S.H.I.E.L.D. (Joss Whedon's Live Action Marvel Universe TV Series on ABC) (3 Viewers)

[Citizen87645]

The final Garrett "scene " -- that seemed a bit out of context. I think that was just in either his head or Colson's head.

[*]It just doesn't make sense that they would have just left him there alone in the box for enough time that he could climb out.
[*]When Colson blows him away he is not wearing the suit jacket
[*]It goes directly to Colson on the plane (wearing the suit jacket) and yelling at Fury about the mind-altering affects of the drug.
[/list]

Not being a Whedon aficionado, I didn't get the last scene with Garrett on the table getting all Darth Vader'd up and then blowing up. It makes sense as an internal dream of Garrett. He was dead for sure in that box and I was kind of hoping he'd survive to come back and cause more trouble. But I guess there's lots more villains in the Marvel universe.

It is a classic Whedon move that doesn't need to be over-analyzed. It's the subversion of a trope, mostly played for laughs, but also to close the book on bringing back the bad guy. Think of Loki getting ragdolled by the Hulk in The Avengers, as far as the humor.

 

[Yee-Ming]

I've never read any of the comics, so could someone give a quick run-down on "Life Model Decoy"? I am assuming it's some sort of clone, but is a little short of the real thing? And presumably the initial speculation was that even Coulson was an LMD (after dying in the Avengers), although as we now know, he was (basically) resurrected via TAHITI, even if that may (or may not) have altered his mind somewhat.

 

[Sean Bryan]

This gives a pretty good summary of the Life Model Decoyhttp://marvel.wikia.com/Life-Model_Decoy

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Season Two poster:

Say what you will about the show itself, but the promotional artwork for it has been fantastic.

 

[spshultz]

Who's the character in the top right corner that's turned his back to the group? Is that Ward? Has to be because of the crack between that character and the rest of the team. And who's the character in the top left?

 

[FoxyMulder]

Who's the character in the top right corner that's turned his back to the group? Is that Ward? Has to be because of the crack between that character and the rest of the team. And who's the character in the top left?

The top right and left character seems to be the same person, like they are saying they have split loyalties or personalities.

 

[Sean Bryan]

The top right and left character seems to be the same person, like they are saying they have split loyalties or personalities.

No, it's a new character. They are adding a few this season. I believe the actor is Nick Blood playing a character called Lance Hunter.

Also not included in the above picture is Mockingbird, who will join the show this season. I thought the below is an interesting article about the show. https://variety.com/2014/tv/news/agents-of-shield-season-2-preview-showrunners-tease-new-faces-old-enemies-1201309215/

 

[FoxyMulder]

No, it's a new character. They are adding a few this season.

image.jpg

https://variety.com/2014/tv/news/agents-of-shield-season-2-preview-showrunners-tease-new-faces-old-enemies-1201309215/

The beard made it look the same to me.

I hope the show stays with the darker tone they took towards the end of last season.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Interesting bit from the linked article:

Maurissa Tancharoen: Yeah, I think a huge weight that’s been lifted is that our audience already knows our people, but in season two we are very much operating within a new paradigm. SHIELD has fallen, we’re well aware that HYDRA is out there and has been operating from within, so our team has been forced to basically go underground. We’ll get to explore what that even means, what that’s like for our team. And I’m sure you’ve seen in all the casting news that we have quite a few new faces that we’ve brought into the fold. So there’s that aspect of it as well. There are a lot of new elements that we’re presenting as well as addressing all the questions that have been left unanswered at the last season. But as far as the pressure goes — oh, man, it’s always there.What is the biggest lesson you learned from season one, looking back?Whedon: We had a couple bumps in the road in terms of, like we were just saying, establishing the characters. We had a big secret that we had to hold for the whole year. That’s the one thing that felt a little different for our show versus other shows, was that we had a huge part of our mythology that was going to get upended and we weren’t allowed to talk about it. We had to be very careful about it. Other than that, we faced basically the same thing that most new shows face which is you have to find it while you’re on your feet. You cast people and you fill a room with writers and you set out with the stories you know you want to tell or you discover it along the way, and you discover what works and what doesn’t. And we found that when we leaned into the momentum and the serialized elements of our show, it seemed to be easier on us in terms of developing stories, and built up a lot of steam.

 

[McPaul]

Haven't watched this in a very long time. Did they kill off the two scientists? They (particularly the woman) were a big draw for me

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Haven't watched this in a very long time. Did they kill off the two scientists? They (particularly the woman) were a big draw for me

Nope, they're still alive. However, Fitz (the male one) was injured in the season finale, possible brain damage. They don't show us how he's doing at the end, so at this point, we know he's alive but we don't know how he's doing yet.

