Showing posts with label Agents of Shield Reviews. Show all posts
Mid-Season Finale Rundown
To say the last few weeks have been a little crazy around my place would be an understatement. But alas, after a smattering of unpaid bills, Internet outages, and one computer hard drive crash, I can safely say that I'll be able to pick up with the weekly reviews starting on Monday with the return of Gotham. What I can't so easily profess to know is how this review is going to turn out. Instead of doing a full recap individually, I'm going to hit the high points because, let's face it, if you've seen the finales of Gotham, The Flash, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Arrow, then you've already freaked out all over the Internet about at least three out of four.... So without further ado, let me tell you what I loved and didn't love. Oh, and happy New Year! Hopefully 2015 will be filled with nothing but on time reviews and perfectly working computers!
Verdict: 8.0
Verdict: 9.0
Verdict: 9.5
Gotham Season 01 Episode 11 "Lovecraft"
- I could defend Gotham through all the tonal whiplash and boring one off villains, but I can't defend the show if it insists on kicking the can down the road instead of addressing legitimately interesting plot points. The Bruce/Selina excursion was fun, but ultimately felt pointless and while Gordon's new posting might liven things up, this is still not the Gotham we deserve.
Duck It
The Flash Season 01 Episode 09 "The Man in the Yellow Suit"
- WHO IS HARRISON WELLS??!!?!?!?!?!?!!!? The answer to this question remains frustratingly illusive, but we finally get to see the apparent of killer of Barry's mother when Zoom or The Reverse Flash shows up. Barry also displays real fear when he realizes that he can't seem to match up to his nemesis, not just of being outmatched, but of failing his mother, father and ultimately himself. There's going to be a LOT to address when the show returns in a few weeks.
Verdict: 8.0
Watch It Like a Fox
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 02 Episode 10 "What They Become"
- I swear these shows were planning around each other, because every mid-season finale got more engrossing than the prior. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had a... troubling first season, but this is officially the last time I'll remember to mention that because season two has fully redeemed the show. Largely because its made itself somehow more important in the MCU than the titular cinematic experiences themselves! Avengers: Age of Ultron is almost certainly going to address the Terrigen Bomb Skye and Raina set off in this episode, but this world changing event will have most impact in this show when it hits airwaves again in... Wait, what?! MARCH?!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Verdict: 9.0
Watch It Like a Fox
Arrow Season 03 Episode 09 "The Climb"
- It is now January 2, 2015. I watched this episode live on December 10, 2014. I still haven't fully processed the ramifications of it. While I would like to float theories about Oliver really being dead and Connor taking his place, or Barry taking a trip on his cosmic treadmill, realistically, we're probably going to see Oliver revived due to the magic of a "Lazarus Pit." Comic readers will know that they can rejuvenate a living person of revive a person from death itself, but sometimes (usually) at the cost of a person's sanity. Ra's Al Ghul probably started off marginally less crazy than he was, but he's been using them to keep young and virile for decades or even centuries depending on how closely they follow the comics. Point being? Oliver is likely to get a revival, but how? And does this give us hope of Sara and/or Tommy coming back to life? If not, what will allow Oliver to revive but not them? Oh, and Laurel is stepping up come January 21st, so basically this show has hit full comic book awesome, and it's setting itself up for greatness again.
Verdict: 9.5
Watch It Like a Fox
The Crazies Have Come to Town Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 02 Episode 08 "The Things We Bury" Review
 |
| Sometimes the Best Man for the Screenshot... Is a Woman! |
After last week’s incredibly thrilling episode, S.H.I.E.L.D. jumps straight back in with
more answers to the mysteries that have haunted the series. Skye’s father and
the obelisk are both coming more clearly into focus. Whitehall and Skye’s
father have a nice little chat about the Obelisk, which he calls “The Diviner”.
At the same time Bobbi Morse interrogates Bakshi and Ward tracks down his
brother. I’ve said it before, but the show is really at its best when it’s
being a techno spy thriller. And yet, even when it’s not throwing plot twists
at relativistic speeds and filling out the Hub with more gadgets than James
Bond has even seen, the show is pretty damn compelling.
“The Things We Bury” takes its title both figuratively and
literally. The figurative part comes courtesy of Daniel Whitehall. Using the
information they acquired from Bakshi, the group finds out Daniel Whitehall was
originally captured by SSR in the forties thanks to Agent Carter, and hasn’t
aged a day since. Well, he did age, but it was all reversed some time between
1989, when he was last seen by S.H.I.E.L.D., and the present day. The subplot
with Ward kidnapping his beloved brother Christian and forcing him to admit to
emotionally torturing Ward also has a bit of a burial theme as Ward forces Christian
to dig up the old well where all the bad things went down. Ward is an
interesting character because while I don’t think he could ever be fully
redeemed at this point, and pal around with everyone on the Helicarrier like
nothing happened, I do think the show
is leaning towards him becoming a Loki style anti-hero who the team will be
able to work with while never fully trusting. He’s basically the opposite of Skye’s
father.
