Marvel’s Agent Carter (ABC) (2 Viewers)

[Josh Dial]

I think Agent Carter is good--good, but not great. The first three episodes are certainly better than the first three episodes of SHIELD, but that isn't saying much. The leads are great, and the supporting cast is great, too. However, the dialogue is only average, and I don't think the direction is anything special (though there were a few nice shots in episode 3).


My biggest problems are the sets and the colour/softness of the show. I actually find it strange that a lot of people have been heaping praise on the show's "look," as I don't think--outside of costuming--that the show has captured the correct look at all. The image is far too soft and the colours are far too muted; you can't simply slap a filter on the lens and tweak the colours and call it noir (which, I assume, is the look that is being sought). There are, oddly, a number of similarities with NCIS. Honestly, the softness of the image is maddening at times. It's like the showrunners though "well, it's the 40s, everything is soft and dull! See? It's the paaaaast!"


Further, the world does not look lived in at all. With the exception of Carter's former apartment, everything is too clean and brand new, and there isn't enough "stuff" in the world. Most shots looks like a stage production or, really, a cheesy sitcom back lot set at a lower rent studio. Now, contrast this with Amazon's (excellent) pilot for "The Man in the High Castle," which takes places in an alternate universe where the Axis won the Second World War (adapted from the Phillip K Dick novel of the same name). Japanese San Francisco is cluttered, loud, bustling. Nazi New York and Chicago are slightly dirty, hazy, industrial (despite German efficiency).


Agent Carter's world look cheap and lazy. This is a shame, because the leads are so good. I'll watch the show (because I like it, and I really like the MCU), however, and I hope it spawns another series or more episodes down the road.

 

[DaveF]

I'm watching episode two. Jarvis was arrested regarding the bumper and license plate tirn from the getaway car in the implosion.

I failed to understand the interaction with Carter that got him out of the SRR interrogation. Can someone elucidate that for me?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

While I understand the attitude from Peggy's male co-workers from the 40's perspective. I am just not Inking how everyone treats her like a secretary. At a minimum her boss should know that she was an agent working with Cap and the Howling Commandos. If all (especially her boss) thought she was just a regular "women"...she would be manning the phones boards with the other ladies and not an agent.

I think the show has actually done a good job addressing those concerns, far more than the One Shot did. She has her job title and her appointment based on her record, but the guys she's working with now -- while being veterans in their own right -- didn't serve with her in the war. They hear about the helpless Betty Carver on "The Captain America Adventure Hour" and assume that's much closer to the truth than it actually was. The station chief actually makes a comment at one point about how he's stuck with her.

By hour three, they're starting to recognize her talents and appreciate her set of skills, and then she has to play the dimwitted simpleton to get Jarvis out of hot water. And then uses up whatever good will she'd built up.

My biggest problems are the sets and the colour/softness of the show. I actually find it strange that a lot of people have been heaping praise on the show's "look," as I don't think--outside of costuming--that the show has captured the correct look at all. The image is far too soft and the colours are far too muted; you can't simply slap a filter on the lens and tweak the colours and call it noir (which, I assume, is the look that is being sought). There are, oddly, a number of similarities with NCIS. Honestly, the softness of the image is maddening at times. It's like the showrunners though "well, it's the 40s, everything is soft and dull! See? It's the paaaaast!"

I guess it's a matter of personal preference; most ABC shows in my opinion are too sharp and too brightly saturated. This show doesn't look like anything else on the network, and that's a good thing in my book. The muted lighting is also a lot more atmospheric than most shows are allowed to be.

Further, the world does not look lived in at all. With the exception of Carter's former apartment, everything is too clean and brand new, and there isn't enough "stuff" in the world. Most shots looks like a stage production or, really, a cheesy sitcom back lot set at a lower rent studio. Now, contrast this with Amazon's (excellent) pilot for "The Man in the High Castle," which takes places in an alternate universe where the Axis won the Second World War (adapted from the Phillip K Dick novel of the same name). Japanese San Francisco is cluttered, loud, bustling. Nazi New York and Chicago are slightly dirty, hazy, industrial (despite German efficiency).

