Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Yay, it's finally here!

[locker_monster]

So happy to see the Mutant Enemy guy running across my screen again. : -)

Awesome start. The episode felt a little slow, but it's a TV show, not a movie, so it can take its time to set up things. I have to say that a lot of the plot was in the trailers, though, so some of the great lines I had heard already. Oh well, that's what you get when you have a major network and a major studio backing your show. Exposure by the boats load. Still, there were things in the pilot that I hadn't seen so it's great the episode still managed to surprise.

So I guess Coulson and Co. will spend each week just trying to keep the world safe in the aftermath of the Battle of New York. You would need a smaller team for that. It's not like Nick Fury can go around in the Helicarrier investigating every little rumour or strange occurrence. The six of them aren't a team yet, but I see the potential. Fitz and Simmons can get out of the lab and into the real world more, Ward can learn some social skills, Melinda can come out of her isolated shell, and Skye can learn to be part of something helpful. You know they're going to be an awesome ensemble because it's a Joss Whedon show. :-)

My initial thoughts about the team: Fitz-Simmons is cute. This is their first time out in the field so naturally they're excited and a little nervous. Obviously Simmons is enjoying it a bit more than Fitz. They actually remind me of two characters from Mass Effect 2 who have a similar relationship. And they have cute accents. :-) Ward is just a walking weapon. He can beat you up and shoot you without blinking an eye. It's sort of a joke, but his line about his grandmother ("Gramzy?") makes me wonder if his parents died when he was young and he was raised by his grandmother. Might explain his lack of social skills. Melinda can also kick your ass without blinking, and I bet she and Ward can relate to each other, but she's past being that role. It'll be interesting to see what drove her to take a desk job. Skye is a superhero groupie. :-) I'd love to see the groupies dressed up like Iron Man hanging around Stark Tower. It's hinted that her name is not actually Skye and that maybe she erased herself from all databases. And what's up the sugar packets? She plays with three of them while talking to Mike in the diner and do they show up again in her van? I'm not quite sure what she tucks down her shirt, but it seems important.

Obviously the biggest mystyer is the reason behind Coulson's miracle recovery. He thinks he nearly died. I don't think it's that cut and dry. So he's a Life Model Decoy or a clone with Coulson's memories or something. Either way, Fury still faked his death and the Avengers don't know (though the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. seems to know). It'd be interesting to see the Avengers reacting to this at some point. The only reason they got together to kick Loki's ass was because of Coulson. Does the team mean anything if he's still alive?

I have more thoughts but they're all kind of random, so I'm just going to jot them down:

- "Don't touch Lola." Ha, she flies. I think io9.com totally called it after the first trailer came out. But that is so totally Coulson, the guy who collects vintage Captain America trading cards.

- Ron Glass. I heard he was in the pilot. I hope this means his character is recurring. I also have a sneaking suspicion that his character might be the bad guy. Like, he's the one sneaking secrets to Rising Tide and he's the one behind the Centipede. Though, I'm basing this solely on the fact that Joss has hired other Firefly actors to play villains on his other shows (Nathan, Gina, Adam, Alan).

- Maria Hill. Cool that they got Cobie Smulders to show up. Once How I Met Your Mother is done, she totally has a job waiting for her. Maria doesn't need to show up all the time, but she can be there to give Coulson and his team assignments and she can be a good stand-in for Fury.

- J. August Richards. Cool to see him, too. This episode was just chock full of Whedon alums. :-) So he wasn't Luke Cage. Oh well. But the potential to bring in lesser known superheroes is there. This would be an ideal place to do it. You don't have to clutter up the movies with minor characters and it gives lesser known actors a chance to be someone iconic from the comics.

- Continuity. I just love that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is so interconnected. Going off the reference to Extremis, the pilot is set after Iron Man 3. So there will be references to the movies as the show goes along. Let's see if they reference the next Thor movie come November.

- The Bus. I want to see more of that set. It looks really cool. It's their mobile base, but it's also home. That last shot of Ward and Fitz-Simmons eating Chinese food around the high tech table sums it up nicely. They're bad ass S.H.I.E.L.D. agents but they can also kick back and relax between missions. I want to see more of that later down the road, of the team just hanging out.

Joss Whedon is back, baby!

Comments

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

I was excited when I saw Ron Glass, too. :)

Fitz and Simmons are soooo adorable, they were my favorite part of the whole show.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

I hope Ron Glass' character is recurring. I can't see Joss hiring him for such a minor role.

That's Fitz-Simmons' superpower: adorableness. :-)

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

"t a walking weapon. He can beat you up and shoot you without blinking an eye. It's sort of a joke, but his line about his grandmother ("Gramzy?") makes me wonder if his parents died when he was young and he was raised by his grandmother."

I wondered about his background when Phil said something about his people skills could be even worse considering his background and that immediately made me think of Clint. I didn't catch the grandmother reference so that definitely sounds plausible but I think there must be more to it for Phil to say that.

"It's hinted that her name is not actually Skye and that maybe she erased herself from all databases. "

Yep, yep, I'd love for her to end up being someone, probably not Cass Lang or Tess Black and Polaris is out of the question but there are a lot of other options. Someday, I want Tess Black.

The sugar packets make me think of the sugar bowl. The world is quiet here.

I assume Tony will find out first but I am really curious about who will be first or whether it'll be everyone at once. I'm also assuming that Clint and Natasha must be level 7.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

I hope Skye turns out to be someone from the comics or someone related to someone in the comics. Why else would you give her a mysterious background and a fake name?

