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TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1
It may be cliched to say this, but it does feel like just a moment ago when I was watching the pilot of this new TV show, the first TV show to take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which I suppose should more or less be called the Marvel Live Action Universe, as I’m pretty sure that the upcoming Big Hero 6 does not take place in the same universe as the other live action films and shows. The show had a rough start for many people, though I enjoyed the show straight from the pilot episode, and the ratings dropped off quite a bit a few weeks into the second half of the season which wasn’t helped by the many multi-week hiatuses. But once the uninterrupted lead up to the season finale began as well as the big shake-up tied in with Captain America, the show finally found its footing and brought back many who gave the show a break with a strong ending and solid foundation for a second season. FYI, I will be talking about the entire season so there will be some spoilers, though I will try to keep some of the big surprises not tied to the movies.
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TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #22
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 22
Episode: The Beginning of the End
Original Airdate: 5-13-14
It’s been an up and down year for this show for many people, although coming from a fan I always thought that it started good and only got better as the season went on and the finale was the icing on the cake. There’s plenty of surprises, some more surprising than others, with the typical mix of drama, humor, and action, all ramped up to the maximum. And now that we’ve come to the end of this season, next year there’s a lot more superhero and comic book shows so I may be doing things a little bit differently but we’ll just have to wait and see. Next week be sure to come on back as I take a look back at this first season as a whole. But for now, let’s get back to the episode at hand.
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100 Essential Superhero Movies – The Marvel Cinematic Universe
I decided that I wanted to make a list of 100 superhero movies that I thought were the essentials, the ones that everyone needs to see at one point in time if they want to be a fully fledged superhero movie afficionado, and while I am having guest bloggers this month help me fill out the list, there are many much more obvious choices that were easy to make and I’m here to share some of those with you. Last time I took a look at the Superman movies, so I thought it was only fair to check out the other side of the spectrum and take a look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe that has just been growing and growing the past few years.
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TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #21
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 21
Episode: Ragtag
Original Airdate: 5-6-14
Gearing up to the season finale next week and the show decides to actually slow things down a little bit and take a look into Ward’s past and his relationship with Garrett. While I didn’t really care too much for almost any of the flashback scenes, there were still enough fun to be had in Coulson’s team and with Rayna to keep me interested in this episode throughout and from the look of things, it has the season finale ready to go out with a big bang even if it doesn’t seem likely that they’ll be making the gravitron callback this season, instead saving it for a second season which is still up in the air as far as I can tell.
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TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #20
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 20
Episode: Nothing Personal
Original Airdate: 4-29-14
Ran a little late on this episode’s roundup because I didn’t have internet until the other day, but I’m mostly moved in now and back into the swing of things so I am ready to get back into the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and its run up to the season finale. Things are getting much more complicated with Ward’s alignment change, the dissolution of S.H.I.E.L.D. as an organization and the entire disruption of Coulson’s team. Agent Triplett is starting to fit in a little bit more, but things are also not going quite so well between the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the US government. And on top of everything else, Deathlok makes another appearance and so does Maria Hill.
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TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #19
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 19
episode: Light in the Darkness
original airdate: 4-22-14
Quick recap: The cat’s out of the bag, Hydra’s out in the open and Agent Ward is in with them, but the rest of the team doesn’t know it yet. S.H.I.E.L.D. is more or less dissolved except for a handful of scattered agents still loyal to Nick Fury and the ideals that he stands for. The Fridge has been opened and dozens of criminals both insane and superpowered have been released into the wild and Coulson’s team is one of the few groups out there willing and able to stop them. It’s almost an excuse to turn the show back into a freak of the week except instead of doing that, they tie the most wanted fugitive directly into the past of the show as someone that Coulson has dealt with in the past and it is finally a chance to meet the mysterious cellist that he has mentioned a few times. Meanwhile there are still trust issues within the team, not just towards Ward who the audience knows isn’t trustworthy, but also still between Fitz & Simmons, Coulson & May, and Trippett & Fitz. All in all it adds up to another great episode.
