davidh777

I thought it was OK. There was some fun stuff in it, but it didn't quite grab me and my attention wandered. I'll tune in next week.

I don't think I've seen Ming-Na since ER and she looked... kinda old. I know that's not how SHIELD operates in the comics, but I like the idea of a young team in training, and she didn't quite fit (I know she's supposed to be some kind of legend or something).

The one guy was way too much like the JJ Abrams Chekov.

This could be a good thread to add a ratings poll to.

Hokeyboy

VHS? is taking this show VERY personally...

SteelWill

Well Ming-Na is kinda 50.

I wonder if the "fake looking" complaints are related to ABC pulling framerate shennanigans to fit in more commercials. Most people don't notice it consciously but I know there were some complaints when it was done during Lost and I thought I noticed it here too.

Brian Shannon

There are alot of people here with that very issue!

Back on topic, I watched the show, not sure what it was supposed to be, not sure if I will stick with it. We will see after next week.

Snowmaker

So no real answers on the whole "Tahiti" thing yet. Rats.

It feels like Heroes meets Torchwood so far to me. With maybe a little Alias mixed in.

mrhan

Wasn't the Extremis thing taken care of in IM3? I hated IM3 and actually fell asleep a couple of times watching it so I don't really remember.

moviefan2k4

It was left a little ambiguous, since Pepper was "cured" of it off-screen...along with the full explanation for Tony's heart surgery.

mphtrilogy

i though the 2nd half was pretty strong. Will tune in again...

Hokeyboy

I finally watched the episode. I thought it was decent. Some of the dialogue was pitch-perfect hilarious, others were cringe-inducing. The tired cliche of the super-hot sexy boobalicious hacker chick is in full effect here. Ming Na still looks great. I'd like to see a little stronger character work, as none of the new ones left any impression on me whatsoever (save for Ming Na, only because her understated performance showed some nuance).

But overall I dug it. Didn't LOVE it, it's a bit wonky, but it's only the first episode; I'll give it a few to determine whether or not I'm in for the long haul.

If we're doing comparisons, I thought Arrow had a much stronger pilot.

Kdogg

The show may have potential. A lot of the negativity is because Whedon's name is attached and his fan boys (me included) have high expectations. The big shock to me was how family friend it was. More in line with Once Upon a Time and No Ordinary Family than say Arrow. I guess it's part of Disney integrating Marvel for broader audiences. The tone reminds me of the A-Team and Knight Rider from the eighties. Those were showes I'd watch with my parents and I think this show is in the same vein.

Hokeyboy

Which is fine, I think, for something like this. They're going for four-quadrant audiences here, and there's nothing wrong with that when done well. The show has very "backlot-y" feel (someone else in this thread mentioned it feels very ABC-ish, which I picked up on too) but what can you do? It's a major network show designed for broad demographics. It's not gonna be ALIAS (which, at least tonally, was something I imagined the show was going for)...

And Cobie Smulders is still terrible. She's like a Dementor in every scene she's in; sucking the life right out of it.

DJariya

well said.

Also, Ming-Na Wen looks fantastic for 50. Some 50 year old women don't look anywhere near as good and fit as her. I'd like to see Melinda May develop more as a character in future weeks.

RichC2

It goes without saying that some 50 year old women don't look anywhere near as good or as fit as her, I think you meant like, 30 maybe?

DJariya

What?? That doesn't make any sense.

starman9000

You said SOME 50 year old women don't look as good as her, and he thought you meant to say some 30 year old women don't.

Most 50 year old women aren't nearly as fit as her.

Draven

Are people really complaining that there wasn't enough character development in a PILOT? Geez...

DJariya

Dude settle down

All I said was I want to see more development with May in future weeks. I find her to be one of the more interesting Shield agents. I know they can't show everything in 40+ minutes.

Axeramm

I am always saying more Felicity in the Arrow threads. I really want to say more Simmons but it seems she is joined at the hip with Fitz. Will have to see more to see if it's worth it.

Hokeyboy

Has anyone seen VHS? and Draven in the same room together?

The glib, quirky, manic-excited-mumbling, borderline Aspie "geek" trope is beyond played-out in this day and age. I'm surprised (and somewhat disappointed) that AOS went back to that well. But I'm hopeful to see how it plays out.

fujishig

I just want them to expand the plot a little (and yes, I realize this was the pilot, I'm not complaining). But I want either some Hydra-like big bad opposition or corruption in SHIELD or something more than nice guy Coulson, his reluctant senior agent and a bunch of younger agents bonding and solving mysteries.

They already showed Hydra in Captain America (in the past), right? Are they in the sequel as well?

They are darned lucky cute hacker chick wasn't a real bad guy. I hope she has mutant powers (well, not mutant, because that's another franchise) or something because otherwise they really are a terrible "spy" agency.

VHS?

Hokeyboy,
No conspiracy here of Two being One in the same.
I'm not taking the show personally. I have said time and time again that too many DO take TV too personally/seriously and that's just what I was talking about in this thread. Every week for every episode we see the same people who insist on hating shows, show up to let us know. Every week.

We also have people go way off topic to explain just how shitty something is. Rather than just tell us you didnt like it and express a few examples, we get detailed nitpicking and also a few personal jabs at who directed and/or produced. The next week we get the same thing. We thought they said the were finished with the show but I think some keep watching because they are either closet fans, or want to bitch and moan about it so they watch it to take notes on everything that sucks about it.
It's like when we see threads about movies that dont even have a trailer yet and already we get comments on how much it will suck and what shit it already is. All because we find out who directs and who many be starring.


It would be nice to just have normal discussion once and a while.
People are spoiled and picky today and it's a shame.

superdeluxe

Ming Na Wen is 50? Damn, i did notice she looked a little weathered in the face, but I thought she was much younger than that, if she was 50 she actually looked really good.

superdeluxe

Maybe she is a Inhuman

GreenMonkey

Yeah, I'm with you. My wife and I watched. We are big Whedon fans. Yes, even Dollhouse and Firefly. This was muddled and boring.

She said - there were too many characters introduced so quickly, and with so little background, that it was hard to really care what happened to anybody. I agree.

The plot was muddled, trying to run in too many directions at once and introducing like a billion characters at once. It would have been a good idea to bump some of these to the next few eps.

The attempt at sympathy for an out-of-work dude was done very clumsily, and then undermined when you find out he didn't just save some woman but the doctor that was hooking him up with fancy tech. Didn't help when he started attacking people like the foreman - I wouldn't have minded if they shot him for real (the end was corny though).

I also have no idea who anyone's name was by the end of the episode. Except Coulson from the movies.

I felt like even the bad episodes of Heroes were better. *shrug*. This show just made me want to pull out my season 1 of Heroes and watch it instead.

We'll probably give it a chance for a couple more episodes but it's certainly not going to be top of the must-watch heap at our house.

PhantomStranger

That is the best description I've seen yet for SHIELD, framed within a very family-friendly approach for the 8 PM broadcast hour. ABC is definitely hoping this show gets a broad-based audience beyond Marvel's young male fanbase. I knew that would happen the minute it was placed in the 8 PM slot.

SHIELD really seems to be an attempt by ABC to duplicate Once Upon A Time for a male-skewing audience.

This pilot wasn't as sharp as prior Mutant Enemy pilots. It certainly wasn't on the same level as Buffy's pilot, which beautifully introduced the main characters and could have worked as a standalone movie.