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

[Bob Gu]

To add to the pluses, Bridget Regan is in AGENT CARTER, too.

 

[Sam Favate]

I find myself really looking forward to the next episode.

 

[Joel Fontenot]

It's been awhile since I've ready any Golden Age comics, but I do not recall any of Cap's adventures being as banal as the fake radio show from Agent Carter. In the ones I read, they did usually involve rescuing Bucky (the boy), or Bucky somehow rescuing Cap, or rescuing a kidnapped scientist, or finding out that someone was a double agent in league with the Nazis, etc. Because the Golden Age comics targeted boys (hence the preponderance of boy sidekicks), I think they kept "yucky" romance to a minimum.


When Marvel brought Cap back in the 60's, they were already running the Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos mag, and they brilliantly decided to team them up with Cap and Bucky in Sgt. Fury # 13. Also at this time, the female agent (Agent 13) that was introduced in the Winter Soldier movie made her debut.


I imagine there must have been a Captain America radio show in the 40's. It is quite possible that it may have been as pathetic as the one they depicted on Agent Carter. Often radio shows and movie serials ignored the plots/characters of the original mags. Or they could have simply been going for a stereotype that never really existed.


A couple of things I caught: people coughed and sneezed in the modern way into the crook of their elbows. I think people would have coughed and sneezed into their hands back then (I still do it that way). Also, I think shows set in the 40's should show more people smoking. Yes, I know it's not cool anymore, but everybody smoked back then. The jerk in the diner would have been a good character to depict smoking, along with some of the agents and bad guys because "smoking is wrong".

I'm no expert, and I've never been into any comics as a kid growing up in the '70s and early '80s (I'm more of the TV/movie sci-fi type and never got into the comics except for the likes of Peanuts, Far Side and Calvin & Hobbs... very different kind of comics ).


Anyway, I have gotten into the MCU thing. What I see is that the radio show we hear is one in which Capt. America was (and will be in the future) a real person that participated in real events - within that universe. That leads to a whole new angle on the radio show aspect.


You have to look at it from the point of view how real-life events really were dramatized on 1940's radio - and how the dreaded "artistic license for dramatic purposes" would have affected it. Not how they would (or actually did) dramatize fictional works. Because, in this universe, it's not a (known to us) fictional work that is being dramatized.


Again, I don't know how that stuff was really treated back then.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

TVLine: Howard Stark Crosses Paths With Stan Lee on "Marvel's Agent Carter"

Stan Lee's requisite cameo comes while Howard Stark is getting his shoes shined during a scene in episode four. Episode four was originally to be directed by Captain America: The First Avenger helmer Joe Johnston, but he had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts with the pilot he's directing for new TNT series "Lumen." The episode is instead being directed by "Reaper" and "Nashville" vet Stephen Cragg.

 

[Mark-W]

Finally got around to watching to the two hour premier.

I loved it.

Second favorite show currently airing on TV.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Tonight's episode was a showcase of why I'm happy this is an eight-hour limited series. If this was a regular 22-episode season, we would have had Peggy tracking down each item of Stark tech one by one, with the episodes centered around the MacGuffins instead of the characters. Instead, the bulk of the stolen tech is retrieved in one fell swoop, in the second night the show aired, likely less a few interesting and particularly dangerous stragglers.


And then just when you thought the climax was over, a member of the team is gunned down in the street, neatly solving Agent Carter's witness problem while establishing the stakes of this world. Kyle Bornheimer did a great job in the role of Krzeminski, nailing the comic dimensions of the character while playing his flaws in such a way that he seemed more pathetic than villainous. He was a pig, but an ignorant one rather than a malicious one. The scene at the office in the aftermath was a masterclass in tone, appropriately capturing the loss of a colleague and playing that loss straight and reminding the audience that Krzeminski had loved ones, and then capping the scene with the punchline of Agent Dooley calling Krzeminski's wife while Agent Thompson called Krzeminski's girlfriend -- all without compromising the integrity of the scene. It got a chuckle out of me, but still felt completely organic to the scene.


It was agonizing to watch Carter have to feign incompetence to get Jarvis out his bind, just when the team was starting to trust and respect her. At the same time, I'm glad that the show is justifying that tension rather than just continually playing her colleagues' sexism as a one-note card. And I like that other agents in the SSR station are shown as competent at their jobs, sometimes behind Carter and sometimes ahead of her, rather than being played as Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco-esque comic foils. It helps the dramatic throughline of the series that her colleagues' legitimate investigation is as much a danger to Carter as the shadowy villains.


And there's something I really enjoy about the friendship between Carter and Angie. It reminds us that Carter is, after all, still pretty young, while offering a level of maturity you don't often see from female relationships on TV. Even when Angie was offended by Carter's brush off, the disagreement was at a real scale instead of being blown up to melodramatic proportions. And when Carter extended the olive branch, Angie behaved like an adult and accepted it. When they have these characters that are supposed to ground the protagonist leading an extraordinary life, they almost never work. But Angie really does on this.

To add to the pluses, Bridget Regan is in AGENT CARTER, too.

After tonight's episode, in which she's presented as an aw-shucks rube from Iowa, I wonder what her real deal is. You don't cast Bridget Regan just to gape at all of the skyscrapers.


