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But what are your thoughts on SHIELD?
7/4/14 10:01 pmSo, I'm on the UK terrestrial schedule, so I know I'm not completely up to date, but this was prompted by a conversation at work (museum staff are incredibly geeky!).
I don't like 'introduction' characters. Characters who are new to their world and need everything explaining to them. I think they're kind of lazy, to be honest. There's a variety of dynamics, some which work better than others (I'm watching Castle right now, and though he's a introduction character to police work, his experience and the way other characters respond to him make it work).
Skye is a quirky hacker girl. Her skills make her invaluable so she's included in the new world of Shield, and everyone gets on with her and make exceptions for her and go out of their way to help her out, and she's also got a super special secret backstory that makes her working with Shield an important path to her self discovery.
No one else even gets a back story.
She's just so boring. She's someone we've seen over and over. She's an outsider everyone embraces.
What about the insiders who feel like outsiders?
I want to see the story told from the point of view of the science twins joining the team. Having spent most of their acquaintance competing against each other, suddenly they have to learn to work together, to force their skill sets into complimentary patterns. They've been sheltered, they've been allowed to think their intellects are enough to solve any problem, but now they're thrown into situations were sometimes there is no solution. Sometimes violence is the solution. Sometimes their solutions aren't used the way they'd like them to be. They're scared of the more militaristic side of the team, of the agents whose skills are more physical. They need to relearn how to fit in a world they thought of as theirs, and decide if they want to.
I want to see the story of the agent who was traumatised by the actions asked of her. Who has a reputation as a fearsome killer that she'll never be able to shake. Who has people making racist assumptions about her skills and her desire to exercise them. She's persuaded to join a team in a non-combat position by a superior she trusts, but increasingly she finds herself thrown back in precisely the situations she wanted to avoid, using the skills she wanted to put behind her. She has other skills, but no one wants to make use of them. Can she really trust her superior? Can she persuade her team to see her as more than a mysterious asian stereotype without stepping over her personal boundaries?
I want to see the story of punchface (seriously, he has so little personality I still haven't learnt his name), the guy who was content to be a faceless agent, trusting his higher ups to know best, who's found himself on a team of misfits. He questions whether he's a misfit as well, or whether it's all a mistake. He wonders whether he should report the breaches in procedure. He feels stupid when the other members of the team are proved right repeatedly and questions his own worth as an agent, but thinking outside the box just isn't his thing. What's his role? Why is he here?
I want to see Coulson's story, but not urgently. His story should drive the series arc, but all of the characters should have emotional arcs. Not just Skye. Who, for the main character, is still a one note character - "newcomer with more links to the organisation than she realises" - like PunchFace, Science Twins, and Mysterious Asian Stereotype. And fun as Agents of Shield is, until any of the characters develop, well, character, it's always going to be hard to emotionally engage with the show on any level.
(also, is next series just going to be "Agents"?)
I don't like 'introduction' characters. Characters who are new to their world and need everything explaining to them. I think they're kind of lazy, to be honest. There's a variety of dynamics, some which work better than others (I'm watching Castle right now, and though he's a introduction character to police work, his experience and the way other characters respond to him make it work).
Skye is a quirky hacker girl. Her skills make her invaluable so she's included in the new world of Shield, and everyone gets on with her and make exceptions for her and go out of their way to help her out, and she's also got a super special secret backstory that makes her working with Shield an important path to her self discovery.
No one else even gets a back story.
She's just so boring. She's someone we've seen over and over. She's an outsider everyone embraces.
What about the insiders who feel like outsiders?
I want to see the story told from the point of view of the science twins joining the team. Having spent most of their acquaintance competing against each other, suddenly they have to learn to work together, to force their skill sets into complimentary patterns. They've been sheltered, they've been allowed to think their intellects are enough to solve any problem, but now they're thrown into situations were sometimes there is no solution. Sometimes violence is the solution. Sometimes their solutions aren't used the way they'd like them to be. They're scared of the more militaristic side of the team, of the agents whose skills are more physical. They need to relearn how to fit in a world they thought of as theirs, and decide if they want to.
I want to see the story of the agent who was traumatised by the actions asked of her. Who has a reputation as a fearsome killer that she'll never be able to shake. Who has people making racist assumptions about her skills and her desire to exercise them. She's persuaded to join a team in a non-combat position by a superior she trusts, but increasingly she finds herself thrown back in precisely the situations she wanted to avoid, using the skills she wanted to put behind her. She has other skills, but no one wants to make use of them. Can she really trust her superior? Can she persuade her team to see her as more than a mysterious asian stereotype without stepping over her personal boundaries?
I want to see the story of punchface (seriously, he has so little personality I still haven't learnt his name), the guy who was content to be a faceless agent, trusting his higher ups to know best, who's found himself on a team of misfits. He questions whether he's a misfit as well, or whether it's all a mistake. He wonders whether he should report the breaches in procedure. He feels stupid when the other members of the team are proved right repeatedly and questions his own worth as an agent, but thinking outside the box just isn't his thing. What's his role? Why is he here?
I want to see Coulson's story, but not urgently. His story should drive the series arc, but all of the characters should have emotional arcs. Not just Skye. Who, for the main character, is still a one note character - "newcomer with more links to the organisation than she realises" - like PunchFace, Science Twins, and Mysterious Asian Stereotype. And fun as Agents of Shield is, until any of the characters develop, well, character, it's always going to be hard to emotionally engage with the show on any level.
(also, is next series just going to be "Agents"?)
