Marvel’s Agent Carter (ABC) (1 Viewer)

[Ejanss]

I hope they don't expand it to the full 22 if it does go to additional seasons. It would suck the life out of it and turn it into another procedural.

How many miniseries made the fatal step of trying to expand themselves to full-time series?
V: the Series, Twin Peaks (second season), Max Headroom: the Series...

(And as noted, it's not like we exactly have a current shortage of grim persecuted female procedural agents fighting to be taken seriously in a man's world, with or without Marvel or 40's trappings...Betting pool's open for how long we still get Phase 2 Captain America refs, and before the network cashes in on their audience and turns it into a wartime version of Mad Men.)

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I also wonder if Toby Jones (Dr. Zola) will make an appearance? If not this season, perhaps in a subsequent season if the show is successful?

I would like that as well. In Winter Soldier, the computer Zola mentioned that his flesh-and-blood progenitor was recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D. as part of Operation Paperclip. The real world Operation Paperclip ran from August 1945 to some nebulous point in the fifties or sixties, with the nearly 1,600 Nazi scientists and engineers recruited continuing to advance American science and technology into the nineties. Presumably at the point where the show begins, Colonel Phillips has him stashed away in a cell somewhere.Another thing I'd be interested in seeing is just how much of a departure the MCU universe history is from the real world history; for instance, was Truman president in 1946, or was there a MCU equivilant president for the final years of WWII? We know that the Ellis/Rodriguez ticket won the 2012 presidential election in the MCU, as a direct consequence of America's sense of vulnerability in the aftermath of the Battle of New York six months before the election.While the modern day America of the Marvel universe largely mirrors the real modern day America, there are some significant differences as well; up until Winter Soldier there was a global intelligence aparatus that pooled resources from many (if not all) of the world's major post-war powers. We know that it was discrete from the national intelligence agencies, like the CIA, and seemed focused primarily on addressing the sort of security threats that don't exist in the real world, or at least didn't exist until much later. We know that Stark Industries supplanted Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon as the premier defense contractor for the United States military. We also know that Stark Industries is responsible for a number of technological advancements above what exists in the real world. Likewise, the existance of the sovreign and isolationist nation of Wakanda in eastern Africa suggests a very different Scramble for Africa, where things like the Black Panther might have shifted the balance away from the colonizing European powers back toward the native populations.What other differences are there from the real post-war years that might not be superficially evident in the modern day Marvel films but never the less had a profound impact on how this world developed? I don't expect "Agent Carter" to be a history lesson, but I think it'd be really cool if he got little glimpses of the differences along the journey.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Early reviews are looking positive. I'm not reading any in full, but I did read these excerpts, and I'm glad it seems to be well received. FROM FORBES--------

Thanks to the benefits of a well constructed main character that shows clear signs of capability from both a personal and professional standpoint, and a series that has very clear behind the scenes support across all fronts from both network and studio, ?Agent Carter has managed to raise Marvel’s game significantly with its first episode......

FROM NY DAILY NEWS-----

Agent Peggy Carter is a marvelous addition to the cool women characters now prowling TV screens. And “Marvel’s Agent Carter” is a strong second show from ABC’s partnership with Marvel Comics. There’s plenty of action to go with snappy grownup dialogue, and Peggy is the kind of dame you won’t be able to resist watching.....

FROM PITTSBURG POST------

“Agent Carter” is a welcome, interesting entry, a far cry from the “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” large ensemble and a welcome opportunity to put a woman front and center. In addition, the 1940s production design is admirably detailed and deep, from costumes to computer-generated sets and backgrounds.....

FROM COMICBOOK.COM----

Agent Carter brings a new and welcome female perspective to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, and the creative people behind the series have done well to hone in on it as an identifying theme. The top-tier talent of writers and directors provides strong characters, which are played well by their actors, and fun, sometimes quite memorable, action sequences. There’s no need to wait for Captain Marvel, Agent Carter is the hero you’ve been waiting for....

FROM SF GATE-----

Gosh, “Marvel’s Agent Carter” is a heck of a lot of fun, and if that statement feels a bit old-fashioned, well, it fits the sprightly period piece about a female secret agent fighting bad guys and sexism just after World War II. Atwell is terrific in the title role, as capable in the efficient, unflappable skin of Peggy....

 

[todd s]

I wonder if the show does well. They find a way to de-age Peggy and bring her youthful appearance to the modern marvel universe.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The Hollywood Reporter has a fun interview in which "Arrow" head writer Marc Guggenheim interviews "Agent Carter" showrunners Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas about the show. The added twist is that Guggenheim is married to Butters in real life.

