I can't be the only person still watching this surely? I never particularly got the dislike some folk had for the earlier seasons, but regardless these days I think it's legit good stuff. It's not The Expanse, often it's not even The Flash, but in a world where Legends of Derpmorrow is well regarded I kinda feel like Agents is getting the short end of the stick. While I would have preferred they kept a more explicit link to the films, even if it stayed low-key, it is true that the show getting better has coincided with them going much more in their own way.
Anyway, regarding the most recent episode:
Spoiler:
OK, am I the only one who remembers that they never actually explicitly confirmed Daisy was the Destroyer of Worlds while they were all in the future? She goes into a place, there's a big ol' gravity anomaly, and the planet gets shredded, so naturally future-folk assume it was her fault, but now we know(or think we know) what the lead-in to that scenario is I'm not sure why folk are so certain it's her. There are now four potential Destroyers in play - it could be Daisy as future folk believed, but it's also possible(and I believe more likely) that Daisy went to the place it goes all wonko to confront the actual Destroyer who either goes proper supervillain-mental or loses control of their power, and there are three candidates for that scenario: Ruby could get her wish, and she certainly seems like the sort of person who'd blow up a planet through arrogance or spite(and also - good job AoS for having a badass female character that demonstrates vacuous "girl power" sentiment isn't actually a solution to anything, what matters is whether the person you're giving power to is worthy of it and whether they can handle it in an ethical way); the experiments with Creel and the Gravitonium could go horribly wrong and he could lose control after absorbing some; or the experiments could "release" Graviton to wreak havoc.
Indeed at this point, I'm thinking in fact the way to change the timeline and avert the cracked-earth future is for Quake to be the one who goes into the weird-science-chamber-thing, and so give herself the strength to overcome whoever the actual baddie/nutter/control-losing-timbomb-person is. I'm also not quite convinced Coulson is the one who's going to bite it, and I can't tell if that's a double-fakeout and he actually is, or if they're going to go with either the obvious potential alternatives(Yoyo, Deke, or one of the Simmonds-Fitz's) or a less obvious one(May, because of course they would spend the season setting up that she's the only one to get a relatively happy future as a surrogate mother to the prophet-girl in the dark timeline, only for May's death and the wee girl's reaction to losing her future-mum be the confirmation that the timeline has changed).
You know, I think I had an easier time with the season that had a guy who's skull burst into flames when he got annoyed and the crazy android lady trapping everyone in virtual reality as their evil selves than with all this timey-wimey stuff.
after last night episode I’m convinced it’s fitz, Simmons, and Yoyo that are gonna bring the apocalypse. But I’ve never beeen good about figuring stuff out like that
I've not seen any of the current season yet, but IMO the show's average quality is IMO probably higher than basically all other superhero tv-shows except maybe Netflix's and it goes different places every season, keeping it fresh and less formulaic than, say, Flash or especially Arrow.
On a related note, has anyone seen Slingshot, and is it any good?
I watched it a lot up till now.. this last season just couldn't hold my interest.. I found myself doing other stuff while it was on, rather than sitting down and shutting up. Last 3 or 4 episodes I barely remember, and I recently told my DVR to not record it anymore.
The last season with the Not-Matrix thing was where I think I started losing interest.
I honestly forgot this season was still going, it was kinda a drag for me up until Fitz (Fitz, Ward and Hunter having been my favorite Characters) finally showed up and after that I just got busy and stopped following it.
I've always found Agents of SHIELD to really suffer from the now traditional mid-season break.
I don't know if it's because their casting isn't particularly distinctive, but I always find that by the time it comes back on, I've little clue who is who outside of the main team. And as of the last season, found it genuinely hard to care.
Maybe a Netflix Binge will help there? Certainly made Gotham far more enjoyable for me.
Is it on Netflix now? I always forget what channel it's on in the UK; I missed all the Ghost Rider episodes of the last series before I found out it was on.
I thought the mini seasons they did last season were the most consistently great stuff the show did. Ghost Rider, LMD, and the not-Matrix were 3 great story arcs that really stretched the show's potential.
The setup for the current season seemed interesting, but as soon as the first episode made it clear that we were going to be spending a lot of time in the future learning about their dystopian culture and meeting a bunch of downtrodden new characters I lost interest. I gave up about the point where they had the phase girl arena fight when I realized I was actively looking for excuses not to watch it. I hear the season has some great stuff, but I overall just didn't care for the premise.
Binging it now on Netflix (up to Season 2 only) and enjoy it.
SHIELD was always on of my favorite things in Marvel, they're a perfect glue for the superhero universe.
Spidy needs some information to move the plot along? SHIELD
Thor needs someone to take the monster into custody so he can move on? SHIELD
Avengers need a 1000 cannon fodder guys to die? SHIELD
Fantastic Four need a government foil to threaten them? SHIELD
So as much as I liked the Winter Soldier twist I am kind of missing the whole 'vast superhuman bureaucracy' hopefully the agency gets reinstated some time.
I just finished the latest season. Aparently it's been renewed for a shorter 13 episode season set to launch after avengers 4 does.
My issue with the show has always been 2 fold.
1) The classic TV format of the show makes it all very cartoonishly episodic. It's not like the Netflix shows where your watching these really well drawn out story arks for the characters and instead you get this kind of... mish mash of the status quo more or less being maintained despite whats happening in the world around them with a bloated episode count and a lot of filler. That doesn't mean shakes ups don't happen with certain characters having ends or new characters coming on board or whatever. But it always FEELS the same.
