I'm sticking with the "I have no idear what this all means for Agents of SHIELD." That said, this was a p good tie in - almost impossible not to have one for this movie. It was also a p good episode for this show. For the most part, I think it's still up in the air with respect to who is loyal to whom. Some folks somewhere else have posited some theories on why certain people aren't above suspicion and others aren't below it just yet.
Well, except for one of those things you've spoilered. Unless the writers are more subtle than they've previously demonstrated, that spoilered thing looks like a done deal.
And that puts me back in the I have no idear camp. Which I think is very exciting for the show.
I only caught the back half of the show and I have but one thing to say.
Gamesters of Triskelion > Helicarriers of Triskelion
Somehow, that phrasing jumped out at me.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
The recent development does put a perspective on something.
Agent Ward. According to the interview he gave, this was in the plans since at least Yes Men. I assume that the writers were trying to make plans for their tie in from before that but didn't have anything until then. So, while we were all yelling at the screen for Ward to DO SOMETHING YOU IDIOT, thinking he was a terrible Agent of SHIELD, it's possible that he didn't do anything because he wanted what happened to happen. Maybe it didn't go 100% as planned but that's beside the point. Maybe he hoped to bring an Asgardian into the Hydra fold or at least to do some damage to SHIELD on the sly.
I don't know that's what was going on and I don't know that we'll ever get confirmation but it's something to consider.
Something else to think about is the creepy Garrett shipping Ward and Skye. At least now it's not, I don't know, an weird creepy thing. I mean, it's still weird and creepy, but it's not like that weird Uncle at the reunion creepy.
Haven't watched Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. yet, but for the first ten minutes. It was made so much better by knowing what was happening over at Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Everyone, I'm afraid the Hydra conspiracy goes much deeper than any of us could have expected.
I only caught the back half of the show and I have but one thing to say.
Gamesters of Triskelion > Helicarriers of Triskelion
Somehow, that phrasing jumped out at me.
Some weird stuff going on here. This very episode of the Star Tracks just so happens to be the next episode on my Netflix queue of the TOS Tracks I'm watching.
Enjoy the music. That is the primary reason I remember the episode title so well, because it's where the famous TOS fight music comes from.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
Haven't watched Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. yet, but for the first ten minutes. It was made so much better by knowing what was happening over at Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Apparently it was all downhill from there.
And here I thought it was impossible for this show to disappoint me further. I swear there isn't a single writer's cliche that the writers didn't hit in this series.
Towards the end of the episode, I was hoping that Hand and Garrett would end up being the stars of the re-invented series. I'm more interested in those two than anyone else in the cast, with the possible exception of Fitz/Simmons.
Coulson is a dick. A whiny, big baby, over-reactive, dick. I can't even figure out what is his problem with May. It is *that* surprising that Fury would want Coulson monitored? Even if it weren't for Tahiti? I mean, it's a super spy organization, of course they would go all Xzbit "Yo Dawg" on you. Grow up, asshole.
May. Ugh. I still don't have a huge problem with her, other than I wish she would have shot the whole damn team and started again.
Skye. Please, please stop. Just stop. The show's given me no reason to like her, yet they keep insisting that I already do.
Ward can only be made interesting by being a straight up Hydra. But, I got the feeling he will be a triple agent and thus, boring as shit because everything he does, he does for Skye.
wei yau is right. Anyone who's spent more than a few minutes orbiting Nick Fury should not be surprised he's keeping secrets. Someone like Coulson, however, who has worked directly for him, should know better than anyone else (except for Maria Hill) just how many secrets Nick Fury is always carrying around. Someone who is a spy at the level of Agent Coulson should also understand just how important compartmentalization is for a spy organization like SHIELD.
Fury is by far not infallible - afterall, he ordered that fucked up procedure that brought you back from the dead. But also, he has a lot more information than you do. He'll probably forget more secrets than you'll ever know. He keeps his one good eye on a much bigger picture than you. If I had a greater faith in the writers I'd suggest that Fury put you on that plane for a reason, but even then you're doing your level best to fuck that up.
At the same time, I understand at least some of your frustration. But that's no excuse to run around the world blowing shit up, shooting people and pointing weapons at your allies before you have real evidence that they are not your allies. And there's no good goddamn reason to let a level 0 street hacker who was trying to shut down all of SHIELD onto your damn plane.
If I hadn't fanboyed so hard for this show before it was a show I would have totally given up on it by now. I'm going to finish the season because I hate myself and deserve to be tortured.
For now I maintain that Ward's defection to Hydra is the single best thing to happen on this show. It's at least interesting. There's all kinds of discussion of whether or not he's always been Hydra and just how real or not the murder of Victoria Hand and those two nameless mooks are.
For what it's worth, I hope that he's gone all dark side for whatever dumb ass reasons they say. At least it's something. But there's plenty of evidence that it's a ruse. I'm not happy the show forced me to that realization, but there it is. Plus there's folken otherwhere on the internet speculating that someone else is a more realer Hydra mole.
Oh, THANK GORD. Finally Agent Whitebored isn't terribly boring. Though I was still majorly skeeved when he was talking to Skye. Luckily for the show, all of Whitebored's boringness can't be contained by just one other cast member so Annoying Annoyer this week goes to both Coulson and Fitz.