 

[Sean Bryan]

I don't know if it has been mentioned in the thread yet, but Lucy Lawless is also joining the show this season. I picked up the blu-ray this weekend and marathoned up through the episode with Sif ("Yes Men"). I stopped there so that I could do the final run of 8 ("End of the Beginning" through "Beginning of the End" in a marathon next weekend. I have to say, I enjoyed the earlier episodes MUCH more on this second viewing. Being able to watch one after the other with no several week gap between episodes certainly helped with the flow. Also, while the show really went into high gear with "Beginning of the End" I think it actually hit a nice stride starting with "The Bridge" (when Coulson is taken by Centipede and Mike is presumed killed). That started a really nice arc dealing with Coulson's resurrection, Sky's past, and Mike's new circumstance that flows really nicely from episode to episode. The momentum of this arc was really killed by all the breaks between episodes when it aired. So it's been said that the show really came together in the final third, but I'd say it actually really started moving nicely at the mid-way point with "The Bridge". A couple of things I noticed on the second viewing:The symbols that Coulson were drawing in the final episode were seen in the early episode with the Agent who was under "eye control". When Ward took her place and pretended to be her (for the sake of her handler) and took her mission, the thing she went into the Russian facility to see was a room with those symbols (or similar symbols) on the walls. Also, when Coulson found the alien (most likely a Kree) in The Guest House, I noticed similar symbols on its chest. Never picked up on that with the crappy ABC "HD" feed, but I was able to see them on the BD.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I have to say, I enjoyed the earlier episodes MUCH more on this second viewing. Being able to watch one after the other with no several week gap between episodes certainly helped with the flow.

I'm kinda expecting the same thing whenever I pick up the discs and rewatch the series. (Not going to have a chance to do that before the premiere of season two, unfortunately.)

I think the show was hurt in the beginning by those frequent breaks as much as the slower pace/lower stakes of the early episodes. It would go away for a couple weeks, show one new episode, then be gone for another few weeks.. and I think that made it even worse when it did come back with an inconsequential episode, because there had been all this waiting for what was essentially filler. Once it kicked into gear and dropped the filler it was great.

The other thing, in hindsight, was that if they were going to wreck SHIELD in Captain America, maybe the show didn't need 16 or 18 episodes of a "normal" SHIELD to start with.. I think dramatically they might have been better served by having a shorter season without breaks. I think they kinda get that for this coming year, supposedly the plan is to run straight through from the premiere to Christmas break, run "Agent Carter" for its eight episodes in a row, and then return for the second half of SHIELD uninterrupted. That sounds like a much better plan to me. I wonder if the end of the season will serve as a lead-in for Avengers 2.

 

[Matt Hough]

I'm sure the writers have been working hand-in-hand with the production of The Avengers to make sure everything converges smoothly.

I felt the same way about the early episodes now playing much better on disc than they did during the regular season. Perhaps knowing now all the secrets that were being doled out bit by bit in the early episodes (how they all connected back to HYDRA) makes those shows now seem more relevant and on point.

At any rate, this is one of the shows I've been most eager to see all summer to see if the momentum established late in the game can continue to pay rich dividends.

 

[dana martin]

not that I am expecting too much in this way, but if some of the framework for shield is still up and operating, towards the end of this season, think any mention of some guy in Hells Kitchen might be referenced? it is sharing the same universe and the cross promotion wont hurt either program. Unlike WB/DC who still don't quite get it!

 

[Jason Charlton]

Should a new thread be started for the new season? Really looking forward to the show's return. This is the only show that I actually watch on the same night it airs (usually delayed a bit so I can skip commercials and finish pretty much "on time").

 

[Sean Bryan]

Well, that was a great start to the second season!Lots of interesting stuff going on here.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Decent premiere tonight. Other than the whole S.H.I.E.L.D. being destroyed by HYDRA thing, this was a lot closer to what I expected from a S.H.I.E.L.D. show than what we got in the first season. It was about the work of investigating, isolating and protecting the unknown instead of a lot of poorly scripted interpersonal dynamics. The episode also more effectively employed its ensemble cast than in previous episodes; every character got his or her moment, without any of them taking undue attention from the whole. Perhaps most impressively, they got Lucy Lawless and they just integrated her into the ensemble without spending a lot of time pointing out that, hey, we got Lucy Lawless. The handling of her character reminded me a bit of how Hitchcock used Janet Leigh in Psycho.It's nice that Skye has evidently become more of a trained professional in the months between the first season finale and the season premiere. The character works well when she's a professional utilizing her skill set. The only scene where the character grated for me tonight was when she was interrogating Ward, because it got back to those one dimensional emotions again. On the other hand, Brett Dalton continues to bring interesting colors to his performance as Ward -- reinforcing how good of any idea it was to make his straight-laced character the traitor.Coulson's new role necessarily means he won't be the same hands-on player that he was during the first season. They did a decent enough job transitioning the character into his new role without losing his sense of humor or distinct world view.Some actors work better on television, and don't scale up to the big screen well. Some actors thrive on the big screen and feel somehow diminished on television. Neal McDonough is one of the few actors who excels equally in both mediums; his cameo at the beginning of tonight's episode just reminded me how much I want to see more of him as Dum Dum Dugan. One of the truly inspired bits of casting in the Marvel universe, right up there with Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. They're putting together a very solid cast for Agent Carter, and I really hope McDonough appears in it.