2) It's SO disconnected from the other Marvel properties. I mean the Netflix stuff isn't great at that either but at least the Netflix shows mesh with each other. (Why wasn't Luke Cage and Jessica Jones forced to sign the Sokovia Accords?) But Agents of shield is a million times worse. Why don't THEY show up in NY and put Jessica Jones and Luke Cage on the Index? When a magic thing happens thats really big like...
Spoiler:
Ghost Rider and the Darkhold
...where the hell is Wong and Dr. Strange?
Between the cushy low stakes made for TV format and the serious disconnect I only ever have a passing interest in the show. I get through each season EVENTUALLY but I just don't care about what happens in it like I do with the other Marvel properties because it has literally no impact on anything but itself.
I end up feeling the same way about Runaways. Haven't seen Cloak and Dagger yet. Need to get around to it.
Agents of SHIELD is a show that continues to waste its potential every second it is on screen. That doesn't mean I dislike it, in fact it's only ever gotten stronger since it started (the previous season with the 'pod' structure for its stories, was excellent). It's just it's always going to be a show that never lives up to its potential.
These remain as true now as they were a couple of years ago:
Legends is the one show on TV that full embraces both how silly it is, and how D-list its heroes are, and just runs with it no matter what. Their last season ended with a monster fight between a giant time demon and a huge fluffy soft-toy that they summoned using magical amulets. No other show would do that, and that's both a good and bad thing.
Lance845 wrote: I
2) It's SO disconnected from the other Marvel properties. I mean the Netflix stuff isn't great at that either but at least the Netflix shows mesh with each other. (Why wasn't Luke Cage and Jessica Jones forced to sign the Sokovia Accords?) But Agents of shield is a million times worse. Why don't THEY show up in NY and put Jessica Jones and Luke Cage on the Index?
I'm head cannoning a scene not dissimilar to the Wolverine one from First Class
I may try to give this show another go. I think I made it through S2 my first Go, but it is a huge commitment. So many episodes. So many filler episodes that barely touch on the plot. I am hoping they got better about that.
H.B.M.C. wrote: Agents of SHIELD is a show that continues to waste its potential every second it is on screen. That doesn't mean I dislike it, in fact it's only ever gotten stronger since it started (the previous season with the 'pod' structure for its stories, was excellent). It's just it's always going to be a show that never lives up to its potential.
These remain as true now as they were a couple of years ago:
Legends is the one show on TV that full embraces both how silly it is, and how D-list its heroes are, and just runs with it no matter what. Their last season ended with a monster fight between a giant time demon and a huge fluffy soft-toy that they summoned using magical amulets. No other show would do that, and that's both a good and bad thing.
Did they add Constantine to the crew? I know it was talked about for a while. Never knew if it happened. That would really raise the show from meh to interesting to me.
Legends of tomorrow is a curious case - first season was a "recycle obsolete characters" show which had it's value for arrowverse fans, second season is why this "legends of derpmorrow" is well deserved mock, but in the third season they finally figured out what the show wanted to be by itself (after a little help from musical crossover event) and it's quite unique now - all this juggling with convention... final Furby battle, Damien Dark fatherhood counseling, Groundhog day episode, to name just few.
As to Agents of SHIELD disconnection from the main universe, this is not the fault of showrunners, but split between Marvel television and Marvel film divisions - you can find an interview with Agents showrunners on how they tried to cope with this information ban for last two seasons. This shows the most in final episodes of the last season when they tried to put some probable (but clearly blind) references to premiere of Infinity War, but failed miserably because of the Infinity War ending... But I agree, that the show would be so much better if Agents, Netflix series and MCU were coherent, but at the same time I fear they all would be totally unmanageable at this point.
Automatically Appended Next Post: And yes, Constantine have a side role in the last season and joins the crew permanently for the next season.
Yes to both summaries. Yep. I should also start counting how many times a flying car with machine guns might be useful if only they had the budget to use it
I had to laugh when they did an Asgard episode and the villain was... Lorelai? Lorelai? Seriously? You couldn't even get the Enchantress so you had to use her younger, hotter sister? Man that's just sad. If I hadn't reread the Simonson run last year I'd've just assume you made her up for the episode.
nou wrote: Legends of tomorrow is a curious case - first season was a "recycle obsolete characters" show which had it's value for arrowverse fans, second season is why this "legends of derpmorrow" is well deserved mock, but in the third season they finally figured out what the show wanted to be by itself (after a little help from musical crossover event) and it's quite unique now - all this juggling with convention... final Furby battle, Damien Dark fatherhood counseling, Groundhog day episode, to name just few.
As to Agents of SHIELD disconnection from the main universe, this is not the fault of showrunners, but split between Marvel television and Marvel film divisions - you can find an interview with Agents showrunners on how they tried to cope with this information ban for last two seasons. This shows the most in final episodes of the last season when they tried to put some probable (but clearly blind) references to premiere of Infinity War, but failed miserably because of the Infinity War ending... But I agree, that the show would be so much better if Agents, Netflix series and MCU were coherent, but at the same time I fear they all would be totally unmanageable at this point.
Automatically Appended Next Post: And yes, Constantine have a side role in the last season and joins the crew permanently for the next season.
