Liveblogging Agents of SHEILD
Okay, this is my second viewing of the first episode, so it's less liveblogging and more using the second viewing as a structured way to talk about the things I've been thinking about. Whatever.
I can't help but think that it's social commentary that the hero here is a young black man in a hoodie. Subtle, but Joss has never been known to drop anvils when he wants to make a point. Maybe he's not even making a point, but the young black man in a hoodie is one of the good guys, not a thug, which I appreciate.
Also, I'm well aware of the fact that Joss doesn't really do damsels in distress. Hell, Buffy started because he wanted to subvert that very idea -- young girl walks into a dark alley and instead of being endangered, she kicks ass. I know that, and I was still surprised when the "damsel in distress" turned out to be one of the major players in Project Centipede. Go, writers. I love being surprised.
I also really love that Coulson doesn't actually know how (or why?) he was brought back. If he was just a static character who was always smarmy and knew everything, it might get boring. Don't get me wrong, I fucking LOVE IT when Coulson's a smarmy know-it-all, but Clark Gregg is so fucking great he deserves more than just one note. Coulson finding out the truth about himself, about things that happened to him that he doesn't even know about? I feel like that's going to make for some amazing TV.
I would also like to add for all the Clint/Coulson shippers on my list that Clint Barton is SHEILD clearance level seven, which means he's got enough clearance to know that Coulson's alive. Because of course he does. I keep meaning to go read some Clint/Coulson since I like both characters (and I'm a huge fan of the Hawkeye comics), but I never seem to find the time. I have a feeling that since I like AoS so much, I'm going to make time.
I'm bummed that J. August Richards is just a guest star. I wonder if they'll bring his character back every now and again. I want me some Gunn, okay? Even if he's not!Gunn. Mike. Whatever.
Also, I'm probably going to be referring to characters by their previous Whedon-verse character names for a while. Considering how often Joss likes reusing actors and how much I like to watch the things he writes, I'm going to be referring to people a lot as things like Dr. Shepherd Book. I won't get any Dollhouse references, though. I tried to watch it, but it had too much of a rapey vibe for my tastes.
I got all excited when I saw Ron Glass and shouted, "Shepherd Book! You're alive and you've got a medical degree!" I'm aware that he's not Shepherd Book, but it's a testament to Joss Whedon's writing that an actor I've known since childhood isn't Detective Harris to me, but Shepherd Book. I mean, he was Detective Harris when I was four years old and I've watched every episode of Barney Miller in reruns at least five times, but nope, he's Shepherd Book. And now he's Doctor...somebody. Doctor not!Book. I'll start remembering his character's name eventually. Probably.
Back to the show! Hey, Coulson just name-dropped Natasha Romanov. Cool. I missed that the first time around.
So, two possibilities for Coulson's mystery -- there's a species in the Marvel universe called Skrulls who are shapeshifters and they have impersonated humans more than once. Also, Nick Fury likes to use these things called LMDs, Life Model Decoys, which are androids that are used as decoys, as the name implies. To the best of my knowledge, though, LMDs are kind of like that Avatar movie where there's a human being actually running them from somewhere else. I never actually saw Avatar, but I think that's what it was about. LMDs are like a human suit you can wear if you need to run over and defuse a bomb that's about to go off and if it explodes, you're fine because you weren't the LMD, it was just an android that looked like you that you were running from a remote location. I've never read a comic with a sentient LMD that didn't know it was an LMD. Same with Skrulls. To the best of my knowledge, when Skrulls are impersonating human beings, they know they're impersonating human beings. So, actually, neither one of those possibilities satisfies me because I think that Coulson honestly doesn't know whatever Hill and not!Book are keeping from him.
Of course, the Marvel universe is GIANT and I have in no way read even a quarter of the Avengers canon, let alone all of it, so maybe there are Skrulls who think they're human and sentient Life Model Decoys.
I love how enthusiastic Skye is about superheroes. Not only is it refreshing to have a brilliant character who's not blase and above everything, but it makes sense. I mean, you find out that there are ACTUAL superheroes in the world, not just a billionaire in a flying suit but people with fucking superpowers? That's really cool, and I like how they're using a main character to portray that excitement without it being her defining character trait.
I also like Coulson's enthusiasm. It's mostly shown in his love for Lola in this episode, but let's not forget that he's a GIANT Captain America fanboy. I love how Joss shows respect to fans by making his characters fans. Coulson's a fanboy and Skye's a cosplayer and neither one of those things makes them any less deserving of respect, which by extension means that we're not any less deserving of respect for being fans. I feel like a lot more writers and companies could learn from that example; don't mock your fanbase, yo. Are you listening, DC? No, of course you're not.
I also like the little tidbits they're dangling in just the first episode. Ward has some sort of tragic family background and Melinda May is somehow famous even within SHEILD. Do tell.
