Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. -- Marvel meets Joss Whedon meets...TV!

dropped out midway thru last ep, life's too short

is another show i have no interest in

This show is kind of fascinatingly bad

yeah .. not good.
still watch it on sunday afternoon with young'un.
its really not worthy of an evening schedule.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/90040/the-check-in-the-agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-are-still-stuck-scooby-dooing-around-the-marvel-universe

this made me lol:

The show has taken a world in which Norse thunder gods and armored billionaires soar through the skies and made it as compelling as a commuter flight to Albany.

Good point re: this paradox:

With billions of future dollars at stake, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s creative process is almost necessarily more about the boardroom than the writers' room. This means that the late-night, cheap takeout–fueled inspiration that has led to some of scripted TV's most indelible moments won't be happening here. What's worse, an exploration of the Marvel U's most fascinating corners — like Wakanda, say, or the Savage Land — is also unlikely. Why burn something on a random Tuesday night in October when there's a chance of blowing people's minds with it on a summer weekend in 2019?

http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/10/24/shield-agents-steranko-entertainment-geekly/

caught up, i feel like i'm watching one of those syndicated sci-fi shows that were on in the 90s before all of that stuff was pulled into the sci-fi channel's orbit (and is probably still there)

but the '… will return in a moment' bumper makes it seem an AWFUL LOT like it is meant to be family-oriented, occasional dirty joke aside

I finally started watching this last night (after reading that it was going to be following up on the events of the next Thor movie). Everybody's being so hard on this show! It's nothing spectacular, but it's fun enough. Naturally, it doesn't hold a candle to the Marvel films or to Whedon's peaks, but I don't know if/why anyone is really expecting that to be the case. And the creators are in a uniquely weird spot inasmuch as they have to develop a show that fits in a universe established and altered by the movies, which I'm sure is a less challenging challenge when you're trying to figure out how your single Captain America movie is going to relate to the movies released on either side of it. And they're clearly planting seeds for interesting developments. And I'm really happy about the existence of a live-action series set in the MU. So I'm giving these dudes a major pass until/unless things start to legit suck.

That's pretty much where I am, too. Also everyone on this show is v v pretty.

They should have had Joss write a big list of Whedonesque quips that they could pepper throughout the series but not let him anywhere near the casting. He's assembled his typical mix of bland, wooden nobodies again. The science couple at least have accents which is something. It reminds me of the Alan Moore quote. "Stan Lee had this huge breakthrough of two-dimensional characters. So, they dress up in costumes and do good, but they've got a bad heart. Or a bad leg. I actually did think for a long while that having a bad leg was an actual character trait."

ya he is p bad at casting

I thought he got Firefly right

im not really a fan of everyone's nerd hero nathan filion... and everyone else in that show is p forgettable

fair enough, I dig Adam Baldwin's scene chewing and Gina Torres is my wifey

also Alan Tudyk has a very specific schtick that I have not yet grown tired of

man gina torres isnt forgettable c'mon

none of his regulars exactly set the world on fire when their series ended know whaddimean?

was the cast of barney miller forgettable?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmmAdbDF1xA

Nathan Fillion is kinda overdone but I thought everyone else on Firefly was excellent.

Fillion is setting the hearts of TV Guide readers on fire; Castle consistently does well in their polls

also Summer Glau is kind of a geek icon now and Morena Baccarin is on Homeland now

I know Christina Hendricks wasn't a "regular" per se but still

lol finding out hendricks was on firefly was what made go 'ok NOW i'll check it out'

Gina Torres was in a show that lasted for a bit, IIRC?
Alan Tudyk is working
Kaylee was on Stargate or something

so pretty much Adam Baldwin, the Doc and maybe Preacher are the only ones making a living on the convention circuit.

i don't think the problem is with casting per se on shield. the problem is the combination of boring actors and boring characters.

baldwin was on chuck for years. he's been a pro forever.

oh my god that was christina hendricks???

fancy whore ended up on homeland

as dan noted

What does "set the world on fire" mean in this context?

Allyson Hannigan is on a long-running sitcom. Boreanaz is on a long-running crime drama. Morena Baccarin is on, Homeland, which I'm told is popular. James Marsters has never stopped working, whether on Smallville or some SyFy series or whatever. Gina Torres is always getting cast in something or other and is currently a regular on Suits, which does well for basic cable. Adam Baldwin was already well past his movie-star sell-by date when Firefly came around, but he was a regular on Chuck and never has trouble getting both guest slots and voiceover work.

