Agents of SHIELD 1-03 The Asset
Oct. 11th, 2013 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabeth:-)
Okay, so, that isn't a :-D , because I think I really quite a lot dislike Ward and Skye. And yet they seem more and more like the main characters. And that could be a problem.
[ETA3: I liked it when Skye didn't pull the trigger. I'd be concerned about how that genders except we also have Melinda May, who I rather think decides differently.]
Also, big brother, but nice big brother?
... I... fear this may be meant unironically...
it fits too well with American current ideology about itself.
But then there's "A concerned citizen. Who happens to be a member of a gigantic bureaucratic organisation that is tracking your every move." Extreme deadpan. Coulson's a funny guy. Secretly. Very secretly. :-)
So they can't be taking it seriously except for how they also are. Simples.
There was a lot said about how SHIELD operates, finding people on the wrong side of the law with no family and giving them an option. The recruitment practices fit the tiny bit we know from Avengers and leave us so much room for fun. If they're recruiting from the best and shiniest that's such the narrower set than a second chance club. Then there's attitude to tech, shutting down development, or not shutting it down enough depending who you ask. SHIELD is trying to walk a fine line, or possibly just playing the same game as everyone else, depending. This could be fun.
If their scientist 'asset' (creepy language, as fanfic has oft pointed out) needs to arrange his own kidnapping to get out? SHIELD is being pretty creepy.
I was waiting for that tag scene though. The whole thing read like an origin story and the shiny stuff looked like liquid terminator so I know what they can do with it. I was waiting for screaming face though, not hand. Scream face would have said 'trapped', hand says 'going to break out and do stuff'. And Coulson already buried the records, which is going to come back and bite him. Got to love that.
(Posted, then thought, hang on: why specifically say not to destroy it, if the point was to do what that guy would have wanted? Slinging it into the sun would have been... unpredictable, but why lock it up? And Coulson of all people knows what an origin story looks like. Now I'm left to wonder...)
[ETA2: I'm a DC reader, I know nothing of Marvel, so when I called it an origin story that was before seeing other people's comments and looking up on wiki for the 616 version. So that's clearly working as stand alone stuff.]
I <3 Coulson. Still.
And we still don't know how manipulative he is. He certainly puts himself on the line to get things done, but is he putting himself in danger with the goal of manipulating May et al, or is that a happy coincidence? Hmm, it's predictable, so it's not coincidence. But he's not admitting to anything. Maybe he's just that vague and people are right to be worried about him. Or, maybe he's just that machiavellian, but with more smiling. We do not know.
Like the truth serum. Do they in fact have a truth serum? I like that people were arguing about it after the first episode and now they're playing with what we think we know. Smart storytelling and possible trolling at once.
The thing with the guns and being rusty fits with the mentions of mid life crisis and May pointing out that fieldwork got him dead. Like, is he as good as he's trying to be, is it reasonable for him to be worrying about this stuff, is there really a higher standard he should be held to? Has he lost his edge? Or is his confidence just wobbling? Or is it all sneaky clues? It is far too early to tell. But there is story going on there and I like it.
I liked his wardrobe. Fanfic has a similar wardrobe. Many suits, of subtle distinctions... and of course wearing a suit for field work.
I loved that mention of his Captain America cards. Sacrificed his life, and his cards. Important stuff.
Coulson was willing to take his team beyond SHIELD's ability to come get them, to maybe get disavowed, in order to retrieve one of SHIELD's people. But his plan hadn't taken into account at all that the guy might want to be there. Blind spot. He doesn't think of himself as kidnapping or holding captive this scientist, or other SHIELD assets. And he's loyal to his organisation's people, not just expecting loyalty.
Skye's loyalty is... interesting. Also, quick. Also also, the one thing we're absolutely sure of by now is she acts as well as her actress does, so we don't really know anything.
We did dig into personal backgrounds a bit more this ep as I expected, but we started with the characters I care least about, so I pout and wait to learn about May and... well, okay, mostly May. But we learned a bit more about FitzSimmons, and how their training is just as demanding as the punching kind, in its way. At the moment though I don't especially like them.
Huh, I'm watching for Coulson and May. That might not work very well.
But there's going to be 22 episodes so there's time to see how it works out.
:-)
22! How often does that happen? Between the Brit TV and the mid season cancellations, not often.
but this series has been sold in spectacular numbers of countries, so I think it'll get a lot of rope.
I liked it, but I'm not bouncy squee about it. But liked it is still ahead on points.
Okay, so, that isn't a :-D , because I think I really quite a lot dislike Ward and Skye. And yet they seem more and more like the main characters. And that could be a problem.
[ETA3: I liked it when Skye didn't pull the trigger. I'd be concerned about how that genders except we also have Melinda May, who I rather think decides differently.]
Also, big brother, but nice big brother?
... I... fear this may be meant unironically...
it fits too well with American current ideology about itself.
But then there's "A concerned citizen. Who happens to be a member of a gigantic bureaucratic organisation that is tracking your every move." Extreme deadpan. Coulson's a funny guy. Secretly. Very secretly. :-)
So they can't be taking it seriously except for how they also are. Simples.
There was a lot said about how SHIELD operates, finding people on the wrong side of the law with no family and giving them an option. The recruitment practices fit the tiny bit we know from Avengers and leave us so much room for fun. If they're recruiting from the best and shiniest that's such the narrower set than a second chance club. Then there's attitude to tech, shutting down development, or not shutting it down enough depending who you ask. SHIELD is trying to walk a fine line, or possibly just playing the same game as everyone else, depending. This could be fun.
If their scientist 'asset' (creepy language, as fanfic has oft pointed out) needs to arrange his own kidnapping to get out? SHIELD is being pretty creepy.
I was waiting for that tag scene though. The whole thing read like an origin story and the shiny stuff looked like liquid terminator so I know what they can do with it. I was waiting for screaming face though, not hand. Scream face would have said 'trapped', hand says 'going to break out and do stuff'. And Coulson already buried the records, which is going to come back and bite him. Got to love that.
(Posted, then thought, hang on: why specifically say not to destroy it, if the point was to do what that guy would have wanted? Slinging it into the sun would have been... unpredictable, but why lock it up? And Coulson of all people knows what an origin story looks like. Now I'm left to wonder...)
[ETA2: I'm a DC reader, I know nothing of Marvel, so when I called it an origin story that was before seeing other people's comments and looking up on wiki for the 616 version. So that's clearly working as stand alone stuff.]
I <3 Coulson. Still.
And we still don't know how manipulative he is. He certainly puts himself on the line to get things done, but is he putting himself in danger with the goal of manipulating May et al, or is that a happy coincidence? Hmm, it's predictable, so it's not coincidence. But he's not admitting to anything. Maybe he's just that vague and people are right to be worried about him. Or, maybe he's just that machiavellian, but with more smiling. We do not know.
Like the truth serum. Do they in fact have a truth serum? I like that people were arguing about it after the first episode and now they're playing with what we think we know. Smart storytelling and possible trolling at once.
The thing with the guns and being rusty fits with the mentions of mid life crisis and May pointing out that fieldwork got him dead. Like, is he as good as he's trying to be, is it reasonable for him to be worrying about this stuff, is there really a higher standard he should be held to? Has he lost his edge? Or is his confidence just wobbling? Or is it all sneaky clues? It is far too early to tell. But there is story going on there and I like it.
I liked his wardrobe. Fanfic has a similar wardrobe. Many suits, of subtle distinctions... and of course wearing a suit for field work.
I loved that mention of his Captain America cards. Sacrificed his life, and his cards. Important stuff.
Coulson was willing to take his team beyond SHIELD's ability to come get them, to maybe get disavowed, in order to retrieve one of SHIELD's people. But his plan hadn't taken into account at all that the guy might want to be there. Blind spot. He doesn't think of himself as kidnapping or holding captive this scientist, or other SHIELD assets. And he's loyal to his organisation's people, not just expecting loyalty.
Skye's loyalty is... interesting. Also, quick. Also also, the one thing we're absolutely sure of by now is she acts as well as her actress does, so we don't really know anything.
We did dig into personal backgrounds a bit more this ep as I expected, but we started with the characters I care least about, so I pout and wait to learn about May and... well, okay, mostly May. But we learned a bit more about FitzSimmons, and how their training is just as demanding as the punching kind, in its way. At the moment though I don't especially like them.
Huh, I'm watching for Coulson and May. That might not work very well.
But there's going to be 22 episodes so there's time to see how it works out.
:-)
22! How often does that happen? Between the Brit TV and the mid season cancellations, not often.
but this series has been sold in spectacular numbers of countries, so I think it'll get a lot of rope.
I liked it, but I'm not bouncy squee about it. But liked it is still ahead on points.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-11 08:49 pm (UTC)I'm also reserving judgment about overall quality. So far it's been a bit predictable but not unpleasant. However, "not unpleasant" does not win awards nor build careers, especially in SF tv shows.
I like Skye's loyalty; that part makes sense to me. Presumably, she's had more training than we've seen, so we're missing a bunch of interactions and some talks with Coulson and others. She got a sense of what SHIELD is and how it works, and how it treats its people. (At least, how it appears to treat them to trainees. And she's sharp enough to understand that limitation.)
And when the opportunity came up to jump ship, she... looked at it. Considered getting away from the obsessive people with the weird gov't military thing going, and getting back into the hactivist life, possibly with a big boost of money. And realized that (1) she likes flirting with rich charming sociopaths but (2) doesn't miss, at all, the part where they decide to kill you if you piss them off.
I can entirely believe a realization that the sensation of someone having your back is actually worth giving up some independence for. And I can see her not deciding that until she had another offer in front of her, and started sorting out the specific pros and cons rather than abstracts.
(19 more to go? Yay!)