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domarzioneI watched this past week's Agents of SHIELD, my latest attempt to get into the series, and I suspect I've failed again. It's not that I don't care about what's going on or what happens to the characters, it's that I find myself Monday Morning Quarterbacking everything. It's hard to watch a show when you spend the entire time going "why are you doing that when you could have been doing this?"
A few observations nonetheless:
* I like Bobbi Morse lots. Adrianne Palicki is clearly having a great time in the role and is well-suited for it. That said, she deserves better, both with the costuming and being saddled with Hunter as her constant verbal sparring partner and, worse, entire context -- how many times is she referenced or talked to without him being mentioned? That's much more frustrating than the costuming, really, but the costuming is a low-grade irritant. I didn't like the riveted leather boob harness in the still photos -- I don't care if it's an homage to the buttons on her comics togs, it looks like a riveted leather boob harness. But now in motion it's possibly even worse because it doesn't look like it's attached to anything and moves independently, which turns it from a boob frame to a convenient handle for any opponent who wants to grab her and punch her in the face or stab her/shoot her at close range.
* Hunter. Letting him live over Hartley remains the single biggest mistake of Season Two, for reasons that have nothing to do with saving the White Heterosexual Male over the Possible Lesbian. Hunter is boring, a convenient collection of easy archetypes, and Hartley would have added much more to the entire picture. Not only is Hunter the Wronged Lover now that Bobbi is around, but he is also the Rogue, the mercenary who states his disbelief in The Dream but is really just looking for a reason to believe. He's Skye from last season, awaiting Coulson's missionary zeal to convert him to true belief, and that conversion is inevitable and completely uninteresting because of it. Coulson's not going to have to work very hard; Hunter is an empty vessel looking to be filled. He's not really amoral and he's not really a lone wolf, so all he really needs is a pretext, not a reason. Hartley, on the other hand, would have needed a reason because she's an apostate -- her faith in SHIELD was fractured, if not broken entirely, and Coulson would have had to have worked much harder to bring her back into the fold. Also, she was much more powerful than Hunter, of higher rank in multiple senses, and she would have provided more of a challenge to everyone because of that. The SHIELD group is Coulson at the very top, then May, then a drop down to everyone else. Hartley would have been closer to May than to Skye or Trip and a challenge at that level is much different than a challenge at the foot soldier level, which is where Hunter is. Hartley could have built her own camp of skeptics, provided counterpoint to May's unwavering loyalty to Coulson and his vision, and it would have provided a little more texture to a narrative that is lacking much gray space between Good and Evil.
* Does Mac have a function besides Magic Negro Eye Candy?
* Ward, Part One. Ward was fine as Hannibal Lecter, the Monster in the Basement. It was more interesting than Team Traitor or even as Bad Guy on the Loose. Which is presumably where we are going after his incipient escape. He was delightfully creepy in his basement cell, his earnestness making everything that much more horrible and unsettling. There's not a whole lot of difference between his Good Guy cover and his true persona -- his dedication to the cause remains his main attribute, with only the revelation of the cause being the difference. He's willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission and he wants the best for the people he's accepted as his friends, although the mission comes before his friends, which he wishes they understood as he does.
* Ward, Part Two. If that escape is the first step on the road to redemption for him, all hope for this show is lost. We're at a crossroads with him, a chance to decide his future path: the Restoration of the Hero or the Origin of the Villain. And I think we can all agree that Ward wasn't interesting enough as a hero to merit the effort required to justify the clemency. Ward becoming the series Big Bad could be the best thing this show could do -- he'd be Lucifer, the fallen angel (kindasorta, he was never really an angel) and that's got a spark to it that the neverending supply of ex nihilo bad guys does not. He has always mattered to our heroes and he always will matter to our heroes; his betrayal will never be forgotten and his failure to be redeemed will never be accepted. Ward choosing his path of villainy -- not being forced into it or tempted into it or even simply falling into it, that's a story worth telling. In no small part because it wouldn't be about choosing to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven; Ward is a True Believer of HYDRA's worldview and he'd be doing it out of faith, out of genuine desire to make the world a better place. He'd be the hero of his own story, which is all any villain really needs, instead of the pawn of either man or fate or coincidence. Instead, what I fear we get is Ward as the bad cat, bringing his masters dead mice as presents until they see he's still a good cat and can come back inside.
* Ward, Part Three. If Coulson wasn't setting up both Ward brothers, then he doesn't deserve to win this game. His entire interaction with Christian Ward (and let us give a good eyeroll for making sure we know he's a Republican because obviously they're all evil) was so dull and ridiculous that if this wasn't one giant con, HYDRA should win by default.