 

[Sean Bryan]

 

[Jeff Cooper]

image.jpg

Awwww hamburgers!

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Loved it. This show came out of the gate firing on all cylinders, with an impeccable cast, a night-and-day difference from "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", which took most of its first season to figure itself out and still frequently frustrates. That being said, "Agent Carter" has a huge advantage in that "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." is ancillary entertainment, having to weave in and out of the major goings-on from the big-screen events, whereas "Agent Carter" has carved out a huge swath of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that it has all to itself.

As much fun as the "Agent Carter" one-shot was, it felt a bit too broad and one note. All of the guys she works with were pigs, and then she's handed the reins of S.H.I.E.L.D. on a silver platter. This show takes that concept and really expands its out, finding the color and some depth from it. Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely's pilot script was just right; they did a great job creating the framework for the show and mapping out the various relationships, and because they wrote Captain America: The First Avenger, the pilot could weave in and out of the bits from the movie and have it feel seamless. One of my big complaints about ABC shows in generally is that they're all shot more or less the same way, and it's a look that works good for comedies but doesn't translate so well to dramas. Gabriel Beristain ("Magic City", "The Strain")'s cinematography sidesteps that neatly, taking great pains to mimic both the lighting and photography from Joe Johnston's film. It's not always quite so polished as the movie, or many cable efforts, but it's lightyears above the standard network look. Christopher Lennertz composed the music for the one shot, and he's doing the music for the series as well. I love the jazzy feel to the score, and the playfulness of it.

There was a lot of headscratching about the decision not to bring Bradley Whitford back as Agent Flynn, but I'm so happy they didn't. We know how that relationship ends, and it would have boxed in the series to be locked into that place the entire series. Since the team at the Manhattan office is entirely new, the show can take those characters wherever it needs to, and they have room to grow. This show is squarely a sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger, and not a prequel to everything else in the MCU that follows.

I also thought that "The Captain America Aventure Hour" was a brilliant storytelling device for the show. It keeps Peggy's loss present in a continuing way, without her having to get all mopey about it, and it helps explain by Roger Dooley and the other guys are so dismissive of her despite her sterling record. It's not just that she's a woman, it's that they believe she's Betty Carver. The radio program is entertainment that satisfies a societal need to reverse the wartime upheaval of traditional gender roles as the G.I.s return home and need jobs.

Shea Whigham and Chad Michael Murray have the tough jobs of playing characters who need to be seen as mysognists but also need to be taken seriously. Shea Whigham plays station chief Roger Dooley as unthinkingly mysognistic; it's not that he's actively hostile to Peggy, it's just that he hasn't given any thought to treating her any other way. Chad Michael Murray, was the casting I was most skeptical about, but he's great here. His Agent Thompson is a bully and a prick, but he's also a smart and ambitious veteran. So far Enver Gjokaj's been given a prop more than a character, but he's never less than great in anything and he has a nice rapport with Peggy.

The rest of the cast is equally terrific:
James D'Arcy is tremendous as Howard Stark's butler, Edwin Jarvis, who has assumed the pose of a mild domesticated English gentleman, but appears to be keeping his own (and Stark's) counsel on a great many things. D'Arcy perfectly captures the wry sense of humor that Paul Bettany brought to Tony Stark's A.I. Jarvis, and the scenes where Peggy and Jarvis just being English back and forth at each other while blasting through danger were some of my favorites.

Lyndsy Fonseca is another great surprise. I've only realy seen her as the Daughter on "How I Met Your Mother" and as Katie in "Kick Ass", both fundamentally passive roles, so I wasn't sure what to expect here. She embues Angie with quickness and vitality, reminding me a of lot of great supporting characters from actual 1940s comedies, and presents a woman who's just as forceful and independent as Peggy in her own way. She may be in the dark as to what Peggy does, but she's no dummy. And there's a screwball element that comes into the show when she's onscreen, which I really enjoyed.

Dominic Cooper remains endlessly charismatic and entertaining as Howard Stark. He has such a big presence that even when he only has a few minutes of screentime he's felt through the entire episode. Ray Wise was also a lot of fun as Stark's rather gleefully amoral competitor.

