Well, it's here, whether we needed it or not.
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is hands down the most anticipated and closely guarded
pilot of the new fall season. It's also hands down the pilot with the most
obnoxious and ridiculously crafted title, too. I love Marvel and I love
superhero movies but I was never fully onboard with this idea. Even with the
auspices attached, I couldn't bring myself to believe this show was going to be
any more than a rote procedural with enough references to popular things to
make it interesting. Come to find out, I think that's exactly what S.H.I.E.L.D. is
and is going to be.
The opening of tonight's pilot, after a weirdly
written intro, which of course shamelessly uses footage from The
Avengers to make it feel more appropriately epic, is supposedly set in
Eastern Los Angeles. If by Eastern Los Angeles, they mean the most stark (no
pun intended), and half set-dressed backlot available for use in LA then they
are correct. The scene feels empty and anemic, hardly the setting you want to
hit your audience, who have come to expect $250 million dollar production
value, with right out of the gate. The scene introduces the us to its first
"superhero," or the first person in the series who is on his way to
realizing he might want to be or has the potential to
be a superhero. There's an explosion and he scales a wall and it looks OK.
Look, I understand that this is a TV show and there are limits, you can't knock
a show too much for it's audacity and courage, but this is the pilot, the very
first thing you are showing your audience, you shouldn't have any "oh,
that could have looked better" moments. Leave those for the episodes that
will surely come later down the line.
After
the brief prologue, we cut back to S.H.I.E.L.D. business and the
re-introduction of Clark Gregg's Special Agent Coulson. Of course, he died in The
Avengers and his return here is no surprise, thanks to the nature of
needing the star of a TV show to promote said show, and also ABC's relentless
marketing campaign. Sadly, fans hoping for some incredible reasoning as to WHY
he is alive and well will be disappointed, as the logistics of it all are kind
of tossed in a "we'll talk about it later" basket. I happen to love
Clark Gregg and Agent Coulson. He's a nerdy, average looking bad ass that I
think a lot of Marvel fans relate to. Oh god, that sounded so sad. Whatever,
it's true. His introduction is handled with a perfectly calculated Joss
Whedon-y scene – two characters are talking and the time for a dramatic
entrance arrives so Coulson steps from the shadows between them:
"Sorry," he explains. "That corner was really dark and I
couldn't help myself." Good stuff.
One of my main concerns is how this pilot works for someone who
isn't knowledgable about anything related to the Marvel universe. For instance,
I spoke with my Mom on the phone this morning and she mentioned the show. So
yes, ABC has done their job making people AWARE that this thing exists, but I
can't imagine her understanding any of this nonsense if she decided to tune in.
Yeah, they try and explain stuff. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s mission is to survey the
population for superheroes, supervillains, and monsters and decide if they are
a threat to humanity or if they could use them for the greater good. I'm sure
eventually someone corrupt will invade S.H.I.E.L.D. and want to use them for
evil but I'll give them a few episodes before those shenanigans begin. "We're
the line between the world and the much weirder world," Coulson explains.
When you boil it down, it's actually pretty simple, but I imagine the
non-initiated to be a tad confused by the end of the hour. I'm sure this
question is one of the biggest things plaguing ABC and Marvel and I'm positive
it has been brought up in many an executive meeting. If Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D. is too broad, it will
turn off the Marvel-obsessed fanboy contingent and if it's too detailed it will
turn away the majority of the wide-audience and become a cult-"hit"
with 4 million weekly viewers by February.
Most of tonight's premiere is exposition and
scene-setting and character introduction. Sadly, mostly everyone fades into the
surroundings a little too much. Outside of Coulson, the S.H.I.E.L.D. crew is
just your generic group of nerdy, BUT ATTRACTIVE, misfits who talk in
exposition A LOT. They have accents and are basically just story engines at
this point. We do get to learn a bit more about a hacker (Chloe Bennet) who
joins the agency in the pilot and is the only one to assert some spunk and sass
into the proceedings. I'm sure we will get to know more about them as things
develop but for now I wasn't particularly invested in any of their
stories or who they are outside of S.H.I.E.L.D.
After tonight's premiere, I'm mixed on where I end up with my overall opinion.
I didn't really like the show I just watched. It was kind boring and kind of
forced but there were also a few moments that ignited a little bit of a spark.
A spark that leads me to think the show might find a way to be more than
your average procedural with popular references. Within the
Marvel universe, the possiblities are pretty endless and the show can have a
lot of fun blowing some minds with clever correlations between S.H.I.E.L.D. and
the expansive Marvel timeline. For our sake, I hope it does! I hope they find a
way to make it work and have it be more exciting than the pilot was. But based
on these initial 45 minutes, it looks like
all this fanfare might just become a bridge to close the gap between the
release of the next Marvel blockbuster. I mean, you did see that 2-minute
trailer for Thor: The Dark World in one of the ad breaks,
right?
GRADE: C (for #CoulsonLives and ya know, being average.)
Stray observations:
- Typing out Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a level of torture I never thought existed. Seriously, the worst.
- I think the show is going to do HUGE business in the ratings tomorrow morning. Like, probably one of the biggest premieres in recent history. I also think that the situation will be very different in a few months. This could easily be the next Revolution.
- Can you name another show that is premiering on ABC this fall? Nope? Me neither.
- How weird was it when the ABC promo guy said "You don't want to miss the end of every episode!" Umm, okay? I'll miss the first half then?
