Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Review

As I mentioned in this post about new shows, I decided to give S.H.I.E.L.D a chance (there's no way I'm spelling that whole thing out this entire time, and I might even drop the periods soon) solely because of the Whedon attachment.  I'm a Whedonite, through and through.  I have a homemade poster dedicated to fanart of Whedonverse and know all the words to the Buffy musical by heart -- basically, I'm living the whole Whedon fan cliche.  So even though I have very little interest in the superhero genre and remember more about the conversations I had during The Avengers movie (it was a drive-in theater, that's allowed) than about the movie itself, I decided to give it a try.

So after watching the pilot, here's a look at what worked for me and what did not.

What worked for me:  I liked the witty and self-referential dialogue which has always been one of my favorite Whedon trademarks.  Agent Coulson's entrance from darkness was fun and Hill's remark about Thor's arms made me chuckle.  I'll try not to compare too much to previous works, but the zingers did feel a little more out of place coming from the S.H.I.E.L.D. team than say, the Scoobies or Serenity crew, but it's a pilot.  It's allowed to find its way and I'm sure it will feel more natural soon.  I also liked that it was set up enough for me to basically understand what was going on.  The plot had some intriguing mystery to it, and I liked the cool gadgetry.  I liked seeing Whedon alum and hope to see more.  I'm interested in seeing how the characters get fleshed out, how the season arc evolves, and recurring themes of fighting the good fight (Angel ruined me -- I want this to be the theme for every show ever).

What didn't work for me:  My favorite character was that of J. August Richards but I'm not sure if he's supposed to be back as recurring or if he was just part of the case of the week.  If he was just a one time thing, that's a waste.  He got some good backstory and felt very human and real and relatable, aspects I felt were missing in everyone else.  I don't know if I missed deep characterizations in The Avengers, but without that context I didn't learn much about the main characters by the pilot alone.  Their personalities kind of meshed together so that I wasn't always able to tell them apart.  A line from someone could easily have been said by someone else.  But again, it's a pilot and can't do everything right from the start.  I mean, I slogged through season 1 of Buffy to get to the really good stuff, so there's no reason I can't allow some leeway for this show to settle in as well.

Another problem I had was that the show feels very squished, for lack of a better word.  It feels like a movie compressed to fit television, not a movie expanded into television or television with film-like standards like some "quality" shows.  Some of the effects just looked silly on the small screen, like Coulson's hover car. There's a lot of action for the film/franchise fans, but that's never been my cup of tea.  I'd rather there were more background for the characters so I can learn to care about them before they're put into heartwrenching danger.  Once again, I assume this will all come in good time.

As some commenters on the pilot review at tv.com point out, the show feels a bit like Alphas and/or Warehouse 13, and I agree.  Of course, you could argue that any show about the same general subject (superheroes/super abilities) is going to have some commonality and might even feel the same upon first glance while being vastly different shows.  I think the real reason to point this out goes back to S.H.I.E.L.D. feeling squished.  As of right now, Alphas did the super abilities thing better because it was always meant for television and didn't come from a mega-franchise and carry movie/comic baggage.  The characters were fleshed out in the pilot and grew from there; the writers could make the world as they went and didn't have to stick to any laws of the universe previously carved out in bigger projects with bigger budgets.  (Sidebar: can someone please get on making the Alphas conclusion movie?  That cliffhanger was cruel.)

Overall, I'm hoping the future episodes grab me a little bit more than the pilot did, and the way they can do that for me personally is to give me more background on these characters.  As long as they give them something worth fighting for, reasons for me to want them to win with all my heart, they'll be able to keep me as a viewer.  If it spends too much time on the action and effects without character development, I'll give it up within a few episodes.

For now though, my favorite thing was seeing this back on my television screen: