Second episode got a 3.1.

Blacklist, an NBC show, is now beating it.

It beat it the first week as well in total viewers that is.

I'm certainly not shocked, I figured it would have big drop. People tuned in since they were curious about it because of the movies. The show isn't what most of them expected, and they dropped out. I bet next week will drop even more.

This is a show that could have been truly huge and amazing, but they went somewhere else with it and it's not what people want.

The show doesn't look cheap to me, but it does look chintzy, artificial, basically lacking verisimilitude.

The lighting is a large part of it. It just looks so, I dunno, soap operish to me. It just gives off the feeling of cheap even if it wasn't actually cheaply made. The cheesy writing and acting just helps back that up.

Obviously familiar with both. Only really watched Lost. Cannot fathom how Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. visually trumps Lost.

That might be a better way of what I'm trying to say, although I consider "chintzy" and "cheap" to be pretty much the same thing.

To its credit, Blacklist also has a 4.7 lead-in, SHIELD is on its own.

LOST is a much better looking show visually, but the CG has not aged well at all which I guess is what he was getting at. The overall visual styling, lighting, cinematography, and set designs however completely trump SHIELD. Still, I didn't expect SHIELD and Sleepy Hollow to pull roughly the same numbers.

The scene in the Peruvian jungle reminded me of a MacGyver episode and not in a good way. Maybe they'll treat us to same day for night filming next to really give it that retro feel.

I'm still in because Ming-Na Wen is in it and it's nice to lust after someone older than me for once.

I still can't believe she is 50, or almost 50. Insane.

Seriously.

I'm enjoying the show. I don't take it very seriously, which I guess helps. I like the action sequences. I don't think they look 'cheap.'

i feel cheated she didn't enter with a bottle of tequila in one hand and a taco in the other. at least have her fight a bull or something.

Yeah, I thought Asgard or similar.

Agreed. I thought this was a fine episode and I enjoyed it plenty.

I'm looking forward to next week - should be a more positive thread since everyone who hates it is dropping it from the DVR.

Even though it was a jokey cameo, I'm amazed at how small the Fury cameo felt.

Even though this show feels very slight, I'm ok with that. What is really damning this show is how little chemistry this cast has.

I don't know, I still like the show, but I'm not going in expecting huge things, just a neat comic book/movie universe tie in with a lower budget. I do wish there was some bigger overarching plot (which I guess the whole Skye thing is getting at), or at least some connection between the artifacts they're finding.

I liked that they addressed the idiocy of adding a civilian hacker to the team, so at least Coulson has thought of it (hopefully... if that blindsides him I'll be super disappointed). And also the odd makeup of the team, with three non-combatants, and one who doesn't want to be a combatant. My wife remarked why they blew the ship without making sure Coulson was alright, and they addressed that too.

Ok, the nitpicky stuff:
Coulson's acting is eye-rollingly bad, but I can't tell if that's just a continuation of his character from the movies (which I also was not a gigantic fan of).
I haven't exactly studied the science behind it, but wouldn't that life raft just get sucked through the hole? It's really going to be sufficient to plug the hole?
I know it's product placement, but a Lexus?
Douche Bag claims he could have taken all those guys if he was just by himself. What was stopping him?
Every time I see Fitz I think Jennifer Garner with an accent, which indirectly reminds me of Alias and how much better, at least in my fuzzy memory, that show was as a secret agent show.
They really just shot that thing into space or something? I was a little unclear on it but that didn't make much sense.

^They explained that they were shooting the artifact into the sun.

That's what I figured, but isn't that a little dangerous (not to mention a bit costly)?

Comic book logic/science/magic, I guess. Of course if it's "tesseract-powered" technology, I'd be a teensy bit concerned with what firing it into a giant fusion reactor might do...

This episode was definitely better.


I'll continue watching

They don't really have an alternative with something that powerful. If they hide it, it could always be found/stolen. If they try to destroy it, they could make it even worse.

To address some other points:

The life raft probably would have been sucked out. Though decompression doesn't do anything like that whole scene on the plane anyway, but everyone gets that wrong in movies/TV. It's not a vacuum like it would be in space. I would have been happier if the hole was a bit smaller for the raft to plug. That was my only nitpick with the episode.

The reason Ward can't take all those guys himself is because he has to worry about everyone else. He had to stop fighting when the others were grabbed.

And I love Alias but some of those episodes were pretty bad too, especially when it started getting really mystical.

EDIT: Also feel the need to address the criticism about bringing in what happened in the movies: S.H.I.E.L.D. specifically exists because of the events in the movies. So to not reference the fact that all of that stuff has happened would be silly. They've investigated things like this before (LOVED the "a hammer" line) and it makes sense to reference what happened in New York because it would affect the whole planet and everyone on it. I just don't see how them mentioning these incredible things that happen in their world is a bad thing.

The worst part of the second episode (in terms of actual plot), to me, was using the raft to completely patch the hole in the side of the plane and it instantly fixing everything and putting everyone at rest. They have all of these gadgets and innovation and that is what they came up with? Meh. It just looked so goofy and, well, cheap.

Based on how events unfolded, my take was that the five-member team developed only the "blow a hole in the plane to get rid of the bad guys" plan together while locked up. As Fitz and Simmons were reeling in Skye, she remembered the life raft from the instruction card and decided on the spot that it could be opened and used to cover the hole. Fitz and Simmons were puzzled by Skye's decision to "let go" of the chain, so I don't think they knew what she was going to do (meaning it wasn't part of the original plan).

No, I get why the characters did it. I think the problem is that the writers decided to write that into the script in the first place. It's up there with "nuke the fridge" to me.

He was arguing about this before the hijacking. He said he could have taken all those guys out in the jungle, and this is after the Peruvian military got the drop on him and May and had them dead to rights. Those guys were relatively safe in the cave, if he was able to take all of the rebels out he had a chance to do so, but unless he's got hidden super powers he wasn't going to take them all...

Oh, I know it wasn't part of the plan. Which means their plan was basically: blow a hole in the plane to get the doors open (or something), have douche bag beat up the bad guys, have May beat up the pilot, and have no way to patch up the plane, but hopefully it doesn't crash or have more than one engine get damaged by the debris.

About sending the alien thing to the sun. Besides the danger, this is a world in which they are hopelessly outclassed by superpowered beings, gods, and aliens, and the US government chucks this stuff in the sun?

What are the stats on the show right now? Production costs, how many episodes are guaranteed, all of that stuff.