Agents of Shields current (this last) season has been a bit of a grind for me. Legends of Tomorrow its dumb, completely dumb and I love it. I love it not taking itself too seriously. I love them bringing Constantine in, Heatwave is great. Damien Dark was great this last season.
nou wrote: Legends of tomorrow is a curious case - first season was a "recycle obsolete characters" show which had it's value for arrowverse fans, second season is why this "legends of derpmorrow" is well deserved mock, but in the third season they finally figured out what the show wanted to be by itself (after a little help from musical crossover event) and it's quite unique now - all this juggling with convention... final Furby battle, Damien Dark fatherhood counseling, Groundhog day episode, to name just few.
As to Agents of SHIELD disconnection from the main universe, this is not the fault of showrunners, but split between Marvel television and Marvel film divisions - you can find an interview with Agents showrunners on how they tried to cope with this information ban for last two seasons. This shows the most in final episodes of the last season when they tried to put some probable (but clearly blind) references to premiere of Infinity War, but failed miserably because of the Infinity War ending... But I agree, that the show would be so much better if Agents, Netflix series and MCU were coherent, but at the same time I fear they all would be totally unmanageable at this point.
Automatically Appended Next Post: And yes, Constantine have a side role in the last season and joins the crew permanently for the next season.
Agents of Shields current (this last) season has been a bit of a grind for me. Legends of Tomorrow its dumb, completely dumb and I love it. I love it not taking itself too seriously. I love them bringing Constantine in, Heatwave is great. Damien Dark was great this last season.
I was totally sold on the last LoT season when they run Heatwave as the intro voiceover - this few lines summarise the feel of third season very adequately
nou wrote: Legends of tomorrow is a curious case - first season was a "recycle obsolete characters" show which had it's value for arrowverse fans, second season is why this "legends of derpmorrow" is well deserved mock, but in the third season they finally figured out what the show wanted to be by itself (after a little help from musical crossover event) and it's quite unique now - all this juggling with convention... final Furby battle, Damien Dark fatherhood counseling, Groundhog day episode, to name just few.
As to Agents of SHIELD disconnection from the main universe, this is not the fault of showrunners, but split between Marvel television and Marvel film divisions - you can find an interview with Agents showrunners on how they tried to cope with this information ban for last two seasons. This shows the most in final episodes of the last season when they tried to put some probable (but clearly blind) references to premiere of Infinity War, but failed miserably because of the Infinity War ending... But I agree, that the show would be so much better if Agents, Netflix series and MCU were coherent, but at the same time I fear they all would be totally unmanageable at this point.
Automatically Appended Next Post: And yes, Constantine have a side role in the last season and joins the crew permanently for the next season.
Agents of Shields current (this last) season has been a bit of a grind for me. Legends of Tomorrow its dumb, completely dumb and I love it. I love it not taking itself too seriously. I love them bringing Constantine in, Heatwave is great. Damien Dark was great this last season.
I was totally sold on the last LoT season when they run Heatwave as the intro voiceover - this few lines summarise the feel of third season very adequately
Spoiler:
Heatwave forever the best character.
Though the Wally and Rip team up was pretty good, if only for the karaoke.
To be relevant to the the topic at hand. I hope they bring back more of Lance Hunter if the show continues. The episode with him and Fitz this season was one that I enjoyed.
Legends is the one show on TV that full embraces both how silly it is, and how D-list its heroes are, and just runs with it no matter what. Their last season ended with a monster fight between a giant time demon and a huge fluffy soft-toy that they summoned using magical amulets. No other show would do that, and that's both a good and bad thing.
Hey, I have plenty of soul. I also have a brain, which I prefer not to be liquefying itself and running out of my nose in a desperate attempt to escape the torrent of monumental stupid coming in through my ears & eyeballs
But also, sure, here and there, on occasion, Legends is giant talking plushies vs time demons. But most of the time it's just really, really bad jokes(and not bad in a self-aware, we know it's bad we're doing it on purpose way, they just don't land or aren't anywhere near as funny as the show evidently thinks they are), average to awful acting, and plots so thin they're practically monomolecular. Rory is mostly good. Sara is mostly good. Gideon and Ray have their moments. Between them, the genuinely mental stuff, and the occasional joke that does land the show is just about worth watching, but "hahahah we're bad and we acknowledge we're bad with a knowing wink" isn't enough to be good.
SHIELD, by contrast, may never live up to what it could have been, but what it is is pretty good, and you can hardly accuse it of running away from the sillier elements, it just kind of accepts them and moves on rather than being an endless performative song & dance about how they're silly and they know that and hoho aren't they clever How Do You Do, Fellow Comic Book Nerds.
Halfway through Season 2, Skye got super powers, really enjoying evil Agent Cooper (does he ever get a name?) though the Legion of Super Object 084s didn't quite click.
Looking forward to S.H.I.E.L.D. vs T.H.E. R.E.A.L. S.H.I.E.L.D.
(Should have gone with SWORD or something though I guess the aim was to invoke the Real IRA)
Kid_Kyoto wrote: Halfway through Season 2, Skye got super powers, really enjoying evil Agent Cooper (does he ever get a name?) though the Legion of Super Object 084s didn't quite click.
Looking forward to S.H.I.E.L.D. vs T.H.E. R.E.A.L. S.H.I.E.L.D.
(Should have gone with SWORD or something though I guess the aim was to invoke the Real IRA)
The marvel universe already has an organization called s.w.o.r.d.
