TVGuide Disappointed in S.H.I.E.L.D.

[shipperx]

From TVGuide.com:

Why S.H.I.E.L.D. is This Season's Biggest Disappointment

I'm going to get right to the point: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is not good.

Five episodes in, and I'm ready to quit -- and I don't quit anything. I'm still watching Grey's Anatomy, Project Runway and yes, even the boys vs. girls season of America's Next Top Model, but S.H.I.E.L.D. is pushing my limits.

Last week's episode was a small step in the right direction, finally introducing the show's Big Bad, Centipede. But I'm finding it hard to muster up anything beyond apathy towards this evil. Why should I care whether or not Coulson's team can save the world from Centipede when they haven't given me a single reason to care about the people doing the saving? Here are seven ways that S.H.I.E.L.D. went wrong:

1. Stock characters Each of the heroes of S.H.I.E.L.D. are recycled archetypes from yesteryear. And while Joss Whedon made a name for himself subverting clichés, S.H.I.E.L.D. just re-creates them. Skye (Chloe Bennet) is an obnoxious simulacrum of a "quirky" techgirl, and Ward (Brett Dalton) is so generic he's better fit for a CBS procedural. Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), who was poised to be my favorite, is sadly only a caricature of what TV often confuses for a Strong Female Character (read: kicks ass but lacks other dimension). And I still haven't worked up the motivation to decipher which one is Fitz and which is Simmons. All I know is that both have my pining for the nerdy charm and ease of Whedon's previous winning nerd characters.

2. A leader not-so-shrouded in mystery Then, of course, there's Coulson (Clark Gregg) who — thanks to some over obvious "hints" — we know is some sort of Life Model Decoy, clone, etc. The ham-handed way the Coulson mystery has been handled by S.H.I.E.L.D. shows how little faith the series has in its audience, repeatedly saying something is wrong instead of giving actual evidence, as though viewers would be unable to connect the dots. By doing this, S.H.I.E.L.D. diluted a potential key aspect of the show's mythology and instead created an empty mystery, a static protagonist and undermined any reason I might have to keep watching, since the eventual reveal is almost guaranteed to be anticlimactic.

3. Scooby who? Then there's the question of why these individuals? Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) posed the same question to Coulson in the pilot and, much like her, we're still waiting for an answer. But maybe there isn't one. It wouldn't be out of step with the series to have created its own motley crew based on nothing more than recognizing the success of Buffy's Scooby gang and the crewmembers of Firefly's Serenity, since S.H.I.E.L.D. seems to so much enjoy re-creating tropes without adding any of its own inspired twists.


4. Only semi-super For a world filled with superheroes, S.H.I.E.L.D. is largely devoid of the larger-than-life flash and fun of the Marvel Universe. While I understand there are restrictions based on Marvel's future film and franchise plans, along with the show's budget, I really doubt S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't do better than a guy who makes fire from his hands (named Scorch, of all things).

5. Not subversive or inventive enough However, if S.H.I.E.L.D. had fully committed to going against the superhero grain (instead of remaining frustratingly in the middle) this could have become the series' greatest asset — a refreshing look at the superhero world from the perspective of ordinary people. {Me: These folks haven't paid a great deal of attention to Whedon who has regularly preferred underlying themes hero-martyr with "The world just doesn't underSTAND the burden it is to be special...} This notion formed the basis of the pilot (which I found highly enjoyable), focusing on the lengths a father would go to support his son in the struggling economy. The second episode continued the trend of exploring superpower inequality, positioning a Tesseract-powered weapon as the subject of an international arms race. These hints of politically savvy, culturally relevant story lines, while they gave me hope at the time, now only remind me of whatS.H.I.E.L.D. is not: a smart, subversive drama. Instead of plots inspired by modern paranoia and struggle, we get Centipede, a Big Bad so boring that even that even Scorch looks inventive.

6. Solutions are too easy The simplicity of S.H.I.E.L.D. is out of place in this post-Sopranos world and seems painfully dated. It's hard to inspire any real tension with an antagonist so comically evil, especially with the unlimited resources at the team's disposal. Every situation, no matter how dire it may seem, is ultimately a low-stakes caper, since we know at any moment someone can pull out a get out of jail free gadget to save the day at the last minute. What ultimately made Battlestar Galactica so engaging was the idea of the crews being isolated from necessities on their respective ships. But for now, Coulson's team has no reason to stop drawing from S.H.I.E.L.D's arsenal of technology, weapons and supplies.

7. Lacks real-world complexity It would be much more interesting to see a rift between Coulson's team and the larger operation of S.H.I.E.L.D. and explore how they could continue their mission (whatever it is) with less resources. For now, Skye has seemingly dropped her suspicion of S.H.I.E.L.D., but the series could benefit greatly from mining the moral gray zone of the government's indifference to civilian privacy, especially in the wake of the NSA and Edward Snowden. This has been vaguely touched upon through Skye and The Rising Tide, but as we've now learned Skye doesn't want to be the next Julian Assange. She's simply a poor orphan who just wants to learn the truth about her parents' identities. By giving Skye such a hackneyed motivation, S.H.I.E.L.D. is missing out on a fantastic opportunity to take a critical look at the organization's intentions and tactics. Especially since I can think of a million reasons to root against S.H.I.E.L.D., but only a few in defense of their clandestine, "all for the greater good" operations.

Overall, S.H.I.E.L.D. is not unfixable. And it's possible the show's sliding ratings will inspire a serious reevaluation moving forward. But for now, I can think of a million things I'd rather do on Tuesday nights than tune in for another parade of missed opportunities.

