The stakes are easier to establish than the characters early on. The problem was that they just threw "mysteries" out there that the audience wasn't actively invested in - they finally started rectifying this in the last two episodes.
I like the show, but it was also kinda boring.
That was also fixed by the recent episode.
I started to do a rewatch with someone that hadn't seen the show but wanted to... 4 episodes in, I let her catch up on her own, and I'm sure she needed to multitask to keep herself from turning it off, because she really wanted to catch up.
The moment she caught up, her comments were "why weren't all the rest the episodes like the last one? It's just now getting good!"
You're the reason I watch the show, but you ain't going to insult us when your show misses more often than it hits. Usually I follow the Whedon name anywhere, and the show has seen a quality uptick these past two weeks but we have every right to think it's not living up to its potential.
Gregg's response felt like a dagger to my back. That said, I'm willing to cut him some slack because people are throwing some serious fucking vitriol at him, and most of it is totally unwarranted.
IGN: The show and the films have Coulson as a big player in S.H.I.E.L.D., though hes not from the comic books. Is it interesting for you to see it branch out like that?
Lee: Well, I guess they felt they had to have some normal people or seemingly normal people and certainly Clark is doing a very good job playing the role. I just feel that we also need more colorful characters to be popping up all the time. I don't mean that Clark isn't colorful as an actor, but what I mean is characters who as comic book characters are more colorful.
IGN: They have announced now that Deathlok and Lady Sif will appear, among others from the comics. Are you excited to see some of those characters interact with the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?
Lee: Yeah, that will be great. I think that's what the show needs. I think people will tune in to see those characters and will enjoy seeing them in the context of being with normal people on a normal mission.
The stakes are easier to establish than the characters early on. The problem was that they just threw "mysteries" out there that the audience wasn't actively invested in - they finally started rectifying this in the last two episodes.
Hopefully they address this with the Clairvoyant in the next episode or two - right now, why is it supposed to matter on any level other than fanservice if the Clairvoyant is the High Evolutionary or Mentallo or Numinus or Cousin Betsy the Plant Lady or some original character? I don't know!
It shows that people, if given a choice will consume content however they want to, and plenty of people don't like the weekly drip of content we are accustomed to. Plenty of people have netflix and started a series and never finished it, or finished it in chunks. Hemlock Grove only proved that people like new content on netflix and don't give a damn about critics when it comes to shows dealing with the supernatural.
People are suprised at how many people "purge" on new shows, but realistically speaking, why wouldn't some people watch a series they like in big chunks. it's the biggest appeal of DVD boxsets
Netflix's data has shown that people are far more likely to watch shows in marathons or mini-marathons than they are to watch and episode here and there. And Hemlock Grove served to show that even when people didn't like the early episodes, more often than not, they stuck it out til the later episodes, really giving the show a chance. Why would they do that with a Netflix show and not a Broadcast show? Because it's only a click of a button to see what the next episode will bring, rather than waiting an entire week before the next one. It makes slower pace more palatable for impatient viewers.
And the surprise is that even when a series wouldn't be considered good enough for a viewer to watch on broadcast, they're far more likely to watch through an entire season or more, when it's on Netflix.. where they can consume in larger amounts. The fact that Disc Boxsets allow for the same thing doesn't matter because people are far less likely to pay for a show they didn't like or weren't interested in when it was being broadcasted.
The show being on HBO is irrelevant. HBO isn't telling the creative team "hey drag out this story for 3 months when it could have been solved in 2 episodes
Being on HBO is incredibly relevant. Both shows have a slow pace but the subject matter is incredibly different and that's due to the fact that being on HBO allows for much more adult content. There would be a lot less complaining about SHIELD's pace if the violence was more visceral and the relationships more explicit. Add cursing to the dialogue, more blood and grit to the combat, and have Skye's love scene with the hacker and May and Ward's love scenes showing nudity and people wouldn't mind the pacing and the lines. Spartacus, which was written and produced (in part) by the same Showrunners that SHIELD has, is a perfect example of this.
And why did you ignore the fact that pacing is inherently different when you're comparing a 22 episode a season show vs a 10-13 episode a season show?
Nothing AoS has done has suggested that they are holding the show back to match up with marvel movie contunity.
Contunity? Really? Before New York/After new York. I imagine that must be very difficult for the writers
and despite the fact that AoS has had a consistent writing team and huge support for the network, it still feels much more sluggish than a show with all the problems TWD had and a fraction of the budget Arrow did.
Nothing it's done? How about the fact that there's been almost zero major Marvel characters in the show? Compared to Arrow which in S1 alone had Arrow, Huntress, Count Vertigo, Deathstroke, and Deadshot and there's even more, even larger names in S2. It's obvious that they're limited by the movies because anything they write in the show becomes canon for the movies which can easily create continuity issues with what's being written in the movie, if the show is allowed to just do whatever they want to. Hell when Thor 2 came out, they wrote a scene into the show acknowledging what happened because if they don't, it wouldn't make sense given the size and scope of the events in the movie.
The problem with Coulson is that he is being written so dull compared to his film appearances.
He is still my favorite character of this series but he isn't the same.
I know there are story reasons why he is more serious but its a waste of his character.
