by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of Disney-ABC Domestic Television

1×10:  “The Bridge”

And so we come full circle.  Sort of.  Well, a character from the first episode is back.  So half circle.  Sort of.  I don’t know.  Whatever.

Here we are at the midseason point anyway, and I feel like I can definitively say that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is not a good show.  Not by a longshot.  It’s not a tumbling travesty, but it’s doing little more than treading water, its producers content to make it an utterly average and typical show.  The most common complaint you’re likely to hear about the show is that it fails to make the most of its Marvel universe setting, and while that’s an easy observation to make, the problems with the show run much deeper.  Its characters are flat and lifeless, and its stories are boring and predictable.  Worst of all, from what I can tell from having read interviews and the general vibe given off by each episode, there just seems to be no ambition on the part of the creative team — showrunners, producers, and writers — to make anything special.  It’s become incredibly frustrating watching a show defined by superhuman potential realized in such a mediocre way.

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by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of Disney-ABC Domestic Television

1×09:  “Repairs”

What “Repairs” should be is an attempt to shed light on the most enigmatic member of our team, Melinda May — pilot, hand-to-hand combat specialist, sometimes referred to as “The Cavalry” for exploits that have grown to near mythical proportions throughout S.H.I.E.L.D.  May’s one of those people that we may see in life, but will probably never really meet.  She’s quiet, hard to get a read on, almost aloof.  She rarely smiles, never laughs, and if you examine the social structure of the people she’s with, she’s clearly the most separate from the rest of the group.  And that’s a character type that I completely understand.  From what little we learn of May in “Repairs”, it’s clear that she experienced something horrible, something that affected her so deeply that she would never be the same.  A trauma (or traumas) that would make her distant, never able to truly integrate or accept herself as a part of the group, knowing that it’s better for everyone if she holds back, stays away, even if that leads people to the wrong conclusions about her.  I think the writers really understand the type of character Melinda May is and where people like her are coming from, and I truly mean that as a compliment.  It’s too bad that’s the B story.

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by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of Disney-ABC Domestic Television

1×08:  “The Well”

As the various marketing outlets and channels should have made clear to you by now, this week’s episode directly ties into Thor:  The Dark World.  And just like the writers in the comics try to do with their crossover events, you don’t need to have seen one to understand the other, but your experience should be richer for having seen both.

There’s something about “The Well” that just feels different.  It’s a little off in a way that you can barely see.  Everything about the episode feels better than normal, a little more accomplished, just that bit closer to the show we had imagined than the one we’ve gotten so far.  I think it started with some of the simple banter between our agents.  Somehow, it all felt natural as our Agents discussed the Asgardian relics they’d discovered as the subject of this week’s episodes.  Maybe it’s just that we’re past a lot of the character work from earlier episodes by now and are just that much more free to head straight into the show.  We may have gotten to this point through more clumsy and banal writing than most viewers would’ve liked, but it’s still work that’s now done, and the character’s are finally starting to gel.

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by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of Disney-ABC Domestic Television

1×07:  “The Hub”

The way I see it, there are three base models for any given episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to follow:

1) Freak-of-the-week procedural;
2) Superhero-oriented; and
3) Espionage.

So far, we’ve had several freak-of-the-week investigations, with some dalliances in superheroics, and we still haven’t answered the question of whether this show can establish and contain its own set of superpowered heroes and villains.  Because of this, there’s a part of me that rues and laments the fact that the show takes place so early in the Marvel cinematic universe.  Continue reading →

by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of Disney-ABC Domestic Television

1×06:  “FZZT”

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the determination to do what’s right despite our fears.”

“It’s okay to be afraid.  It’s okay to fail.  But to not even try?  That’s unacceptable.”

“It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it.”

Ruminations, resolutions, essential truths or platitudes, these are the things we tell ourselves as we face that which we may not be able to, the types of thoughts we hope can give our lives meaning in what may be our last moments.  That’s what I was thinking as I watched Coulson talk down Diaz — the final firefighter who would die at the hands of the virus that was the subject of this episode — in what was the strongest moment of “FZZT”  It was grounded, emotional and natural in a way that so much of the rest of the show isn’t and hasn’t been since the pilot, and it was a strong moment for Agent Coulson, the hero, and Clark Gregg, the actor.

Then there’s the rest of the episode.

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by Thom Yee

Images courtesy of Disney-ABC Domestic Television

1×05:  “Girl in the Flower Dress”

“So whoever took him knew about his power.”

That’s an innocuous enough statement, but you don’t know how much I appreciated hearing it.  You don’t know how much I really started to hate Heroes and every time they would call them abilities or gifts in an attempt to stay just this side of realistic.  Just call them what they are!  They’re f*cking powers!

I know this show isn’t Heroes.  And I know that, even at this early stage, it’s probably never going to get that bad (even if by this point in its first season I was a Heroes devotee whereas I’m mildly disappointed in Agents).  But one thing Heroes and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have in common is that they both have Jeph Loeb in the production chair.  Comicbook fans may hold much of Loeb’s writing work in high regard (see:  Superman:  For All Seasons and Batman:  The Long Halloween), but TV watchers in the know mostly remember him for helping to ruin Lost before totally ruining Heroes before becoming Marvel’s Executive Vice President, Head of Television.  I don’t know why his name in the credits stood out to me more in this episode than any other, but I will say this about Loeb:  he’s an amazing writer (his DC work from the early 2000s)… but not usually (everything he’s done for Marvel since 2006).

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