Yes, that was a terrible segue to talk about how awesome Skye’s
dad is. Not awesome like “I would really enjoy this man’s company because he’s
thoroughly entertaining and a quality chum” but awesome as in “this dude is
scary crazy. Can’t wait to see what he does next!” While casually posing as a
worker at the site Coulson and crew are attempting to hack to find the city he’s
been drawing with his writings, he stabs Triplett in just the right way to leave him bleeding out everywhere and with a
likelihood that he’ll be dead in minutes without proper treatment. Coulson’s
not too pleased, but he ultimately ends up letting him get away again to save
Triplett’s life. Nonetheless, the team manage to wrangle the intel they came
for while Bobbi and Lance make sweet, sweet love back at the base. All in all,
it could have certainly gone worse for everyone involved!
Perhaps the most important takeaway in a monumentally
important episode, though, come via flashbacks. In addition to the obligatory guest
spot by Agent Carter, “The Things We Bury” also unearthed the final dangling
thread relating to Skye: her mother. Dichen
Lachman plays a mysterious woman who Whitehall finds is immune to the
powers of the Obelisk. He naturally decides to turn her into his next science
project and for the next 70 years HYDRA does all sorts of terrible things to
her in an attempt to quantify her immunity. Yeah, if you ever needed a reason
to hate Daniel Whitehall, this is probably the best you’ll get. It’s enough to
make you hope Ward is about to punch him in the final scene where he encounters
Whitehall and the Doctor to discuss working within HYDRA. Like, forget
subterfuge and espionage, just shoot him the face a couple of times. The
flashbacks also reveal that The Doctor is surely thinking the same thing, as he
encounters his wife’s brutalized body after Whitehall “disposes” of her.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
brings us a stellar follow up to the best episode in a season of great
episodes. If you’ve got a brother or a sister or a friend or a fun neighbor who
isn’t watching this show, it’s time you introduce them because the show’s not
doing too hot in ratings despite the fantastic quality it’s been putting out.
Just be sure they’re not HYDRA first.
Score: 8.5
Watch It Like a Fox:
Duck It:
- Bobbi and Lance make the best team. Especially when they're being all sexy and what not.
- The Ward family reunion-- the family that tortures together, burns together!
- One of the show's best infiltration scenes-- everyone was a well oiled machine when cracking the Hawaiian base.
- Sadly, a lack of Melinda May. That's what the .5 was taken off for, basically.
- We're trying a little too hard to hold the Doctor's name back at this point. I'm still leaning on him being Doctor Hyde, but whoever he is we need to get that info now. It's beyond ridiculous how little we know of him beyond "dude is crazy".
Tag :
Agents of Shield Reviews,
Who Do You Believe? Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 02 Episode 06 "A Fractured House" Review
 |
| ABC |
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
has gone from being one of those shows I felt obligated to watch, because it
had such a strong cast and took place in the Marvel universe, to a show that I
genuinely look forward to week after week. Looking at this episode, it’s little
wonder why. The reason S.H.I.E.L.D.
has managed to become compelling is it is willing to actually build up and
explore storylines this year rather than kick the can further down the road. We’ve
already gotten a large amount of payoff on Skye’s and Coulson’s character arcs,
with Skye finding out who her father is and Coulson embracing the crazy and
writing out the alien map. But tonight it’s all about Ward. Ward is a
polarizing figure in the show’s mythos. From the beginning, many a joke was
made about how generic and bland Brett Dalton was, but then toward the end of
the first season, it was revealed that Ward was HYDRA and working with the
traitorous Garrett. After capturing him in the finale and locking him away, he’s
done little but wallow in self pity. Or plot his next evil, depending on who
you ask. Dalton’s certainly putting a lot more into the role this year, and I’m
genuinely unsure of whether Ward is heading toward redemption or damnation.
Considering they planned an episode around more thoroughly
explaining his motivations, and have clearly set up Ward’s brother, Senator
Christian Ward (White Collar’s Tim Dekay) as even more coldhearted and
evil, I’m leaning redemption. But it’s exhilarating because I could genuinely
see a great twist coming from these assumptions.
But before we discuss the duplicitous brothers, why not get
into the main arc of the episode? Namely, HYDRA attempting to smear S.H.I.E.L.D.’s
name by attacking a UN dignitary who supports them. Christian Ward is very
hands on with his anti-shield propaganda, and it’s becoming a real problem for
the group. Not as much of a problem as HYDRA themselves, though—when Coulson
sends a team of agents to talk with the Belgian UN man about working together, the
agents are dispatched by HYDRA. Coulson, not knowing what has happened, tasks
Bobbi, Lance and Melinda with investigating the incident. A couple of epic
fight scenes later and the group is all safe, with Bobbi and Lance even hinting
at rekindling their romance a little.