* Agent Triplett remains a recurring character and not a regular, which justifies their not doing much with him, but not really. The defeat of SHIELD by HYDRA in 2014 has a historical impact and there aren't many people you can use to elaborate on that; Trip is really the only one available to the TV show for enough time to play that out. The events of CA:TWS didn't just mess with his professional life; they were an assault on his family history and, to an extent, his identity. This should all be personal for him in a way it's not for anyone else and you could do SO MUCH with that, even within the context of the arc the show is actually on. It would be much more interesting than anything Hunter does. A visit to Peggy Carter (even better if he's got a history with her), a necessarily-off-camera talk with Steve Rogers that is reported to someone else on-screen, a visit to the Smithsonian or to the undoubtedly extant local tribute to his grandfather and his legacy, simply expressing his own feelings about having this part of his heritage torn out from under him -- at the minimum, it's context. Done right, it's a great way to show how the civilian world at large is taking the news that HYDRA never died and that they are all, every one of them, pawns. We haven't seen much of how the cannon fodder are taking it -- we got the adrenaline-spiked reactions to the revelation of aliens post-Battle of New York in The Avengers, but this is something else. The Chitauri took away the sky, HYDRA is taking away the foundations beneath their feet and the show could poke its head out of its tidy little bubble a bit and see what's going on. (I'm on the record as it being kind of panicky.) The whole point of having television series to supplement the movies -- and this will extend to the Netflix series as well -- is that you have the time and space to build layers in your universe and focus on the interesting issues that had to get bypassed in the movies due to time. It's the scenic route and it should be beautiful.
A few observations nonetheless:
* I like Bobbi Morse lots. Adrianne Palicki is clearly having a great time in the role and is well-suited for it. That said, she deserves better, both with the costuming and being saddled with Hunter as her constant verbal sparring partner and, worse, entire context -- how many times is she referenced or talked to without him being mentioned? That's much more frustrating than the costuming, really, but the costuming is a low-grade irritant. I didn't like the riveted leather boob harness in the still photos -- I don't care if it's an homage to the buttons on her comics togs, it looks like a riveted leather boob harness. But now in motion it's possibly even worse because it doesn't look like it's attached to anything and moves independently, which turns it from a boob frame to a convenient handle for any opponent who wants to grab her and punch her in the face or stab her/shoot her at close range.
* Hunter. Letting him live over Hartley remains the single biggest mistake of Season Two, for reasons that have nothing to do with saving the White Heterosexual Male over the Possible Lesbian. Hunter is boring, a convenient collection of easy archetypes, and Hartley would have added much more to the entire picture. Not only is Hunter the Wronged Lover now that Bobbi is around, but he is also the Rogue, the mercenary who states his disbelief in The Dream but is really just looking for a reason to believe. He's Skye from last season, awaiting Coulson's missionary zeal to convert him to true belief, and that conversion is inevitable and completely uninteresting because of it. Coulson's not going to have to work very hard; Hunter is an empty vessel looking to be filled. He's not really amoral and he's not really a lone wolf, so all he really needs is a pretext, not a reason. Hartley, on the other hand, would have needed a reason because she's an apostate -- her faith in SHIELD was fractured, if not broken entirely, and Coulson would have had to have worked much harder to bring her back into the fold. Also, she was much more powerful than Hunter, of higher rank in multiple senses, and she would have provided more of a challenge to everyone because of that. The SHIELD group is Coulson at the very top, then May, then a drop down to everyone else. Hartley would have been closer to May than to Skye or Trip and a challenge at that level is much different than a challenge at the foot soldier level, which is where Hunter is. Hartley could have built her own camp of skeptics, provided counterpoint to May's unwavering loyalty to Coulson and his vision, and it would have provided a little more texture to a narrative that is lacking much gray space between Good and Evil.
* Does Mac have a function besides Magic Negro Eye Candy?
* Ward, Part One. Ward was fine as Hannibal Lecter, the Monster in the Basement. It was more interesting than Team Traitor or even as Bad Guy on the Loose. Which is presumably where we are going after his incipient escape. He was delightfully creepy in his basement cell, his earnestness making everything that much more horrible and unsettling. There's not a whole lot of difference between his Good Guy cover and his true persona -- his dedication to the cause remains his main attribute, with only the revelation of the cause being the difference. He's willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission and he wants the best for the people he's accepted as his friends, although the mission comes before his friends, which he wishes they understood as he does.
* Ward, Part Two. If that escape is the first step on the road to redemption for him, all hope for this show is lost. We're at a crossroads with him, a chance to decide his future path: the Restoration of the Hero or the Origin of the Villain. And I think we can all agree that Ward wasn't interesting enough as a hero to merit the effort required to justify the clemency. Ward becoming the series Big Bad could be the best thing this show could do -- he'd be Lucifer, the fallen angel (kindasorta, he was never really an angel) and that's got a spark to it that the neverending supply of ex nihilo bad guys does not. He has always mattered to our heroes and he always will matter to our heroes; his betrayal will never be forgotten and his failure to be redeemed will never be accepted. Ward choosing his path of villainy -- not being forced into it or tempted into it or even simply falling into it, that's a story worth telling. In no small part because it wouldn't be about choosing to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven; Ward is a True Believer of HYDRA's worldview and he'd be doing it out of faith, out of genuine desire to make the world a better place. He'd be the hero of his own story, which is all any villain really needs, instead of the pawn of either man or fate or coincidence. Instead, what I fear we get is Ward as the bad cat, bringing his masters dead mice as presents until they see he's still a good cat and can come back inside.
