Agents of SHIELD - 1x01-2x22

[oyceter]

After watching several MCU movies (particularly CA2) in preparation for Age of Ultron, I wanted more source material and ended up mainlining this despite being completely meh about it when it first aired. I'm still unconvinced that the writers think SHIELD is as sketchy as I do, which is frustrating, because they keep toeing the line of "SHIELD is untrustworthy" and then hastily backpedaling and reassuring us that Coulson is great and trustworthy, and therefore by extension, so is SHIELD.

On the plus side, the second season added some much more interesting new characters and threw a few wrenches in the "happy team yay" vibe from the first few episodes.

Spoilers for S1 and S2

I was spoiled for a fair amount, since I hadn't been planning on watching the show, so I knew about Grant being HYDRA, something happening to Fitz, Skye being Quake, and her mother being immortal(ish).

I feel bad that Dichen Lachman seems to get cast as any character with Asian descent in any SF/F show. Also, I was not spoiled for her ultimately being evil, and I am still pretty annoyed by that, especially because it came hand-in-hand with a redemption storyline for Cal. The actor was great, yes, but I didn't really feel that it was earned. I would comment more on Skye's birth parents and parallels with May and Coulson, but no brain.

Still annoyed they killed Raina. And Trip, who I liked, even though he didn't have much to do on the show.

On the plus side, I LOVE Bobbi and Hunter and Mack and all their relationships with each other, from the bickering between Bobbi and Hunter to Mack's old friendship with Bobbi. OMG that scene with Bobbi in the finale when she thrusts herself in front of the gun to keep Hunter from being shot! It was also a very nice example of how you can put female characters in a great deal of pain and mental anguish without threats of sexual violence or sexually objectifying their pain. I mean, it's obviously there for the hurt/comfort effect, but it's very much the role that male characters tend to get.

Also good: Bobbi and Mack secretly working (at first) to take down Coulson's SHIELD and the general distrust of Coulson and his alien obsessions. Alas, there was way too much of May (and others) believing whole-heartedly in Coulson and thereby in his SHIELD for my taste.

It was really nice getting to see an interracial relationship of two POC, which I feel is incredibly rare.

I thought Fitz and Simmons were irritatingly twee in S1, but I liked how the emotional divide in S2 worked, particularly once Skye's alien/Inhuman heritage comes out and how Fitz empathizes with her due to his own experience. I was much less happy with Jemma developing romantic feelings for Fitz in the very end, which felt like it was stuck in there purely for more angst on Fitz's part.

Despite generally still hating Grant, I did like his extremely creepy and Stockholm syndrome-y thing with Agent 33. And despite being very annoyed by Fury annointing Coulson the new head of SHIELD and all the icky "You're such a good person, how could we ever doubt you" vibe that frequently surrounds Coulson, I like his relationship with Skye.

Looking forward to learning more about the Inhumans and the Kree in S3, because while I have issues with a lot of the character stuff, I am enjoying the world building a lot.

In conclusion, Bobbi Morse = THE BEST Y/Y?

Comments

[coffeeandink]

The comics and the TV characters are really different, but the comic that made me fall in love with Bobbi Morse is New Avengers: Reunion. Despite the title, it is basically all Bobbi all the time.

I really really could not deal with all the arguments about the "real" SHIELD. Neither of you is real! You are entirely without government backing or public oversight! You are criminal organisations!

And it's not consistent of me, because I hate the black ops prison in The Flash but still like the show. The differences are that I like the Flash characters and that the prison is a plot device rather than the ENTIRE PREMISE OF THE SHOW.

On phone, so probably typos.

[oyceter]

The arguments about the "real" SHIELD were awful! I was hoping there would at least be some critique with the Edward James Olmos faction, but sadly, no. And it annoyed me even more that Jiaying was evil and killed him and all that and how the show keeps portraying SHIELD as this scrappy underdog. Because nothing says scrappy underdog like giant military budget. Despite that, it was the Coulson worship that annoyed me the most... so cult of personality!

[oracne]

I still haven't even made it to the middle of first season. Should I skip straight to season two?

[firecat]

The second half of the first season is better than the first half, but still, that might not be a bad idea.

[natlyn]

No, there are definitely eps from the first season that you should see. However, I think much of the second season can be skipped.

[lenora_rose]

I wouldn't start at season 2, however much you feel you've been safely spoiled for the big stuff.

However, you might be able to skip to episode 16 of season 1. That's both where it turns a corner plot-wise and *quality* wise. Or, as someone I know said, "If I knew this show was going to be 16 episodes of set-up and six episodes of plot..."

[oyceter]

Haha, I see you've gotten several answers along the spectrum! I personally think S1 is skippable and don't really remember much of it, except the bits about how Coulson was resurrected and how that contributes to the MCU mythology, though it definitely picks up around 1x16, when the CA2 stuff comes in. I HATED the finale though--it's action packed, but I really really really hated the message.

[heresluck]

Right there with you on pretty much everything, including the wariness about whether the writers understand how problematic SHIELD really is. That was actually my big frustration with S2: it looked like they were going to really Go There (with Edward James Olmos! bonus!), and then that whole plot point just sort of... fizzled out. Meh.

Still, S2 is so much more interesting than S1. Bobbi is AWESOME; I loved her and her relationships with everybody, especially Mack and May. Also, Grant became significantly more bearable as a character once I was supposed to hate him.

[oyceter]

I was so annoyed when Fury kept talking up Coulson and going on about how he was the only! one! to save! SHIELD! Urgh. And then I got excited when there were SHIELD factions fighting amongst themselves, but then they had to go with the whole evil Jiaying thing, which completely shifted the focus away from SHIELD's problems. On a smaller scale, I feel like that's what they did with Skye's father too.

OMG BOBBI. I may think SHIELD is evil, but I like how she refused to apologize for anything she did as an undercover agent. Adrianne Palicki plus finishing The Wire has me putting Friday Night Lights much, much higher on my to-watch list.

[heresluck]

The savior!Coulson thing is like the worst example of telling vs. showing EVER. If Coulson is really that awesome, we should be able to see it for ourselves and would not need to be told about it every fourteen seconds. As it is, Coulson -- and by extension that entire element of the show -- is all hat and no cattle. Argh.

Friday Night Lights!!! So much love for that show and for Adrianne Palicki's character. ♥