Speaking of rekindling relationships, now that Gemma is
back, she takes some time to go and see Fitz. Fitz is unhappy with her for
obvious reasons (he feels she abandoned him) and is far less moody around Mack,
which frustrates Gemma in turn. A tense scene between Mack and Simmons plays
out, with Mack saying he doesn’t know the guy Simmons left behind, but he does
know the guy that’s currently there, and he’s pretty cool. Simmons says she
didn’t leave him behind for her, but for Fitz himself. It’s quite a complex
issue: Simmons genuinely believes by getting out of the way she could maybe help
Fitz become who he was…. But should that be a priority when the current Fitz is
still quite the cool guy, regardless of a few mental ticks?
For all the good things this episode did, however, S.H.I.E.L.D., is still at its best when
it is actively working on the main arc of the series. Though Ward taking out
the guys transporting him to his brother and escaping will definitely tie back
into this arc, the show definitely lost a little momentum. That said, things
are certain to pick back up next week when we finally get some answers on
Coulson’s wall writing!
Score: 8.0/10
Watch It Like a Fox- You enjoy morally ambiguous characters like Ward. Or his big brother.- You’ve waited for Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter to start finding the magic again. It’s only been two episodes, but it’s necessary without Hawkguy around.- The Age of Ultron trailer. Seriously, how cool was that? And Cap totally almost picked up Thor’s hammer!Duck It:- Not quite filler, but definitely less plot motivated than earlier episodes.
Tag :
Agents of Shield Reviews,
TV,
Double the Agent, Double the Fun Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 02 Episode 05 "A Hen in the Wolf House" Review
Secrets have a way of getting out. If you work in retail, or
data entry or some other position that doesn’t regularly place your life in the
hands of others, it’s easy to live with this fact. When you work as a spy? It’s
a little harder to get used to. I really hope you read that in Michael Westen voice,
because the espionage elements were about as front and center in “A Hen in the
Wolf House” as they were through the entire run of the fantastic Burn Notice. But even better, tonight’s episode
of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. manages to finally
move several storylines forward while introducing a new badass character. No
mean feat, especially for a show which only three weeks ago was starting to
sink into a sophomore slump.
Tonight’s episode starts with a happy event: the wedding of
a naval officer who is assigned to hunt HYDRA operatives. If you were wondering
how long before Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. attempting
to rip off Game of Thrones’ “Red
Wedding”, then wonder no more. Turns out, the champagne had a little bit of “Obelisk”
in them. The toast turns everyone at the party to stone. For most organizations
bent on murder and mayhem this would be a good day, but Whitehall holds a
meeting with all the sciency peeps and seems unimpressed. So he tasks Simmons,
who he’s still suspicious of, to solve the many riddles of the Obelisk.
Meanwhile, Skye’s still unnamed father is having a
conniption fit when Raina asks for him to give up the Obelisk. Choking a woman
marked for death is pretty upsetting for both the audience and Raina, and even
Mr. Skye appears to be having some issues with it. Whatever is going on in this
guy’s head, it isn’t good.
Our heroes are trying to figure out how the wedding party
was killed. Thankfully the ever faithful Jemma Simmons has them covered via a
self encrypting deaddrop. Unfortunately, Raina is looking for any way to solve
her problem, and takes some pictures of this treachery.
From here, the episode takes a deep dive into the high
stakes, thrilling espionage I had been hoping to see since the series started.
Raina attempts to play on Coulson’s fear of Simmons being discovered, calling
to meet him and showing him the evidence she’s ready to email to every employee
in HYDRA. Bakshi enlists HYDRA’s head of security, Bobbi Morse (the fantastic Adrianne Palicki) to start looking for
a mole, and the tense conversation between her and Jemma is perfect setup for
the “twist” the comic fans saw coming. Raina’s meeting is tension filled, especially
before Coulson rejects her offer with smooth confidence. When he rejects her
deal, it’s clear he’s not going to throw Simmons to the proverbial wolves, but
we also aren’t quite sure if his plan is what we think it is. Of course, it is,
and Bobbi Morse reveals she’s a double agent working for S.H.I.E.L.D.! The
predictability of a twist like this can sometimes make it feel hollow or perfunctory,
but by interspersing scenes of Simmons running from security with Coulson and
Raina’s high stakes conversation, it leaves one genuinely wondering if things
are going to go to plan. When they do, and Bobbi (who insists on being called
that) finally saves the day, it’s a moment worthy of fist pumping the air. And
not just because Adrianne Palicki has clearly mastered Bobbi’s close combat
skills as well as her casually crafty demeanor. Seriously the swagger she had
when heading towards HYDRA security guards she was ready to beat into the
ground is enough to make you hope Mockingbird gets her own film.
