Posts Tagged ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’

Review: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S01E03 “The Asset”

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , , on October 8, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Agents_of_SHIELD_logoOh, now they’re just trolling us.

Coulson: You forget – I saw plenty of action with the Avengers. [walks away]
May: And you died.

Followed up later by…

Coulson: Should just be muscle memory.

Totally trolling us with what really happened on the Helicarrier. It screams Life Model Decoy, but would that be too obvious? But what other option is there? In theory, it shouldn’t be long before we find out.

As for the rest of the episode, this show has started to gain a dual personality much like fellow ABC series Once Upon A Time. The stuff with Ward and Skye is pretty lame, obvious, harsh on the dialogue. The stuff with Coulson…  OMG, freaking brilliant!

Every moment in the Ward/Skye/Training story line you could see the next piece in line. It was laid out like a high school drama play and predictable at every step. There was the occasional cute comment, but for the most part, it was where the episode dragged the most. The writers continue to flux with Skye’s seemingly questionable loyalties but it’s nothing new, nothing fresh, and it was predictable. No way she was going to turn on the team this quickly and not for that reason. Still no chemistry between Ward and Skye as well.

But then we get to Coulson’s plot arc. Only Coulson would just wear a suit to an infiltration like that. I mean, he doesn’t put on a flack vest, he doesn’t even strip to a t-shirt. Nope, just wearing the suit cause he’s classy like that. Then when he confronts the scientist, Dr. Hall, the whole scene with the rotating gravity was spectacularly well done for a tv-budget.  And his decision at the end, to sacrifice the man who was sacrificing himself. It was cold, it was calculating, and was probably the right thing to do. I literally sat up and said a few choice unrepeatable words.  This is the kind of thing we want to see more of in this show. The soft underbelly, the moralist existentialism. Basically, the stuff we’ve come to know from Whedon. I hope this is just the beginning.

Speaking of beginnings… yeah, way to go creating a super-villain there Coulson… couldn’t be more proud.

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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s rating drop, but it’s nothing to worry about

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , on October 2, 2013| 1 Comment »

Agents_of_SHIELD_logoA few comments have been made about the ratings drop Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (henceforth AOS) took in its second episode. Second episode drops are to be expected, you will always have more people watch the first episode than you will continue to watch the series on a regularly basis. However, huge drops can be troubling and shows signs of disinterest in the audience. AOS did have a drop that, when you look at it individually, looks troublesome, but when you look at it globally, still keeps the series sitting in calm waters.

Let’s look at AOS and it’s ratings so far:

Episode 1 – 4.7/14 rating/share – 12.12mil viewers
Episode 2 – 3.3/10 ratings/share – 8.66mil viewers

In ratings share, the first episode managed to beat out the return on NCIS. NCIS being literally the #1 rated show on Network television and has broken viewership records. Basically, NCIS is a behemoth, so it’s little surprise that AOS is having a little trouble matching up to it.

NCIS

Episode 1 – 3.6/11 – 20.02mil viewers
Episode 2 – 3.5/11 – 19.98mil viewers

NCIS stayed consistent, which makes sense because it’s also starting in on its 11th season, that tends to mean the show has a fairly solid fan base.

So yes, AOS lost a chunk of the rating share, but it’s not much lower than NCIS’ share. As for the viewership, okay, that is a bit dodgy seeing as Person of Interest managed 12.35mil viewers with only a 2.6/8 rating share two hours later, but it’s still not enough to truly sweat about once you factor in the following:

AOS is going after a different demographic, one that utilizes modern conveniences such as Hulu, and AOS’s pilot episode was viewed 1.6mil times over five days. Not to mention DVR viewing accounted for another 3.7mil in viewership.

AOS is also a franchise ripe for tie-ins of everything from toys to iPhone covers to clothes. Even if AOS can’t reach the number of viewers NCIS has, it will still generate more revenue in licensing than NCIS could ever hope to.

But do you want some more cold, hard, numbers to quell your worries?

Let’s look back a year at CW’s Arrow.

Episode 1 – 1.3/4 – 4.14mil viewers
Episode 2 – 1.3/4 – 3.48mil viewers

Granted, that’s not bad for the CW which is always lower in the ratings, but Arrow is a comic-book television show and trying to pull the same audience in that respect. The fact that the ratings share and viewership is double for AOS is nothing to ignore.

But Arrow airs on a different night, so let’s see what went up against NCIS when it premiered in 2012? Oh, that’s right, CBS didn’t even try…

Dancing With the Stars 

Sept 25th – 2.1/6 – 11.79mil viewers
Oct 2nd – 1.4/4 – 8.29mil viewers

CBS didn’t even try a scripted series against NCIS. Not in 2012, not in 2011, so we have to go back to 2010.

No Ordinary Family

Episode 1 – 2.9/9 – 10.079mill viewers
Episode 2 – 2.7/8 – 8.98mil viewers

The ratings share is remarkably lower, though yes, the viewership on the second episode is on par with AOS. But AOS has much more going for it, such as the above mentioned licensing revenue which is already established, plus a cameo from a big name actor who is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe set the series abuzz online after last night’s second episode.