But at the end of the day, this show lives or dies on Hayley Atwell's shoulders, and she's phenomenal the whole way through. Peggy Carter kicks ass, of course, and she puts MacGyver to shame at times with her endless resourcefulness. But she's also heartbroken, prickly, arrogant and standoffish. Things go wrong for her quite a bit over the course of the two hours, and usually the outcome is not a triumphant defeat of her enemies but rather narrowly avoiding disaster and barely coming out on the other side alive. I don't feel like I'm watching the TV version of this character; it's all of a piece with her big screen work.

The real test will be next week though: The first hour was written by Markus & McFeely and directed by one shot director Louis D'Esposito. The second hour was written by one shot writer Eric Pearson and directed by Captain America: The Winter Soldier co-director Joe Russo. Next week is the first episode with the TV talent. That being said, Pearson's episode went through Butters & Fazekas's writers room. The director of the third episode, Scott Winant, directed the pilot for "Dead Like Me", one of my favorite television episodes of all time. And the writer of the third episode, Andi Bushell, has a lot of experience in this genre from her tenure on "Alias".

 

[Sam Favate]

I enjoyed the premiere a lot. The show has a real star in Hayley Atwell, and the writing remained sharp throughout. I like that there aren't a million mysteries to be solved, with each act teasing that you'll learn a big reveal just after the commercial. The production design is beautiful; great period stuff, with lots of art deco.


I wonder why in all the promotional materials, Atwell's role in the Pillars of the Earth miniseries isn't mentioned? She was one of the stars of that production, and was very good in it. (It also featured Eddie Redmayne who has also become a bigger star.)


Looking forward to the next six installments.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Damn, missed it. Is there a repeat showing?

 

[Jason Charlton]

I too was supremely impressed with the premiere. Atwell is astonishingly good, and the period feel of the show felt completely genuine.


I'm sure part of my excitement is due to AoS withdrawal, but I am really looking forward to the rest of the series.

 

[mattCR]

Yeah, really really good. I enjoyed it a lot.. that said, there were a lot of elements to me that seemed straight up lifted from Fringe and Alias.. the typewriter at the beginning especially so.. but I thought it was still really good; a solid pre-fleshed out premise. I love the costume design work on this as well.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Damn, missed it. Is there a repeat showing?

It looks like episode 1 is re-airing Saturday at 9pm, but I don't see episode 2 listed.

 

[David_B_K]

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.

 

[Brett_M]

Watched both episodes last night and I have to say I really enjoyed them. It was very lighthearted with some good action. It's not Alias-style action or drama but fun nonetheless. Some nice flashbacks with Captain America and the unrequited love aspect is very moving. Both scripst were sharp and the dialog crackled.


Haley Atwell (so gorgeous) fully embodies the character (no pun intended) and is obviously having a ball in the roll. The supporting characters are good, especially James D'Arcy. Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday night for the next 7 weeks.

 

[Robert Crawford]

It looks like episode 1 is re-airing Saturday at 9pm, but I don't see episode 2 listed.

Thank you. Hopefully, episode 2 will have another airing.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Thank you. Hopefully, episode 2 will have another airing.

Okay, found out episode 2 comes on again just before episode 3 next Tuesday.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I was only able to catch a couple of minutes. . .I assume this is available On Demand?

 

[joshEH]

I loved the scene of Carter beating the milkman's ass over the Captain America radio show. Top-notch stuff.


Also loved the ditzy voice-over ("Oh no, it's the Nazis!! Save me, Captain America!!) juxtaposed with Carter -- a woman unfairly defined by her relationship with Cap -- kicking the living shit out of a thug and being totally badass on her own.


Random trivial thing that totally bugged me -- casting James Urbaniak (the voice of Dr. Rusty Venture), and then not letting him speak!

 

[Ejanss]

As much fun as the "Agent Carter" one-shot was, it felt a bit too broad and one note. All of the guys she works with were pigs, and then she's handed the reins of S.H.I.E.L.D. on a silver platter.
Shea Whigham and Chad Michael Murray have the tough jobs of playing characters who need to be seen as mysognists but also need to be taken seriously.

I loved the scene of Carter beating the milkman's ass over the Captain America radio show. Top-notch stuff.


Also loved the ditzy voice-over ("Oh no, it's the Nazis!! Save me, Captain America!!) juxtaposed with Carter -- a woman unfairly defined by her relationship with Cap -- kicking the living shit out of a thug and being totally badass on her own.

(I was prepared for the feminist male-bashing, but so help me, if they're going to feminist-bash old radio...I believe Margot Lane would have a few things to say about that. )