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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. |OT| Tahiti is a Magical Place (to...Hey guys, I found it!)

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K

kirblar

Member
jb1234 said:
Of the first ten episodes, four were written by the showrunners. The other six probably by other members of the writing staff. I'm betting in the second half of the season, you'll see all of these names crop up again. All the directors for the show are very qualified. What you perceive as sluggishness is partly due to editing and partly due to a show still trying to figure out what it wants to be. Directors don't have nearly as much power on television shows as they do on movies.
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The fight scene today in the centipede lab was re-using shots in succession. It was porno-level bad.
 
K

kirblar

Member
Jest Chillin said:
It literally reused one shot of May blocking a kick with rebar. More likely added just to extend the time used by the fight scene in total.
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They also had that shirt on...shirt off...shirt on earlier in the series. It makes no sense to do location filming in Europe but have your fight sequences outclassed by a Mortal Kombat web series.
 
I

ivysaur12

Banned
Sean said:
Admittedly I could be way off the mark here, but the few dramas that I've ever bothered to look at credits for usually have a core/regular team in place.

If you look at the "List of 24 episodes" wiki for example you'll notice the same handful of directors and writers throughout most of the series. Jon Cassar directed 60 episodes, Brad Turner directed 46 episodes, etc. As a big fan of Lost I remember seeing Jack Bender's name a TON as director. Prison Break's first season had 7 writers do 22 episodes. Game of Thrones first season has 4 directors and 4 writers. Frank Darabont wrote half of The Walking Dead's first season. Breaking Bad's first season had 4 of the 7 episodes written by Vince Gilligan. Banshee's first season had only two writers (and that's the best show of 2013 IMO).

Maybe those shows are an anomaly, I dunno. I just think the writing/directing on Agents of SHIELD sucks and was trying to come up with an explanation for it.
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This is not me being antagonistic, but just more of a piece of advice: if you're not going to bother to research how television is created, then I would suggest you shouldn't stroll to episodic credits as evidence to this show's particular issues. It's extremely frustrating.
 
J

Jest Chillin

Member
kirblar said:
They also had that shirt on...shirt off...shirt on earlier in the series. It makes no sense to do location filming in Europe but have your fight sequences outclassed by a Mortal Kombat web series.
Click to expand...

I can't see how location filming and editing fight scenes for flow or time have anything to do with each other. And web series are so different that the comparison doesn't really fit since, for this episode we're talking about a decision made in editing.

Now MK: Legacy did have a more experienced Fight Choreographer.. but there's really no telling why that is. However when comparing something like MK to something like SHIELD.. Stunt/Fight Coordinators with different strengths are needed. SHIELD doesn't need such a strong focus on Martial Arts but does need a stronger focus on explosions and the like. MK: Legacy obviously needs much more MA expertise and less focus on guns/explosions/etc...

It is funny though that you chose a web series that was created by the brother of one of SHIELD's showrunners.
 
K

kirblar

Member
Jest Chillin said:
I can't see how location filming and editing fight scenes for flow or time have anything to do with each other. And web series are so different that the comparison doesn't really fit since, for this episode we're talking about a decision made in editing.

Now MK: Legacy did have a more experienced Fight Choreographer.. but there's really no telling why that is. However when comparing something like MK to something like SHIELD.. Stunt/Fight Coordinators with different strengths are needed. SHIELD doesn't need such a strong focus on Martial Arts but does need a stronger focus on explosions and the like. MK: Legacy obviously needs much more MA expertise and less focus on guns/explosions/etc...

It is funny though that you chose a web series that was created by the brother of one of SHIELD's showrunners.
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That didn't even cross my mind, lol. I just wanted something that went "1/billionth the budget, better result."
 
S

Sean

Banned
jb1234 said:
Of the first ten episodes, four were written by the showrunners. The other six probably by other members of the writing staff. I'm betting in the second half of the season, you'll see all of these names crop up again.
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Heh, at this point I don't even know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. The two showrunners have arguably written the weakest episodes of the first half IMO. Hopefully the writing team gets things together in the second half, but this weak midseason finale doesn't give me much confidence

ivysaur12 said:
This is not me being antagonistic, but just more of a piece of advice: if you're not going to bother to research how television is created, then I would suggest you shouldn't stroll to episodic credits as evidence to this show's particular issues. It's extremely frustrating.
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Fair enough, you obviously know way more than me when it comes to the TV creation process being an insider and all. I assumed the problem with this show was too many cooks in the kitchen, perhaps that isn't the case after all. But whatever the reason, the writing is pretty bad.
 