The incredible sequence of Simmons’ escape ends with a leap
off HYDRA’s rooftop onto an invisible plane. So yeah, in addition to playing
Mockingbird, who kicks all kinds of butt, Palicki gets to tap into her inner
Wonder Woman. It’s a satisfying conclusion to an arc that didn’t really pan
out. While it seems like the show is taking a shortcut here, attempting to get
Simmons back into the fold so they can revert completely to the status quo, I
think the “undercover Simmons” plot never really worked. Not when HYDRA is
supposed to be full of geniuses and paranoid evil bastards. It was even
lampshaded earlier when Simmons was asked about her loyalties. Why is it that
she didn’t have any HYDRA affiliation until after
HYDRA was revealed to have infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.? It’s much more satisfying
to simply have this arc serve as an introduction to Bobbi and setup for when
Simmons’ hypnosis comes back to bite the team later in the season.
Simmons arc wasn’t the only one to receive payoff, though. Skye
also finally found out that Coulson is scribbling strangeness regularly, a
hobby which Garrett had also taken up prior to being dispatched. It’s really
when he went over the deep end, according to Ward. The running theory for why
Skye, who also received the Kree blood isn’t writing all over the walls is that
she already had alien insides. It’s a
fantastic way to further Skye’s arc while simultaneously reviving her faith in
Coulson, who has come clean. One of the first relationships the show asked us
to care about was the relationship between Skye and Coulson. While never quite
father-daughter, there was that paternal tint to Coulson’s connection to Skye.
Because she stood as the everywoman—the relatively unskilled, uninitiated
individual who Coulson sees greatness in—it’s important that Skye also sees a reason to believe in
Coulson, now more than ever because he’s literally the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The final twist of the episode comes when Skye’s father uses
his skills as a madman to approach Daniel Whitehall. After an epic takedown of
Whitehall’s guards, he takes a moment to clean blood off the guy’s desk before
asking for a position. Coulson’s crew have tracked down his lab and come to the
conclusion he’s crazy, so it’s nice to see this scene remove all doubt. Kyle
Machlachlan is set up for a fantastic run on the series. Almost as fantastic as
Bobbi Morse.
Now that the show is starting to answer some questions and has
created some real, compelling characters, there’s no need to think of it as the
goofy little brother to the standalone films. The show has finally found its groove
and it’s great!
Score: 9.0
Watch It Like a Fox:
Duck It:
- You like your parental figures crazy.
- Finally, Raina loses her composure a little!
- MOCKINGBIRD!
- Fitz/Mac is so close to happening. Seriously, Fitz' subconscious is noticing how built Mac is.
- The "infiltrate HYDRA" arc was a little anticlimactic.
- We need more Ward!
Tag :
Agents of Shield Reviews,
TV,
A Look In the Mirror Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 02 Episode 04 "Face My Enemy" Review
One of the things Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D. has always been good at is comedy. Admittedly, sometimes
you had to wonder whether it was trying
to be funny. But generally the show manages to keep a sense of humor, even while
it takes ten years to tell you Skye’s father is an alien. Yet, few episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actually put
light-hearted adventure front and center. I was beginning to think Jed Whedon
and Maurissa Tancharoen couldn’t create such episodes after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D.
last year. Thankfully, I was wrong, and Tuesday’s outing turned out to be the
best of the season.
While none of this episode is revolutionary television—“steal
the painting” and “fighting your doppleganger” are well worn tropes—the minutiae
elevate the episode. Take Fitz’s arc: last episode he began to wean himself off
of Simmons, but is still having difficulty connecting with the rest of the
team. While Mac, Hunter and Skye can casually mouth off about their exes and
rib each other, Fitz feels he doesn’t belong with them. It’s only after he
helps save the day that the team convince him to come out of his shell a
little. It’s definitely a theme that should resonate with a sizeable amount of
the show’s audience—from my experience, nerds lean towards introversion, making
it hard to connect with even people who they enjoy spending time with. What’s
really great about this, though, is seeing all the characters be cheerful,
casual people. S.H.I.E.L.D. can get so bogged down in following the plot bunnies down
their rabbit holes that it can neglect the subtle character moments that stand
out in any properly done Marvel property.
While Hunter and the nerds are rapping about their lives,
Melinda May and Coulson are hot on the trail of a painting that appears to have
symbols very similar to the ones Coulson has to fight not to begin drawing out,
on it. They go undercover in a swanky party to acquire the painting, but
encounter General Talbot. They ditch him with a bit of flirty tango-fu, and
attempt to steal the painting, but they arrive after it’s already been taken. Talbot
confronts them outside, but instead of siccing the entire Department of Defense
on them, he just requests Coulson come by and take a look at the painting. It
seems terribly like a trap. But without other options, they agree to the meet.
Throughout Coulson and May’s scenes is a bit of tension
springing from Coulson’s need to get Melinda to agree to a failsafe plan. After
all, if Coulson continues to unravel, someone should be there to stop him from
hurting anyone. Someone should be there to kill him. May is intentionally
avoiding talking about this, or so Coulson believes. I’ve made it clear how I
feel about Coulson’s whole “alien weirdness” plot, and while I’m not a huge
fan, I do have to admit it’s an excellent tool to create some drama.
