Agents of SHIELD 1x04
Oct. 16th, 2013 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eleanorjaneI didn't do a blow-by-blow on this as I was doing other stuff while watching, but: I actually really quite enjoyed this episode! Definitely a step up from the previous three, I think, so hopefully the whispers I'd heard of it improving after the first few are indeed correct.
I liked Akela, and I'm actually interested in the mystery they've set up - who's responsible for running her and her handler? I hope we see her again. I did like the bait-and-switch; they did a good job of implying she had superpowers, while her edge was actually technological.
Though I was surprised at the mention of telepathy and precognition not being credible. That strongly implies that not only can they not say "mutant" in the MCU, the PTB are actively trying to dissociate the MCU from the X-Men setting. Otherwise you could get around it by mentioning people with specific powers without saying the M-word. (Eg "there's a doctor in upstate New York who's known to exhibit telepathic and telekinetic abilities", for example.)
I like the bond growing between Coulson and Skye, too, and it's a thousand percent more interesting than Skye's relationship with Ward, IMO. I liked Skye's role in this episode, too - she wasn't Super-Powered All Knowing Hacker Girl, but she got to usefully contribute rather than just bumbling her way through.
I'm curious about what's changed about Coulson. We're meant to assume that Magical Tahiti was the turning point, but honestly I don't think it was - his characterisation in Agents of SHIELD is consistent with his characterisation in the MCU movies, i.e. pre-Tahiti. Admittedly he's a bit warmer and more open in the series than in the movies, but then that's a necessity of him as a lead instead of a secondary/tertiary character. The Coulson Akela describes is a lot sterner than anything we've seen of Coulson so far - and Akela herself dismissed May's explanation for Coulson's loosening-up. So I suspect that there some reveals about Coulson's history on the way.
Not a great episode, but definitely an improvement over what came before. This bodes well, I think.
I liked Akela, and I'm actually interested in the mystery they've set up - who's responsible for running her and her handler? I hope we see her again. I did like the bait-and-switch; they did a good job of implying she had superpowers, while her edge was actually technological.
Though I was surprised at the mention of telepathy and precognition not being credible. That strongly implies that not only can they not say "mutant" in the MCU, the PTB are actively trying to dissociate the MCU from the X-Men setting. Otherwise you could get around it by mentioning people with specific powers without saying the M-word. (Eg "there's a doctor in upstate New York who's known to exhibit telepathic and telekinetic abilities", for example.)
I like the bond growing between Coulson and Skye, too, and it's a thousand percent more interesting than Skye's relationship with Ward, IMO. I liked Skye's role in this episode, too - she wasn't Super-Powered All Knowing Hacker Girl, but she got to usefully contribute rather than just bumbling her way through.
I'm curious about what's changed about Coulson. We're meant to assume that Magical Tahiti was the turning point, but honestly I don't think it was - his characterisation in Agents of SHIELD is consistent with his characterisation in the MCU movies, i.e. pre-Tahiti. Admittedly he's a bit warmer and more open in the series than in the movies, but then that's a necessity of him as a lead instead of a secondary/tertiary character. The Coulson Akela describes is a lot sterner than anything we've seen of Coulson so far - and Akela herself dismissed May's explanation for Coulson's loosening-up. So I suspect that there some reveals about Coulson's history on the way.
Not a great episode, but definitely an improvement over what came before. This bodes well, I think.