Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents of SHIELD TV series for ABC - General Discussion - Part 2

[Crimson King]

Spoiler

J. August Richards' character is one of the Extremis subjects. A scientist who worked on the serum also appears in the pilot.

Spoiler

Yah. I was trying to touch on that without spoiling the person's name. I am excite.

 

[Silvermoon]

First Clip released (it's on facebook don't know if it will work for everyone, you have to like the page and then might need to click an icon in your address bar to allow a script to run)

https://www.facebook.com/entertainmentweekly?v=app_272887412730429&rest=1

Hopefully someone will get it onto youtube soon

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Great clip. Not too sold on Fitz-Simmons yet but I like Ward.

 

[Xeno]

That was funny. Whedon took care of the "missing comm device" wankery right off the bat. What I really want to see is what happens when one of the underlings touches Lola.

 

[Xeno]

Joss Whedon, Clark Gregg and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are on the cover of this week's Entertainment Weekly.

 

[flickchick85]

So Joss just called this show a TV series version of "The Zeppo" (Buffy episode), and I actually said "YES!!" out loud, because that's exactly what I said I hoped this show could be in (one of) the original SHIELD thread(s), shortly after it was first announced.

 

[Mr. Dent]

I haven't watched Buffy so can you describe what he meant?

 

[flickchick85]

I haven't watched Buffy so can you describe what he meant?

"The Zeppo" is kind of a meta-episode focused on the "useless" character of the show, Xander. Everyone has a function or power they serve in the Scooby Gang except for him (one's a witch, two are slayers, one's a vampire, one's a werewolf, one's the supernatural expert), and his bitter ex, whom he's still in love with, cruelly points that fact out to him at the beginning episode, essentially shattering him. It's an episode in which the Gang faces their ~Most Horrific Apocalypse Ever~...yet we don't actually see it because we stay with Xander the whole time, and they just want him to stay on the sidelines where he'll be out of danger.

So instead, we just get glimpses of all this world-ending melodrama in the periphery, whenever Xander kind of awkwardly walks in on it - kinda like if someone walks in on a dramatic episode of Buffy completely out of context - and it's hilarious. Meanwhile, making his best attempt to stay out of trouble, Xander finds himself getting roped into a night of "fun" with a gang of juvenile delinquents who turn out to have been recently-risen-from-the-dead and planning to blow up the school. Xander figures out their plot, chases them down, defeats them all and stops the bomb from going off at the last second. All of this remains unknown to everyone else on the show, as all of his friends were too busy saving the world to notice. And Xander doesn't even bother telling them, having finally, quietly, regained his bravery/confidence, as he happily listens to their war stories of the night before and how they just barely survived "The Big One."

My description can't possibly do it justice, but the way the micro and macro storylines intersect is almost always awesome and hilarious, and the whole episode is pretty much a work of genius. It's the perfect example of how to highlight "the little guy," imo. So if this series could mirror any episode of any show Joss has ever created, I'm SO glad it's this one.

 

[Mr. Dent]

Yeah that does sound great for this show in the context of the MCU. Where did Joss say that at? In the EW interview?

 

[flickchick85]

Yeah that does sound great for this show in the context of the MCU. Where did Joss say that at? In the EW interview?

Yep. Here's the exact quote:

Anybody who's ever seen one of my shows knows I love the ensembles; I love the peripheral characters. This is basically a TV series of "The Zeppo" [an episode of Buffy], which was a very deliberate deconstruction of a Buffy episode in order to star the person who mattered the least. The people who are ignored are the people I've been writing as my heroes from day one.

 

[Sawyer]

It only makes sense.

 

[Silvermoon]

So Joss just called this show a TV series version of "The Zeppo" (Buffy episode), and I actually said "YES!!" out loud, because that's exactly what I said I hoped this show could be in (one of) the original SHIELD thread(s), shortly after it was first announced.

Awesome! Zeppo's one of my favorite episodes dang... now I want to watch it.

*looks around cautiously...opens Netflix app on iPhone

 

[chamber-music]

So Channel 4 has brought the rights to air this in the UK as we don't have an equivalent to ABC.

Channel 4 better not bury this show in a graveyard slot like they have a habit of doing with foreign genre shows.

 

[divan]

Jed Whedon:

One of the things that, you know, we've talked about just initially getting into it is, as you start it, you want to tell these self-contained stories. It's a little bit like the "X-Files" model: You can come each week and see [that episode] and not have seen everything, but if you have, it's a richer experience. And as we move forward, those things will start to weave together more and more. But we do want to always have every episode have its own beginning, middle and end, and feel like its own [thing]

I'm not gonna lie. That kinda sucks.