May decides to tail Talbot and figure out what he’s up to, but
bites off more than she can chew when she finds out he’s secretly Bakshi!
Bakshi and his girl Friday, also a badass martial artist, manage to subdue May,
and use the same mask Bakshi wore to impersonate Talbot to impersonate May.
Coulson meets up with faux-May and pointedly jumps into the
conversation about her taking over for him if he goes too far off the deep end.
“May” agrees to off him, but really this HYDRA agent is probably just excited
to learn S.H.I.E.L.D. is led by the fairly average Coulson now, instead of Nick
Fury. Which may have been what tipped Coulson off, because next thing you know,
he’s punching May in the face after asking her if she would have a cup of
coffee with him post mission. Turns out, May hates coffee. The episode then
kicks into high gear as it is revealed fake May planted a destabilization
device on the Bus, and everyone there scrambles to keep it from exploding. May
is freed and has a fantastic battle scene with her doppleganger while Coulson
takes on Bakshi.
When all is said and done, the wheels on the bus keep going
round and round and May has taken her doppleganger down a notch (seriously, if
there’s one reason to watch this episode it’s for this great fight scene). And
the real May shoots down Coulson’s proposal to kill him, saying she’ll find a
way to save him, no matter what. It’s a poignant moment that carries real
emotional weight because we’ve seen how hard Coulson has struggled with his
newfound life. In the car with nay-May, he was practically begging for this
assurance. Hoping for the prospect of some relief at some unknown point in the
future. While May snatches this hope from him, she does give him something more
valuable than grim resolution: hope.
The episode ends with a tag involving Raina and the
fantastically menacing Kraken. When Kraken confronts her in her car, Raina
attempts to smooth talk her way out of his clutches, but Kraken uses a mystery
device to seemingly magnetize her hand and force it back onto the steering
wheel, proving he’s not as easily manipulated. He gives her an ultimatum:
return the Obelisk or he will return and… well, he doesn’t exactly say, but it
is implied that if he doesn’t get the Obelisk she will not want him returning. So basically the perfect way to tease the
season long arc, and much better than dropping random tidbits from Skye’s
father.
“Face My Enemy” hits you over the head with the metaphor,
where Fitz, Coulson and May must all face their worst enemies—themselves—but it
manages to engage with the characters on a deeper level by connecting their
stories. While not an essential episode, it is a thoroughly pleasing
installment.
Score: 9.0
Watch It Like a Fox:
Duck It:
- The hangout vibe is strong with this one!
- Amazing, fight choreography.
- If you ship Phil/Melinda (Philind? Is that really a thing?)
- The teaser with Kraken was perfectly chilling.
- You hate the cliche dancing scene. Or the fact that they are literally dancing around personal issues.
Tag :
Agents of Shield Reviews,
TV,
To Be(tray) or Not to Be(tray): Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 02 E03 "Making Friends and Influencing People" Review
 |
| All Credit to ABC.... No, seriously Coulson, ABC.... Stop looking at me like that, I'm not lying! Oh God, now May's doing it too! |
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has all the pieces of a great, comic book action/espionage hybrid drama. Fun, witty characters, good stunt choreography and fight scenes, an intriguing premise, and an established universe that is perhaps the most popular property to come out of Hollywood since Star Wars. So why does it struggle to be the show one can’t wait to get home from work (or stop playing video games, because let’s face it, no one’s got a job anymore) to watch? Why do I find myself grudgingly cycling it up on my DVR the day after air rather than plopping down to watch it live every Tuesday?
I’d argue there’s
just one flaw with the series, but it is a major one: pacing. Consider the fact
that the entire world waited with bated breath to discover the secret behind
Coulson’s revival, only to find the answer, revealed in last year’s midseason
finale, highly anticlimactic. Consider that at this point no one really cares
about Skye’s father. And let’s not forget the show basically spun its wheels
for 9 months while it awaited the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier to finally breathe life into
the premise. These kinds of missteps in pacing a season of television can be
overlooked, if only because they were the larger building blocks for the series
long storyline. When pacing really
becomes problematic—as in “viewers are leaving in droves” problematic—is when
the writers refuse to indulge in any degree of storytelling that is not
completely predictable.
Upon seeing the previews for “Making Friends and Influencing
People” last week, I immediately guessed more or less the trajectory of Simmons’
real world return. I imagine 90% of the world did. There is no way Simmons was
going to be working for HYDRA as anything other than an undercover agent. I am
at least thankful the episode didn’t try and pull off a last minute twist where
we think she’s working for HYDRA of her own free will, only for the last act to
see her reverse and help the team. But the corollary to Simmons remaining
undercover means we’re not going to see an end to this rather predictable
subplot.