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Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. 1998
This is one of those movies that I’ve heard about since the start of this site, and not in a good way. This was a TV movie made for the Fox network starring Baywatch’s David Hasselhoff as Nick Fury and written by prolific superhero screenwriter David Goyer with as many hits to his name as misses. It has a very 90’s generic action feel to it with a ratio of pithy one-liners to actual action scenes at around 20:1. Everyone on screen really hams it up from the Hoff himself pretending to be the hardest hardass that ever lived, his ex-girlfriend Val who’s just as tough as he is, the over-confident fledgling British recruit, to the always-angry executive who thinks Nick Fury is the biggest mistake that S.H.I.E.L.D. Has ever made. And I haven’t even gotten to the villains yet! The special effects look 90’s TV cheap, the fights look like they were done by actors who have never taken a martial arts lesson in their lives, there is more talk about the threats than there is actual action against any threats, but as usual with these kinds of movies, there is plenty of laughable cheesiness to get some enjoyment out of watching this movie.
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TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #18
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 18
Episode: Providence
Original Airdate: 4-15-14
I think it’s time for a quick recap, obviously spoilers if you haven’t caught up to this point in the show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. continues the course laid out by the events in Captain America: The Winter Soldier where the agency has crumbled due to a long-gestating Hydra infestation, but Coulson’s team is still intact for the most part. His trust in his longtime friend Melinda May has been dealt a blow after finding out that she had been reporting on their goings on to Nick Fury in secret, his trust in his other old friend and newcomer to the show Agent Garrett has been shattered after finding out he has been the Clairvoyant the entire time and is a high ranking member of Hydra, his trust in Agent Ward is in doubt as his loyalties are in question as he appears to be siding with his former SO Garrett, and finally his trust in Garrett’s current recruit, or at least current before his turn, Tripplett is being withheld due to his affiliation with Garrett. And on top of all this, S.H.I.E.L.D. Itself is in question as it is unknown what facilities are held by Hydra and what are held by those loyal to Nick Fury, and the US government is starting to come in, take everyone out of the picture, and ask questions later. To make a long story short (too late), things are continuing to ramp up towards the season finale and I’m enjoying most every minute of it.
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TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #17
TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 17
Episode: Turn, Turn, Turn
Original airdate: 4-8-14
Once again, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has a tie-in with a currently released Marvel movie, and once again I was able to catch it so I was aware of the connections, and this time around it’s not just the fact that they’re cleaning up in the same location that the movie’s climax took place in. This time around the movie changes everything and going into the episode with that knowledge actually takes away some of the tension that the show tries to present. There’s also a few extra references, like knowing the fate of Nick Fury, the allegiance of Agent Sitwell, and who is the driving force behind the Clairvoyant whose identity goes through plenty of twists and turns in this episode and leaves you guessing until the very end. Things are changing and this episode brings a major shake-up which the show really needed. Fair warning: spoilers abound.
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Captain America: The Winter Soldier 2014
This year is reminding myself of how much different the superhero movie schedule is compared to last year when there were about a dozen movies packed between the end of May and the middle of August, while this year has the movies much more spread out closer to one every month with Captain America kicking off the more traditional superhero fare as early as April (as opposed to the few comic book movies like 300 & I, Frankenstein and the few movies with a less direct superhero connection like Robocop and the Lego Movie) and yet this is also more of a far cry from a traditional superhero plot and instead feels much more like a conspiracy thriller along the lines of a dozen or so great movies whose names I can’t recall at the moment. There’s also a bit more of Captain America adjusting to life in the 21st century which I have been wanting to see ever since the first movie. In short, I loved every minute of it. Also, as a warning, I don’t always tread lightly around spoilers, though most of the spoilers I already knew or assumed before seeing the movie.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 