MisterFalcon

MisterFalcon

Member
kirblar said:
The entire show has this "by committee" feel - you NEED someone in charge with a vision. Otherwise you get nothing.
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I don't think it's the committee that is the problem, just the Marvel execs in the committee with absolute say over what can and cannot go into the show. This committee on Sleepy Hollow does a stellar job: https://twitter.com/sleepywriters/status/382208506348068864/photo/1

The terrible acting by the kid playing Gunn's son was also a stark contrast with Sleepy Hollow's superb Amandla Stenberg.
 
M

Mariolee

Member
Episode was good enough, lots more action which was nice. Explosion caught me off guard for sure, almost comedically.

But everything is acted so hammy and the lines are so cheesy that it feels like this show was made from a deli shop.
 
N

NotTheGuyYouKill

Member
MisterFalcon said:
I don't think it's the committee that is the problem, just the Marvel execs in the committee with absolute say over what can and cannot go into the show. This committee on Sleepy Hollow does a stellar job: https://twitter.com/sleepywriters/status/382208506348068864/photo/1
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It's surprising that DC gives pretty much complete freedom to Arrow to do whatever, but Marvel's so much more restrictive, but it makes sense since Marvel's making a unified universe, while DC is doing stand-alone stuff which inherently grants more freedom to twist things to fit the universe, even with the Flash spin-off. Sleepy Hollow has total freedom cause the only thing it ties into is The Bible.

The terrible acting by the kid playing Gunn's son was also a stark contrast with Sleepy Hollow's superb Amandla Stenberg.
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Gunn's son is played by somebody who's like 4. The other girl's like 15.

Lol.
 
A

anaron

Member
NotTheGuyYouKill said:
It's surprising that DC gives pretty much complete freedom to Arrow to do whatever, but Marvel's so much more restrictive, but it makes sense since Marvel's making a unified universe, while DC is doing stand-alone stuff which inherently grants more freedom to twist things to fit the universe, even with the Flash spin-off. Sleepy Hollow has total freedom cause the only thing it ties into is The Bible.
Click to expand...

I'd also more importantly argue that the main advantages Arrow and Sleepy Hollow have is the network the former airs on and the latter's limited episode order.
 
R

Razgriz-Specter

Member
NotTheGuyYouKill said:
It's surprising that DC gives pretty much complete freedom to Arrow to do whatever, but Marvel's so much more restrictive, but it makes sense since Marvel's making a unified universe, while DC is doing stand-alone stuff which inherently grants more freedom to twist things to fit the universe, even with the Flash spin-off. Sleepy Hollow has total freedom cause the only thing it ties into is The Bible.

Gunn's son is played by somebody who's like 4. The other girl's like 15.

Lol.
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well Arrow despite having a huge selection was still being held back by WB/DC last season.
no Gotham, Metropolis, Batman, A grade villains, etc.
we had C tier Batman villains, a C tier Batfamily member, reference to a B level DC city, a B/A- Teen Titan villain.

But they knew how to work it in a way which impressed WB/DC and made them say screw it
and now we have The Flash, Ra's and the entire League of Assassins among others with rumors of more.
 
N

NotTheGuyYouKill

Member
anaron said:
I'd also more importantly argue that the main advantages Arrow and Sleepy Hollow have is the network the former airs on and the latter's limited episode order.
Click to expand...

I would agree with you.

Razgriz-Specter said:
well Arrow despite having a huge selection was still being held back by WB/DC last season.
no Gotham, Metropolis, Batman, A grade villains, etc.
we had C tier Batman villains, a C tier Batfamily member, a B/A- tier Teen Titan villain.

But they knew how to work it in a way which impressed WB/DC and made them say screw it
and now we have The Flash, Ra's and the entire League of Assassins among others with rumors of more.
Click to expand...

You also raise a good point.
 
D

Dryk

Member
Between the technology advancing to cut them them and the way they were talking about the clairvoyant my money's on it being a SHIELD mole
 
E

Effect

Member
Sean said:
So looking over the Wikipedia page, all ten episodes have had different directors and most of them have different writers too. That explains a lot IMO.