Comments

[angearia.livejournal.com]

Who isn't disappointed in SHIELD...

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I'll be truthful: I never had high expectations to begin with. Then again I'm a bad Whedon fan. I didn't like Firefly and hated Dollhouse.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had low expectations when the SHIELD scenes were the most boring ones in Avengers. I really enjoyed Firefly and found Dollhouse thought-provoking (and at times actually entertaining and artistic). There was ambition and ideas there and, ya know, worthwhile story. But SHIELD is just... boring, flat, and unimaginative.

[jerusha]

I...like it. I think it's been getting steadily better. I also think that people keep expecting it to be something it was never going to be: it's 7 pm, week night family fare, designed to appeal to both kids and adults, long-time Marvel fans and those who have just watched the movies. The truth is that it was never going to succeed in doing that, because it's an impossible task.

These days, I want my TV to be fun, and I have a huge crush on Clark Gregg and Ming-Na Wen. I deal with real world complexities and sheer awfulness all day long; it's nice to have an hour of fun, mindless TV.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I think part of my disinterest springs from the premise. S.H.I.E.L.D. as an entity doesn't hook me, so then it falls to the characters and... I feel like I recognize all of them.

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

Part of my utter indifference to it is the lousy casting. Clark Gregg? Ming-na Wen? Please. This is dull, bottom-of-the-barrel casting. And when I heard that Smulders (one of the mediocre actors who totally but inexplicably gives Whedon a stiffie) was in the pilot, I knew it would be a dog (as if anything Whedon has done since Buffy hasn't been).

[liliaeth]

Thing is though, Sleepy Hollow is a week night family fare, with an impossible premise, and yet it manages to give us unique interesting characters with a heart, new ideas and twists you don't expect...

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

And wasn't cast as blandly as humanly possible as though it was cast entirely by focus group.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

...Yeah, pretty much exactly this. Good to hear it said by a source with some actual clout, too.

The worst thing is that, like they say, there's the seed of a really good, subversive, imaginative take on the Men In Black in there, especially considering the real world debate going on at the moment... but with every epsiode, the series seems to be moving further away from it and further into complete generic action-series pointlessness.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Well, on the bright side, the trailer for Captain America: Winter Soldier looks like it might explore some of that (and might rock).

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

http://io9.com/everything-you-may-have-missed-in-the-captain-america-2-1451669049

[shapinglight]

I agree with that. Skye's motivation for doing what she's doing would have majorly disappointed me were it not for the fact that the character is so dull it wouldn't have ultimately mattered what her motivations were.

Family shows can be smart and subversive. The Muppets proved that years ago. SHIELD is just...dull. Not to mention, I feel like I'm being ticked off in every episode for not being on board with the surveillance culture.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Family Show doesn't mean that characters must be generic genre stereotypes or that the casting must be interchangeably bland.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

The Muppets proved that years ago.

*SQUEES*

When I was a kid (about 7 years old, maybe?) I was completely perplexed that there were adults who loved The Muppet Show.

A few months ago I watched the Muppet Movie for the first time in decades. on Netflix - and it was just as good as I remembered it, maybe better. I get all the jokes now as a grownup that flew over my head in 1979.

[paratti.livejournal.com]

Good to see some mainstream Emperor's New Clothes articles coming out.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Well since the Emperor is MIA on this one, it'll probably get the same treatment as the comics: naked minions! It's all the fault of the naked minions!

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Alan Sepinwall isn't impressed either. And AFAIK he's about as big as TV critics come.

[liliaeth]

I think my biggest issue with SHIELD is that it lacks soul.

for all its flaws, lower budget and probably lesser paid younger actors, Tomorow People still managed to somehow give their characters more personality, more hints of a wider world and a more interesting struggle, than SHIELD managed to do, even while able to delve into the wider Marvel Universe.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

"084", or "non-WASP governments are evil if they expect to have authority within their borders!" is "politically savvy"?

Not that I really want Whedon to do an anti-SHIELD show, because it would probably be stuffed full of smug, self-centred heroing-as-fine-art rubbish and "people who are scared of weapons of mass destruction walking down the street are nazis because DEATH CAMPS!!!!!!"

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I generally ascribe the problem mostly to taking the path of least resistance as far as show-running goes.

Multiple owners + pre-existing franchise + demographic appropriate focused-grouped and therefore bland leads + protagonitis + don't think 'too hard'/ targeted 'mainstream' appeal + infatuation with toys + limited budget = uninspiring product

[silverusagi]

Pretty much why I never even checked the show out (especially the fact that we've seen all these cardboard characters before). I mean, I suppose I should watch something before I poo poo it, but it never sounded interesting, and now all the reviews I'm reading are telling me I'm not missing anything. I don't have time to watch things that don't hook me premise wise, and that the internet is not raving about and telling me to give a chance even if it's not my thing.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, word of mouth for SHIELD is abysmal. The best I've seen is "I like it/it's fun!" type comments. Nothing specific which would get a person excited. No character love beyond the generic 'Coulson lives!' hype, either. And that's what really convinces me to try out a new show -- when people are passionate about the characters.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the premise of this has always left me cold.

Frankly, I'd rather have Sleepy Hollow with marshmallow crack sauce.

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

Haven't watched it, don't plan to. Reading the critiques, though, I think you could probably do a search/replace and input the characters and plot from anything Joss has done since Angel was cancelled in there and it would fit.

Including Firefly. I know it's unpopular to dislike it, but I'm one of the few who saw A4 and I see what you did there, Joss.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Re: Firefly, come sit by me. I have a host of problems in both its set-up and execution.