I should also let you know that I've had a giant crush on Ming-Na since the mid-90s.
Another thing I like? The attention to detail. When they take Skye's hood off in the plane, her hair looks like she's been wearing a fucking hood while being transported from her van to a secret base. It's not perfect just because it's a TV show and the cute girl should have perfect hair, it looks sweaty and frizzy and smushed down on one side.
Oooh, I wonder if Project Centipede has anything to do with whatever it was that made people really strong and then overheat and explode in Iron Man 3.
Maybe I should just start each paragraph with, "Oh, and I also liked..." because that's basically what this is turning into, me telling you all the stuff I like. There's a lot. I LOVE how annoyed Coulson looks when Ward goes off on his anti-Skye interrogation-wrecking tangent and I love how tickled he is that she's good enough that he doesn't know anything about her. He's the guy who knows stuff, that's Coulson's deal, but when he comes up against someone who he can't get one bit of information on, instead of being angry or resentful, he's impressed and wants her on his side.
I should also just draw hearts around Coulson's name on the back of my geometry notebook because I love him, okay? Lots. Maybe never as much as I love him when he hits Ward with truth serum and leaves him alone to tell Skye everything he knows.
I love how delighted Simmons is by everything, including things she "should" find disgusting, like some sort of dripping alien goo. She's so adorable when she just grins and says, "Fun!"
I love how Agent May is comfortable enough with Coulson to let him know she's going to chew him out later.
I love the little detail of Coulson bending backwards to avoid the flying van door. It could have been an overblown action movie type sequence, but they just put something so amazing in there for a second, him bending and the door flying over him, and didn't focus on it because it wasn't the point of the scene.
maple_mahogany and I were talking about the ridiculousness of high heeled boots for action heroes this past weekend. Like, okay, we get that it's a comic book conceit, but still, it's stupid to put Black Widow in heels. And it's stupid to put Agent May in heels, too, but damn, Ming-Na looks good kicking ass in them. She could probably kick even more ass in flats, but what are you going to do? At least they're not stilettos?
I love that the gun Ward used to take not!Gunn down was the one Fitz and Simmons were bickering about in the beginning of the episode.
Not a giant fan of the shoddy green screen effect when Lola took flight, but whatever. That's my biggest complaint for the whole episode and it's a teeny tiny one.
Yay, Agents of SHEILD!
This entry was originally posted at http://janesays.dreamwidth.org/26431.html. Comment wherever you'd like.
I can't help but think that it's social commentary that the hero here is a young black man in a hoodie. Subtle, but Joss has never been known to drop anvils when he wants to make a point. Maybe he's not even making a point, but the young black man in a hoodie is one of the good guys, not a thug, which I appreciate.
Also, I'm well aware of the fact that Joss doesn't really do damsels in distress. Hell, Buffy started because he wanted to subvert that very idea -- young girl walks into a dark alley and instead of being endangered, she kicks ass. I know that, and I was still surprised when the "damsel in distress" turned out to be one of the major players in Project Centipede. Go, writers. I love being surprised.
I also really love that Coulson doesn't actually know how (or why?) he was brought back. If he was just a static character who was always smarmy and knew everything, it might get boring. Don't get me wrong, I fucking LOVE IT when Coulson's a smarmy know-it-all, but Clark Gregg is so fucking great he deserves more than just one note. Coulson finding out the truth about himself, about things that happened to him that he doesn't even know about? I feel like that's going to make for some amazing TV.
I would also like to add for all the Clint/Coulson shippers on my list that Clint Barton is SHEILD clearance level seven, which means he's got enough clearance to know that Coulson's alive. Because of course he does. I keep meaning to go read some Clint/Coulson since I like both characters (and I'm a huge fan of the Hawkeye comics), but I never seem to find the time. I have a feeling that since I like AoS so much, I'm going to make time.
I'm bummed that J. August Richards is just a guest star. I wonder if they'll bring his character back every now and again. I want me some Gunn, okay? Even if he's not!Gunn. Mike. Whatever.
Also, I'm probably going to be referring to characters by their previous Whedon-verse character names for a while. Considering how often Joss likes reusing actors and how much I like to watch the things he writes, I'm going to be referring to people a lot as things like Dr. Shepherd Book. I won't get any Dollhouse references, though. I tried to watch it, but it had too much of a rapey vibe for my tastes.
I got all excited when I saw Ron Glass and shouted, "Shepherd Book! You're alive and you've got a medical degree!" I'm aware that he's not Shepherd Book, but it's a testament to Joss Whedon's writing that an actor I've known since childhood isn't Detective Harris to me, but Shepherd Book. I mean, he was Detective Harris when I was four years old and I've watched every episode of Barney Miller in reruns at least five times, but nope, he's Shepherd Book. And now he's Doctor...somebody. Doctor not!Book. I'll start remembering his character's name eventually. Probably.