Its more or less shield for extraterrestrial threats. Fun fact. Hank mc coy (beast) has been a member of sword.
I know about SWORD, even ARMOR (parallel universes) that's why I think it would be a better name for E.V.I.L. S.H.I.E.L.D. than T.H.E. R.E.A.L. S.H.I.E.L.D.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Which reminds me, all 3 version of the SHIELD acronym have always bugged me.
60s Marvel:
Supreme Headquarters for International Espionage: Law Enforcement Division
Well espionage and law enforcement aren't really the same thing, they're sort of opposites. And you don't really do much espionage, you mostly fight terrorists in halloween costumes.
What the hell does that even mean? What is a 'strategic hazard'? What are 'espionage logistics'? So like, do you supply ammo to SHIEED the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Enforcement Directorate?
00s Movies:
Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division
What is the Strategic Homeland? I like the Intervention and Enforcement bit, Logistics, yeah sure why not.
So how about:
Supernatural Hazard Investigation, Enforcement and Logistics Directorate
The Supernatural Hazard gives them a nice mission, they handle weird stuff. Terrorists, that's for the FBI, supervillain terrorists, that's SHIELD. And what do they do with supernatural hazards, they investigate, they enforce the law and they take care of things - logistics.
Need to know how this alien things works - investigation
Need to catch that alien warrior - enforcement
Need to imprison the alien - logistics
And there's no such thing as a directorate in the US government so you make it work any way you need it to.
They could have used Hammer. When Norman Osborn took over the 50 state initiative he scrapped shield and built H.A.M.M.E.R. to take it's place as a more proactive and aggressive organization. Or "Evil Shield".
I liked how they resolved T.H.E. R.E.A.L. S.H.I.E.L.D. vs T.H.E. F.A.K.E. S.H.I.E.L.D., though the Theta Protocol was a disappointment, esp since in Avengers 2 they clearly say they got the Helicarrier out of mothballs, which makes sense since we never saw the Avengers I carrier in Winter Soldier. No need to shoehorn in a secret helicarrier built in the basement.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Y'know I generally do not support Project Wideawake and their policy of sending Giant Purple Robots to kill freakish genejokes but for the Inhumans I'll make an exception.
I think shield suffered a lot from the movie releases. I mean the whole arc of Shield being infiltrated by Hydra probably should have been saved for end of season 2 and season 3 in a traditional series. Season 1 should have been about establishing the show and probably should have used AIM as the primary villian creating Deathlock and stealing alien tech. You don't have a stable period of Shield really doing what they did most of the time in the comics because they kept getting knocked about by the movies. I think it's hurt the series and I wasn't even interested in finishing watching the most recent season even after I finished the Kree arch were I just wanted to punch the Kree lord in the face every time I had to see him (though not nearly as bad as the Mad Hatter in Gotham).
The Inhumans series was bad though. I think I would have personally played up the point that Maximus actually had some good and sympathetic points more, personally.
They had to turn Maximus into a super-moustache twirling villain tying children to railroad tracks and stapling babies to his forehead eventually so that he could continue being the 'bad guy', because when he was arguing against the Inhuman royals all his proposals seemed completely reasonable.
H.B.M.C. wrote: They had to turn Maximus into a super-moustache twirling villain tying children to railroad tracks and stapling babies to his forehead eventually so that he could continue being the 'bad guy', because when he was arguing against the Inhuman royals all his proposals seemed completely reasonable.
Which is sad, because you could have made him a good and sympathetic character who eventually became unstable due to mental illness. Give the heroes a reason to actually change their status quo because Maximus was actually right and have a good reason to keep him around after the heroes need to take back the throne because his paranoid schizophrenia is telling him the Earth is going to blow up the moon or something. He's Maximus the Mad in the comics, they could have gone with mad not being another name for power hungry dick. They could have gone with him nearly being the hero of the story but at least made the heroes actually try to be better people and leaders.
Well Karnak would still be a dick because that is kinda who he is.
S3 Halfway mark-Inhumans as the X-men is a lot more interesting than Inhumans in Shangri Li so
Still not interesting-interesting but better.
Disappointed that N.O.T. S.H.I.E.L.D. turned to be Hydra, again. Why not just garden-variety racists?
Not sure what they had planned for the N.O.T. S.H.I.E.L.D. lady but turning out to actually be kind of a nice person was unexpected. Turning into another dead girlfriend to motivate the cast was disappointing. Hey what happened to the Council after Commander Adama died? Shouldn't they be the ones taking charge instead of Mack?
Wow Skye after going full on Mary Sue now is just part of the furniture other than whining about her people being oppressed.
Kid_Kyoto wrote: S3 Halfway mark-Inhumans as the X-men is a lot more interesting than Inhumans in Shangri Li so
Still not interesting-interesting but better.
Disappointed that N.O.T. S.H.I.E.L.D. turned to be Hydra, again. Why not just garden-variety racists?
Not sure what they had planned for the N.O.T. S.H.I.E.L.D. lady but turning out to actually be kind of a nice person was unexpected. Turning into another dead girlfriend to motivate the cast was disappointing. Hey what happened to the Council after Commander Adama died? Shouldn't they be the ones taking charge instead of Mack?
Wow Skye after going full on Mary Sue now is just part of the furniture other than whining about her people being oppressed.
Wow Mockingbird is tall, like really tall.
Lance and Mockingbird are honestly one of the best things about the show.
Lance and Mockingbird are honestly one of the best things about the show.