Of course, my frustrations with the pacing of the series don’t
diminish the things it does very, very well. Namely, developing interesting
characters, particularly the female characters. While Simmons is revealed to be
an ace undercover operative trying to figure out HYDRA’s next move so she can
feed the info to the rest of Coulson’s crew, Skye is continuing her training to
become the most badass S.H.I.E.L.D. agent since Melinda May. The chemistry
between these ladies is great, and their mentor/mentee relationship works so
much better than Skye’s and Ward’s. Though, of course that relationship brought
us the one well paced plot twist of S.H.I.E.L.D.,
so it wasn’t all bad.
The mission of the week is to try and recruit Donald Gill,
AKA, Blizzard (Dylan Minette) before
HYDRA hooks him. Though the group has no idea of how far HYDRA is willing to go
until Fitz confronts Ward. This Fitz and Ward scene is one of the real
hallmarks of the episode, and gives Iain de Caestecker and Brett Dalton room to
shine. Coulson has been hiding Ward’s imprisonment from Fitz, unsure if he can
handle the stress of confronting the man who caused his brain damage. When Fitz
finally investigates on his own and comes across the cell, he flips out and
decides to show Ward exactly how terrible hypoxia is.
Fitz doesn’t limit Ward’s
oxygen because he genuinely wants to kill him, or even because he really wants
to torture him so badly. He instead seems to just want to be able to understand
how Ward could have done the same thing to him. For his part, Ward doesn’t seem
to care too much about the idea of slowly suffocating—he instead is only
worried about what the HYDRA operatives have already done to Donnie, and how
that will affect the team’s mission.
By the end of the episode, Ward has taken a few more steps
towards his redemption, though Skye is, understandably, still unable to see him
as anything other than a monster. There’s a tiny glimmer of hope in her eyes
when she asks if maybe Ward was brainwashed like Gill. But Ward quickly squashes
that notion (thankfully, as that would be a HUGE cop out on the show’s part).
He then finally tells Skye about her father. Skye promptly ends their conversation,
but the heart monitor she’d been using to forcibly control her adrenaline keeps
rising.
By the episode’s end, Donnie Gill has been shot by Skye and
faded into the icy waters of the ocean, and Simmons has managed to maintain her
cover. HYDRA’s Sunil Bakshi (Simon
Kassianides) now wants to brainwash her, though, which could lead to plenty
of delicious complications in the future. While there is no particular reason
to expect the episode to have changed the status quo, it still feels like S.H.I.E.L.D. has taken a step back. The
only reason to bring Gill back around was for the fanservice of having
Blizzard, and to reveal HYDRA can brainwash people. While we got a bit of
interesting character work revolving around Ward and the bridges he’s burned—bridges
leading to his former love interest and closest friend—the majority of this
episode felt like filler. The series will have to step it up in the coming
weeks if it truly wants to influence people to keep tuning in.
Score: 7.5
Watch It Like a Fox:
Duck It:
- So. Much. Ward. Dude is really buffing up.
- Great effects for Blizzard, and HYDRA's brainwashing room is just the right kind of cheesy.
- Really AOS writers? Tripp's personality is still "sassy black dude?!"
- You called the Simmons plot twist.
- You'll wait until Donnie Gill gets the sendoff the fan favorite character deserves!... What, you don't care about Blizzard that much?! Come on, he Infinity: Heist was okay...
Tag :
Agents of Shield Reviews,
TV,
Loyally Following: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 02 Episode 02 "Heavy is the Head" Review
 |
| Thanks ABC |
I complained last week about how the slow burn of plot
points makes the show a chore, but thankfully,
“Heavy is the Head” engages with its long term storytelling
instead of dropping hints in awkwardly during the procedural A-story.
Said
A-story is essentially the follow through on last week’s cliffhanger. Crusher
Creel has run off with the Obelisk and is plans to meet the buyer of the
mysterious artifact. It’s here where we get the first glimpses of how the team
is really doing since being forced
out into the cold.
Both Skye and May are eager to pursue all possible leads,
with Coulson forcing them to stand down, endlessly frustrating them. Fitz is still
hallucinating Simmons, and Tripp is prattling on about Chinese food.
Alright,
so Tripp seems mostly okay. But the others have serious issues with their new
leader. Thankfully, Coulson isn’t attempting to protect Skye from field work
itself, despite Skye attributing his attitude to paternalism. The real reason
Coulson is so stressed is he’s been trying to avoid having another “wall of
crazy” episode. Something about getting alien lifeblood injected into you to
return you from the afterlife starts making you feel like drawing weird alien
diagrams.