Really think it's stupid to do something like that. Especially early on in a series when you're trying to establish a shows identity, you need a core creative staff that are all on the same page with each other.
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I don't like doing this but Arrow seems to have had the same setup.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arrow_episodes

However it does look like there around about 6 writers that are the core just looking at the first season. Each episode has had a different director as well. Yet Arrow certainly didn't feel all over the place the way Agents has.

Does Agents of Shield simply have bad directors? Bad writers? Showrunners?
 
M

Mariolee

Member
Red Arremer said:
Personally I'm thinking it could be MODOK - he has psychic abilities, and he has the capabilities of improving their tech easily if so needed.
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Wouldn't MODOK be a big villain to use for a Cap America film? I dunno if he would be wasted here. Then again, they did use Graviton so I guess it's all game.
 
Z

Zalasta

Member
I like the show, but it just doesn't feel like Whedon's very involved. It is especially evident in the dialogues and the cast chemistry. It hasn't quite hit that note where I can say these people are a team. I don't dislike them, but I am certainly not rooting for them yet. Firefly's cast, on the other hand, I fell head over heels for pretty much immediately, everyone just fit together perfectly.
 
I

Ithil

Member
WEll, they have been working on the second half of the season for a while now, so let's hope they took a fairly major overhaul. It's consistently average, and average is not really worth it when there's a host of good to great shows on TV.
 
E

Emwitus

Member
Worst superhero power fighting scenes in a show? worst superhero powers fighting scenes in a show. Cringeworthy really.


EDIT: Seems like i was rate about agents of shield ratings.
 
Weapxn

Weapxn

Mikkelsexual
Zalasta said:
I like the show, but it just doesn't feel like Whedon's very involved. It is especially evident in the dialogues and the cast chemistry. It hasn't quite hit that note where I can say these people are a team. I don't dislike them, but I am certainly not rooting for them yet. Firefly's cast, on the other hand, I fell head over heels for pretty much immediately, everyone just fit together perfectly.
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Of course he's not. He's not the showrunner. He's not on the writing staff. They just used his name to get the pilot attention. He's probably elbow deep in Avengers 2 while also putting some attention into the Cap 2 reshoots and the other upcoming movies. Anyone expecting heavy involvement from him was kidding themselves.
 
R

Rodney McKay

Member
I've warmed up to most of the team, except for the main girl who's looking for her parents.

I really couldn't care less about that storyline and every other line out of her mouth bugs me. Her shtick of trying to say something funny only to have it fall flat with the other characters is really annoying to me. It's like she was written for a laugh track.

She kinda reminds me of a less funny version of Xander from Buffy, and it took me a WHILE to stop hating him (only liked him when he was paired with Cordelia or Anya).
 
F

fallengorn

Bitches love smiley faces
Phoenician_Viking said:
That was a great episode. I am glad that we are about to find out what happened to Coulson.
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I wouldn't get my hopes up, judging from the show's track record.
We'll probably learn a lot more about what happened to him next episode, but they can still tease it out if they wanted to. Nothing from the preview makes it appear that everything is going to be spelled out
.

My guess at this point is Coulson was revived by magic. They've mentioned before how certain powers like telepathy doesn't exist. Acknowledging that an unknown power exists is a decent reason to keep a lot of people in the dark. If they were really ambitious they would drag K'un L'un into it, since Iron Fist is on the horizon. But I'd be surprised if they even mention Brother Voodoo at this point.
 
T

Toa TAK

Banned
Not a terrible episode, I'm hoping this is one step towards some serialization, but we'll see.

Also, May delivered the crushing blow to Skye. Damn bro, nobody cares for that girls' parents.

Can't wait for the season's finale to see what brought Coulson back to life. I don't see it happening anytime soon. At least we won't have to wait long.

Overall, TWD had a better mid-season finale. Come on, AOS, you can do better.

Dennis said:
So who really brought Coulson back from the dead?

Dr. Doom?

Scarlet Witch?
Click to expand...

ABC.
 
N

noah111

Still Alive
One of the best episodes thus far. But that's not saying much, unfortunately.

Dennis said:
So who really brought Coulson back from the dead?

Dr. Doom?

Scarlet Witch?
Click to expand...
Dr. Strange?

Or Coulson is simply an advanced Life Model Decoy from SHIELD and will eventually get turned into The Vision by Ultron in Avengers 2 (ala the comics, obvs). He certaily has the forehead for it:

vision.jpg
 
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