I like that this first story was about a man. Just a man. Who got himself involved in something bigger than himself and far more dangerous than he may have agreed to if his life was still on track. How he tried to be better and do the right thing.
This is a great place to start. Small and personal. A story you can understand and empathize with. What if you were down and out and someone promised to give you your life back? A lot of people, and if I may say a lot of inner city people (you know
"ethnics", like Mike Peterson. (I could probably say something about the white people swooping down from the privilege-plane to save him, but I won't.)
There are hints to a greater conspiracy going on so there seems to be a lot of room for growth. As a bonus, I think they've already hinted at some potential Civil War material. Civil War, for the non-marvelines here was a series where everyone in the US who was a mutant or had any kind of preternatural gift needed to register with the government. There was a big stinkin' divide in the hero community, some good guys opposed it, some bad guys reveled in it and it got p bad. I don't know that it's happening in the MCU, I'm conjecturing because Maria Hill noted that the Hooded Hero was an "unregistered gifted."
As the show proceeds it won't just be about the event of the week or the advancement of the plot. We've come to expect Whedon shows to be as much about the people as the journey they take. And right now everyone is about their secrets.
Alright, I guess not everyone. The techbros don't seem to have any secrets. They live their lives right there on their lab spaces, no real pretense. Right now I totes love them because they're like Binars - two independent people who somehow also share brain space.
Also it doesn't look like Agent Mr Ward isn't carrying around any secrets. Baggage, yes, but that's not a secret to Coulson (pbuh).
Coulson has a secret that he doesn't know about.
Tahiti is a magical place. Is he real or is he Memorex? There's not necessarily such a thing as Occam's Razor when it comes to comics or television. In long format entertainment things can get messy and complicated. It's certainly possibly and also highly probably he's the LMD. I'm holding out hope that it's something else but regardless I'm praying that it's not something dumb.
Skye is running from a past and went to great lengths to cover things up. I mean, Coulson says it: We know nothing about her. We're SHIELD, do you have any idea how refreshing that is? I'm taking a leap and saying it outright: I think she was the sum total of the Rising Tide. I don't have anything to support it and there's circumstantial evidence against me saying it, but I'm saying it.
That's just how good a cracker she is.
And Agent Mays, the Bus Driver. It might be easy to guess something happened in New York. But I dunno. I don't know how deep I want to look at her right now. I'm more than happy to have her drive the plane with a scowl and then look at crime scenes with a scowl and generally be a grumpy gus to Coulson's power of positivity.
And now for some unconnected joy thoughts as things happened:
J AUGUST RICHARDS. I had no idea, not that I was really trying to dig up the secrets of the production. I'm always happy to see Gunn get some work. Also, I could swear that Skye called him Gunn late in the episode.
RON LOVIN' GLASS. Oh man. It just slays me how Joss works to get alumnuses involved in other Whedon projects. My heart gets so happy.
"Never tell me there's no way!"
"Nobody is nobody, Ward."
Agent Coulson is like... Yoda and the Doctor.
“I don’t think Thor is technically a god.”
“Mm, you haven’t been near his arms.”
And to be a completists of sorts,
TMS has a recap and some words plus talk about the pilot. The writer mentions things we've already mentioned here. Plus the comments are usually p good there if you're into that kind of thing.