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

Roads? Where we're going we don't need ... roads.

Man, you only get one chance to make a first impression, and the impression this show left was not good. I never saw "Heroes," but I bet it was better than this at first.

The general crapness of this show has real potential to devalue the Cinematic Marvel U. enormously.

In its defense, I think the opposite is true: it's crappy enough that people will recognize it as something else.

In its defense, most pilots are bad.

Ain't that the truth. But most pilots written/directed by a guy who understands the medium, respects the genre, and whose last movie and the impetus for this show made $1billion, plus who's generally regarded as one of the best TV guys of his generation, aren't usually this bad.

I dunno, I thought the Dollhouse pilot sucked too

it's stupid to judge a show by the pilot, esp when it's biggest crime was a monochromatic, smug tone - something that can easily evolve - rather than an intrinsic quality of the show (i.e. trophy wife is not actually about a trophy wife, and will likely never explain why this nice guy has two grumpy ex-wives AND a perfectly nice young one). but this is whedon's first project since becoming King Of Hollywood, so there is the possibility it will remain this stiffly cutesy.

That's sort of what I was getting at: this was a "sure thing" product from a guy at the peak of his commercial/creative powers, with a proven track record across mediums, with a built-in audience and a massive amount of good will engendered by the property that spans decades ... and this is what they came up with for the first episode? This is no mere "golly, I hope this gets picked up" gambit. This was a "wow, The Avengers made billions, we better strike while the iron is hot" thing. But this was ... not so hot. All it had to be was solid, but it was shakey.

family friendly + inclusive of people who hadn't seen movie + catering for television audience with no attention span = hot garbage

I was just thinking that as ridiculous as it got (and it should have ended much earlier), the closest in scale we've gotten to a Steranko-era SHIELD is the tv show Alias. One main character, covert spy stuff, unbelievable getaways and circumstances, mystical gadgets

keep in mind that while it's Big Names working Big Property, there's not a lot of precedent for a spin-off TV show that's supposed to work as a stand-alone and keep the irons hot for the next sequel. so there are going to be some kinks to work out - Whedon may be the god of superhero movies at the moment, but his tv shows were quirky cult things full of feels on off nights, not Big 3 procedurals. plus it sure sounds to me like they're implying agent coulson is a robot - he seems more stiff than i recalled from the movies, that whole "he can never know" bit - while it's possible the show will stay "Marvel Presents NCIS" things may get quirkier once "Marvel Presents NCIS" has been established.

keep in mind that while it's Big Names working Big Property, there's not a lot of precedent for a spin-off TV show that's supposed to work as a stand-alone and keep the irons hot for the next sequel

there is, it's just that it's often in animated form (Star Wars, Tron)

in prime time?

i'm not talking about toy selling spin-offs for kids

What do you think this show is?

it's on abc at 8pm, not disney xd

do you need me to explain how that's a different audience

true, but at the same time Law & Order doesn't usually begin with the characters looking at a toy store with actions figures of Law & Order universe characters

metaphors are real, do you see

fwiw Star Wars: Clone Wars ran in primetime, probably the reason why it scooped up primetime emmys:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Clone_Wars_(TV_series)

if anything it's the model for a tv show that exists in-continuity between movies, majority of movie tie-in shows have been just continuations of the premise of a film

I'm sorry that I didn't recognize that the Marvel comics movies are ADULT MOVIES for ADULT PEOPLE

ANT MOVIES for ANT PEOPLE

http://digboston.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Adam-Ant300.jpg

I'm gonna keep watching. Just dying for a decent sci-fi-ish show right now. I dug Contiuum (and will probably still watch it), but it's pretty goofy, with all of TEH CORPORATIONS! hand-wringing...

Decent-ish: Continuum (lol), Orphan Black, uhhh maybe some other stuff

I keep expecting Broadchurch to go all sci-fi because of Tennant and Darvill

I'm sorry that I didn't recognize that the Marvel comics movies are ADULT MOVIES for ADULT PEOPLE

the point was that there's not a lot of precedent for a prime-time network show that's supposed to tie in between previous and next parts of the one of the biggest movie franchises ever. that there have been animated spin-offs on kids networks is beside the point (also tron: uprising and clone wars are both prequels to films already released).

it's a good point

was i the only one who could barely decipher the eurotwins when they were babbling?

like, one of the main repeated plot points of every SHIELD comics series or Nick Fury plot since Steranko's era is the repeated use of life model decoys, so they're probably going to use it at some point

LMDs are the worst, if they have any sense they wont infect the movie universe with them

i thought they were gonna remake coulson as the vision which i can cosign but who knows now

while i hope they go full cape they might just have him be the smug countenance of a computer system named vision (like jarvis with attitude) but still call him coulson

http://media.comicbookmovie.com/images/users/uploads/27233/Phil%20Coulson%20evolution%20to%20Vision.jpg

it's a show built around a breakout character of a billion dollar movie and he was just super annoying in the pilot, feels like a case of joss and co losing track of what made people like him

and GOD young hot main character dude was boring

Yeah, for a show with so many characters it totally lacked character.

yep

sort of baffles me that Coulson could be seen as interesting/likeable enough to have a primetime series based around him, but you know, big box office gets folks excited.

that episode 1 ending. so bad. SO BAD.

"Where we're going, we don't need quality writing."

Funny thing is, I believe the flying car is one of the few elements pulled straight from the early SHIELD stories. They should have left it in 1966 where it belonged.

if you thought Ep1 was bad...

Yeah, this is terrible and shows no signs of improvement. Tom Spurgeon's review is pretty accurate and gave it all the bandwidth it deserves --

I know that early-season episodes of a new TV series can be really uneven, but I was still fairly shocked how distressingly generic and cheap-looking and narratively slack Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. seemed. There were very few characters but they still dramatically overlapped; much of the dialogue felt the same to me across the board. You could shove that entire cast into a CSI or a NCIS or some syndicated show about a mutant superteam without blinking, which I suppose is the point. The bad guys in last night's episode could have strolled over from the set of a Burn Notice or a Strike Back and not had to change clothes. Perhaps worst of all, I got no sense of basic physical stakes in any of the action scenes. I don't know. The Marvel universe was a rich, distinctive place for me to spend time when I was a kid and a teen -- I visited for years afterwards -- and I get the sense from today's Marvel comic books when I see them that there's still a feel to the place that keeps those readers enthusiastic. From this, I got nothing.

haven't seen last night's episode yet but I loved the pilot

couldn't bring myself to watch episode 2 after catching a glimpse on-air between dvr'd shows. Will go back if people say it gets interesting but man, sure looks like generic smug detective shit

but without the detection...

or andre braugher...

Well, two apparently shitty eps in a row makes things easy.

dear joss: stop. making. miniature dull action b-movies! please for the love of fuck make a tv show!

ugh i swear if joss wasn't involved I would be SO done with this. awkard, wooden, expositiony & sooo telegraphed. i just wanted the whole show to get sucked out of that plane so we could start over.

but i'm staying signed on. for now. but if it stays this flat I'll kill myself out of sheer boredom.

joss isnt really involved, he just did the pilot and handed it off to his brother... Jed Whedon (not joking)

His brothers have done some really good work on other shows (Southland etc.) but man this second episode blew.

It doesn't help that it looks so shitty compared to something like Strike Back.

i love buffy but i have a really hard time with non-buffy whedon, there was something about that show that balanced out his smarminess... a sort of emotional purity or something... his shtick is super hard for me to take otherwise