As troublesome as it might be to hear that OMG, IT DROPPED 30%!, I will remind you that the Avengers movie dropped 50.3% after it’s first weekend. It’s all about context. AOS is up against one of the biggest TV shows on television and still pulling in better ratings than any show in that slot has done in the past three years (probably longer but I’m too lazy to look back that far). It’s also listed as likely to be renewed by the people who are pretty good at predicting this stuff.

So, yeah, don’t worry about AOS just yet, just watch the show and enjoy.

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Review: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – S1E02 “0-8-4”

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , , on October 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.I’m pretty sure that raft would have gotten sucked through the hole.

Convenient physics aside, this was your typical ‘now that the team is together, they have to learn how to work together’ episode. It was pretty straight forward plot and predictable with the double cross. The dialogue was at times very blunt, do we really need to be told they have a common enemy now? It was kinda obvious. Not to mention the show is really pushing the relationship between Ward and Sky and that’s given us some unfortunately dialogue, not to mention the two have no chemistry.

That being said, there was definitely an air of adventure to the series. They find an old Hydra weapon in an Incan temple, then fight people for control over it. It’s very old-school comics and that’s awesome to see here. Once the show gets into its groove it will be literally like watching a comic book in action. The dialogue and plotting needs work but it’s early days yet, and the show has several bright moments of snappy dialogue and genuine character feels.

My only worry is that the moment with Sky at the end was just a bit too obvious.  Everyone calls her a risk, blah blah, Coulson sticks up for her, blah blah, oh, guess what, she’s probably still working for Rising Tide. Unless there is a major twist somewhere, which is totally possible, this is going to have very little payoff. No surprises here.  But hey, two episodes in and it’s already a zillion times better than Arrow.

Lastly, FURY! Already we get a cameo from an MCU main character and it’s none other than Nick Fury himself telling Coulson off for the damage done to the plane. It was a great touch and very well done. I honestly thought Clark Gregg was going to crack up at one point, but then he delivers that obvious but fantastic “Cancel the fish tank” line. The whole scene is a beautiful touch that elevates the entire episode. Obviously they can’t have cameos like this in every episode, but the fact we get one early like this is a good sign for a lot of things to come.

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Review: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – S1E01 “Pilot”

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , , , on September 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.Today saw the premier of the new Marvel tv series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC which, as the title suggests, centers around a team of ‘not exactly team players’ who do the grunt work that isn’t heavy enough lifting for the Avengers to get involved.

My first thoughts were: Funny but too Self-Aware.

It was by no means a bad pilot, I did enjoy it, the dialogue was sharp, the look fantastic, and Lola… oh Lola. And I will continue to watch because it really did set up for some great adventures that this team can get into. The show isn’t afraid to directly address things seen in the movies (bonus) but there was also a bounty of comic book references to be found, meaning anything is up for grabs in the future (as long as it’s under license).

Also, Arrow needs to take notes about voice overs, cause seriously, as annoying as Sky kinda was, she nailed the voice over.

But as it got to the end, the whole thing just started to tilt on its axis with the cringe inducing moment of “It’s an Origin Story.” My friend thought that piece of dialogue was amazing and I just wanted to stab something, preferably not myself. Yes, being self-aware can be fun, which is why it’s played for laughs both straight and sardonic, but it almost never works when played for serious gravitas. I know there was the whole “the world is now full of superheroes” thing they got going on but do they really have to say it out loud like it’s the next “i’m always angry” line? No. It ain’t nowhere near that epic.

Maybe it was just me but that moment totally pulled me out of it, that and the cosplay comment, but Ward suffered for that one so all’s good.

Speaking of Ward and the rest the characters, we don’t learn a terribly lot about them as individuals for the most part, which is a good thing, you don’t want a pilot laden down with too much exposition and you want to leave stuff for later episodes, but for the moment, they all seem rather cookie-cutter, especially for a Whedon series. Like this is every spy/secret agent team ever put together on film and not in a cool juxtapose way like Firefly. But again, this is Whedon. I’m sure there is a lot more here we’re not seeing yet so I’m giving a very big benefit of the doubt on this one.

In the end, I liked it… did I love it? Not especially. I loved Coulson… but that was pre-existing. Nothing else really connected with me. Perhaps it’s the back of my mind saying “no matter what happens, there will never be mutants in this show” that is bumming me out? It’s possible, I always favored that side of Marvel. But in the end, the show just didn’t click with me. For whatever reason, these characters didn’t give me a spark or make me want to care about them on a personal level, and it’s not because they’re OCs cause I fall in love with OCs all the time, case in point, Coulson.

So, in closing, other than the two issues listed above, I don’t really have anything bad to say about the episode, structurally wise. It was a well made episode. I would recommend that everyone give it a try and see if maybe they have a different experience because I know my friend is nearly giddy over it. It’s also a bundle of opportunities and I will say I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

I wonder if it will help if I imagine Level 8 is where they keep all the files on mutants and they are never mentioned because none of the characters have clearance and mutants just kinda blend with other heroes? That… that could work…

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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. full trailer

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , on May 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The full trailer for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been released.

There is a lot more here, we see that Coulson is basically pulling together his own little mini-Avengers team complete with agents and non-agents alike. It also seems like Coulson’s death has been kept as the status quo, and in general everyone still believes him to be dead. This could get very interesting later on (and I wonder if he will be making an apperance in Captain America 2?)

We also see Whedon’s signature wit in the dialogue and at least one crack made at the name S.H.I.E.L.D.

So far, so good.

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