But otherwise, this was a p exciting show. Best of the season so far. It was about as good as an episode of television should be.
1) This show is so much better that it was even a few weeks ago, and streets ahead of where it was at the beginning of the season.
2) This show is still not very good.
Agent Whitebored has gone from being the least interesting thing about a generally uninteresting show to being the most interesting thing about a generally uninteresting show. And for him basically ticking off the worst things about his character and explaining each of them away as part of his act.
Also, wei is very smart, etc. Why the crap are you surprised that the top secret spy organization you work for is spying on you? THAT'S WHAT IT DOES! And why are you betting everyone's freedom and/or lives on what amounts to a hunch that the cryptic message you received is from your deceased boss. You know him so well that you can feel his MO in a cryptic series of numbers, but not well enough to know that he spies on literally everyone? For fuck's sake! Coulson's little monologue in front of Patton Oswald's nerd lair didn't feel earned at all. It just came off as a whiny babby having a fit because people weren't doing what he wanted.
I miss the Coulson from The Avengers and points behind.
I am, however, glad that Hand's list of reasons for assuming Coulson to be the Hydra sleeper included all the batshit stuff I've been saying he should have been whatever the SHIELD equivalent of court marshaled for all along.
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"Trans Am Jesus" is "what hanged me"
So this last episode, I didn't hate. It was actually pretty good, though I'm still annoyed by the Skye thing that Ward has going on. Coulson was so off this episode, though. Clark Gregg's line reading felt stilted and disjointed. I guess because Coulson is suffering some kind of PTSD?
I'm not even gonna let the low budget TV thing bother me. I mean, it's why we can't see much of the S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra war. Or just what happens at each of the bases. BTW: If The Cube is the same Cube as shown in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Then it's a good thing it's not in Hydra's hands. Although, maybe The Fridge replaces The Cube?
I'm willing to stay on and see where the rest of this season goes.
Eric Koenig. Clearly not the same Eric Koenig from Marvel-616. I don't think. Probably just a throwaway reference.
I'm pretty excited that Patton Oswalt is on the show, even if only briefly. Been a fan of his for a while now and he's a super nerd, which always helps.
Maria Hill, formerly second in command of SHIELD. As of the end of Captain America, we know she interviews for a job at Stark Industries. We assume that's after an undeclared amount of time so for the show, which at most only a couple of days have passed, it's possible not very many people know where she is - save for very industrious ex-spies like May's mom.
Our biggest television news of the morning is that ABC has greenlit new series Marvel’s Agent Carter, an hour long drama featuring the very excited Hayley Atwell (pictured above) as secret agent and misogyny fighter Peggy Carter!
Here’s the official synopsis:
Quote:
It’s 1946, and peace has dealt Peggy Carter a serious blow as she finds herself marginalized when the men return home from fighting abroad. Working for the covert SSR (Strategic Scientific Reserve), Peggy must balance doing administrative work and going on secret missions for Howard Stark all while trying to navigate life as a single woman in America, in the wake of losing the love of her life – Steve Rogers.
People are avoiding the real lede on this, though, by being excited for more Howard Stark. I'm really hoping we can get cameos of Colonel Chester Phillips as played by Tommy Lee Jones. We all know that would be best. My dread that it will get ABC'd is tempered in knowing that it isn't being written by Jed Whedon or anyone else running Agents of SHIELD. (Which has been renewed for a second season.)
Speaking of.
I got really angry at the show a few weeks back. It was the episode they were hyping all this year because it would feature the cellist that Coulson was dating way back in Avengers. First they were all: HEY Y'ALL, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE AN EPISODE WITH THE CELLIST GIRL! And then they announced: LOOK EVERBODY, IT'S AMY ACKER AS THE CELLIST! And then? God, if they didn't absolutely waste an appearance of Amy Acker as someone Important™ to Coulson. The crappy dialog they made her say and the terribly cliche plot they put her through - that was actually the fucking b plot of the episode, even - was just frustrating and bothersome. All the crap that they put us through all dumb season I could handle, mostly. (Including the events of the a plot of that episode.) But that was the straw, guys. At that point I just stopped caring.
In the episodes since then, the show has done better mostly because it's bigger plot stuff and not Macguffin of the Week. Ward is still evil™. Bill Paxton is chewing scenery like its made out of taffy. Coulson sort of got knocked down a peg by Maria Hill. Literal Mary Sue (Poots) special Skyeflake is still a mysterious cypher but they've sort of backed off on the omg she's just the best isn't she stuff. Sort of. Maybe. For now. But it's still in the "It's better but it's still not as good as it could be." There are flashes of goodness, but that's it.
Whether or not Howard Stark is most important depends entirely on whether he is played by John Slattery or the actor I don't care enough to know the name of from the Captain America movie.
As far as the show goes. I have finally worked out that Ward was actually set up all along as a perfect evil Hydra agent. Think about it, what better training could a person possibly have for being the agent of an evil organization than bullying and torturing a younger, helpless child because an older, bigger child forced him to? Hydra must have thought all their Christmases had come at once when they found him.
__________________
"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette