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

[Xeno]

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment2/57462732-223/episodes-sltrib-fans-gregg.html.csp

As much as I like Clark Gregg and Ming-Na, they have the wrong attitude towards viewers who have stopped watching. They act as if the audience has failed them, when in fact it's the show that has failed the audience and failed to hold the interest of a significant number of people. If they were really honest they'd be placing the blame where it belongs, squarely on the shoulders of the writers and producers who dropped the ball.

 

[spideyboy_1111]

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment2/57462732-223/episodes-sltrib-fans-gregg.html.csp

I gotta hand it to them and agree in all honesty.... I think this show has been honest about what it is and doing from the get go... But many didn't see that or understood it and got there hopes up. That's really not the shows fault

 

[TRM]

Clark's being a little harsh. The show-runners have practically admitted the show is a little boring right now, but still won't accept a little blame. There's nothing wrong with constructive criticism. Clark also said people could walk away, come back later when things start moving faster. So what gives? If you ask me Xeno is right, they're being overly defensive and shifting blame.

There are some complaints about the show I think are legitimate concerns, separate from the lack of comic book characters.
For me, things were a little cliche/bland during those first episodes, things moving too slowly, not enough meat before dessert. i'm giving it the benefit of the doubt until the Skye/Coulson reveals.
I do believe "it's all connected" in some way.
Whether or not the slow burn thing was their plan the whole time, it failed a little, and it seems they won't completely admit they're trying to kick things up a notch, or moving plans forward.

That's not to say I don't enjoy the show.. Simmons and all her expository lines are great imo. Other characters needed tweaking, you can see they tried to make Ward less robotic. Even the attempts at humor need to be a little better if they want something funny in each episode. Simmons is the only one who actually makes me laugh out loud when they go for comedy, and it's her little quirks that do it, not the situations they put her through (which we've seen variations of before on many other shows). Simmons has been entertaining to me since day one, and I fell in love with her character in "The Well" when she brought up dendrochronology, questioned how the staff works etc. I give them props for making me invested in Simmons by the time she jumped out the plane.

 

[fixxxer]

I really try to be unbiased, but Loeb just has to open his damn mouth to piss me off. No one is expecting Iron Man! Straw-man argument at its finest. My favorite episodes thus far were the last two (episodes 11 and 12) but my favorite episode before the previous break (i.e. among the first 10) was "The Well" and it was mostly for how well Peter MacNichol played the Asgardian blacksmith, and how the reveal that he was, in fact, an Asgardian, was handled. Didn't matter in the slightest that he wasn't a character from the comics.

Give us compelling, interesting characters with well constructed, well written plots. No one is complaining about Tony Stark, Bruce Banner and Steve Rogers not walking through that door. I mean everyone hopes that some of those characters can cameo at some point, but no one expects that. The problem is that many of the early episodes gave us stupid plots, poor writing and bland characterizations.

Mine the comics and the MCU, since there is some great material there... or don't! Just write interesting, intelligent, compelling stuff. And so as not to end on a downer, IMO the last two episodes, aside from some minor qualms, have done just that. Now, just improve on what's starting to work rather well.

 

[Xeno]

I gotta hand it to them and agree in all honesty.... I think this show has been honest about what it is and doing from the get go... But many didn't see that or understood it and got there hopes up. That's really not the shows fault

This is a classic case of misplaced anger. Even the president of ABC admitted that AOS has had creative problems and has been struggling in the ratings as a result. Gregg himself tacitly admitted as much with his analogy of eating dinner before dessert, i.e. the first half of the season was boring but now it has gotten to the exciting part. Loeb echoed that when he said that the first half was the boring first hour of a movie. They've admitted that the show hasn't been as entertaining as it should be, in so many words. Having made that admission, they really have no excuse for calling anyone "losers" for having been bored and turned off by episodes they themselves know failed to entertain.


Like a lot of other fans, I still believe that AOS is improving -- incrementally -- and have hopes that the last few episodes will be as good as the people making them have promised. The ideal would be for the show to round into the home stretch with stronger plotting, pacing and characterization that can lift the show above its current rather below average quality. One also has to hope that the producers are more aware of the problems they've made for themselves than some of their statements suggest, because otherwise they don't have much chance of fixing them.

 

[Human Torch]

I love it! Even Coulson himself is putting all the pouty face cry babies in their place.

 

[Lord]

I think that saying the viewers don't have patience anymore is a b****t excuse, the shows with best rating are still the most episodic ones like NCIS and Person of Interest afterall. Even DC's hero show: Arrow is Basically a plot of the week type of show mixed with a continuing storyline.

 

[Human Torch]

 

[kosh33]

so when did having 'dinner before dessert' imply 'being boring'?

kudos to clark gregg for stating his mind..

 

[Lord]

Them complaining about the fans is hilarious, completelly different aproach from their movies, and it shows in the quality, the shows seem to be forgeting that the fans are the most loyal part of the audience, if so many complain it's because the show obviously has problems

 

[TRM]

It's that there's not enough meat before dessert...They haven't prepared a big enough meal for us to get all the protein we need. I can make guesses about how things might turn out, but they were dragging things out at a snail's pace, wasted too much screen time on the Tahiti stuff, are being tedious. There was a lot of filler, when things could be moving much faster, and some cookie cutters were used to make the healthy stuff look more appetizing. Some of it's tofu, it just doesn't taste right.

