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eleanorjaneEpisode two, thoughts. (And on the show in general.)
* It's nice to see Leonor Varela again - I've loved her ever since the otherwise eminently forgettable Blade II. (I was disappointed though, I thought it was Natalie Morales until she took off the sunglasses -- oh, and now I want a Middleman/SHIELD crossover with lots of Wendy+Coulson hijinks.) Amusingly, I've just finished rewatching Human Target with Chris, and Leonor features in a similar recurring role - only on the other side of the government/rebel divide.
* I'm getting really annoyed by the way the combat people - not just Ward, but May too - treat the scientists in the field. I get that the scientists' focus and lack of combat training is probably frustrating, but they have expert knowledge and constantly dismissing them and ignoring their advice (and having the plot condoning that) just weakens the scientist characters. If their knowledge and expertise is so ignoreable, why are they even on the team?
(If you're doing your combatant/scientist relationships worse than SGA, you should take a look at yourself, show.)
* I'm sure Melinda May has Stuff Going On - it's nice to see someone other than the Dashingly Handsome White Male Lead get some manpain, for a change - but I don't actually like her very much. I mean, I think the character's clearly badass, and I enjoy massive competence as much as the next fangirl, but there's nothing there to actually warm up to, you know? She's a very grumpy closed book. I really want to like her, but at the moment she's just constantly frowning, and I know she doesn't want to be there, but it's not very fun to watch.
* I really like Simmons. Or is it Fitz? The female biochemist, not the male engineer, anyway. (Oh, and tangentially, I really wish the PTB had swapped those specialties for the characters.) Anyway, she reminds me of Evie from The Mummy - a bit flustery, but so very enthusiastic about her field, and brilliant at what she does.
* Chloe is clearly Joss's voice on the show - she's the smart, genre-savvy one, calling attention to the fact that the team's dysfunctional nature and the somewhat dubious premise of the team in the first place.
* I do like that Ward is prepared to at least listen to Skye, when she's talking about why she does what she does, and he concedes that they see the world differently, rather than just outright dismissing her as wrong. Mind you, I suspect that's largely because he'd rather get into her pants than win the debate, but whatever, we could see that coming a mile off, right?
* I really love the look at Coulson's office.
* I don't understand why Coulson allowed Reyes' people on the plane in the first place. I mean, I get that narratively he had to for the drama to happen, but hello, it's a SHIELD command post. They're so friggin' paranoid about security that Coulson's continued survival is massively classified, but they'll let a bunch of uncleared strangers on their plane because Coulson's feeling nostalgic and knew their leader for a while a few years ago. Come on, that's just lazy writing, and I expected better.
* Equally, I don't buy Coulson giving up the plane and the Tesseract-powered laser weapon just to spare Fitz's life for some short period of time.
* Why aren't the scientists combat-trained? It's such a huge point of conflict. But why haven't they been put through at least basic self-defense and field training? They don't have to become gun-wielding ninjas like the combat operatives, but their total lack of any field training at all isn't just ridiculous, it's unlikely to even be possible in a bureaucratic government organisation. Not to mention it's insanely irresponsible of Coulson, and I don't buy a characterisation of him that's irresponsible.
* It's one thing to do a story about going to an exciting dangerous third-world country and taking a powerful macguffin from a bunch of rebellious bad guys on the usual type of show to do this kind of story. It's another thing altogether when you do that story on a show that's about a shadowy American espionage agency.
I want to like Agents of SHIELD, but there are bad decisions and lazy writing - allowing stuff that just doesn't make sense to stand because it sets up the narrative they need - massively holding it back. I hope that improves; I'd expected better of a Mutant Enemy production.
* It's nice to see Leonor Varela again - I've loved her ever since the otherwise eminently forgettable Blade II. (I was disappointed though, I thought it was Natalie Morales until she took off the sunglasses -- oh, and now I want a Middleman/SHIELD crossover with lots of Wendy+Coulson hijinks.) Amusingly, I've just finished rewatching Human Target with Chris, and Leonor features in a similar recurring role - only on the other side of the government/rebel divide.
* I'm getting really annoyed by the way the combat people - not just Ward, but May too - treat the scientists in the field. I get that the scientists' focus and lack of combat training is probably frustrating, but they have expert knowledge and constantly dismissing them and ignoring their advice (and having the plot condoning that) just weakens the scientist characters. If their knowledge and expertise is so ignoreable, why are they even on the team?
(If you're doing your combatant/scientist relationships worse than SGA, you should take a look at yourself, show.)
* I'm sure Melinda May has Stuff Going On - it's nice to see someone other than the Dashingly Handsome White Male Lead get some manpain, for a change - but I don't actually like her very much. I mean, I think the character's clearly badass, and I enjoy massive competence as much as the next fangirl, but there's nothing there to actually warm up to, you know? She's a very grumpy closed book. I really want to like her, but at the moment she's just constantly frowning, and I know she doesn't want to be there, but it's not very fun to watch.
* I really like Simmons. Or is it Fitz? The female biochemist, not the male engineer, anyway. (Oh, and tangentially, I really wish the PTB had swapped those specialties for the characters.) Anyway, she reminds me of Evie from The Mummy - a bit flustery, but so very enthusiastic about her field, and brilliant at what she does.
* Chloe is clearly Joss's voice on the show - she's the smart, genre-savvy one, calling attention to the fact that the team's dysfunctional nature and the somewhat dubious premise of the team in the first place.
* I do like that Ward is prepared to at least listen to Skye, when she's talking about why she does what she does, and he concedes that they see the world differently, rather than just outright dismissing her as wrong. Mind you, I suspect that's largely because he'd rather get into her pants than win the debate, but whatever, we could see that coming a mile off, right?
* I really love the look at Coulson's office.
* I don't understand why Coulson allowed Reyes' people on the plane in the first place. I mean, I get that narratively he had to for the drama to happen, but hello, it's a SHIELD command post. They're so friggin' paranoid about security that Coulson's continued survival is massively classified, but they'll let a bunch of uncleared strangers on their plane because Coulson's feeling nostalgic and knew their leader for a while a few years ago. Come on, that's just lazy writing, and I expected better.
* Equally, I don't buy Coulson giving up the plane and the Tesseract-powered laser weapon just to spare Fitz's life for some short period of time.
* Why aren't the scientists combat-trained? It's such a huge point of conflict. But why haven't they been put through at least basic self-defense and field training? They don't have to become gun-wielding ninjas like the combat operatives, but their total lack of any field training at all isn't just ridiculous, it's unlikely to even be possible in a bureaucratic government organisation. Not to mention it's insanely irresponsible of Coulson, and I don't buy a characterisation of him that's irresponsible.
* It's one thing to do a story about going to an exciting dangerous third-world country and taking a powerful macguffin from a bunch of rebellious bad guys on the usual type of show to do this kind of story. It's another thing altogether when you do that story on a show that's about a shadowy American espionage agency.
I want to like Agents of SHIELD, but there are bad decisions and lazy writing - allowing stuff that just doesn't make sense to stand because it sets up the narrative they need - massively holding it back. I hope that improves; I'd expected better of a Mutant Enemy production.