Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents of SHIELD TV series for ABC - General Discussion - Part 7

[Gr0oT]

Any chance we see Akela Amador come back soon? She was such a bad ass. Damn shame that she's a made up character.

Hey if we give her a metal arm we could have Death Locket!

 

[Xeno]

Any chance we see Akela Amador come back soon? She was such a bad ass. Damn shame that she's a made up character.

At the beginning of the season some sites reported that Pascale Armand was going to be recurring on the show but there hasn't been anything further on her status or Amador's.


BTW, they're all "made up characters." Simply being from the comics rather than originating in the MCU doesn't automatically make a character superior.

 

[cherokeesam]

At the beginning of the season some sites reported that Pascale Armand was going to be recurring on the show but there hasn't been anything further on her status or Amador's.


BTW, they're all "made up characters." Simply being from the comics rather than originating in the MCU doesn't automatically make a character superior.

It does when the original creator of the comic-book character was a much better writer than any of the TV bunch. Which applies in almost all cases.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Hey if we give her a metal arm we could have Death Locket!

My suggestion has been if they wanted to give her an actual Marvel persona, perhaps Ronin.

 

[Vartha]

My suggestion has been if they wanted to give her an actual Marvel persona, perhaps Ronin.

or Misty Knight. Misty HAD a bionic arm

 

[Xeno]

or Misty Knight. Misty HAD a bionic arm

Amador has both of her arms. I'm not rooting for all the Black folks to get dismembered on this show.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Which is why if the show wanted to make Amador an actual Marvel character, they should make her Ronin.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Can't wait for next week, I want to see Deathlok in action

 

[Gr0oT]

Which is why if the show wanted to make Amador an actual Marvel character, they should make her Ronin.

Amalgams of Marvel properties aren't as good as simply introducing actual characters.

Oh here's an article from another person who saw the test screening that not only has my hopes up about Deathlok, by saying his costume looks cool.
It's also a good article that considers the problems the show has and the direction it is going in.

There are a few reasons for this. First and foremost is the most recent episode, which wasn’t great but at least attempted to understand that the show’s biggest problem is its characters and started to shade in some of their back-story by taking the action to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy. Second was that footage. It might have been taken out of context and buffed up to look as good as it possibly could, but, screw it, Deathlok (about whom I know nothing) looked cool, and Paxton had a way with this dialogue that made it sound more clever than it probably actually is. And there’s also the fact that amid those talking points about the show would occasionally slip out some tacit acknowledgements that not everything in the first batch of episodes had worked.

http://www.avclub.com/article/marvels-agents-of-shield-at-tca-here-comes-deathlo-107261

 

[kosh33]

Amalgams of Marvel properties aren't as good as simply introducing actual characters.

/QUOTE]


there are no actual characters per se... every character in the comics has had their history and origins revised/changed with the times, and by different writers... and the characters in the MCU have personalities and histories which are blended from the 616 and ultimate universes...

 

[Gr0oT]

there are no actual characters per se... every character in the comics has had their history and origins revised/changed with the times, and by different writers... and the characters in the MCU have personalities and histories which are blended from the 616 and ultimate universes...

I get that, but there is a difference between making an ultimates/616 amalgam of Tony Stark and taking an introduced AoS character and making them into a preexisting 616 hero despite the established name and history of the AoS character being completely different then said 616 counterpart.

 

[Huddsy]

Oh here's an article from another person who saw the test screening that not only has my hopes up about Deathlok, by saying his costume looks cool.
It's also a good article that considers the problems the show has and the direction it is going in.



http://www.avclub.com/article/marvels-agents-of-shield-at-tca-here-comes-deathlo-107261

I liked some of this article, with certain quotes:

fumbling a bit to figure out how to tell a 22-episode story in a 13-episode world.

Netflix and cable have changed how quickly audiences are willing to consume narrative, creating a willingness to watch shows with relentless forward momentum, shows that don't pause for anything. (Go and look at some of those early seasons of Buffy now; at the time, their pacing felt revolutionary and different, but now, they’re starting to feel a little slow-paced compared to what’s on the air at present.)

Something a couple of us here have brought up.

 

[henzINNIT]

I saw Jed Whedon bring up the 22 episode fatigue thing too. I think it's bull, frankly. The lack of patience of the audience is a convenient way to excuse a show that moved too slowly, and did too little for too long. A longer season should be a chance to go further with your characters, not a curse to drag things out.

 

[mr_fancy_pants]

i saw jed whedon bring up the 22 episode fatigue thing too. I think it's bull, frankly. The lack of patience of the audience is a convenient way to excuse a show that moved too slowly, and did too little for too long. A longer season should be a chance to go further with your characters, not a curse to drag things out.

word

 

[Xeno]

I saw Jed Whedon bring up the 22 episode fatigue thing too. I think it's bull, frankly. The lack of patience of the audience is a convenient way to excuse a show that moved too slowly, and did too little for too long. A longer season should be a chance to go further with your characters, not a curse to drag things out.

Whedon, Tancharoen and Loeb are essentially blaming the audience for the show's shortcomings. It has been poorly paced and the characters have been underdeveloped, but somehow viewers who have been dissatisfied are at fault for not having patience. It is possible to lay the foundation for a series with stories that are well-written, exciting and feature good character development. Agents of SHIELD just hasn't delivered.


