“The Asset” – Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

It feels as though Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is hitting its stride already. Safely out of the ‘plot set-up’ zone, the show can now focus on the most important thing – entertainment. (But with all that good shit, too, like plot and character development.) The entertainment factor in this episode was fairly high. Think explosions and jumping out of windows into pools and gun battles and gravity machines. Think devious twists and romance and humor. Think everything good.

“The Asset” focused on the rescue of Dr Franklin Hall (Ian Hart, Rogue, Luck), a S.H.I.E.L.D. asset. But, surrounding that rescue, we got a lot of what makes us know we’re gonna love this show in the long run – a lot of character. After last week’s review, we got a message from a reader (again, thanks for reading!) saying that we’ve been giving Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. a free pass. The reader’s biggest concern was that the characters were one-dimensional and that we didn’t seem to care. We responded by saying that, yeah, maybe they weren’t exactly deep just yet, but that we had faith. This week, that faith paid off. We’re beginning to see these characters turn from mere sketches into portraits. To parse the words of Donkey (from Shrek), these characters are a bit like onions. They have a lot of layers. And those layers are being peeled back week by week. Slowly, yes, but surely. No show can paint a fully three-dimensional character from the offset. Sometimes these things take time. And, seeing this week’s offering – a bit of Ward’s miserable childhood, a bit of Skye’s – we’re happy to wait.

The episode also touched on the Coulson mystery, just a little bit. Given May’s reluctance to see combat, Coulson

“0-8-4” – Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is very quickly cementing itself as our favorite show of the new season. Nimbly dodging the sophomore slump, “0-8-4” did not skimp on funny, drama, sexiness or explosions. That latter is a huge part of the reason we love this show so much. We’re wondering if Joss just walks into a studio and gets handed blank checks, because this show’s effects budget must be astronomical. We’re not used to seeing this level of movie-quality action sequences or effects on the small screen. It’s like watching a 42-minute version of any of the big-budget summer blockbusters. This is on a par with Iron Man 3 or The Avengers.

As mentioned, this episode also didn’t skimp on the drama. It saw the team responding to reports of an “object of unknown origin” in Peru. Within the first half, we had an explosion on the bus (in flashback) and a jungle firefight with Peruvian rebels. As if that wasn’t excitement enough, we also got a massive betrayal and a daring rescue. Not bad for a 42-minute window.

Where this episode excelled, however, wasn’t in the explosions or the drama or the sizzling tension between Coulson and betrayer-in-chief Camilla Reyes – it was in

“Pilot” – Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Yeah, okay, full disclosure – we’re Whedon devotees. Dyed in the wool Whedonites. We’re browncoats and Scoobies and residents of the Dollhouse. We’re Cabin in the Woods fanatics, and we know that if anyone else had tackled The Avengers it would have sucked (comparatively). So what we say next shouldn’t surprise you, but you also shouldn’t take it with a pinch of salt. Yeah, we love Joss, but we don’t have those rose-tinted glasses on. Our vision is clear. And Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Well that rocked.

We won’t get too far into the nitty gritty of things here – this was the origin story episode, thoroughly packed from end to end with plot points and important information. So much info in a single episode is fantastic. It was a sparse plot (relatively speaking), but was still packed to the rafters. It was simple, yet complex. And that’s something Joss has always done well – offered the complexities of life (and of the supernatural) without overwhelming viewers.

Suffice it to say that, in a post-Avengers world, when there is no longer any hope of keeping secret the existence of mutants and superheroes, S.H.I.E.L.D. has

People’s Choice Awards, 2013

           

The People’s Choice Awards 2013 took place in LA last night. And I have to say I felt like certain shows, certain actors, were completely robbed. And therein lies the problem with the People’s Choice Awards. Prizes are awarded not necessarily on merit but on the sheer voting power of supporters. Though I must concede that my outrage plays into that very same central tenet. The recipients of each award are, at the end of the day, the people’s choice and my sense of injustice on behalf of many of the losing parties stems from exactly what drove people to vote for the winners – personal preference. And yet it’s not quite that simple. The Awards are part opinion and part drive. That drive comes from the nominees themselves, often in the form of mawkish ‘Vote for me! Vote for me!’ tweets that show only a desire to win and to be able to boast of being the people’s choice. The victors are not crowned, necessarily, based on quality of performance or clever writing or overall watchability, but on how good they are at getting out the vote. This is underlined in music and film categories with The Hunger Games beating out the likes of The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises for Favorite Action Movie (despite boasting, arguably, far less action and far worse writing) and Katy Perry unfailingly winning every category she was nominated in. These victories don’t prove that the winners were the best at what they did, only that their fan bases were.

Bearing that in mind, here are the winners of the TV categories from this year’s awards:

Favorite Network TV Comedy: The Big Bang Theory

Favorite Cable TV Comedy: Awkward.

Favorite Premium Cable TV Show: True Blood

Favorite TV Crime Drama: Castle

Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Show: Supernatural

Favorite Comedic TV Actor: Chris Colfer

Favorite Comedic TV Actress: Lea Michele

Favorite Dramatic TV Actor: Nathan Fillion

Favorite Dramatic TV Actress: Ellen Pompeo

Favorite Daytime TV Host: The Ellen DeGeneres Show

Favorite Late Night Talk Show Host: Jimmy Fallon

Favorite New Talk Show Host: Steve Harvey

Favorite Competition TV Show: The X Factor

Favorite Celebrity Judge: Demi Lovato

Favorite TV Fan Following: SPNFamily (Supernatural)

Favorite New TV Comedy: The New Normal

Favorite New TV Drama: Beauty & The Beast

So some big surprises and some wins that we could have seen coming a mile off. Which do you think deserved their accolades and which categories do you feel passed over more deserving recipients? And, finally, we’ve never watched The New Normal or Beauty & The Beast… should we? – K