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.

[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.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the trailer, but given that Marvel's take on it so far seems to be "Platitudes! Anyone complaining about the Avengers/SHIELD being a world police is just being naive!", I'm not too hopeful... Then again, Captain America is by far the dullest of the bunch IMO.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I was just squicked by the Dollhouse premise from the get-go. FOX promotional strategy at its launch, didn't help.

[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.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Granted much of it may be hopeful nerd interpretations of analysing the trailer, but from the trailer it looks like Cap may be quite disillusioned by them, pull off the S.H.I.E.L.D uniform and take on the old one because as he looks at the increasing militarisation of S.H.I.E.L.D and the Minority Report/NSA-style "We can pre-empt the crimes..." bit by saying, "That's not freedom. That's fear."

Have to wait to see what the movie does, but I actually enjoyed the first Capt. America movie far more than Iron Man II.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That does look a bit more promising, true. But then again, both The Avengers and Agents of SHIELD so far have brought up the "who watches the watchmen" angle only so they can dismiss it and confirm that we really do need supermen and shadowy organisations protecting the masses, so... We'll see. Like I said, there's still the opportunity for them to be playing a long game and eventually subverting the hell out of this story, but I'm not holding my breath.

[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]

only so they can dismiss it and confirm that we really do need supermen and shadowy organisations protecting the masses,

So if he was making Btvs today, the WC would be the "good guys"? I mean in the comics - oh, wait, he dismantled the new Slayer Organization (because the universe couldn't handle empowered women?) So maybe emphasis on the "-MEN" in "supermen"?

Or after all his whining about being the outsider and being abused by the networks (which did produce Dr Horrible, which was marketed imaginatively), he's now too far on the inside of the machine to critique it anymore? (Assuming he ever really did.)

[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.

[shapinglight]

I'll never forget Miss Piggy and Billy Crystal recreating the diner scene from When Harry Met Sally. I was shrieking with laughter, and couldn't at all explain why to my children. :)

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

I honestly couldn't say. Maybe I'm just overreacting and overreading. Maybe it's all set-up to be subverted in Avengers IV in 2021. Maybe Joss' involvement with AoS really is just to put a quippy hat on a ready-made story. Maybe he's changed his stance in his old age. Maybe Joss always had a bad case of Protagonistitis and uses the same thing here. Maybe he just figures that this is how it works in the comic-book world (that was his defense for a lot of things before he jumped off the Buffy comics). So far, I can just go by what the show actually does, and so far it pretty much reads like a reactionary 24-style show about how might makes right, except covered in a thin veneer of compassion for the poor misguided non-heroes who don't understand their own good.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

When was that? I know I've not seen that one. (One of the movies after the first?)

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Maybe maybe maybe...Joss had pretty much cashed out his "maybe's" and "of course he'll come through in the end" and then some hasn't he? If anything he's in the red on that account.

So far, I can just go by what the show actually does, and so far it pretty much reads like a reactionary 24-style show about how might makes right, except covered in a thin veneer of compassion for the poor misguided non-heroes who don't understand their own good.

Don't bite the hand that feeds you - another "maybe".

You've just reminded me that Mary Shelley's 1818 original of Frankenstein was as much a criticism and a parody of the upper class and nobility as anything: that they had become corrupt, weak, almost unable to even reproduce (bear children) properly; and Frankenstein himself was much more of an idiot - we were supposed to see him as such with his self-centeredness. (Mel Brook's version is actually very close in spirit that way.) but later she became successful and part of the upper-crust she'd once derided, and the toned the story down; that's the version that we know better, although you can find editions that cross-reference the changes.

You cannot use the Master's tools to dismantle the Master's house (mangling Audre Lord there.)

[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).

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Don't know any of the specifics, but the blurb in one of the media stories about the script is that it involves "A high-reaching conspiracy within SHIELD" so it at least sounds possible.

My guess based on google and hints from the trailer:

Robert Redford is a bad guy and it's the Winter Soldier that he's speaking to in the trailer rather than Capt. America. And, rather than the Winter Soldier having been brainwashed and used by the Soviets during the Cold War, he was a false flag operation by S.H.I.E.L.D.

(But that's just a guess).

[paratti.livejournal.com]

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

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I tend to mostly ascribe it to Jossian protagonistitis + Ooh!Shiny!

[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!