I get where you're coming from, but it's 1946, the United States of America has just emerged victorious from World War II as the world's preeminent superpower. The country has never in its history been so economically powerful. And after a massive overseas war effort, everybody has just returned home. In that environment, a lot of places were clean and brand new.

By contrast, "The Man in the High Castle" takes place in 1962, seventeen years after the end of the war, in a defeated America that has been divvied up between the victorious Axis powers. It makes sense that that world would feel dirtier and grimier and more lived in.

I failed to understand the interaction with Carter that got him out of the SRR interrogation. Can someone elucidate that for me?

Jarvis's defense against the accusation that he was driving that night was that Howard Stark's car had been stolen and that he'd filed a police report. The SSR agents weren't buying it, since the NYPD were unable to turn up a copy of the police report. Just as they're getting ready to put the screws to Jarvis with the threat of deportation for him and his wife as leverage, Peggy walks in and says that she has found the missing police report. Jarvis, hearing this, knows he's in the clear and the other agents lose their grounds for holding him.

 

[DaveF]

My wife and I enjoyed it. the 40's atmosphere was well done, and we loved the linkage with the Captain America radio show. Hayley Atwell makes a lot of modern TV leading ladies look like anorexic waifs.

I'm catching up on the thread, and this resonated, as Lyndsey Fronseca looks gaunt, especially compared to Hayley Atwell.

 

[Josh Dial]

I get where you're coming from, but it's 1946, the United States of America has just emerged victorious from World War II as the world's preeminent superpower. The country has never in its history been so economically powerful. And after a massive overseas war effort, everybody has just returned home. In that environment, a lot of places were clean and brand new.

It's the sparseness that is the issue, as though the show's budget didn't have enough room for enough "stuff." It looks clean because it's empty. I really don't think there is any sort of historical verisimilitude at work here. Coupled with the softness (and I agree that ABC shows tend to have a lot of LOST-like over-saturation), it all just looks like a CBS backlot; it seriously looks like NCIS.


Again, I like the show a lot, and I'm "all in" on the MCU. I just wish Agent Carter didn't look so...cheap.

 

[DaveF]

Jarvis's defense against the accusation that he was driving that night was that Howard Stark's car had been stolen and that he'd filed a police report. The SSR agents weren't buying it, since the NYPD were unable to turn up a copy of the police report. Just as they're getting ready to put the screws to Jarvis with the threat of deportation for him and his wife as leverage, Peggy walks in and says that she has found the missing police report. Jarvis, hearing this, knows he's in the clear and the other agents lose their grounds for holding him.

Huh. The dialog seemed to go very differently. The SSR had an empty file folder, on the "police report". Peggy took that empty folder. Then came back with what I thought was the empty folder and said, "Sorry, I took your police report by accident." But there was no indication that she managed to find the missing report; there was no time for her to find it either.


Was the meaning that the SSR had the police report the whole time, and were hiding it from Jarvis? And Peggy "accidentally" revealed to Jarvis that it wasn't lost or missing as SSR said?


It's a minor detail, and I understood the broad strokes of the action. But that sequence felt like the edited out a necessary detail.

 

[DaveF]

In any case, I'm hooked. Agent Carter is a fun show with good pathos. This episode worked very well for me. It's too easy to kill a character off in a weak ploy to manipulate the viewers. But this worked. The implications that had Peggy stayed to cover for him, he might not be dead. Had she, foolishly, called in the found Stark weapons directly, he might not be dead. Had she not had Jarvis call in as he did, he might not be dead.


That episode set the stakes for Carter: She's placing her reputation, career, and even life on the line. And by working in the shadows, she's putting others at risk without them knowing it.


I'm a sucker for a show with a strong female lead. Judging Amy. Buffy. Alias. The Good Wife. These shows are far and few between. Agent Carter isn't, for me, up there with the best, but it's in the game. I had prejudged and dismissed it out of hand. But I'm glad folks here convinced me to give it a go.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

It's the sparseness that is the issue, as though the show's budget didn't have enough room for enough "stuff." It looks clean because it's empty.