And yet, it’s pretty clear Coulson’s not in the best shape to be
handling the team even if he didn’t have the urge to start drawing weird alien
symbols everywhere. All the issues the team is facing relate directly to
Coulson’s failures from last year. While the team no longer holds themselves
responsible, it’s telling that Coulson only jumps into the field to save Hunter
after Mac has helped Fitz make progress. The molecular destabilizer used to
bring down Creel bridges the team in more ways than one. Coulson seems to be gaining
more loyal followers by the end of this week’s escapades as well—Lance Hunter
admits he’s intrigued by the idea of working for S.H.I.E.L.D. on a more regular
basis.
Which is quite the turn considering where the episode started with him.
The death of Hartley took Lance hardest, and his trip with
Talbot is the perfect display of loyalty to her. Talbot picks him up shortly
after he escapes Creel and they discuss his military past. Hunter intimates
that he was in a romantic relationship with Hartley (“Why else does anyone do
anything, general? I met a girl”) but regardless of whether he was in love with
Hartley or merely admired her talents and respected her as his leader, his apparent
willingness to betray Coulson’s team in exchange for a proper burial for the
woman fills the emotional void the newcomers were dealing with. While Hunter
was focused on honoring his commitment to deceased team members—forcing himself
to play a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with Coulson and Talbot— Mackenzie, is developing
a loyalty to everyone’s favorite nerdball. The bond Fitz and Mac seem to be
developing is no doubt going to be better in the long run than Fitz having to
hallucinate Simmons to cope. And Mac’s no nonsense attitude has even
Imaginary!Simmons intrigued.
As for the long form storytelling, we get a lot more of Ruth Negga’s Raina, the mysterious “girl
in the flower dress” for much of season 1 who turned out to be philosophically
interested in HYDRA’s pursuits, but less interested in all the icky bloodshed
and violence HYDRA regularly commits. She ends up snatching the all important
Obelisk this time, keeping it out of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s and HYDRA’s hands, only to
serve it up to a new player who is as mysterious as he is likely to be Skye’s
father menacing. Kyle MacLachlan seems
to know something about the Obelisk, but he’s not telling until he gets to have
a conversation with his daughter. Coulson manages to hash out a deal with
Talbot by making excellent use of their newly developed cloaking technology. It’s
a pretty epic scene and one which really lets Clark Gregg break out of his
shell. Gone is the tension of the past couple of episodes. Now that Coulson’s
had another episode he’s fully focused and unbelievably on point when he
marches to Talbot’s meet, apparently alone, only to reveal he’s cloaked the bus
and another S.H.I.E.L.D. carrier. Talbot will probably be taking Coulson’s
offer to surreptitiously receive “gifts” like Crusher Creel and keep them under
lock and key while S.H.I.E.L.D. is rebuilding. That’s definitely a form of
loyalty, right?
Score: 8.0
Watch It Like a Fox:
Duck It:
- Finally, Skye's dad!
- Aw, Fitz made a friend!
- You need closure after the death of Isabelle Hartley. She's in a better place (hopefully a Xena revival).
- Awesome quotes! "Not likely, the guy is jacked. And, he can turn any part of his body into any material!" -Skye
- Still a slow burn on a lot of fronts.
- You're only watching for Ward. Seriously, he doesn't even show up in flashback.
- ...Not so awsome quotes. Did Tripp really just say "Ah hell naw?!"
Tag :
Agents of Shield Reviews,
TV,
The More Things Change.... Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 02 Episode 01 "Shadows" Review
 |
| Credit: Marvel. Or ABC. Or Disney? Point is, I don't own it! You get that, right? |
Last year’s television season was a rough one for nerds. A
slew of new fantasy/sci-fi series were picked up to series, but the majority of
them were canceled. A few of the casualties included: The Tomorrow People, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, Believe, Dracula,
Revolution and Star-Crossed.
Thankfully, the consistently great Arrow
managed to follow up a fantastic first season with an even more intense second
season, but for the most part nerds and geeks were forced to flock to cable to
get their weirdness fix. Or watch one of the more qualitatively uneven genre
shows of the year: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
While premiering with strong ratings and decent to outright glowing reviews,
the series ended up garnering more and more criticism as its ratings declined
throughout the year. A large part of the problem was the series was attempting
to do something that had never been done before: bundle itself with the Marvel
movie universe and build stories in this shared continuity. Comic books get
away with shared Universes because creative teams are given far more access to
characters—no need to work around an actor’s schedule—and can retroactively
reverse certain decisions much more plausibly than a television show. Not to
mention they work in only one medium. S.H.I.E.L.D.,
meanwhile, had to limit guest appearances of the more colorful characters
inhabiting the Marvel Cinematic Universe not only because of the difficulty in
scheduling or budgeting for guest actors like Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury,
but also because a huge plot point needed to wait for Captain America: The Winter Soldier to be released.