They really were fun kind of filling the Grant Ward 'uber competent killing machine' and Skye 'snarky audience POV character' roles. I read they were going to get a spin off and were written out for that that, but then it never happened. No more Adrianne Palicki
It's true and the show was worse off for it. Why they decided to take the BEST parts of AoS (which needed help) and remove them to make a spin off and then never actually make the spin off is beyond me.
An international conference, in Taiwan? I won't bore you with the history of the Republic of China vs the People's Republic of China but suffice to say none of the countries represented recognize Taiwan and would not be able to send high-level representatives there. I appreciate the effort at internationalism, I like how they're always off to Morocco or where ever but please do your homework!
The Prime Minister of Russia? Yes Russia has a PM but he's not head of state, the President is. A plot to overthrow the PM of Russia is like a plot to overthrow the US Speaker of the House. He's an important guy but the plot really should have been about the President. Maybe they were worried the audience wouldn't understand if there were two presidents in the plot?
A US President flies to Russia over two captured spies? Really? He has nothing better to do?
I know this is a show about people who shoot lightning and flying aircraft carriers but I can handle that since none of them are real so who knows if they get that part 'right'. But the political stuff is real and would be easy to get right.
I did really like the send off, all their friends at the bar and none could speak to them. Well done.
Lance and Mockingbird are honestly one of the best things about the show.
They really were fun kind of filling the Grant Ward 'uber competent killing machine' and Skye 'snarky audience POV character' roles. I read they were going to get a spin off and were written out for that that, but then it never happened. No more Adrianne Palicki
On the plus side, she kills it in The Orville and probably wouldn't have been able to do both. I've no idea why they haven't had her & Nick Blood(I love that his real name is if anything more ridiculously 80's action movie lead character than his character name ) back on for more cameo roles though given the spinoff died ages ago. We get one from Lance eventually(won't spoil it for you) and that's that, I'd have had the main gang come up with a fix for their predicament and then repeatedly sent them off on long deep-cover assignments that always coincidentally end at just the right time for them to swoop in and kick ass on the show at opportune times.
End of Season 3, hurrah hurrah two annoying characters are dead (though they'd be easy to bring back) about a season after I got sick of them, and the set up for S4 looks like we're going back to something like the status quo of S1 and that's good.
So um you finished off Hydra off screen? That's OK I guess...
And you just forgot you have an aircraft carrier? Or maybe calling the Avengers (I know, I know but someone should at least suggest it)?
If I never hear the word inhuman again...
The problem is just that Hive's powers were just too random (so he can mind control Inhumans, and possess dead humans, but can't possess dead inhuman or mind control humans because of... reasons?). Oh and strong, invulnerable, heal, killer dust... Just too much a plot point villain pulling new stuff out of his butt. Human Grant was kind of interesting (though I got tired of him) Hive was just annoying.
Coulson really suffers from the writing in this one, he'll move heaven and earth to save Skye but when random SHIELD agents get turned into zombie neanderthals he's like 'probably can't cure them, open fire'. People one or the other! And if the answer is he's unhealthily fixated on Skye/Daisy/Quake then he shouldn't be her boss.
Oh and what happened to the council of experienced agents supposed to be telling what to do? I guess they were all on the aircraft carrier waiting for a call?
If I remember correctly, in 4 they change up their format a bit into 2 stories a season. So the first half (12-13 episodes) is a whole story that concludes at the mid season break and starts up the plot for the next story after they came back and went to the finale.
Season 4 part 1 - Ghost Driver vs Ghost Pedestrians
Enjoying it, the 8 episode arc thing is a very good move, things are moving at a fair clip with none of the padding I felt in earlier seasons.
I'm liking the new director and new status quo, good to have an organization back. Coulson always worked better for me as a company man than a spy master.
The TV budget does hurt especially when I realized they only had the budget for Ghost Driver to flame on once an episode. Shame that Mack never got to flame on while on his motorcycle for that classic Ghost Rider moment. I like the muscle car but it isn't Ghost Rider y'know.
THe mad scientists and the not~cronomicon was annoying, I don't like mixing science and magic, couldn't they just be garden variety satanists?
More inhumans...
Daisy for hecks sake zip up your jump suit, I mean seriously, is this Charlies Angels now?
The problem with science + magic is that only one person knows how to do it correctly, and Shield might only get to mention that some mysterious guy taking over a country called Latveria in a couple of days time (hopefully tied to only a Doom teaser at the end of a successful first FF movie to build on Doom in a second that turns out to be a Doombot, and saving actual Doom for an Avengers movie).
Kid_Kyoto wrote: Season 4 part 1 - Ghost Driver vs Ghost Pedestrians
Enjoying it, the 8 episode arc thing is a very good move, things are moving at a fair clip with none of the padding I felt in earlier seasons.
I'm liking the new director and new status quo, good to have an organization back. Coulson always worked better for me as a company man than a spy master.
The TV budget does hurt especially when I realized they only had the budget for Ghost Driver to flame on once an episode. Shame that Mack never got to flame on while on his motorcycle for that classic Ghost Rider moment. I like the muscle car but it isn't Ghost Rider y'know.
THe mad scientists and the not~cronomicon was annoying, I don't like mixing science and magic, couldn't they just be garden variety satanists?
More inhumans...
Daisy for hecks sake zip up your jump suit, I mean seriously, is this Charlies Angels now?
So that Ghost Rider is the 4th(?) main Character Ghost Rider in the comics.
and not ACTUALLY a true ghost rider in the comics
In the comics it's his uncles spirit that is possessing him who was a satantist and murderer in the comics and obviously changed in the show. Actual Ghost Riders are possessed by a Spirit of Vengence (a incredibly powerful demon or fallen angle). The Darkhold is a major book in the comics. It's actually the Necronomicon for Dormammu (the big bad of the Dr Strange movie). This is what I spoilered earlier. If the Darkhold shows up... where the feth is Wong and Dr Strange?
On the plus side, his background explicitly shows there is at least Danny Ketch or Jonny Blaze riding around. I would love to see a Netflix show with Ketch.
Season 4 was quite good, I think the 3 arc system worked well for them, it didn't feel padded.
I was a bit worried about the Agents of HYDRA (am I the only one who thinks HYDRA should stand for something? Hierarchy of Young Dictators for Ruling America?) arc but they pulled it off. Involving the Darkhold/Not~Cronomicon helped a lot to smooth over any logical issues (like say how a cybernetics/robotics dude also came up with perfect VR and AI).
Kid_Kyoto wrote: Season 4 was quite good, I think the 3 arc system worked well for them, it didn't feel padded.
I was a bit worried about the Agents of HYDRA (am I the only one who thinks HYDRA should stand for something? Hierarchy of Young Dictators for Ruling America?) arc but they pulled it off. Involving the Darkhold/Not~Cronomicon helped a lot to smooth over any logical issues (like say how a cybernetics/robotics dude also came up with perfect VR and AI).
Started Season 5, enjoying it too.
Agents of Hydra is the best thing they have done so far
Hey it's crazy Fitz! Oh how I missed you crazy Fitz!
Honestly I was kind of annoyed how Fitz' solution to brain damage was 'walk it off'. If he'd gotten a special SHIELD cerebral non-crazyifier thingy I'd have been happier instead of catastrophic brain damage just sort of clearing up over the course of a season.
But now crazy Fitz is back and I missed him.
I won't even mention how he's gone from engineer to amateur brain surgeon (and Simmons is now a biochemist/combat medic/surgeon herself) I'll just assume he learned that in the framework.
Hey it's crazy Fitz! Oh how I missed you crazy Fitz!
Honestly I was kind of annoyed how Fitz' solution to brain damage was 'walk it off'. If he'd gotten a special SHIELD cerebral non-crazyifier thingy I'd have been happier instead of catastrophic brain damage just sort of clearing up over the course of a season.
But now crazy Fitz is back and I missed him.
I won't even mention how he's gone from engineer to amateur brain surgeon (and Simmons is now a biochemist/combat medic/surgeon herself) I'll just assume he learned that in the framework.
Spoiler:
That's it exactly - in the Framework he was "The Doctor", and was more a general evil mad scientist type - he'd have needed some biochem and surgical expertise to conduct his Inhuman experiments.
Wow Talbot really went full on moustash-twirling villain real fast. I would have preferred it if the writers had avoided the whole 'goatee, black costume, kneel before Zod" deal.
Also the bridge from 'I'm god now' to 'I need more power' was a bit weak. He sure acted like he had the confidence and arrogance to take on Thanos himself, some indication that he was low on power would have been useful.
My God the Reavers are boring, boring, boring. I know the FX budget is limited, but come on, at least try.
Not sure if setting this just as Avengers 3 was going isn't a bit too cute though it explains why they never met the Avengers.
I do love the build up though, I really feel like cracking the Earth is a realistic posibility.
Overall Season 5 dragged, the 3 arcs of season 4 kept things moving but even with the high stakes Season 5 seemed to spend just a bit too long in the Space Trashyard and on NewNewHydra. There were bright spots, I liked the Hydra Academy, Mack and Yo-Yo are well done and Deek turned out surprisingly fun.
Ruby/Ninja Barbie was cool, I'd have like to see her stick around, I liked the (very, very bad) idea of making her an agent of SHIELD, it would have blown up but it would have been very entertaining.
Gravaton turned evil much too fast, he needed more doubts and self rightous justifications before he crashed a spaceship into Chicago and presumably killed 100s. Even a simple 'oops' would have gone some way towards helping. He also needed a cape.
The Confederacy was terrible, terrible name, terrible makeup and effects, lame aliens. The Reavers would have been lame 20 years ago on Xeno or Buffy, today the space ninjas were just awful. Even generic Kree would have been better since they're already established.
The conflict over saving Coulson was forced. He had made it very clear he did not want to be resuscitated by unholy alien technology (again!) so a debate between save one dude who does not want to be saved, and save the world didn't do it for me. Just made the heroes look dumb and you should never make your heroes look dumb.
I had to rewatch the final memorial service to understand. My first thoughts were either Simmons is delusional and thinks Fitz survived, or they're all lying to Coulson. Then I remembered the emergency backup Fitz is still on a ship doing a 90 year round trip. Damn time paradoxes. So are they legally still married? Were they ever? Can the Director of SHIELD perform marriages? Is that like one of his powers spelled out in the SHIELD Omnibus Act of 1963? Did Coulson take one of those BS online priest classes?
I liked Enoch and Noah, would have liked to see them stick around. In my mind they should be like the Recorders who show up in Marvel, complete with the exposition-laden dialogue. Hey the main timeline Enoch is still around, hopefully they'll get him too!
