I debated on whether or not to review Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or not during the season, and due to the course of the story telling I decided to not individually review each episode. Rather I would chime in and occasionally say something witty (it does happen once a decade or so you know).
My biggest complaint about MAoS, as with every other Josh Whedon TV show, is the story telling is too slow and then 15 episodes in the show hits breakneck speed as it tries to catch up. Its like following a car driving 45 MPH on the interstate and once you see you destination the car speeds up from 45 to 75 MPH, it may be legal but damn does it feel slow.
Season 2 of MAoS follow that similar pattern. The first four episodes were expanded to give us five episodes of the show on TV. Its hard to keep excited about a show, no matter how witty, how well written, if you feel 5 to 10 minutes of every episode is simple filler.
Over the past two weeks [episodes 2.4 and 2.5] the storyline had Agents Fitz [Elizabeth Henstridge] as a mole working at Hydra facility. I really have no problem with this storyline taking place over two episodes, as a matter of fact I could of handled it being spread out over more episodes. In the way the storyline was constructed it however felt too long. There was too much telling the audience with dialogue rather than showing us with scenes; if that made sense. If you take the first half Fitz as a mole in the episode 2.4 and spread that out through 2.2 and 2.3 you get a better story telling from TV Show perspective.
I should acknowledge why it done this way, syndication, you want each episode individually maintained you don't want people to have to watch six episodes so they can understand episode seven. I maintain however that in this case it works much much better.
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| Director Phillip Coulson |
My next problem with the first 5 episodes in season 2 is Marvel Studios definitely underusing almost everyone on the show, everyone except Coulson. I am not sure why Season 2 is so Coulson centered but it is starting to get annoying. Hey I think Clark Gregg is an good actor and Phil Coulson is great character, but we as an audience are getting way too much of one character.
From the outside perspective it is easy to understand why we are getting less of many characters, Simmons, Fitz, May and even to some extent Skye, but it makes for boring TV. We are supposed to appreciate/understand Simmons sacrifice and he sleeps into the background like a character who is one day going to miraculously recover and return to his place on the show, doesn't work like that. Having Fitz as a figment of Simmons imagination for the first three episodes. May arguing about what steps need to happen if Coulson start acting like Garret. The show is not about a team of Agents at the moment.
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| Agent Isabelle Hartly |
Its not just the regular cast, but guest stars like Lucy Lawless, Agent Isabelle "Izzy" Hartly, was wasted in her one episode visit to the show. The problem with killing off Izzy in one episode is we as an audience never appreciated her role in the show and understand the sacrifice she made.
Killing off Victoria Hand last season still bothers me.
The next problem is a nitpicky one, but even my 10 year old son gripes about it, you have 50 great CGI shots in a single show, but you always end up with that one bad one that breaks the immersion of the audience. In episode 2.5 it was he Quinnjet flying away after rescuing Mockingbird and Fitz, the Shot didn't work, it lasted 5 seconds, why include it?
Even though I feel the show is moving along to slowly the show has some solid writing and story arcs moving along. I don't feel like the audience is going to say that was some extremely hokie dialogue or you don't believe the characters would do something they did.
Even though I griped in the last section there is one bad CGI scene in every episode the other 49 or so CGI scenes look good. I understand that Marvel Studios is spending 1.5 Million dollars an episode on CGI and it shows for the most part. That's the kind of budget a show like The Flash or Arrow only wishes they have for 5 episodes yet alone a single episode. Most of the CGI looks really good and as an audience you have little to now problem accepting it as "real".
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| Mockingbird in Tactical Suit |
One of my complaints during the first season was you have a superhero show without superheroes and just as much without super-villains. Yes Michael Petersen becomes Deathlok, and we have seen Blizzard before he is Blizzard and ... But the problem remains this show takes place in a world filed with half the superheroes in the Marvel Universe and maybe a quarter of the super-villains we ended up with multiple shows that had neither; 0-8-4 anyone?
I had hope that Agent May, aka the Cavalry, would become more of a superhero during season 1, but alas my hopes were umm, disappointed to say the least.
I am hopeful that Season 2 Episode 5 changed all that with the introduction of Agent Bobbi Morse, aka Mockingbird(1). Bobbi Morse is Espionage Expert as opposed to Assassin that Natasha Romanoff [AKA Black Widow] is. In the Comic Book storyline she marries Clint Barton [Hawkeye]. What's interesting to me is Mockingbird is mainstream Marvel Character being introduced on MAoS. The producer of the show has indicated she will be sticking around a while.
In addition in next week's episode we are potentially introduced to three mainstream or near mainstream characters from the Marvel Universe, in She-Hulk, the original Whiplash, and Gorgon.
The further inclusion of these characters is a good thing.
A number of bloggers have suggested the show will be morphing over the next 5 to 7 episodes to be more of a Superhero/Villain oriented show. With Coulson struggling to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D. as director with Agent May as his second in command. The story will be less about one team and more about multiple teams. I am not sure that those changes work, however file it under we shall see.
IMHO the show is currently "okay" but could be a lot better, and the potential is there to make the changes to do just that. The question is how attached the show producers are to its current format, I guess time will tell.
What about the poor ratings?
First the current rating metrics are no longer valid, Nielsen Overnight ratings mean nothing to scripted shows. Nielsen +7 ratings, the number of people who watched the show in the first 7 days since it release is all that matters. As an example 5.98 Million viewers watched the Season 2 premiere, another 4.96 Million unique viewers turned into TiVO, ABC on Demand, or other similar system to catch the show. If the metrics hold up between 9 and 10 million viewers a week will tune in to the show at some point. ABC is not going to complain about those metrics.
MAoS is the most syndicated show internationally on TV at the moment, airing in 106 countries almost 25% more then the number two show. The first season had tremendous sales of the first season on BluRay/DVD. The show earned so much money; upwards of 40% percent of the total revenue generated by ABC TV Studios, that it was mentioned in last quarters Disney Quarterly report of potential generating 1.3 Billion [That's B as Billion Baby] dollars of revenue. To put that in perspective, MAoS cost about the same to produce as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, factoring in Blu-Ray/DVD sales they earned roughly the same amount of money.
The only concern ABC has is that the show is not generating enough revenue for the non-ABC owned ABC stations. Like Hubbard Broadcasting in the Twin Cities.
(1) In all fairness Mockingbird was long considered for the first Marvel Cinematic Universe live action TV Show. Their are rumors of the pilot and script on several web-sites. The show was to be based in New Orleans following a College Aged Version of Mockingbird and the show was to be Teen Friendly on ABC Family.
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No one was really surprised yesterday when the brass at ABC Television renewed Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for a third season; however it was a different story when Agent Carter was renewed for a second season. 
That's odd, isn't it.
There are a couple of other possibilities, Atlantis and Asgard most notable, but the odds are it is most likely Attilan. 
