Thoughts on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[annathepiper]

I’m beginning to see rumblings going around the Net of disappointment in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and as much as I hate to admit it, I’m beginning to sympathize with the rumblers.

Cora Buhlert calls out some race and gender fail in the show here, and has a followup post here. Likewise, James Nicoll has a big discussion on race fail in the show here on his LJ.

And Dara’s got strong opinions on the politics of the show over here.

Likewise, I saw two different critiques pop up on the Whedonesque blog. TVGuide.com and HitFix.com have disappointed reviews, and meanwhile, the aforementioned Cora links off to EW.com’s thoughts on how the show could be fixed.

Me, I’m just a bit sad that something with Whedon’s name on it so far is just completely failing to grab me. Just about all the critiques I’m seeing aired are ones I’m agreeing with. I find the cast mostly really bland, even Coulson–and I’m sad to have to say that given how awesome Coulson is in the movies. But he’s only occasionally gotten interesting in the episodes that have aired so far. Telling us with big stone hints that OH HEY LOOK SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS HAPPENED TO COULSON is feeble characterization. I liked it much better when we saw Coulson’s frustration at having lost his skill at the quick draw. That was a tantalizing little bit of characterization, showing us his actual reaction to what’s happened to him, rather than trying to drop anvil-sized hints on our heads.

No one else in the cast is impressing me yet, either. Particularly Agent Ward, who Dara dubbed Agent Truthserum. And really, that’s about the only really interesting thing he’s done so far. About all I can say about his characterization is that he’s gotten slightly less assholish in five episodes. But this is not enough to get me on board with his character.

I’d like to like Agent May, since she seems to have the greatest concentration of clues–except that so far she has no interesting characterization beyond “stereotypical female badass”.

Likewise, I’d like to like the nerd duo–except that they have no interesting characteristics either. And in fact, they’ve been specifically set up to be so interchangeable that their own teammates have trouble thinking of them as individuals. Instead, they’re “Fitzsimmons”. Because it ain’t like the brains on the team need to be interesting characters above and beyond spouting nerdy technobabble.

And I’d like to like Skye, of course. She at least has had glimmers of character development, and she’s been generally entertainingly competent by comparison to the others in the cast. And I did like the reveal of her motives in the last episode that aired, at least a bit.

But after seeing what Dara’s pointed out about where the show’s going with its politics, and seeing the trend of problematic treatment of the PoC guest characters… well. I don’t have much time for TV as it is, and I especially don’t have time for TV that’s got too much fail in too many ways.

Just sayin’, S.H.I.E.L.D. I’d like to stick around. Get your shit together, won’t you? Thank you.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

Comments

[tavella.livejournal.com]

I ended up bailing out after two episodes. I had a pretty good idea I wasn't going to think much of it -- I think Coulson in the movies is a bland authoritarian, and the previews and cast photos suggested the rest of the team was modeled on him. I gave it a chance to surprise me, though. It just didn't succeed.

[annathepiper]

*nodnod* Fair 'nuff!

I think I'll be punting it down to the status of "will read a few more episode recaps on tor.com and The Mary Sue" and may pay attention if it shows up on the TV, but I won't be actively seeking it out.

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

Acknowledging all the specific complaints have merit, my biggest complaint is that, after the pilot episode, it's just a little dull.

That's a big complaint.

If it wasn't Joss Whedon, I'd drop it already. He has an unusually good track record, so I'm still hoping he's getting some bad constraints from the network and will have more room to play soon (see Dollhouse), but it's definitely in a needs improvement state.

He's not even getting in much clever wordplay.

[annathepiper]

"Dull" is a really big complaint. o.O

See my comment elsewhere on the thread about how the only episode so far this season that has Joss' actual name on the writing credits was the pilot--and dude IS kinda busy dealing with Age of Ultron. So honestly I'm dubious about how heavily he's involved with this show.

[iwondery.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I agree. And if it hadn't been Whedon, I'd have dropped it, too. On the other hand, Buffy wasn't that good the first year, either. I'm going to give it some time. If it's still annoyingly bland by next year (if it lasts that long), I may just give up.

[annathepiper]

Buffy was absolutely rough its first season, but it also had characters who were way more engaging right out of the gate, and it had fun playing with breaking vampire story tropes. E.g., Darla whipping out guns. Still one of my favorite moments in the entire series.

Plus, it didn't hurt that David Boreanaz, even back before he REALLY got to have fun as Angelus, was way more entertaining to watch than Agent Truthserum. ;)

[kent.livejournal.com]

I have not been shy with my opinion that Whedon is overrated. He has his moments but he doesn't deserve the "His name means it will be gold" kind of worship he usually gets. That said, I wanted to give this a shot. I liked "Avengers." I have liked bit of what he's done in the past.

But yeah, it's bland. The "clever" bits aren't really (but I feel that way about a lot of Whedon "clever" dialog and plot stuff). The characters are thin. We need to identify with and root for the team and the organization they work for at least a little to feel invested. It's a very white cast (even if Chloe Bennett is biracial, the character appears to be written as white or otherwise whitewashed); Matilda May is either supposed to be an Asian badass cliche or is merely underwritten. Has Whedon ever been very good at writing about race? He's had some strong non-white characters but not because they're non-white; I wonder about the makeup of the casting director/writers' room.

In my old days as a single dude or married dude without a kid, I might have been able to make time for this show (especially in this multitasking "watch TV while fiddling with my smartphone" age) but it's just not worth it for me. If it gets better, I guess I'll hear about it and I'll give it another chance.

[avram]

Has Whedon ever been very good at writing about race?

Whedon’s projects tend to be exceptionally bad about race. Well, not actively bad, in the sense of having people in blackface or whatever. But passively bad, in that non-white people are always drastically under-represented in his movies and shows.

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a show set in modern-day California, had no black or Asian characters in the main cast until the last season. The sequel series, Angel, was a bit better in this regard.
• Firefly, set in future where Chinese culture was an important enough part of the setting that the characters swore in Chinese and Chinese writing showed up constantly in the background, had no Asian characters in the main cast, and barely any Asians with any speaking roles at all in the whole series.
• Whedon’s recent version of Much Ado About Nothing, also set in modern Los Angeles, has a single Asian actor in a minor speaking part, and the only black actor in the movie is there to react in the background when one of the white characters says something racist.

[annathepiper]

Speaking as someone who is a fan of Whedon dialogue at its snappy best, I feel that that level of clever has not been achieved in anything S.H.I.E.L.D.'s done so far, with the exception of one or two moments in the pilot--which, not by coincidence, is the only episode so far this season with Joss' name in the writing credits. Then again, his name was not the only name in the writing credits for that, and the guy is kinda busy with Age of Ultron, so I have my doubts about how heavily he's involved with this show. So.

And I am still kid-free and will be remaining so, but likewise, ain't got nearly as much bandwidth and patience these days for TV in general. At this point I suspect this just fell off my "must pay active attention" radar, and down onto the level of "I'll peek at a few more episode recaps on tor.com and The Mary Sue to see if things are improving at all".