When I posted my first Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. review, I lamented that it was up against Supernatural.
Oops. I was wrong. Supernatural actually airs at nine o’clock, as it always has. I’d read some incorrect reports about its time changing. My bad. This works out well for me, as it gives me a Tuesday of television watching.
First of is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., now settled into its third week. It’s getting to the point where the show should be demonstrating what it is really made of.
AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. 1×03: THE ASSET
To be honest, I’m still not completely sold on it. I found this week more entertaining than the previous episodes, but its still not there for me.
First of all, the show still insists on focusing on Skye and Ward. These are the two most uninteresting sacks I’ve seen in a very long time. Every scene with them falls like an absolute lead weight. I find nothing compelling about them apart and I’m especially not interested in them together.
I must admit Skye earns more of my ire than Ward. Ward may be duller than dishwater, but at least I understand what the point of him is. He is the muscle of the group. He gets to beat people up.
But Skye… Is supposed to be a master hacker. I know because they’ve mentioned it in all three episodes thus far. Yet they’ve never actually displayed any of those skills. They mention that Skye did some hacking in order to get invited to Quinn’s party. I wasn’t exactly clear on what she did. If she hacked in and changed the party list or if she hacked into something else and got herself invited because of that. I saw both as possibilities and the show was too busy making a joke about “e-vites” (about fifteen years too late for an “e-vite” joke to be funny). I must admit, I haven’t rewatched the episode yet, so we’re going to have to settle for initial viewing not making it clear.
We’re supposed to believe that Skye is such a master hacker that both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Quinn are gagging to have her working for them. But they have yet to show it. Which shows the biggest problem with having hackers on television: HACKERS. DON’T. MAKE. GOOD. TELEVISION.
Yes, Quinn is clearly admiring her hacker skills.
You would think the Whedon crew would’ve realized this already. They tried fitting the hacker hat on Willow over on Buffy, but by season three, they decided it wasn’t working and switched her over to magic. So please don’t have a character’s main selling point be their MAD L33T HAXXOR skillz, because it don’t work.
But this episode was promising not so much due to the episode itself, but for what it was building towards. While Melinda May stayed in the background for much of the episode, she told Coulson at the end she wanted to take an active role in missions.
Hell yes. This is what I’ve been waiting for. I want an episode focusing on her really getting back into things and coming to terms with what happened in the past. This is something that will keep me interested.
She didn’t do anything this episode. I don’t care. I still want her picture in this review.
Also, just as an aside: I think I started to ship Melinda May and Coulson based on that scene. I was feeling some chemistry there. Certainly far more than from Ward and Skye, despite the show really try to push for that to happen.
We also set up some interesting things with FitzSimmons. It’s subtle, but it’s there nonetheless. The titular Asset is one of their former mentors, Doctor Hall (Ian Hart). As its very clear the show is not done with him, this can lead to some very interesting storylines with them.
And then there is Doctor Hall. Since they kept his name the same as from the comics (and the media has been reporting it) I don’t think it’s a spoiler to reveal he becomes the supervillain Graviton. This is the kind of the thing I talked about in the first episode. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a great way to use villains and heroes that aren’t going to get into the movies. Are they ever going to have Graviton in the movies? I highly doubt it. So using him in the series, go for it! I look forward to see what they do with it.
I think it would be fun if Ian Hart wears this cape.
I’m a bit puzzled by how Ian Hart decided to play the role. His accent was a bit weird. I’m used to hearing him as his natural British. Liverpool to be exact, which he utilized thrice to play John Lennon. He’s also played Doctor Watson and his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I’ve never personally heard his American accent before, but a friend has told me it wasn’t nearly as bizarre as the accent on S.H.I.E.L.D. Maybe that’s what Ian Hart thinks Canadians sound like.
But I’m always glad to see Ian Hart getting work.
All in all, the episode didn’t stun me. However, I am impressed enough with what it is promising to keep in with the show.
Oh, and if they want to bring back the Truck Driver Agent, I’d be all for that. I kind of liked him. I just really dig the idea of this dirty trucker S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
Wow, certainly far from John Lennon during his time in Hamburg now.
SUPERNATURAL 9×01: I THINK I’M GOING TO LIKE IT HERE
Like I said at this beginning of this blog entry, there are two shows for me to watch on Tuesdays now. The second of these shows is the one I am more emotionally invested in.
I only started watching Supernatural about two years ago, which is pretty pathetic considering how long it had run before that. But it took me a long time to get into it. Oh well. I’m committed now (says the girl who will be dressing up as DEAN’S CAR at a convention this weekend).
Having only been into the show for a few years, I’ve not been able to completely appreciate the cliffhangers, being able to watch the next episode without having to wait over the summer. However, I feel fairly confident in stating the following:
While Supernatural has always played with cliffhangers, I think the most dramatic have been season three, with Dean being dragged into hell; season four, when Lucifer was released from the cage; season six, when Castiel declared himself God and last season.
While the other cliffhangers were… Well, cliffhangers, they didn’t have quite the epic feelings of terror. The first season left us with the Winchesters in a car accident, the second season left the question as to how Dean would get out of his demon deal (answer: he didn’t), season five’s question was how Sam got out of hell and season seven left us with Dean and Castiel in Purgatory.
Herbs find extended applications in medical, pharmaceutical viagra professional canada and cosmetic industries for their effectiveness. I choose to pray during my R&R time. uk viagra And generic levitra 5mg it can not only curing the disease from the root. Since a few men feel their life is crushed on the off chance that they are feeble. generic india levitra Last season ended with the Winchesters giving up on their mission to close the Gates of Hell in order to save Sam’s life. Crowley, the King of Hell, is stuck in a half-cured state. Abbadon, Lucifer’s head knight– while temporarily quelled– has made a declaration she is planning to take over Hell. Meanwhile, Metatron has ripped the grace from Castiel, rendering him mortal, and banishing all of the other angels from heaven.
The image of the angels literally falling from heaven was absolutely chilling. For me, it was a sign that the show still has life in it, despite being so late in the series run.
This episode picks up right when the last one left off. It is really split up into three stories.
The first story is Sam’s. It is almost akin to Bobby’s journey in Death’s Door. Sam is dying and his mind is fighting with whether or not to pass on or to fight. Fittingly, Jim Beaver actually shows up as Bobby, representing Sam’s want to move on. It is unsurprising that Dean would represent the part that wants to remain alive.
No, I love Sam more!
Of the three stories, I think this is the one that I’m the least interested in. First of all, there’s not really much of a question. We know that Sam will survive. The idea of Sam wanting to stop fighting is also a bit tiresome.
While it is different than the usual argument from Sam– how he wants to live a normal life– it does have some of the same notes. Sam has always wanted to stop fighting. At this point, it seems that Sam has come to terms with the fact that he will never be able to live a normal life, so he’s ready to let go. The whole story just felt a bit warmed over.
It was, however, nice to see Julian Richings back as Death. He’s always a welcomed sight on the show.
But Sam is willing to remain alive, only when confronted with the actual Dean (possibly). As Zacharias stated back in season five, Sam and Dean are “psychotically, irrationally, erotically codependent on each other”.
Which brings us to the second part of our episode: Dean. As Sam’s subconscious knew, Dean wouldn’t let him give up. Despite the heavens literally raining down on them and the King of Hell being locked in their trunk, he’s thinking of nothing but saving Sam’s life.
Jensen Ackles did a fantastic job yelling at the doctor when he said Sam’s life was in “God’s hands”. He expressed his frustrations at Sam’s situation and God’s platform of non-involvement with humanity.
As usual, one of the Winchesters is on the brink of death.