I can understand that critique, to an extent. I'm probably grading on a curve since it's ABC, but for me its the least cheap looking show on the network's schedule. Some of the digital matte paintings of 1940s New York City during the exterior scenes I've found particularly effective.

Huh. The dialog seemed to go very differently. The SSR had an empty file folder, on the "police report". Peggy took that empty folder. Then came back with what I thought was the empty folder and said, "Sorry, I took your police report by accident." But there was no indication that she managed to find the missing report; there was no time for her to find it either.

Was the meaning that the SSR had the police report the whole time, and were hiding it from Jarvis? And Peggy "accidentally" revealed to Jarvis that it wasn't lost or missing as SSR said?

It's a minor detail, and I understood the broad strokes of the action. But that sequence felt like the edited out a necessary detail.

The police report either didn't exist, or had been filed after the accident as the SSR agents alleged. There were two things going on here.

The first was that Carter brought in a miscellaneous document for Dooley to sign, as a pretense for listening in on Thompson's interrogation of Carter.

The second was the doctored police report, in a similar SSR folder, which Carter brought up at the opportune time to effect Jarvis's release.

 

[DaveF]

The police report either didn't exist, or had been filed after the accident as the SSR agents alleged. There were two things going on here.

The first was that Carter brought in a miscellaneous document for Dooley to sign, as a pretense for listening in on Thompson's interrogation of Carter.

The second was the doctored police report, in a similar SSR folder, which Carter brought up at the opportune time to effect Jarvis's release.

That's the jump I didn't get. (My wife was equally confused.) That, off-screen Peggy fabricated a missing police report. Unfortunately, the action and dialog weren't harmonious; the implicit action only contributed to the confusion. We took it as an editing error in which "magic thing happened that Jarvis needed to be able to leave and embarrassed Peggy professionally"

 

[Jason_V]

And I read that whole interaction differently. I thought SSR had the police report and were lying saying it couldn't be found in order to pressure Jarvis. Peggy figured it out, brought the big stack of folders in, grabbed the report on the bottom and then used it to free Jarvis.


Maybe I need to rewatch that part...

 

[Josh Dial]

And I read that whole interaction differently. I thought SSR had the police report and were lying saying it couldn't be found in order to pressure Jarvis. Peggy figured it out, brought the big stack of folders in, grabbed the report on the bottom and then used it to free Jarvis.

That was my understanding, too. In the part of the scene in the observation room, we learn that SSR has the police report: Peggy is in the room observing, Jarvis mentions the police report, Peggy leaves immediately "just when it's getting good" (or something like that). Shortly thereafter, Peggy returns with a stack of files, which she places on top of the police report while getting Dooley's signature for the report on the top of the pile. Peggy takes the whole pile with her, including the real police report, which she then uses to help Jarvis.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

And I read that whole interaction differently. I thought SSR had the police report and were lying saying it couldn't be found in order to pressure Jarvis. Peggy figured it out, brought the big stack of folders in, grabbed the report on the bottom and then used it to free Jarvis.

Was the meaning that the SSR had the police report the whole time, and were hiding it from Jarvis? And Peggy "accidentally" revealed to Jarvis that it wasn't lost or missing as SSR said?

That was my understanding, too. In the part of the scene in the observation room, we learn that SSR has the police report: Peggy is in the room observing, Jarvis mentions the police report, Peggy leaves immediately "just when it's getting good" (or something like that). Shortly thereafter, Peggy returns with a stack of files, which she places on top of the police report while getting Dooley's signature for the report on the top of the pile. Peggy takes the whole pile with her, including the real police report, which she then uses to help Jarvis.

These are exactly how I took the scene to play out. I don't think there's anything overly complicated going on here, these quotes are the story.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The reason I didn't read it that way was that I thought one of the agents made a comment about the NYPD not being able to turn up the police report.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

ABC just released its listing for Episode 5, and it sounds really exciting:

Spoiler

AGENT CARTER REUNITES WITH THE HOWLING COMMANDOS FOR A SECRET MISSION,​

ON “MARVEL’S AGENT CARTER” ON ABC​

​

“The Iron Ceiling” – Peggy is finally trusted with a mission and calls upon her trusted Howling Commandos squad for backup. But her cover could be at risk when SSR Chief Dooley also sends Agent Thompson with her, on “Marvel’s Agent Carter,” TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3 (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.


“Marvel’s Agent Carter” stars Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter, James D'Arcy as Edwin Jarvis, Chad Michael Murray as Agent Jack Thompson, Enver Gjokaj as Agent Daniel Sousa and Shea Whigham as Chief Roger Dooley.


Guest starring are Eddie Shin as Agent Li, Greg Serano as Agent Ramirez, Neal McDonough as Dum-Dum Dugan, Bridget Regan as Dottie Underwood, Leonard Roberts as Happy Sam Sawyer, James Austin Kerr as Junior Juniper, Richard Short as Pinky Pinkerton, Ralph Brown as Dr. Ivchenko and Jared Gertner as cryptographer.


”The Iron Ceiling” was written by Jose Molina and directed by Peter Leto.


“Marvel’s Agent Carter” is broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC’s selected HDTV format with a 5.1 channel surround sound. A TV parental guideline will be assigned closer to the airdate.

 

[DaveF]

And I read that whole interaction differently. I thought SSR had the police report and were lying saying it couldn't be found in order to pressure Jarvis. Peggy figured it out, brought the big stack of folders in, grabbed the report on the bottom and then used it to free Jarvis.


Maybe I need to rewatch that part...

The reason I didn't read it that way was that I thought one of the agents made a comment about the NYPD not being able to turn up the police report.

I understood the Captain in the observation room as saying they didn't have the report either, similar to Adam.


The fact that there are conflicting interpretations on what should be a trivially-communicated plot beat shows me that this aspect was edited poorly. In any case, I appreciate the perspectives. I understand what was intended, even if I didn't get it from the show proper


I do find that the fast, '50s-esque dialog, coupled with Carter's accent, leaves me a bit slow to pick up on some details.

 

[Malcolm R]

I understood the Captain in the observation room as saying they didn't have the report either, similar to Adam.

Carter asks the captain about the missing stolen car report. "Currently lost...in the system," he replies, picking up the stolen car report on the table in front of him and waving it at Carter.

Short of the captain using air quotes or winking at Carter when he acknowledged he had the stolen car report in his hand, I thought it was pretty straight-forward.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Carter asks the captain about the missing stolen car report. "Currently lost...in the system," he replies, picking up the stolen car report on the table in front of him and waving it at Carter.

Short of the captain using air quotes or winking at Carter when he acknowledged he had the file, I thought his meaning was pretty clear.

It was to me. I think some of us need a flash course in Sherlock Holmes observation skills.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Carter asks the captain about the missing stolen car report. "Currently lost...in the system," he replies, picking up the stolen car report on the table in front of him and waving it at Carter.

Short of the captain using air quotes or winking at Carter when he acknowledged he had the stolen car report in his hand, I thought it was pretty straight-forward.

Thank you, that explains our confusion! It's not that Dave and I missed a scene, it's that we misinterpreted a scene. I totally missed the archness of the station chief's delivery on that line.

 

[DaveF]

Carter asks the captain about the missing stolen car report. "Currently lost...in the system," he replies, picking up the stolen car report on the table in front of him and waving it at Carter.
Short of the captain using air quotes or winking at Carter when he acknowledged he had the stolen car report in his hand, I thought it was pretty straight-forward.

Thanks
The folder was, visually, empty to me. So I took his words literally.

 

[Joel Fontenot]

Thanks
The folder was, visually, empty to me. So I took his words literally.

And, I guess I must have looked away at that moment - maybe reaching for my Coke on the coffee table or something. I don't remember seeing the Captain waving anything when he spoke that line. I was a bit confused at the outcome as well.


At least it's all clear to me now.