Like, none of these people just disappeared. They're on TV almost literally all the time, and Alan Tudyk has a serviceable movie career.

many XPs

smg costars in the big new hit sitcom of 2013

Summer Glau is on Arrow

Amy Acker can always find work, too.

guys it's fine, all s1ocki meant is that he's not interested in these ppl, and actually that's okay

there's no need to save-a-Whedon

it is funny cuz there have been a lot of actors from cult or whatever shows i watched where i was like i wonder what happened to them and what happened is they got another show that is massively more popular than what i know them from

"he is p. bad at casting" implies some objective standard beyond "I don't care about these actors," but I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it.

if ruffalo as the hulk was his call (which i doubt tbh) i cant criticize his casting cuz i never would've guessed that would work

i get whats slocks is saying about filion, if only bc his style is a little bit too much '80s smarm for me, but i still liked him in firefly and serenity.

i don't even know what i mean by '80s smarm tbh.

if ruffalo as the hulk was his call (which i doubt tbh)

There's a thing on the Avengers DVD where he says Ruffalo was his number one choice from a list of many. Take with a grain of salt or whatevs.

it is funny cuz there have been a lot of actors from cult or whatever shows i watched where i was like i wonder what happened to them and what happened is they got another show that is massively more popular than what i know them from

― balls, Tuesday, November 5, 2013 11:52 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol that's true

i dunno i just guess i find them all very... actors that belong in the supporting ranks in a semi-successful network tv drama, which... they are! and there's nothing wrong with that. but i dont get worked up about them like i do performers on other shows i really like

It's a small-ish ensemble at the moment, though. I'm sure we'll lose and gain some folks soon enough (sure seemed like J. August Richards is meant to get pulled back into the narrative at some point).

The point of which being that "fan favorites" aren't always part of the initial ensemble.

i dunno i just guess i find them all very... actors that belong in the supporting ranks in a semi-successful network tv drama, which... they are!

haha yeah pretty much

i think it would probably be fair to wonder what kinds of roles/characters whedon can write best. some of his best work came from a combination of narrativized character history, and from working mythic/heroic/archetypal modes against jokey everydayness. which is why, say, zoe was a character in his sweet spot even if he didn't write much of a backstory for her in the 1 firefly season + movie, but wash's death in the movie could hit hard (because whedon is good at writing believable dialogue for actors to play characters who have history together). the doctor from firefly, less so, maybe because the zone his character-type came from barely had anything to do with those more heroic attributes that whedon is comfortable writing lines for. kaylee, kind of the opposite thing: mechanic-savant who can come through under pressure, but who generally inhabits the everyday aw shucks mode (which makes her a repeat of willow), so doesn't really present any writing challenges.

the comfort with the heroic aspect lets whedon work well with actors/performances that are maybe kind of meh, like hilo on dollhouse. but when the setup kind of excludes that possibility, or makes it code differently, like on s.h.i.e.l.d., maybe the whedon b-team don't realize that they won't be able to get the same effect. everyone involved right now, except coulson, has to be slotted into 'well-trained paramilitary agent or hanger-on', which means that any moves in the more heroic direction character-wise or line-wise have to be made in a constrained space. like, they can have ming na glower, and punch some people, but whenever she does it there are no notes like 'chosen one' or 'outlaw rebel' or 'reprogrammable sex doll/assassin' to hit in the vicinity, so there's less to compensate for/magnify a modest performance.

on dollhouse whedon's way of handling this, which was more of a problem there because of the storylines and because of dushku and because of the slightly more risky initial premise (more variability built in, a few more balls in the air as far as the elements of sci-fi-paranoia-speculative-alternaworlds go), tended to be to work with the extended series structure and build depth over time to make the more modest bits mean more. i'm kind of thinking that's not to be expected on s.h.i.e.l.d. because it's a big abc production, and because maybe the writers aren't whedon. but it could happen.

i thought kaylee was a pretty terrible character

man I had the biggest crush on Eliza Dushku and then I watched the first episode of Dollhouse ;_;

...and found out she was a memory-wiped, uh, whatever she was in that show??

that show was flat out unwatchable to me

obv it took me 3-4 episodes to realize this

I def went in going "yay, I get to watch Dushku every week ^_^" and came out the other side going "COME BACK JESSICA ALBA, ALL IS FORGIVEN"