AGENTS OF SHIELD - First Thoughts
Sep. 26th, 2013 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dexfarkinTaking a brief sanity break from a fucking awful day at work right now.
First of all, it was nice to see Coulson back. Easily the strongest part of the pilot was Clark Gregg's effortless slide back into the Coulson role. It was also obvious from the onset that Joss Whedon is largely writing Coulson's dialogue, and Gregg's natural rhythms match Whedon's scripting tics. Really, it's the best synch I've seen between writer's style and actor's delivery since Matthew Perry delivering Aaron Sorkin's lines in 'Studio 60'.
J. August Richards remains a very good actor with the right kind of roles. He didn't have a lot to work with, but especially at the end, really packs a lot into delivery. Criminally underrated.
That being said, take away the connection to the films and you've got a pretty shakey pilot. It very much doesn't understand the kind of show it wants to be yet, and stumbles around between CSI procedural territory and Whedon tropes like Angel without a clear sense of its own identity. It also has the least likeable leading man I've seen in a pilot in a long time with Brett Dalton. Chloe Bennet is clearly being drawn with the Willow/Fred brush right now, which isn't a good fit in the first episode.
There's also some pretty ham fisted moments, like the interrogation. Injecting the agent with the truth serum to get Skye on-board was a nice, deft twist, immediately ruined by her basically getting her tits out on what you can tell is going to be a terrible love subplot. Contrast that to the first introduction of Melinda May, which was wonderfully naunced and understated, yet packed an incredible amount of unspoken history into a short time frame, it almost comes off as amatuerish. Again, it feels currently more like a Whedon-esque show than a Whedon show, leading me to think that he's really giving his brother and sister-in-law the reins and is more script doctoring and big picture for the show.
However, criticism aside, I enjoyed it. It had some really deft moments, there's already some engaging dynamics and performances going on (I like Simmons and could happily dump Fitz in a lake) and if the first episode shows anything, it's that Ming-Na Wen was their single best casting choice. I'm sure the plan is to make Skye and Ward the focus, but they're going to have a tough time with Coulson and May stealing pretty much every scene they're in.
I think I echo a lot of people when I say one of the core componants the show is going to need to have is the ability to effectively mine canon and re-interpret it, without getting bogged down in the details. If they try and make it SHIELD, the brand name only and entirely original villians, it's going to come off as a goofy CSI clone with superheroes. If they focus on comic canon, it's going to be lost on new viewers. To work and work well, it needs to thread that line the movies did, providing recognizable figures with an original take, appeasing both sides and staying tied in with the movie properties.
First of all, it was nice to see Coulson back. Easily the strongest part of the pilot was Clark Gregg's effortless slide back into the Coulson role. It was also obvious from the onset that Joss Whedon is largely writing Coulson's dialogue, and Gregg's natural rhythms match Whedon's scripting tics. Really, it's the best synch I've seen between writer's style and actor's delivery since Matthew Perry delivering Aaron Sorkin's lines in 'Studio 60'.
J. August Richards remains a very good actor with the right kind of roles. He didn't have a lot to work with, but especially at the end, really packs a lot into delivery. Criminally underrated.
That being said, take away the connection to the films and you've got a pretty shakey pilot. It very much doesn't understand the kind of show it wants to be yet, and stumbles around between CSI procedural territory and Whedon tropes like Angel without a clear sense of its own identity. It also has the least likeable leading man I've seen in a pilot in a long time with Brett Dalton. Chloe Bennet is clearly being drawn with the Willow/Fred brush right now, which isn't a good fit in the first episode.
There's also some pretty ham fisted moments, like the interrogation. Injecting the agent with the truth serum to get Skye on-board was a nice, deft twist, immediately ruined by her basically getting her tits out on what you can tell is going to be a terrible love subplot. Contrast that to the first introduction of Melinda May, which was wonderfully naunced and understated, yet packed an incredible amount of unspoken history into a short time frame, it almost comes off as amatuerish. Again, it feels currently more like a Whedon-esque show than a Whedon show, leading me to think that he's really giving his brother and sister-in-law the reins and is more script doctoring and big picture for the show.
However, criticism aside, I enjoyed it. It had some really deft moments, there's already some engaging dynamics and performances going on (I like Simmons and could happily dump Fitz in a lake) and if the first episode shows anything, it's that Ming-Na Wen was their single best casting choice. I'm sure the plan is to make Skye and Ward the focus, but they're going to have a tough time with Coulson and May stealing pretty much every scene they're in.
I think I echo a lot of people when I say one of the core componants the show is going to need to have is the ability to effectively mine canon and re-interpret it, without getting bogged down in the details. If they try and make it SHIELD, the brand name only and entirely original villians, it's going to come off as a goofy CSI clone with superheroes. If they focus on comic canon, it's going to be lost on new viewers. To work and work well, it needs to thread that line the movies did, providing recognizable figures with an original take, appeasing both sides and staying tied in with the movie properties.
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Date: 2013-09-26 06:11 pm (UTC)I agree about Joss having more of a broad overview of the show and script doctoring as opposed to a direct hand in everything - it's got his touch, but it doesn't feel like HIM. Well....we'll see what happens.
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Date: 2013-09-27 06:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-28 01:31 am (UTC)