsx0pri/pilot
I’m guessing it’s one of Fury’s old cars, or an old SHIELD car in the Marvel timeline. Fury had a series of flying sports cars, usually whatever was current at the time.
YM-clearly-V, but I found myself constantly distracted by how ridiculously hot she was (not that I’m complaining, really).
Clark Gregg and Ming-Na Wen were clearly the standouts in this pilot, with a big ol’ “Wish He Were a Regular” honorable mention to J. August Richards. I also quite liked Stoic Agent Grant - he was a great straight man to the goofiness surrounding him, and he showed some pretty strong comedic chops in the truth serum scene as well. I can see him becoming a breakout character if they give him some more depth in coming episodes.
In contrast, I found the FitzSimmons duo annoying in this first episode - pretty much everything other people have complained about regarding Skye, that’s how I felt about Fitz and Simmons. Skye, at least, has a clear drive and motivation, whereas I haven’t gotten any sense of who Fitz and Simmons are, beyond wacky comic relief slash pseudosciencey MacGuffin wranglers. But given Whedon’s record, I’m expecting that we’ll get some interesting backstory and character development soon enough.
I’m coming at this whole thing as someone who loves the Marvel universe films, and who is a longtime fan of the Whedons, but has never read a comic book in his life, so I’m curious to see how my experience varies from those of you who are better versed in the comic book lore. Looking forward to discussions of many episodes to come. 
(…Still laughing at “poop with knives coming out of it,” by the way. Yes, I am five.)
His argument seems to be “This show isn’t as simple as a sixties comic book story and that’s bad.”
I think most people would counter with “This show isn’t as simple as a sixties comic book story and that’s good.”
Ok, “hot” is in the eyes of the beholder. But you have to admit her bend over cleavage, while a bit distracting to normal males, should not have caused a experienced “cool as a cucumber ice cold killer” agent to react like the Tex Avery Wolf?
eek:
Hilarious, yes.
I think Grant isn’t actually supposed to be particularly good at dealing with people. He’s at home with the violence and the shooting and the intimidation tactics, but he’s not a “people person.” Which is why he’s so strenuously opposed to the idea of joining a team when Coulson recruits him - he’s used to being the lone wolf type.
I do admit that this impression comes, at least partially, from stuff I’ve read about the character in news articles, so it can be argued that it wasn’t well-supported by the text of the pilot episode. I suspect we’ll get a clearer sense of Agent Ward’s poor people skills in future episodes. But that does explain why this supposedly experienced agent melts into hormonal putty at the sight of SkyeBoobies.
Y’know, that and the super duper truth serum that Coulson injected him with. 
I thought it was at least hinted at in this episode by the fact that while he got excellent marks in every other category he got “poop with swords coming out of it” in his review for dealing with people.
And, yeah, a lot of the boob thing was the truth coming out due to the serum. I don’t think that was a ruse, Coulson really did shoot him up. I am guessing he was hoping to get him to loosen up, as well as to get the truth out of Skye, who he instinctively trusted.
I liked the episode. Lots of fun, and lots of laughs, and good prospects for the first season.
Steranko might have had some points and all, but did anyone else feel like it was just a cranky old man when they got to this line?
Yes. Because, clearly that casting choice was done because of the color of his skin, and not because he would do a great job in the role. (Plus, Whedoncest).
I wonder which one is the Skrull.
Am I really the first person in this thread to say Luke Cage?
J. August Richards is Luke Cage. Or at least, close enough for government work.
I’m completely sold on the show, flying car and all.
I was thinking he’d turn out to be The Falcon, in part because of Coulson’s interest in Captain America.
That was early speculation around the interwebs and I definitely like to see Cage in a show but I also thought the device that gave him powers was interesting but (imo) not Luke Cage.
Working class, African American with money problems, agrees to a dodgy scientific experiment that gives him super strength and invulnerablity? Man, that’s* pretty fucking close.* The only thing that’s missing is the attitude (which he could grow into) and the time in prison (but being wanted for killing his supervisor is a pretty good substitute). The poofy yellow shirt and tiara are probably hoping for too much.
Betcha dollar that we hear a “Sweet Christmas!” out of him before the end of the season.
TBH, I thought they were going to go with Rage, and save Luke Cage up for later. I’m disappointed they didn’t use either. What’s the point of being in the Marvel universe if you don’t exploit it? I read somewhere that technically, they could even put Spiderman in there, seeing as they sold the movie rights to Sony, but not the TV rights
Ehhhh…The prison bit and the ‘hero for hire’ bit are the things that make it Luke Cage and not “generic hero story.”
“Luke Cage” is one of the properties that is probably on the short list for his own project. I don’t think they ever intended Richards’ to be anything other then a one off–with the possibility of a return.
I was really disappointed that he wasn’t the movie/tv version of Josiah X.