And where is SHIELD now? Is it legal? Illegal? In hiding? Were the like 10 folks in the plane it? As I said in the start I like SHIELD because I like the idea of an organization that takes care of superhero stuff. I liked Season 4 because they were back in business. And now? I want 100s of agents with helicarriers and secret bases and flying cars, not 10 oddballs in a plane.
But overall a high 3 star rating, comfortably mediocre.
Navigating online streaming while overseas is... fun. Which services work, which have which content, which will let me use a VPN so I can pretend to be in the US...
Long story short I'm finally catching up on Agents of SHIELD, so sorry for the necromancy but I just finished Season 6 (murder birds and post-apoc truck if you're trying to remember) and it was OK.
More space, space on a TV budget. Painfully generic foe, but at least Sarge's Squad are usually fairly entertaining. The return of Joel Stoffer's Enoch was a highlight for me, even more than Craig Clarke's 'surprise' return.
The move away from comic-centered villains is a good one. Not knowing who the Shrike are does make things a bit more intresting. Shame once we found out there were just...
Spoiler:
Generic evil dimension dudes looking to invade Earth.
Already into Season 7 (the time travel one) and it is much much better.
I can't wait for Marvel to regain everything and put it all under the single mcu banner. This seperate tv and movie universe crap is crap and detracts from both.
I can't wait for Marvel to regain everything and put it all under the single mcu banner. This seperate tv and movie universe crap is crap and detracts from both.
Good luck? They weren’t supposed to be separate at first, but the movie people wouldn’t talk to the tv people. Like the hoops they go thru to avoid any and all spoilers is insane.
It wasn't JUST that. Kevin Feige was organizing a plot more or less on his own (in that the marvel council either put up road blocks or actively hindered what he was trying to do) that spanned 11 years in what came to 22 instalments (23 with the last spiderman).
The marvel shows were not feiges deal. And when he was like "its not the right time for x" or "the inhumans is a bad replacement for mutants" the council over ruled him. (You might remember a inhumans movie was announced. Then feige went to disney and got freedom from the council. Then inhumans movie was canceled. Then the inhumans show was announced. Oh look. It was HORRID).
ABC isn't interested in a 10 hour movie like netflix. They want a episodic 24 episode season. (At least back when agents started). Its difficult at best to pull off what the mcu has. Case in point, nobody else has done it yet despite several attempts by other studios. How much MORE difficult would it be to then organize casting, writing, shooting, and release of movies to coincide with the episodic nature of 1 tv series? What about 2? (Remember inhumans? Thats supposed to be part of agents of shield) and then you get weird crap like the thor the dark world clean up episode.
Its basically impossible to do that with the way traditional tv networks are structured and not ruin something or everything. Agents of shield is a pipe dream of the worst elements of the marvel council. Inhumans is what you get when those elements get to run rampant.
You can blame the movies side for not playing along, but it was the right choice to make. The tv side should have never been conected. Or started for that matter. Not until it could be made to fit in organically like the upcoming disney + shows are being made to do.
Feige had to get out of that position where he was answering to a group of Marvel people (and the head of Marvel's excessively tight purse strings) in order to really break free.
With all the TV stuff produced by several different groups, it was impossible to keep it within the MCU.
I'm glad that, moving forward, everything they produce now will be completely within a single continuity, rather than all these disparate shows making vague references to the MCU movies.
I mean, I think the only remnant of the Marvel Television days is the upcoming Hellstrom series.
Voss wrote: Huh, I was thinking Inhumans was back on the movie schedule.
But no, its the Eternals. Well, that's much more better.
I'd forgotten how terrible the first half of phase 4 looks, movie-wise.
The Disney+ shows look far more interesting.
I don't think phase 4 looks bad. I mean they made Guardians of the Galaxy and it's one of their best somehow. Eternals could be great and I think will lead to a big story. Annihilation? Galactus? All I know is that I trust they would not be introducing them without a plan. So SOMETHING is coming from this. If not multiple things. (Kit Harrigtons Black Knight is an introduction for another character as well).
Hmm. I only remember the Black Knight as a C-list Avenger from the early 90s. That the MCU version would exist to introduce another character surprises me not at all. As long as it isn't bloody Merlin.
Eternals leading to a 'big story' is part of the problem, I think. 20 odd movies to get there and a sort of 'yeah, ok, wrap it up' spectacle ending was the biggest problem with Infinity War and Thanos.
Marvel's 'epic doombringers' like Galactus are the exact sort of things I'd want to avoid. There's pretty much no point in characterization for those kind of characters, and its all CGI yadda-yadda, Deus Ex Machina endings.
Though with Eternals, I'd suspect Celestials. They're already established anyway, with a brief appearance in the Infinity Stone explanation in GotG. And actual use of the Stones would attract their attention to Earth... (Since Eath is canonically a lab/infant Celestial where they're developing anti-bodies to defend Celestial life forms (the anti-bodies being super-beings)). And that explanation was terrible enough in the comics.
Current canon (short version) is an ancient celestial died on earth and it’s decaying goo infected life on the planet and eventually gave rise to super powers.
The MCU's success has largely hinged on being faithful to the spirit of the source material, but rarely the letter. There's also a lot of clear workshoping in comics to see what floats. The Black Order was introduced almost immediately upon revealing Thanos as the big bad in Avengers 1 for example.
We've also had a Celstial as a major character in the MCU (Ego).