He is willing to deal with anyone. While we’ve seen him pray to Castiel before, this is the first time we’ve seen him pray to the angels in general. He offers up a coveted Winchester favour in order to save Sam’s life. When this doesn’t seem to work, he’ll willingly to go to Crowley.
But an angel– Ezekiel– reveals himself willing to help. Ezekiel must take Sam over as a vessel in order to heal him from the inside.
I want to believe that Ezekiel has the best intentions. I really do. But you know it’s not going to work out that way. Castiel does vouch for him… But let’s face it, Castiel kind of sucks as a judge of character. He also trusted Metatron, didn’t he?
The angels all blame Castiel for their expulsion from heaven. They’re gunning for him. A lot of them were gunning for him before that, for that little matter of, you know, declaring himself god. And before that rebelling against Raphael. And before that rebelling against Zacharias… Damn baby, there are a lot of people pissed at you.
Anyway, Castiel may believe Ezekiel a good soldier. But what does being a good soldier mean exactly? Couldn’t that mean that he’s pretty keen on being a sleep agent inside the head of one of Castiel’s best friends? Castiel, the angel who has arguably caused even more chaos in heaven than Lucifer?
Just saying. This could go badly very quickly.
It’s already going pretty badly for Castiel. He is pretty fully human now. The only angelic ability he possesses now is Angel Radio, which is pretty much just angels chattering at each other in angry confusion.
The writers have tried for years to bring Castiel’s powers down. For as much as everyone loved Castiel and Misha Collins, his powers kind of broke the show. He had to be written out a lot just so he wouldn’t be able to miraculously fix everything. Season five saw most of his powers removed, Season six had him busy with the Civil War in heaven. When he was present in season seven, he was mostly crazy. In Season eight, most of his opponents were other angels, so his powers were at least evenly matched.
Castiel has never dealt with things like laundry.
This is the first time since season six that Misha Collins is back in the regular cast. But this is the first time I think he can really be utilized, because he won’t overshadow Sam and Dean. He is completely without his powers. He has to learn to be human. He is not just a fallen angel, like in season five. He is (almost) completely human.
He is also dealing with the heavy guilt of what he did. Castiel has messed up a lot in his life. “I thought it was for the best,” he plaintively stated last season. “You always do,” Metatron replied. It seems no one has ever taught Castiel where the road paved with good intentions leads.
I think since meeting the Winchesters, Castiel has been on the road to humanity. He has wanted to apply human moral to heaven. But he has never been able to go the full distance, because he was still an angel. Angelic morals and human morals don’t really mix and that lead to the problems. Castiel always tried to make these sweeping gestures and they blew up in his face.
But now he is human. Rather than immediately trying to fix everything, he is instead working small. He wanted to help Hael adjust to being locked out of Heaven. But Hael wasn’t interested in Castiel’s help and he had to kill her.
This will be Castiel’s existence. He needs to come to terms with who he is now that he is permanently on Earth and fight to keep that existence.
Right now, I’m kind of hoping Castiel doesn’t get his wings back. I think Castiel as an angel has run its course. I think that what he will discover over the course of this season is that he really does want to be human.
While there are three separate plots for this episode, they all tie together well. You can’t have one without the other. It was a very satisfying continuation from the epic cliffhanger of the last season. With the exception of some bumps during the Sam portions where they rehashed things, I wasn’t bored. This wasn’t nearly as disappointing as We Need to Talk About Kevin (really, picking up a year later and telling everything in flashback? REALLY?). I personally feel this is the strongest premiere since Lazarus Rising.
I admit it; I’m a total sucker for the angels. I’m a total sucker for angels in general. That was what hooked me on the show, their use of angelic lore. I was always disappointed in the lack of angels in seasons six and seven (despite the angelic Civil War in season six… Come on, Gamble!). By mid-season eight, they started to crank up the angelic presence and it seems that is going to be the primary storyline for the season. I’m in. I’m totally in.
I do mourn the loss of Castiel’s iconic outfit though. RIP overcoat.
