Blog Archives
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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TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #16
TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 16
episode: The End of the Beginning
original airdate: 4-1-2014
Thankfully we’ve seen the last multi-week hiatus for this show and it will now be running straight through till the finale and things finally seem to be ramping up to full speed with yet another tie-in episode to a current release movie. Unfortunately, unlike the Thor crossover and like most of this country, I have yet to see the new Captain America movie which I have heard from those who have seen it that there are events happening in some of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Facilities at the same time that the show is taking place. But I can say that it doesn’t take much away from the episode. This episode finally brings out the clairvoyant, and while I won’t spoil who it is, I will say that I was right when I thought it would end up being a woman. There’s a few questions answered, still several left unanswered, and all wrapped in a nice mix of action, drama, and tension.
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Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher
Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher 2014
Last year when I watched the Marvel Iron Man anime movie Rise of Technovore, the best part of that movie were the bits featuring the Punisher, so while that movie was ok but fairly middling, I had quite a bit more hope for this one. But what I ended up getting was more of the same. I do think that the way this movie handles the Punisher as a character is much better than the way he is handled in any of the other live action movies, but I wasn’t as fond of how it handles Black Widow. There are plenty of well done fight scenes, but they had a little too much anime flair to them and some of the voice acting fell a bit flat except for one role who played it overly animated. The plot kept things interesting and while I didn’t like everything in this movie, there was plenty enough to keep me in through the end of the movie. A step up from last year’s Technovore, but only a small step.
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TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #14
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week #14
episode: T.A.H.I.T.I.
original airdate: 3-4-2014
It feels like it’s been forever since there’s been a new episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I also just read that this episode has had the lowest ratings of the season which is disappointing because I think the show has been getting much stronger these past several episodes. It’s unfortunate that it’s been hurt by both a weak starting few episodes which lost a lot of viewers, and these past two months which have been strewn with frequent hiatuses. Two weeks off, one week on, three weeks off. I almost think it would have been a better idea to have just taken six weeks off so there could have been a continuous string of new episodes. There seems to be a lot invested in this show so I hope that there are strong streaming numbers that help this show get to a season 2 because guest star Bill Paxton sure didn’t bring any viewers.
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Superhero Shorts: Forrest Fire Films
Welcome back once again to another edition of Superhero Shorts where I feature a superhero themed short film and ask a few brief questions with the filmmaker. Today I’m talking with Forrest Whaley from Forrest Fire Films who is probably best known for his many stop motion Lego animated videos featuring several different superheroes with a Robot Chicken level of violence, language, and humor, and he has also done the animated viral video the Duck Song and its various sequels. As usual, you can watch one of his films below, or you can visit his YouTube channel to see many more videos from him.
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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #13
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 13
Episode: T.R.A.C.K.S.
Original Airdate: 2-4-14
After a couple weeks off, S.H.I.E.L.D. Is back and even though it’s starting to feel cliched to say this, but this was once again their best episode yet. It combines one of my favorite formats of storytelling with plenty of action, comedy, and a gut punch of an ending. There’s callbacks, teases, and honestly the weakest part of the episode was the Stan Lee cameo. It’s also a little frustrating that there’s only one quick episode before yet another hiatus due to the Olympics, but hopefully this will be the last one before this show finishes out the season strong. On the villainous side of things, I’m actually not entirely sure I like the direction they are going, but hopefully things will pick up on that front as things start ramping up to the finale.
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TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #12
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 12
Episode: Seeds
Original Airdate: 1-14-2014
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has come off of its midseason hiatus and hit the ground running. Many of the biggest problems that I had with the first half of the season are no longer apparent in these past couple episodes. The team finally feels like a team, even Ward is getting much more personality to him, the mysteries are starting to actually build upon each other and bring things back from earlier episodes to form a larger whole. There’s still a bit of the freak of the week going on, but for the most part, I think it’s really getting into the swing of things and I’m looking forward to where this goes for the rest of this season and hopefully beyond. If you’ve been reading my recaps to this point, you already know I don’t shy away from spoilers, but there’s a couple possible surprises here if you haven’t watched the episode yet, so you’ve been warned.
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TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #11
TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #11
Episode: The Magical Place
Original Airdate: 1-7-14
After a brief midseason hiatus, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back and continues to kick the latter half of the season off in high gear, continuing from last episode’s cliffhanger. There are quite a few interesting character developments from almost everyone except for Fitz Simmons, I’m even starting to get a feel for Ward here. There are some nice moments of kick ass action, some quieter dramatic moments, and still plenty of room for some comedy. And while I’m certain that the revelation of Coulson’s revival won’t please too many people, I’m glad it’s finally done with. And for my point of view, the situation surrounding the revival was always going to be more interesting than the payoff no matter what they would have come up with.
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