After the release of the film, the main characters discover
HYDRA has infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. to the highest levels, and are forced into a
much more cynical world than the first half of the season portrayed. With
enemies everyone, and no one who they could trust, a good portion of the
season’s second half saw a demoralized Coulson ready to give up. By the time it
was all said and done, Ward (Brett
Dalton) had betrayed the rest of Coulson’s team, Skye (Chloe Bennett) was emotionally broken by the betrayal, Melinda May
(Ming-Na Wen) was revealed to have
betrayed Coulson’s trust in order to do the right thing, and FitzSimmons (both
the shipper name and the nickname for the lovable geeks Leo Fitz and Jemma
Simmons, played by Iain De Caestecker
and Elizabeth Henstridge
respectively) were traumatized at the hand of their former friend Ward when he
trapped them in a container sinking to the bottom of the ocean. The only good
thing that happened to the crew in-Universe seemed to be the arrival of Agent
Antoine Triplett (BJ Britt) as a
replacement for Ward.
The season premiere moves forward by taking its viewers into
the past. Hayley Atwell reprises her
Captain America role as Agent Peggy
Carter, now working in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s predecessor the Strategic Scientific Reserve.
Peggy and her crew (Cap’s other army buddies) lock and box the very first 0-8-4.
We then jump ahead to Coulson’s ever reliable team working with a group of
newbies on a bust. Among the newbies are Lance Hunter (Nick Blood), Alphonso “Mac” McKenzie (Henry Simmons) and Isabelle Hartley (Lucy Lawless of Xena
fame). Hartley is the group’s leader, and is reasonably proficient in handling
the new team during the sting operation. Unfortunately, despite some enjoyable
banter the newcomers to Coulson’s crew do little to stand out from the pack,
and by the episode’s end they are quite possibly simply killed off. After a
quick tussle with the baddies, everyone regroups at Billy Koenig’s (Patton Oswalt) secret base, the
Playground.
The group focuses on trying to recover the first 0-8-4,
something called “The Obelisk.” Manipulating General Talbot to get access to the
item is the easy part, the harder part involves dealing with a new villain
named Crusher Creel, played here by
Brian Patrick Wade. Comic fans will probably recognize him as Abosrbing
Man. There’s a smidge of the procedural element S.H.I.E.L.D. was originally lambasted for throughout the rest of
the hour, but the cohesion of the episode comes from the interaction between the
characters who are still reeling from last year’s final arc.
Fans of Joss Whedon series should feel right at home with
this season’s opener as it gives equal focus to the action and the
interpersonal stories. In the latter half of the first season, SHIELD managed
to effectively incorporate espionage elements into increasingly more serialized
storylines exploring the many deficiencies of its main cast. Tonight continues
the streak by dropping Fitz into a “break the cutie” subplot, where he’s still
struggling to recover from nearly drowning. The twist at the end is heart
wrenching: Fitz is not only incapable of creating a cloaking device for The
Bus, but he’s actually been hallucinating Simmons since she left, unable to
take seeing him with such a broken mind.
Ward, meanwhile, seems to be set on something of a redemption
arc. He’s been attempting suicide since being imprisoned, apparently not able
to face the decisions he made while working with Garrett. Skye gives absolutely
no f$)%s about his problems while squeezing him for information on their
current case. It’s a great scene, with the standing inches apart, separated by
an invisible cage keeping Ward locked up. The disgust on Skye’s face is
palpable, but underneath is a hint of yearning for the relationship she and
Ward used to have, or at least a yearning for things to be like they were when
Ward was still on the team.
The difficulty in gauging the quality of this series is, and
will continue to be, its obsession with the slow burn of building plotlines.
Tonight’s episode was respectable enough in and of itself, but there are
moments where the series holds back for little other reason than it wants to
continue teasing a storyline. A perfect example is Skye blocking Ward before he
can bring up her father. Last season, Coulson’s revival and his mysterious
obsession with Tahiti was the constantly teased plot. Finding out he was cured
with alien blood while begging for death did make me a little queasy, but was
hardly worth the wait. Of course, the snappy dialogue, and precise action
sequences made the latter half of last season more than worth the wait. Things
like the light hearted impersonation of the General and Absorbing Man’s
impressive CGI and stunt work makes me think S.H.I.E.L.D. has finally found its footing.
Overall: 7.5
Watch It Like a Fox:
Duck It:
- You’re interested in seeing a group of hopelessly down on their luck characters pull together for the greater good without any superpowers or even officially sanctioned help.
- Peggy Carter. You can’t miss any Peggy Carter. Especially not now that she’s getting her own show!
- The only Marvel continuity you can follow is the cinematic Universe.
- You’re glad they’re finally throwing in more characters from the comics. Not only do we get Nick Hunter and Crusher Creel, but Reed Diamond makes an appearance in flashback as the infamous Kraken. Ya know, one of the most badass operatives of Hydra!
- You’re tired of TV shows teasing stuff. Just get to it already!
- Last season’s upswing has you worried about the trajectory of the show before May, when Avengers: Age of Ultron comes out.
- You can’t stand to see Ward behind bars. Or, alternatively, you can’t stand Ward.
Tag :
Agents of Shield Reviews,
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