 

[Son of Coul]

Nah it don't, it's the same formula as the movies. A show like this doesn't really need to be serialized like Breaking Bad; it can function well and be more accessible with a super-of-the-week style.

 

[Crimson King]

Jed Whedon:



I'm not gonna lie. That kinda sucks.

Why do you say that?

 

[divan]

Why do you say that?

The problem I've got is that, when a show's episodes become (semi-)disconnected from a show's principal narrative, they risk becoming procedural.
Personally, I hate 'Case-of-the-week' procedurals, though I would like it if they tried different things.

 

[Crimson King]

The problem I've got is that, when a show's episodes become (semi-)disconnected from a show's principal narrative, they risk becoming procedural.
Personally, I hate 'Case-of-the-week' procedurals, though I would like it if they tried different things.

It seems like he was pretty clear that they would still weave together, though. I don't like "monster-of-the-week" either, but I don't get a sense that's what it'll be.

 

[GhostPoet]

This sounds great! I think it makes sense to have self contained episodes while weaving together an over-all larger plot. There are sooooooo many Marvel characters they can pull it, it just makes it easier if they do a "villain(or hero) of the week)

 

[Xeno]

It seems like he was pretty clear that they would still weave together, though. I don't like "monster-of-the-week" either, but I don't get a sense that's what it'll be.

Yes. And they're trying to avoid the pitfalls of the opposite approach, where the episodes are so closely linked that if a viewer misses an episode he or she can't follow the plot. The episodes will stand alone but there will be an over-arching narrative mythology that flows through the season.

I was more interested in other parts of that HuffPost interview. Jed Whedon and Tancheroen described the show as being akin to the X-Files, which is the approach I thought that they would take with it. They said that there will be a mix of threats, including otherworldy ones. One can only hope that means that Loki or some of Marvel's cosmic characters/races will make appearances. They also said that they're open to having any Avenger swing by, if the opportunity arises. That makes me wonder if Marvel doesn't already have some superhero appearances planned.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/21/agents-of-shield-abc_n_3790527.html

 

[Crimson King]

Yes. And they're trying to avoid the pitfalls of the opposite approach, where the episodes are so closely linked that if a viewer misses an episode he or she can't follow the plot. The episodes will stand alone but there will be an over-arching narrative mythology that flows through the season.

I was more interested in other parts of that HuffPost interview. Jed Whedon and Tancheroen described the show as being akin to the X-Files, which is the approach I thought that they would take with it. They said that there will be a mix of threats, including otherworldy ones. One can only hope that means that Loki or some of Marvel's cosmic characters/races will make appearances. They also said that they're open to having any Avenger swing by, if the opportunity arises. That makes me wonder if Marvel doesn't already have some superhero appearances planned.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/21/agents-of-shield-abc_n_3790527.html

I always hoped that this show would introduce Mar-Vell and the Kree, kind of like EMH did by having him as a scientist. It would lay the groundwork for Ms. Marvel, who could then launch into Avengers from the show. Doesn't look like it'll happen for A2, but maybe A3.

 

[Silvermoon]

I think this is a new commercial...mostly same stuff we've already seen via the previous commercials and character profiles, though there's, I believe, a new line of "I think there's a bulb out" from Coulson (regarding the dark corner that he couldn't resist):

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Jed Whedon:



I'm not gonna lie. That kinda sucks.

I wouldn't worry about it. Pretty much every new show claims to want to keep things contained at the beginning--they kind of have to, since it takes a larger audience time to really hook into a show and want to watch it consistently, every week. But every single show Whedon's done has eventually built on earlier episodes and had long-running plot threads and become the wonderful morass of continuity and established but changing relationships we know and love. Provided Agents of SHIELD survives for a couple seasons, I'm sure it'll get there too.

 

[flickchick85]

I think that statement could apply to all of Joss' shows, too. The reason his shows constantly end up on those lists of greatest TV episodes of all-time is because so many episodes had entirely their own identity like Jed says. Just because they were self-contained didn't mean they didn't also contribute to a bigger arc.

Awesome! Zeppo's one of my favorite episodes dang... now I want to watch it.

*looks around cautiously...opens Netflix app on iPhone

Ha, not gonna lie, I totally hopped on over to Netflix as well to watch it last night after talking about it in here. Still a fantastic episode of television.

 

[Mr. Dent]

I like the way Doctor Who handles its structure so I hope Agents of SHIELD does it similar to that, which it sounds like they will.