the sun and the moon and the stars

I thought this episode was quite thought-provoking.

( Spoilers, as usual. )

Episode thoughts, spoilery! This may well have been the episode that sold me on the show for good.

( hearts in my eyes. IN MY EYES. )

I suspect one reason why the show's not quite hitting the right notes for some members of MCU/Avengers fandom is that it's really not within the mold of the SHIELD we expect. We're used to the spy agency which exists in fanfic to provide missions for some combination of Natasha, Clint and Steve, or to provide a new challenge for Darcy Lewis to be awesome at.

And the SHIELD we see on the show isn't that agency; this is a team of monster-hunters, not operatives of a politically-active intelligence agency. I'm sure the fandom vision of SHIELD exists in parallel, really, because that's a place where people like Melinda May and Grant Ward would feel at home. But the show's lens on SHIELD doesn't feel like the agency that fanworks have primed us to expect, which isn't the show's fault, but is probably causing some cognitive dissonance. I know it did for me until I came to grips with it.

I like this SHIELD, though. I think I would like the covert spy agency version more, because I love spies and have many feelings about them (SPY DADDY ♥), but now that I have adjusted my expectations accordingly, I am pretty much okay with what we have. I can always get that other SHIELD from fanfic anyway. :)

( Spoilers. )

Not a great episode, but definitely an improvement over what came before. This bodes well, I think.

Episode two, thoughts. (And on the show in general.)

( spoilers, natch )

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.

( watch-along reactions; spoilers ahoy )

In conclusion, why don't I have any MCU icons? I must fix that.

Also in conclusion: based on this, I don't love Agents of SHIELD for its own sake, but I look forward to the worldbuilding it contributes, and the extra MCU fic it's no doubt going to inspire. (Given that Thor spawned a massive fandom for two characters who never even meet, and one of whom only has two lines, i.e. Clint/Darcy, I have great hopes for the AoS/MCU crossovers.)