Amph Agents of SHIELD Discussion Thread (and Slingshot)

I'll concede that Arrow had a rocky start, but to say that every show is terrible in its first half is just outrageous and wildly inaccurate. I get that what you're getting at is that sometimes, shows take a while to hit their stride, and I agree, but this isn't always the case. Game of Thrones, The Wire, Breaking Bad, Mad Men - these shows all arrived more or less fully-formed, with very few weaknesses out the gate.

Actually, when your show begins life as an Avengers tie-in and cash-in, specifically marketed as continuing the story of the Avengers with many shots of superpowered Mike jumping and being heroic, you're going to have a lot of people thinking it's a superhero show. Don't kid yourself here. The fact that they continue to play up the superhero elements (again, Mike, the Thor tie-in, and Lady Sif's upcoming appearance, not to mention the various supervillains that have shown up) means you can throw this tired argument out the window. It's useless. Sure, it's about the people on the ground, but it's really about getting that Avengers audience watching 45 minutes of television every week. Well, almost every week, what with the delays due to sweeps and Olympics.

 

The series appears to be aiming mostly toward older teens and young adults, around the 16-20 crowd.

 

The "superhero" aspects are definitely a part of the show, but they're not the main focus. That was my point.

 

Uh-huh.

 

Not good enough excuses for the quality of show we've gotten. I'm glad some of you like it, but if you go to a comic con, don't be surprised if your one of the few with the AOS t-shirt. We all new it was going to be a crime procedural, if fact that was the early worry many had. In a landscape of hundreds of cop shows, most expected a little more from Marvels first foray into live action TV. Plus, you could still do the crime proced and do it better then watch we've gotten so far. In the end only that audience is going to be watching, and yourselves. I suspect quite a few more people to leave if the show doesn't pick up, and fails to tie itself more into it's universe.

as for Epic. Arrow has done epic. Even smallville did epic. You don't have to wait for a movie to get high quality epic TV.

 

"Smallville" rarely did epic on any scale; I know because I watched all ten years of it. When Michael Rosenbaum left, the ratings dropped like a rock, and the producers kept trying to find a new threat for every year. The first half of the series finale was great, but the second half failed miserably.

 

Well I highly doubt the showrunners are going to admit they were wrong, everything is planned even if it originally wasn't.

And that part with Simmons was one of the highlights for me. If they change her to stop being her that'll be a big negative in my book.

As to the target audience. Just going by my own family, a show like NCIS gets my grandparents, parents, and siblings to watch. The Avengers movie gets pretty much just me. A show like AOS is something we all can watch.

Heh, I had to force most of my friends to watch season 1 of Game of Thrones, most gave up because they said it was boring and none of the characters were likeable.

 

I guess I'm failing to understand what you mean my epic. I can tell you that so far AOS has done nothing that I would call epic, or great even. No stand out episode for sure.

Arrow has had some epic stuff go down.

Breaking Bad.

I think even My Little Poney has had more epic than AOS.

 

When I say "epic", I mean Tony Stark switching suits of armor every few seconds while fighting Extremis soldiers at the end of "Iron Man 3". Another example would be an environment like Asgard in "Thor", or the Valkyrie sequences from "The First Avenger". Television's an entirely different medium, and "Agents of SHIELD" was deliberately designed as something different in scope, yet co-existing with the films.

 

And do you expect AOS to survive with only those willing to forgive all the shows sins, and Granda Ma and Grandpa? Is that the legacy Marvel wants teh show to have?

All goes back to wasting valueable time.

 

Your saying TV can't do that? Plus who says AOS needs to do that? Arrow does epic without having to have the special effects.

And TV not being able to do epic?

Look no further than a GOT episode called BLACKWATER.

TV can't do huge stuff like that, but it can do close. As the years pass it will be able to do more.

 

Your acting like it's in the middle of season 3 already. We are halfway though season 1. There will be plenty of changes and adjustments to the show to make it better and work better. Casting a verdict on any show at this point is foolhardy. At this point in Arrow's time the most epic thing was a short fight with Deadshot.

And, yeah I think Marvel would like their tv show to be viewed by more people than just me. Cause if it's just me and people like me watching... that show won't last long.

 

At its most basic level, "epic" equals "big"...and in terms of TV shows, that usually means lots of special effects. Most programs on the "small screen" don't get large budgets, so a whole season of "SHIELD" might be given $30 million for 22 40-minute episodes. In contrast, the original "Iron Man" had a $140 million budget for 2 hours.

 

Which is my point. Which goes into my other point of the show better having some great tricks up it sleave, or find itself overshadowed. Because right now it's not impressing very many, and we'll have to wait and see if they can make up for lost time.

 

That doesn't mean anything. The Breaking Bad episode Ozymandis was EPIC. The Episode where Gus wiped out the cartel was Epic. You don't have to have explosions to have Epic. That's Michael Bay territory, and having lots of crap flying around and stuff blowing up doesn't always mean Epic.

You can do epic with 30 millions very easy.

 

And all those episodes were not in the first half of season 1.

 

First episode was epic enough. That has to be one of the most perfectly paced, well acted, focused, and tight, pilots in TV history. A stand alone that gives the entire idea of the show in one perfect episode.

 

I'm personally okay with AoS not beingup to Breaking Bad standards, just like The Avengers was no The Godfather. We are talking masterworks in the medium, here.

I've kept up with AoS mostly because of MCU fidelity. I do think it's finally finding its footing, and last week's episode was the first I would genuinely call good, not just passable or entertaining. Thankfully the series has been getting better and better, and I'm hoping the remaining episodes of the season are at the very least as good as last week's was. I'm reminded of the evolution of Fringe, and that's a good sign.

 

Fringe gets better? Okay, I should probably stick it out then...

 

Yeah, it really does, starting with the season 1 finale.

 

I wasn't just referring to surface stuff like explosions. Epics generally have grand vistas, huge story arcs, numerous character transitions, etc. The "Narnia" and "Rings" films are epic, but don't have a lot of explosions.

As for Bay, I think the guy has one default setting: "boobs and bombs". If he could find a way to safely detonate a SFX rig on a woman's chest, he'd probably do it...which makes me nervous for the upcoming TMNT reboot. But that's another story...

 

Literally everything you used to qualify "epic" was used in Breaking Bad, a small-scale show. Doesn't mean it's less epic. Also, it had explosions, because explosions are exciting.

As for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it began as a parody of dark and gritty comics before becoming the kids' show everyone seems to love. It's only fitting Michael Bay is going to take it to ridiculous levels once more. Speak ill of the guy all you want, but he still made one of the best movies of 2013.

 

Well, I'm just thankful Bay's not directing the new "TMNT". Getting back to "SHIELD", the one thing that's been irritating me most is the long breaks because of sweeps and the Olympics.

I've never seen "Breaking Bad", and just heard of it for the first time a few months ago.

 

Sweeps don't result in long breaks. Sweeps is when the best stuff is put on. The Olympics, well, that's every four years. Everything on ABC, CBS and FOX are repeats with the exception of reality shows and a few shows that the networks are taking a chance on, like "The Following" on FOX.

 

Yeah, normally all the shows would be showing new episodes during February Sweeps, unfortunately, this year has the Olympics, so everybody decided to take the month off to avoid running up against their ratings suffering as a result.