I'm also assuming that Clint and Natasha must be level 7.

I didn't even think about that. Do Natasha and Clint know about Coulson? The two of them are pretty high level operatives. Hmm... that would be interesting. They know about Coulson while the rest of the Avengers don't. I could see Joss doing that.

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

What's interesting about Skye asking about his grandmother was... that it's kind of an out-there question to begin with. I mean, a lot of people don't necessarily have a grandmother at all growing up, and somewhat more wouldn't have it after he reaches adulthood and is killing people. It seems more natural to ask if someone's parents know about the people they killed, doesn't it?

To me it suggests either:
a) she already knew Grant's history and was trying to needle him/test him deliberately. In which case, yeah, Grant might have dead parents and his grandmother raised him (or abusive parents and his grandmother was one of the few kind memories).

or
b) she herself considers the grandmother a relationship more important or valuable than parents, like maybe she was raised by a grandparent (and Grant, whatever his history, might simply love his grandma lots, like a lot of people do).

Anyway, I think the thing in the van was some kind of piece of technology or something, maybe a data chip that she didn't want found if they trashed her van. I also wouldn't be surprised if she's some Marvel character with a new name, but it'd probably be a very obscure one... I can't think of any good examples right now (I think at one point I had a low-probability-but-possible idea, but I've since forgotten it).


I actually had no idea (or completely forgot) that Ron Glass was in this up until I saw his name in the opening credits. It made me smile. I hope he's recurring.

Mostly I liked it... I thought it was a little rough at points, but, meh, it's a pilot, they can work through that easily enough.

I also already had my first SHIELD dream. It involved time travel and apparently Joss Whedon was actually a lead member of the team.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

There's more to Skye clearly. Does she live in a van because she has no money? Or is she on the run from someone and that's why she erased any trace of herself? Any hackers in the Marvel universe that might fit the bill?

I remember hearing about Ron Glass being on the show, but I forgot, too.

I wouldn't be surprised if they worked their way up to time travel at some point in the show. The team could find a funky alien device that throws them back to another era.

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

Well, most of the Marvel hacker-types I know are either guys, or mutants (Kitty Pryde's often portrayed as having hacking skills, there are a couple technopaths, and a character named Tessa who's described as having a 'computer mind), or both, and mutants are out of the question. They could have changed a minor guy character into a girl character, of course... I think any character they wind up using would be changed dramatically anyway, though, so what's one more change?

Assuming it's a girl, the only non-mutant one that comes to mind is the unfortunately-named Joystick (who isn't so much a hacker as a character who has a variety of powers, one of which includes being able to interface directly with machines, but maybe that counts as 'close enough').

Unless it's not the hacker thing that connects her to a marvel character, and that was just added on, but rather the "superhero groupie" aspect or the crusading-journalist-for-the-people aspect, which adds whole other realms of characters. She could even be someone like, say, Sally Floyd (though, OMG I hope not), who was a journalist that took the pro-registration side when the whole conflict over superheroes needing to reveal their identity came up (and delivered some utterly stupid arguments about Cap being out of touch with American values because he doesn't know what Youtube is or watch Reality TV).

Chloe Bennett, who plays Skye, is half-Chinese, apparently, so for a second I thought they might go weird and have her be something like a daughter Melinda May gave up for adoption (because being a secret agent isn't always compatible with child-raising), but... I dunno, seems a bit too soap-operaey to have that right off the bat (not that Whedon's above a little soap opera now and then).

Time Travel could easily come up, yeah... so could parallel universes, Marvel has a history of What If... and although most of them directly use Uatu the Watcher, which might be a little out-there for the show (and the rights might be tied up with the FF anyway), a few of the more recent ones involve a hacker who found a way to 'hack' into the Watcher's view of other universes. That could be doable in SHIELD (just don't say the word 'Watcher' or 'Uatu'), and even be recurring... a cool 'once in a while' thing.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

Skye strikes me as an investigative reporter type with hacker and superhero groupie thrown into the mix, too, so they could have combined different characters into one. At the same time, it's more interesting if she's an original Joss Whedon character with ties to something in the comics.

And is Skye solely Rising Tide on her own? Or is it a larger group? I'm kind of confused there. She can do all of this stuff from her van with free wi-fi?

[tardis-stowaway.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed the pilot!

I had totally managed to forget that Ron Glass was in this, so I did a little "it's Book!" happy dance when he appeared on screen. Hmmm, I am intrigued by your theory that he will turn out to be a villain, because as you say Joss does love using his Firefly alums for evil. (Summer's character on Dollhouse is introduced as a villain too, though her situation becomes more complex.) I was excited that J. August Richards's role in this ep was pretty big, and that we're left with the potential to see him again.

I really liked Fitz-Simmons. It's nice not to just have one designated scientist who can miraculously handle any field. I like that they named the flying sensor robot things. Great pair dynamics with the talking over each other and such.

I thought the ep did a good job at dropping hints without laying too many cards on the table yet regarding characters' backstories, what happened to Coulson, etc.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

I think Ron Glass would make an awesome villain. It'd be totally unexpected. We're used to seeing him as Book so seeing him as someone the opposite of that would be fun to watch. I want to see more Whedon alums, but I know Joss can't just go around hiring his friends.

I want to know how Fitz-Simmons met. They probably met at school but how did they learn they fit so well together? So may questions about all of the characters.

I need some S.H.I.E.L.D. icons!