Let’s just establish one thing on the outset, I have no
connection or insight into this show; these are again my impressions as the
season progressed.
Agents of Shield was a show that had so much momentum going
into its first season; it seemed poised to be a sure fire hit. Something
happened on its way to stellar glory. I remember reading a blub somewhere that
there were script problems that were requiring rewrites. Seemed reasonable,
many shows take time to find their footing and direction.
When the cast was revealed, I remember thinking; “the world
hasn’t been saved by people this beautiful since Starship Troopers.” Pardon me
if I take a moment to begrudge the cast for its youth. But, hopeful good acting
and well-crafted stories would win the day. Again how could they go wrong? This
series was teed up by The Avengers movie. What could go wrong?
Then it premiered. Something seemed off kilter about it. The
writing seemed a little hesitant and maybe rough in execution. A lot of the
time it seemed was spent stalling for time. There were moments when, it seemed,
the show wasn’t not sure what to do next. To be sure, the acting was good, good
production value, but something was missing. It just seemed like writing was
waiting for something to happen. One example is the Couson story which was
served in drips and drabs instead of shooting forward as the character tried to
determine what had happened to him.
Then came the episode that was basically an aftermath of
Thor: The Dark World. Should have known then what the problem was but it still
did not dawn.
It wasn’t until then that the problem came into full focus,
(in my opinion). The last few episodes
started to put into place changes, events, and keyed to Captain America: The
Winter Soldier. Then it hit me; the problem was the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
This show was a slave to events in other media, namely two movies with which it
had to align. This effectively put handcuffs on the writing staff. Story arcs
that could have been played out at a pace set by the writers of the show had to
align with the two movies. In planning the season of shows, instead of planning
for what was best for the series, they had to service the movies.
Admittedly, the Captain America thing gave them a great season
finale, but the Thor episode, (and I really like the Thor movie), dropped into
the middle of the AOS’s season and effectively drove whatever storytelling they
may have wanted to do at that point in the season.
The Star Wars people may want to take not of how well this
kind of thing can be done since the plan seems to be to run TV shows and
multiple movies all in a single cannon.
So AOS may have been hindered in its writing, but the good
news is, again, the Captain America aftermath gave them a beautiful way to
reboot the show and take it in directions not imagined in the first season.
Like Arrow, the paradigm under which the characters have operated to this
point, has shifted drastically and things such as resources and backup may
become more limited for the heroes in both shows, making their tasks that much
more difficult. (Not saying either show is “borrowing” storylines from the
other, just an interesting coincidence). This gives the writers the opportunity
to expand their TV universe in creative ways.
With no Marvel movies coming out in the middle of the
season—I don’t think—the AOS writing staff will be free to tell stories at
their own pace, develop story arcs that make sense and service only the show.
That should improve it immeasurably.
Once last time, and it cannot be stressed enough, the season
finale left the show in such an interesting place that it is in essence
starting over from scratch as Coulson and the gang struggle to set things
right. Again, the characters are interesting, aptly lead by Coulson and May. (
and I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure Coulson could be an interesting character—though
I like Greg Clark going back to his time on Old Christine—since he was just the
stogy strait man in the movies, but look how far we have come.
No comments:
Post a Comment