Bronze Age Babies: Discuss: Marvel's Agents of SHIELD

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Discuss: Marvel's Agents of SHIELD

Doug: Any thoughts or sense of anticipation for this show, premiering on ABC this fall?

19 comments:

Anonymous said...: It's the first network program I'm genuinely excited by in years. The premise sounds promising. If they can manage to make it feel like the Marvel universe (even just basic dialog like, "Isn't that across from the Baxter Building?"), then I expect a fun ride ahead.

And since it's not on Fox-TV, it actually has a chance of not immediately being canceled.; July 23, 2013 at 7:21 AM
William said...: I definitely plan to check it out. It looks promising. Hopefully they will do it right, and make it a fun show to watch. I thought they handled SHIELD very well in the Avengers movie, so I actually have pretty high hopes for this one.; July 23, 2013 at 7:50 AM
Unknown said...: It's probably the one show I'm looking forward to the most.

Marvel hasn't had much of a history with live action television, with only The Incredible Hulk being a success while D.C. has had a long string of successes: The Adventures of Superman, Batman, Lois & Clark, Smallville, and Arrow.

But then again, until X-Men hit the big screen the same could said about D.C. and the motion picture features...; July 23, 2013 at 8:43 AM
Humanbelly said...: Love the fact that Clark Gregg's comin' back as the BELOVED Phil Coulson. I don't know if the series is pre-Avengers, or if it's a gimmicky resurrection or what. . . but it's one of the few times that I heartily approve of bringing a character back from the dead regardless of how much narrative sleight-of-hand it takes.

What I honestly don't care for, judging from the pilot photos, is the network's/producers' (??) unyielding belief that a show can only succeed if the whole cast is ridiculously young, thin, and beautiful. Honestly, I find the group to be very visually boring, and the mindset that creates a cast that looks like this is an early red flag for me.

But, brother, I DO want it to be good, make no mistake!

HB; July 23, 2013 at 9:04 AM
Anonymous said...: Evil Doctor answered a question I had - has it really been since The Hulk that Marvel has had a live action TV series? I am also curious to see if a continuing series might be able to capture a Marvel universe feel moreso than the movies, although I think all the films leading up to the Avengers did a pretty good job of that. And how much will we get that's pulled from the Silver and Bronze Age comics? Jasper Sitwell? Dum Dum Duggan??

Looking forward to checking it out.

Tom; July 23, 2013 at 9:20 AM
Anonymous said...: Mark my words, Coulson will be a LMD.

I love Joss Whedon. BtVS and Firefly are among my all-time favorite shows - so I have high hopes for this.; July 23, 2013 at 9:23 AM
J.A. Morris said...: I'm optimistic, Ming-Na has done some good work and is believable as a secret agent, Clark Gregg is a good actor. But I'd feel more optimistic if this show featured at least one SHIELD agent I grew up reading in comics. I get that Fury isn't available, but how about Gaffer, or Gabe Jones,Jimmy Woo,Jasper Sitwell, Clay Quartermain,etc? And I agree with HB's comment on the appearance of the cast.

This discussion gives me an excuse to post this funny SHIELD-related outtake from the Avengers movie, in case anyone hasn't seen it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGhz5o2cWKc; July 23, 2013 at 9:26 AM
Anonymous said...: I found this interesting. According to imdb, S.H.I.E.L.D. now stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Hmmm...

Also, I did not know that there was a 1998 TV movie starring David Hasselhoff as Nick Fury. Wow.

Tom; July 23, 2013 at 9:30 AM
Karen said...: I'm not feeling too excited about this, at least not yet. I'll tune in, but so far the clips I've seen haven't done much for me. Like HB said, the cast (with the exception of Clark Gregg) seems pretty bland. But perhaps it will surprise me. I hope so.

I did read that this take place post-Avengers, and that the mystery of how Coulson is alive will not be resolved immediately. Like Osvaldo, I suspect that he may be an LMD, or the Coulon who was killed in Avengers was an LMD. I suppose unraveling that will keep some of us coming back.

To be honest, I wish the Marvel film universe wasn't so SHIELD-centric. It seems like SHIELD is involved in everything, and that reeks of Big Brother to me, which instantly gets my hackles up.; July 23, 2013 at 9:44 AM
Rip Jagger said...: No Clay Quartermain?

Count me out!

This group looks more like the hipster nerds they feature on lamebrain shows like CSI and NCIS.

Booooorrrrrrriiiiinnnnngggg!

Rip Off; July 23, 2013 at 10:33 AM
david_b said...: It doesn't seem to have any distinctive flavor; if you're looking for more than casual SHIELD comic references, sorry..

Like Rip, it looks like a cool comic name/concept grafted onto CSI or NCIS production.; July 23, 2013 at 10:57 AM
William Preston said...: Is their first mission to locate a black SHIELD agent?; July 23, 2013 at 3:51 PM
Humanbelly said...: Ha! Nice one, William-!
:-))

HB; July 23, 2013 at 4:18 PM
Karen said...: I suppose they figure they're OK since they got Nick Fury in the movies...

What is the general rule? One black person per team? It would have been one woman per team, but this is a Joss Whedon show, so it has to be about 50-50. Boy, they do all look awfully vanilla though.

That's one thing (among many) that killed me about The Walking Dead TV show early on -hardly any African American characters, and they were in Atlanta for Pete's Sakes!; July 23, 2013 at 4:27 PM
William Preston said...: It's one thing that's struck me about the Arrow TV show, of which I've seen a few eps: you see more black faces than on most shows. Not just as stars, but as people in crowds, reporters, what have you. It's a sign that someone is thinking about casting.

The SF movie franchise that thought this through most fully was The Matrix. You get into Zion, and what do you see? White folks are in the minority. That made sense.

Agents of SHIELD does have one non-white person, but no one "brown" or black. It does seem an odd lapse for a Marvel show.; July 23, 2013 at 6:48 PM
david_b said...: Actually Karen, I was going to make the comment very similar to yours by saying, 'Looks pretty whitebread to me' but sometimes folks don't get my humor, so I strive to review my words several times before hitin' the Publish button.

We're in such a PC world, folks.; July 23, 2013 at 7:16 PM
Anonymous said...: Hmm will we see anyone from Hydra, AIM, the Hand, the Hellfire CLub, Roxxon, the Zodiac Cartel or any other evil group going up against SHIELD? Now THAT will get me interested in viewing this series!

- Mike 'plotting world domination from his bedroom' from Trinidad & Tobago.; July 23, 2013 at 9:25 PM
Unknown said...: From what I've seen from the trailer, there does seem to be a black character, someone who looks suspiciously like Luke Cage...; July 24, 2013 at 7:06 AM
Doc Savage said...: I've only seen this photo and wondered about the absence of any black or Latino characters. But you can't tell a Latino by sight, so who knows? Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst (Dollhouse?).; July 24, 2013 at 6:11 PM

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