 

[Pokkle]

"No one is expecting Iron Man! "


OMG go read facebook comment in the page of Agents of shield.

 

[fixxxer]

"No one is expecting Iron Man! "

OMG go read facebook comment in the page of Agents of shield.

I shall amend my statement from "no one is expecting Iron Man" to "no one with a semi-functioning brain and even a rudimentary understanding of how movies and TV are made is expecting Iron Man.

 

[Herolee10]

I really try to be unbiased, but Loeb just has to open his damn mouth to piss me off. No one is expecting Iron Man! Straw-man argument at its finest. My favorite episodes thus far were the last two (episodes 11 and 12) but my favorite episode before the previous break (i.e. among the first 10) was "The Well" and it was mostly for how well Peter MacNichol played the Asgardian blacksmith, and how the reveal that he was, in fact, an Asgardian, was handled. Didn't matter in the slightest that he wasn't a character from the comics.

Give us compelling, interesting characters with well constructed, well written plots. No one is complaining about Tony Stark, Bruce Banner and Steve Rogers not walking through that door. I mean everyone hopes that some of those characters can cameo at some point, but no one expects that. The problem is that many of the early episodes gave us stupid plots, poor writing and bland characterizations.

Mine the comics and the MCU, since there is some great material there... or don't! Just write interesting, intelligent, compelling stuff. And so as not to end on a downer, IMO the last two episodes, aside from some minor qualms, have done just that. Now, just improve on what's starting to work rather well.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

I love it! Even Coulson himself is putting all the pouty face cry babies in their place.

I think it's pretty cool that they're addressing the worst elements of fandom. There are some really irrational people out there and it's kind of amusing to see them get called out. I certainly don't feel like he was talking about me so w/e lol

And you can't expect him to go badmouthing his bosses all over the internet. I'm sure he'd like to stay employed.

 

[Huddsy]

I think it was stated right a while back in that we live in a 13 episode world and AoS is a 22 episode show, which has hurt them because they've taken so long to build it up whereas other shows don't have to stretch as much.

 

[Shikamaru]

I think that saying the viewers don't have patience anymore is a b****t excuse, the shows with best rating are still the most episodic ones like NCIS and Person of Interest afterall. Even DC's hero show: Arrow is Basically a plot of the week type of show mixed with a continuing storyline.

The biggest shows on TV in most recent history were Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and Game of Thrones. They all have a continuing storyline. Arrow has a continuing storyline mixed with the plot of the week type, but that's because that's the format that works for superhero shows and is what superheroes are designed for. They have ongoing stories with "mini-stories" mixed in.

This show has started doing a much better job in that department since post-break. Hopefully it continues at this pace.

 

[rashad]

This is a classic case of misplaced anger. Even the president of ABC admitted that AOS has had creative problems and has been struggling in the ratings as a result. Gregg himself tacitly admitted as much with his analogy of eating dinner before dessert, i.e. the first half of the season was boring but now it has gotten to the exciting part. Loeb echoed that when he said that the first half was the boring first hour of a movie. They've admitted that the show hasn't been as entertaining as it should be, in so many words. Having made that admission, they really have no excuse for calling anyone "losers" for having been bored and turned off by episodes they themselves know failed to entertain.

Basically.

 

[Eddie]

I shall amend my statement from "no one is expecting Iron Man" to "no one with a semi-functioning brain and even a rudimentary understanding of how movies and TV are made is expecting Iron Man.

Unfortunately that still leaves us with a great deal of people expecting Iron Man.

 

[mkilban2]

Yeah all you geeks are losers too!!

(Not me though )

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

I agree 100% with Clark and Ming-Na the Merciless.

 

[jonathancrane]

...

 

[Human Torch]

I don't get the complaint about the show being "too episodic" in the first place.Every episode has had some mention of one of the three over-arcing storylines ( What happened to Coulson,Skye's background,The Clairvoyant) It's not exactly like the old way of doing episodic TV where you had 1- maybe 2 big reveal/plot advancers a season.

I still think people by and large are just spoiled by the faster paced fare out there.Not every show needs that pace.

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

I don't get the complaint about the show being "too episodic" in the first place.Every episode has had some mention of one of the three over-arcing storylines ( What happened to Coulson,Skye's background,The Clairvoyant) It's not exactly like the old way of doing episodic TV where you had 1- maybe 2 big reveal/plot advancers a season.

I still think people by and large are just spoiled by the faster paced fare out there.Not every show needs that pace.

exactly. As I said before, I have the feeling some people just discovered TV very recently and have no ideas how shows outside of GoT or Breaking Bad worked.

 

[rashad]

It wasn't so much the pacing as it was a combination of bad writing and lousy characterization. At least early on. The show is still a mixed bag for me. There are so many other shows that I watch too. I plan to watch the entire season once it's done.