One theory I've seen tossed around is that the Eternals are going to somehow be tied to the 10 rings of the Mandarin. I'd also not be surprised if they build towards the most recent Secret Wars as the overarching story.
AduroT wrote: Current canon (short version) is an ancient celestial died on earth and it’s decaying goo infected life on the planet and eventually gave rise to super powers.
Ah. I was thinking of an X-factor story when they were living in the crazy space ship and got taken to another planet going through a Supers war (though... they weren't necessarily taken by their ship), and the 'anti-bodies' thing is something someone literally sits down and explains to Cyclops and they just connect the obvious dots. It was pretty heavy handed, as was the 'war,' which was between super-people who look normal and ones that look monstrous, and in the end they all just get subsumed regardless.
I'm not terribly surprised they changed it, but it was so tied to what (admittedly little) I knew of Eternals... eh. There were a lot of reasons I gave up on comics. Hand-wave retcons was certainly on the list.
LunarSol wrote:The MCU's success has largely hinged on being faithful to the spirit of the source material, but rarely the letter. There's also a lot of clear workshoping in comics to see what floats. The Black Order was introduced almost immediately upon revealing Thanos as the big bad in Avengers 1 for example.
We've also had a Celstial as a major character in the MCU (Ego).
Well, that would actually be a case of faithful to the spirit, not the letter, as he isn't one. He does refer to himself that way in the movie, but Ego the Living Planet is celestial in the sense that he's a planetary body, but not a Celestial (the gigantic armor suits that fancy themselves 'gardeners' of civilizations. Because even in the early days they were running out of evocative names and synonyms.
LunarSol wrote: The MCU's success has largely hinged on being faithful to the spirit of the source material, but rarely the letter. There's also a lot of clear workshoping in comics to see what floats. The Black Order was introduced almost immediately upon revealing Thanos as the big bad in Avengers 1 for example.
We've also had a Celstial as a major character in the MCU (Ego).
One theory I've seen tossed around is that the Eternals are going to somehow be tied to the 10 rings of the Mandarin. I'd also not be surprised if they build towards the most recent Secret Wars as the overarching story.
Ego is very likely not a celestial at all. Ego is not a reliable narrator. If you trust his word then by his own account he suddenly existed and then was alone until he made an avatar and went about looking for life on other planets. I.E. he's never actually met a celestial to compare himself to one. But Ego is EXACTLY the kind of being to call himself a celestial and take all the credit (god hood) that comes with the title.
Celestials are not brains encased in planetary matter. They have skulls. I.E. Knowhere is built inside the skull of a celestial. They also have basic humanoid shapes and wear complex suits of armor that fully encase their forms. See GotG Vol 1.
It was... OK. Fun at times but once the whole show became about young versions of characters I'd forgotten it was a bit lack luster. But a satisfying happy ending for the team.
Now I want to read about Deke, Super Spy Rock God of Earth 199999-A.
Glad they ended with SHIELD being established and flying around in an aircraft carrier like they should be. I never liked the SHIELD on the run premise which they did 2 or 3 times. SHIELD should be all about an army of high tech experts providing he plot glue for superheroes.
I'm not terribly surprised they changed it, but it was so tied to what (admittedly little) I knew of Eternals... eh. There were a lot of reasons I gave up on comics. Hand-wave retcons was certainly on the list.
I suspect whatever we know of the Eternals, like the Guardians, is likely to change. There's not much to know and I suspect there's a lot of desire to adapt it specifically because that leaves a lot of room to adapt it into something unique going forward.
MCU Celestials appear to be a lot less rigidly defined than their comic counterparts. We've seen the big space armor, but Ego was basically whatever he wanted to be. I suspect they'll lean heavily into that, with the space armor being more of an Easter egg form they can take, but not something they're locked into. I'd also expect it to allow them to adapt audience expectations before introducing Galactus in a more recognizable form.
Ego isn't reliable, but I don't think they'd pull a "he wasn't really a Celestial" in the MCU. There's just not a great reason to back track on that when the whole point is that he can take whatever form he chooses.
for no apparent reason i watched 3 seasons of this. its a pure waste of time. its like marvel has let the apprentices work on this as a training exercise or something !
I really liked the post-Winter Soldier Hydra episodes, but yeah it stalled after that until they got away from the films and started doing their own things.
Meanwhile is SWORD the new SHIELD for the MCU? In the comics the idea was SHIELD for Earth, SWORD for space, and ARMOR for the multiverse. Each with an increasingly absurd and strained acronym.
Meanwhile is SWORD the new SHIELD for the MCU? In the comics the idea was SHIELD for Earth, SWORD for space, and ARMOR for the multiverse. Each with an increasingly absurd and strained acronym.
Sword appears to still deal with space stuff, but now also has jurisdiction over super powered people maybe as an extension of the sokovia accords? Sentient Weapon is a way to say super powered people right?
Meanwhile is SWORD the new SHIELD for the MCU? In the comics the idea was SHIELD for Earth, SWORD for space, and ARMOR for the multiverse. Each with an increasingly absurd and strained acronym.
Sword appears to still deal with space stuff, but now also has jurisdiction over super powered people maybe as an extension of the sokovia accords? Sentient Weapon is a way to say super powered people right?
I actually assumed they were talking more about AIs honestly. When Monica is being rebriefed they specifically mention that they're not in the business of creating them, which could be super soldiers I guess, but sounds more like robots and the like to me.
No more Adrianne Palicki 