EDIT: It did pull me out of the episode a bit, though, to see Chilton from "Gilmore Girls" appear as Howard Stark's abandoned Oyster Bay mansion.

 

[Matt Hough]

I think Angie was the hit man/woman. Whoever the hit man was was an undersized person.


Excellent analysis, Adam.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Great episode! This was my favorite of the first three.

It stinks that with only seven nights of "show" the network is still giving us no new episode next week. Is there something else significant next Tuesday night that they don't want to compete with, or are they just stretching out the run since they did two episodes in one night last week?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I think Angie was the hit man/woman. Whoever the hit man was was an undersized person.


Excellent analysis, Adam.

Thanks, Matt. I wouldn't be surprised if your guess is correct, but I hope not. It makes the world too small, and I like the character as she is on the surface too much.

It stinks that with only seven nights of "show" the network is still giving us no new episode next week. Is there something else significant next Tuesday night that they don't want to compete with, or are they just stretching out the run since they did two episodes in one night last week?

I believe this week's episode was originally supposed to air next week and the second hour of last week's premiere was originally supposed to air tonight. Once the State of the Union was scheduled for next Tuesday, they decided to go with a repeat instead. A bit strange since Fox, NBC and the CW are all airing new episodes in the 8 PM hour.

 

[Bob Gu]

I won't miss Krzeminski. I'd like it if they got rid of Dooley and Thompson too. The relentlessness of that trio's creepy crudeness, even when they are not bugging Carter, is one-note and a drag on the show for me. 86 the rude diner patrons too.

I guess the hit person is Dottie Underwood,(Bridget Regan), who must be following Carter, still a small world. I don't want it to be Angie.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I won't miss Krzeminski. I'd like it if they got rid of Dooley and Thompson too. The relentlessness of that trio's creepy crudeness, even when they are not bugging Carter, is one-note and a drag on the show for me. 86 the rude diner patrons too.

I guess the hit person is Dottie Underwood,(Bridget Regan), who must be following Carter, still a small world. I don't want it to be Angie.

The problem is it's taking place in 1946 while we're watching it with 2015 sensibilities.

 

[Jason_V]

The relationship I'm digging the most in the show is Peggy/Jarvis. They have an easy interplay between them, trading barbs and wit that is starting to remind me of The West Wing. There's isn't a scene with the two I have not liked thus far. I'm also getting a romantic vibe I get from them. With a little luck, they will continue to be platonic coworkers and friends and we won't need to deal with this other side getting in the way. (Besides, Peggy is still all about Steve Rogers. It would feel disrespectful of Captain America in my eyes if she was still pining for him and then started something with Jarvis...not to mention his much talked about wife.)


I was afraid we were going to get a half season worth of stand-alone adventures. I am very happy to see this is going to be one interconnected story with a clear beginning, middle and end. Now, my question is, does Agent Carter come back as a miniseries again, provided deals can be worked out and a good story can be told...or does ABC and Marvel develop something else as the bridge for Agents of SHIELD?

 

[dana martin]

The problem is it's taking place in 1946 while we're watching it with 2015 sensibilities.

Unless what you watch most is films from that era; the forties in particular and the way that men and women interact its doing a good job of conveying that timeframe.


The 8 episode arc is working for this, the writing has to be tighter, and they have to already have the beginning, middle and end planned. But I don’t want to see it become watered down; AOS on the other hand I think is just really coming in to the biggest part of its story arc, and have the chance of building interest in Inhumans for the next four years .


If this does become the filler gap between the first half and second half of AOS for next season, then it could be another year like 47 or jump a year or so, another standalone story, and the beginnings of S.H.I.E.L.D. from what originally was the S.S.R.


The use of Leviathan is the filler to run with till S.H.I.E.L.D. is fully in place then end with Toby Jones showing up in the last episode as part of the brain drain, like the U.S. did after WWII.

 

[Sam Favate]

There's an EW article today with ABC saying it likes the ratings the show is getting, despite some who think they have been soft. It also says the network would love to bring AC back next year if ratings warrant.

 

[todd s]

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.

 

[DaveF]

Watched the two-hour pilot. Agent Carter is a fun and charming show. Going to give it a few more episodes and see if it's worth keeping in my too-full viewing list.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Watched the two-hour pilot. Agent Carter is a fun and charming show. Going to give it a few more episodes and see if it's worth keeping in my too-full viewing list.

It's only eight episodes. If you are going to watch a few more you may as well watch the remaining six, unless you dislike it.

 

[dana martin]

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.

but in the pilot, as all of them are looking at her with some distain, with sort of a how dare you be this in a man's world kind of way, the refer to her as Capt Americas liaison, in reference : person that liaises between two organizations to communicate and coordinate their activities, so that is probably what they are thinking she only did

 

[AlexF]

EDIT: It did pull me out of the episode a bit, though, to see Chilton from "Gilmore Girls" appear as Howard Stark's abandoned Oyster Bay mansion.

Damnit, that's where I recognized it from. I was trying to place it the entire episode.

 

[DaveF]

It's only eight episodes. If you are going to watch a few more you may as well watch the remaining six, unless you dislike it.

Good to know. Based on the pilot, I'll watch the miniseries, then. Solid start.