Back to the show! Hey, Coulson just name-dropped Natasha Romanov. Cool. I missed that the first time around.
So, two possibilities for Coulson's mystery -- there's a species in the Marvel universe called Skrulls who are shapeshifters and they have impersonated humans more than once. Also, Nick Fury likes to use these things called LMDs, Life Model Decoys, which are androids that are used as decoys, as the name implies. To the best of my knowledge, though, LMDs are kind of like that Avatar movie where there's a human being actually running them from somewhere else. I never actually saw Avatar, but I think that's what it was about. LMDs are like a human suit you can wear if you need to run over and defuse a bomb that's about to go off and if it explodes, you're fine because you weren't the LMD, it was just an android that looked like you that you were running from a remote location. I've never read a comic with a sentient LMD that didn't know it was an LMD. Same with Skrulls. To the best of my knowledge, when Skrulls are impersonating human beings, they know they're impersonating human beings. So, actually, neither one of those possibilities satisfies me because I think that Coulson honestly doesn't know whatever Hill and not!Book are keeping from him.
Of course, the Marvel universe is GIANT and I have in no way read even a quarter of the Avengers canon, let alone all of it, so maybe there are Skrulls who think they're human and sentient Life Model Decoys.
I love how enthusiastic Skye is about superheroes. Not only is it refreshing to have a brilliant character who's not blase and above everything, but it makes sense. I mean, you find out that there are ACTUAL superheroes in the world, not just a billionaire in a flying suit but people with fucking superpowers? That's really cool, and I like how they're using a main character to portray that excitement without it being her defining character trait.
I also like Coulson's enthusiasm. It's mostly shown in his love for Lola in this episode, but let's not forget that he's a GIANT Captain America fanboy. I love how Joss shows respect to fans by making his characters fans. Coulson's a fanboy and Skye's a cosplayer and neither one of those things makes them any less deserving of respect, which by extension means that we're not any less deserving of respect for being fans. I feel like a lot more writers and companies could learn from that example; don't mock your fanbase, yo. Are you listening, DC? No, of course you're not.
I also like the little tidbits they're dangling in just the first episode. Ward has some sort of tragic family background and Melinda May is somehow famous even within SHEILD. Do tell.
I should also let you know that I've had a giant crush on Ming-Na since the mid-90s.
Another thing I like? The attention to detail. When they take Skye's hood off in the plane, her hair looks like she's been wearing a fucking hood while being transported from her van to a secret base. It's not perfect just because it's a TV show and the cute girl should have perfect hair, it looks sweaty and frizzy and smushed down on one side.
Oooh, I wonder if Project Centipede has anything to do with whatever it was that made people really strong and then overheat and explode in Iron Man 3.
Maybe I should just start each paragraph with, "Oh, and I also liked..." because that's basically what this is turning into, me telling you all the stuff I like. There's a lot. I LOVE how annoyed Coulson looks when Ward goes off on his anti-Skye interrogation-wrecking tangent and I love how tickled he is that she's good enough that he doesn't know anything about her. He's the guy who knows stuff, that's Coulson's deal, but when he comes up against someone who he can't get one bit of information on, instead of being angry or resentful, he's impressed and wants her on his side.
I should also just draw hearts around Coulson's name on the back of my geometry notebook because I love him, okay? Lots. Maybe never as much as I love him when he hits Ward with truth serum and leaves him alone to tell Skye everything he knows.
I love how delighted Simmons is by everything, including things she "should" find disgusting, like some sort of dripping alien goo. She's so adorable when she just grins and says, "Fun!"
I love how Agent May is comfortable enough with Coulson to let him know she's going to chew him out later.
I love the little detail of Coulson bending backwards to avoid the flying van door. It could have been an overblown action movie type sequence, but they just put something so amazing in there for a second, him bending and the door flying over him, and didn't focus on it because it wasn't the point of the scene.
maple_mahogany and I were talking about the ridiculousness of high heeled boots for action heroes this past weekend. Like, okay, we get that it's a comic book conceit, but still, it's stupid to put Black Widow in heels. And it's stupid to put Agent May in heels, too, but damn, Ming-Na looks good kicking ass in them. She could probably kick even more ass in flats, but what are you going to do? At least they're not stilettos?
I love that the gun Ward used to take not!Gunn down was the one Fitz and Simmons were bickering about in the beginning of the episode.
Not a giant fan of the shoddy green screen effect when Lola took flight, but whatever. That's my biggest complaint for the whole episode and it's a teeny tiny one.
Yay, Agents of SHEILD!
This entry was originally posted at http://janesays.dreamwidth.org/26431.html. Comment wherever you'd like.