* Ward, Part Three. If Coulson wasn't setting up both Ward brothers, then he doesn't deserve to win this game. His entire interaction with Christian Ward (and let us give a good eyeroll for making sure we know he's a Republican because obviously they're all evil) was so dull and ridiculous that if this wasn't one giant con, HYDRA should win by default.
* Agent Triplett remains a recurring character and not a regular, which justifies their not doing much with him, but not really. The defeat of SHIELD by HYDRA in 2014 has a historical impact and there aren't many people you can use to elaborate on that; Trip is really the only one available to the TV show for enough time to play that out. The events of CA:TWS didn't just mess with his professional life; they were an assault on his family history and, to an extent, his identity. This should all be personal for him in a way it's not for anyone else and you could do SO MUCH with that, even within the context of the arc the show is actually on. It would be much more interesting than anything Hunter does. A visit to Peggy Carter (even better if he's got a history with her), a necessarily-off-camera talk with Steve Rogers that is reported to someone else on-screen, a visit to the Smithsonian or to the undoubtedly extant local tribute to his grandfather and his legacy, simply expressing his own feelings about having this part of his heritage torn out from under him -- at the minimum, it's context. Done right, it's a great way to show how the civilian world at large is taking the news that HYDRA never died and that they are all, every one of them, pawns. We haven't seen much of how the cannon fodder are taking it -- we got the adrenaline-spiked reactions to the revelation of aliens post-Battle of New York in The Avengers, but this is something else. The Chitauri took away the sky, HYDRA is taking away the foundations beneath their feet and the show could poke its head out of its tidy little bubble a bit and see what's going on. (I'm on the record as it being kind of panicky.) The whole point of having television series to supplement the movies -- and this will extend to the Netflix series as well -- is that you have the time and space to build layers in your universe and focus on the interesting issues that had to get bypassed in the movies due to time. It's the scenic route and it should be beautiful.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-01 20:18 (UTC)AoS really interested me at first, and I was so invested. Then it veered off into something else that is Not The Show I Want To Be Watching.
I adore all the characters. I just want them to be doing different things with different emphases.
Thanks for the analysis.
I will never get over them killing Hartley. That was just dumb. I can't imagine their reasoning at all. It felt like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown when it turned out that, as I feared, she was really dead and not going to be revived and given a prosthetic arm.
I tried to hope along with some speculation on my reading list, but NOOOOOO.
Anyway. Thank you.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-01 20:32 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-02 00:24 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-01 23:18 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-02 00:15 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-02 02:33 (UTC)Mockingbird is a forever fav so there's a lot riding on their choices there for me. I do wonder if the point of Lance Hunter is to be expendable later? Especially if Hydra secretly got their brainwashy claws into Bobbi somehow.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-02 03:24 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-02 02:55 (UTC)1. It could be so much better
which leads to
2. But it's bad enough that I don't care.
Unlike Stargate and dS and a million other TV shows, there isn't enough there for me to want to make it better. I don't care about most of the characters and I originally showed up for Coulson. I have empathy for almost none of them and if I don't care what happens to them I'm not going to tune in. We're never going to have a show about Trip. Trip who has a legit backstory via the Howling Commandoes and being a man of color in the twentieth and twenty-first century western world that I'd love to see how it fits into the MCU. Which leads to my third point which is that POC is sadly lacking in MCU in general.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-02 03:29 (UTC)It needs to be better to merit anyone caring beyond brand loyalty.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-02 07:06 (UTC)I should be one of those people shouting about this show until people are sick of it. I loved Avengers for what it was (a popcorn teamup movie). I thought TWS was a great character advancement and great political thriller with chase scene movie.
AOS - bores me when it doesn't outright pain me. I watched most of last season and the closer and had to be told when it was starting back up. I just can't bring myself to care. It's like Stargate:Universe all over again.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-04 15:01 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-04 15:33 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-08 20:57 (UTC)What I have been liking is BOBBI MORSE, the touches of humor, and the change in Skye...although I still have a strong sense that this is how she should have been from the get-go: harder, sharper, less innocent. It's fine to be more naive for a character like Jemma, who comes from an academic and probably quite comfortable background; it never made much sense for me for someone with Skye's origin (by which I don't even mean her origin story, which I'm sure the show will get to this season).
...and I realize this was rather OT of me. Thanks for bearing with me. :)
(Oh, and a propos of the icon: Apart from the undercover ep, quite cute, is Melinda May this season? SHOW NEEDS MORE MAY.)
no subject
Date: 2014-11-09 02:58 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-18 09:52 (UTC)That image of Ward as a cat bringing dead mice to its owners was priceless, though (and an image I suspect I'll be needing if I go back to watching the show...)
no subject
Date: 2014-11-20 16:10 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-21 04:51 (UTC)Apparently Tim DeKay's character showed up again in last night's episode and things happened. Who knows if it actually managed to do anything for the show...