Some of what they said contradicted things they said in earlier interviews. When the show first started, the producers claimed that they structured the first 13 episodes so that they would tell a complete story, just in case the show did not get picked up for a full season. Now they are asserting that the first 12 episodes were just the setup for the series, "the first hour of the movie," as Loeb put it. (Clark Gregg likened the first half of the season to having to eat dinner before getting to dessert.) If Loeb has ever watched a Marvel film he knows that the first hour is never a muddled slog, even in origin stories. The beginning where the plotting and characterization has to be crisp to grab and keep attention. Maybe the writers can deliver that in the back half of the season.

 

[Gr0oT]

^They must be feeling the pressure at this point.
Any legitimate chance at renewal for season 2 must be teetering on what they can 'wow' the audience with in the last 10 shows.
They'll have to be good enough to generate buzz that will bring back some of that initial lost audience and hopefully all this praise for the yet to be seen end of season will pay off in the way they are hyping it will.

You're right about their flip flopping, just look at what Loeb says about the Coulson reveal

So, we’ve been aware of turning cards over faster, and reveals of Coulson being mid-season versus at the end of the season

http://collider.com/jeph-loeb-jeffrey-bell-marvels-agents-of-shield-interview/

If the plan from the beginning was to treat this as if it were 13 episodes then how is it that they had this planned for the end, and how does that even make sense? Where they really going to leave that ambiguous reveal as the season closer?

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

If the plan from the beginning was to treat this as if it were 13 episodes then how is it that they had this planned for the end, and how does that even make sense?

storyarc planned for 13 episodes -> series got 22 episodes -> story arc streched out to work for 22 episodes

it's not that hard a concept.

 

[cherokeesam]

storyarc planned for 13 episodes -> series got 22 episodes -> story arc streched out to work for 22 episodes

it's not that hard a concept.

Loeb implied that the Coulson reveal was set for "season's end." That meant Ep. 13, originally. If the writers just needed to readjust the story arc to work for 22 episodes now, it means the "Coulson reveal" would be backburnered to Ep. 22. Neither situation is actually true. The Coulson reveal took place on *Ep. 11.* That indicates that the original plan was deemed to be colossally slow for either 13 episodes *or* 22 episodes, and somebody lit a fire under the writers' asses to get something done.

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

Loeb implied that the Coulson reveal was set for "season's end." That meant Ep. 13, originally. If the writers just needed to readjust the story arc to work for 22 episodes now, it means the "Coulson reveal" would be backburnered to Ep. 22. Neither situation is actually true. The Coulson reveal took place on *Ep. 11.* That indicates that the original plan was deemed to be colossally slow for either 13 episodes *or* 22 episodes, and somebody lit a fire under the writers' asses to get something done.

we got part of the Coulson reveal. we still know nothing.

 

[Dark Raven]

Amador has both of her arms. I'm not rooting for all the Black folks to get dismembered on this show.

Why not? It's just a bit of 'armless fun!

 

[Crimson King]

Whedon, Tancharoen and Loeb are essentially blaming the audience for the show's shortcomings. It has been poorly paced and the characters have been underdeveloped, but somehow viewers who have been dissatisfied are at fault for not having patience. It is possible to lay the foundation for a series with stories that are well-written, exciting and feature good character development. Agents of SHIELD just hasn't delivered.


Some of what they said contradicted things they said in earlier interviews. When the show first started, the producers claimed that they structured the first 13 episodes so that they would tell a complete story, just in case the show did not get picked up for a full season. Now they are asserting that the first 12 episodes were just the setup for the series, "the first hour of the movie," as Loeb put it. (Clark Gregg likened the first half of the season to having to eat dinner before getting to dessert.) If Loeb has ever watched a Marvel film he knows that the first hour is never a muddled slog, even in origin stories. The beginning where the plotting and characterization has to be crisp to grab and keep attention. Maybe the writers can deliver that in the back half of the season.

*Internet high five*

 

[Donut]

One thing for sure is that no cast member should go viral about the show anymore. Clark guaranteeing that we find out about Coulson when we found out nothing did not help things

 

[Silvermoon]

One thing for sure is that no cast member should go viral about the show anymore. Clark guaranteeing that we find out about Coulson when we found out nothing did not help things

We found out that the Tahiti memories were planted, we found that he wasn't dead for just a few minutes but was dead for days before they 'brought him back', we found out that one of the several procedures they were doing on him involved cutting open his skull open and had some unknown machine tinkering with his brain.

Now, did we find out EVERYTHING about what they did to Coulson? No, but we did find out SOME stuff - certainly not nothing. Just the way I see it/my opinion. I see no problem with what Gregg has tweeted/said.

 

[Crimson King]

I think the problem was that it was billed as a reveal of what happened, but what they actually showed was more of a hint toward the actual reveal...which will come later, so stay tuned!

Some people don't mind the way it was handled. I thought it was a bait and switch.

 

[cherokeesam]

The Ep. 11 "reveal" did manage to confirm a few things. Coulson is definitely not human. The jury is still out on if he ever *was* human. Clues point towards an alien origin (space imagery; the "III" code for Earth in that chalkboard diagram). We found out that the Tahiti memory is just an implant. We found out that he was dead for days, and his memory "adjusted." We found out that he became a "thing" during the procedure.

Still opens more doors than it closes, but at least we're able to rule out a lot of theories now, and focus on some likelier ones. Not a complete reveal, but it's pointing us in the right direction instead of just wild-ass shots in the dark now.