Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 1.05 Review: Broken Trust


For any that have yet to watch tonight’s episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., titled ‘Girl in the Flower Dress’, I suggest you vacate the premises until such time that you have done so. This is not a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.
What Skye has been holding back finally came to a head in this week’s episode, where her hacker boyfriend sold information to the group known as Centipede. This definitely happened earlier than I would’ve expected. I’m not sure if it’s much withheld information when we’re given the answers three episodes later. The writers probably would’ve been smarter to hold this to the halfway point of the season, but then I’m not privy to their season long plan.
This is definitely a solid B series. The writing isn’t as great as it could, the villains not as interesting as I’d like, and the progression is a little too rapid for my taste. Plus, half the time the characters are very superficial in their acting; they don’t feel like fully developed people. Maybe that’s the acting, or maybe it’s the writing, but the only one to show emotion other than anger that is too subtle to really be able to see was Skye. She’s kind of the best thing this series has going for it right now.
For a Joss Whedon production, I have to say I’m disappointed with how this series is turning out. Usually his work is so great at developing real people, real villains, real emotions, but I’m not getting much of that here. Maybe he’s just not as able to be as hands on with this project as he was for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Dollhouse (I’ve tried watching Firefly, but I’ve never been able to get into it), but he’s usually great at picking a team out to work on his projects, so I really don’t know what’s going on here. This certainly has the superhero kind of feel to it, but even in the Marvel films, real emotions gripped at the characters, and we were really able to dissect who they were in a two-hour span. We’ve had five hours (okay, minus commercials) with this series, and haven’t gotten much. Little pieces to little mysteries solved, but almost no big picture to really try and grasp at.
When Skye’s hacker boyfriend and Ward both basically said the same thing, they gave each other a look, which I suppose could be read as jealousy, but there wasn’t enough of that to really be able to see. Fitz also complaining about not knowing all these things about Skye to Simmins, it was like he also had a bit of a crush on Skye, but again there was no depth to it. Whedon, really, get your act together on this project; I have higher standards for you.
My rating: 7 out of 10.

Best Lines:
“And I like board games.” – Ward makes an offhand comment.
“Awe, crap, they gave him a name.” – Coulson mutters about the name Scorch – which I have to say was a terrible choice, but then I suppose the Torch is already taken.


Okay, I’m off to struggle through New Girl, which I’m very close to calling it quits on, a good few seasons earlier than I gave The Big Bang Theory. After that it’s Trophy Wife, The Originals, and Supernatural, again not necessarily in that order. Stick around.

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