Tag: Ming-Na Wen

Around the Water Cooler: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “T.R.A.C.K.S.” (spoilers!)

This is the face of someone who is going to eviscerate you via your nostrils. © ABC/Marvel Studios
This is the face of someone who is going to eviscerate you via your nostrils. © ABC/Marvel Studios

It’s less than a week until Christmas, so let’s dive into another episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., fresh off of my Netflix streaming queue:

  • And now, we’re kicking it “mystery on a train”-style. Because it wasn’t enough for Joss Whedon to have one episode of a tight-knit ensemble TV series set on a train, right?
  • I love the way May casually reveals to Ward that she told Coulson about their affair, especially when how she revealed it in the previous episode wasn’t so casual. And from his reaction, it’s almost like he wanted to either be found out a different way or that he was upset that she told Coulson first without consulting him.
  • Gyah, I love Fitz’ fake American accent. Knowing how the entertainment industry works, I’m not surprised that a Scottish actor like Iain De Caestecker would have an American accent in his back pocket. And it makes sense from a character perspective that Skye would not have a similar Scottish accent in her arsenal; here’s hoping the same isn’t for Chloe Bennet.
  • I had to turn the subtitles on for the beginning of the next scene because I wasn’t sure at first what Fitz was upset about. But then I realized that he was upset that he couldn’t “show off” in front of his crush and that Skye’s getting more Operations-savvy rather than Tech-savvy. Her comment about him building things with his hands isn’t the soother that she thinks it is. I gather that his outing with Ward gave him a real confidence boost in his abilities as an Agent, but to be busted back down to being the “gadget guy” in her eyes could be seen as being real condescending.
  • Yeah… love that Stan Lee cameo. But you have to admit that it was very jarring (no pun intended) to have it happen, and then the diversion. It’s almost as if they were diverting us from the diversion.
  • I think I rather like how they played a little bit with time to show how things happened from Coulson’s perspective, then from Ward’s. Also, I wonder if May’s the one who hot-wired the truck, maybe. But I don’t know why she would have left it there.
  • Oh, Ward… this is why Ops and Tech need to be better friends and learn how to do things that the other divisions know how to do.
  • “If it’s really just sex, Ward, you should really get comfortable using the word.” Aw, yeah, Papa Coulson.
  • I’m not sure if I’ve said this before, but I think I love how in their “no benefits” relationship, Ward is really not getting any benefits at all. I believe that Coulson’s comment about combat ops was meant to reassure May that he didn’t mean for them to get involved in this kind of sticky situation, the kind that earned her the nickname “the Cavalry.” It was a great moment between two veterans, and then Ward came into the infirmary and made it seem like less than that. He’s being pouty and sulky, and it makes him just a little more likable.
  • I rewound the fight scene in the baggage car three or four times and I still can’t figure out if the assailant grabbed Simmons or if she grabbed him to try and shield her team from the grenade. If the latter, my respect for her has gone up trillions.
  • My heart was pounding really loudly while Skye was going down the stairs. Great job of establishing that atmosphere. However, she split the party and didn’t wait for backup, so that’s negative points for her.
  • And now I’m wondering if Quinn’s got an eye-cam as well. That would kind of make some sort of sense. But what I don’t understand is why the whole deal went south.
  • Ah, I see the stinger is for hardcore comics fans and people like me who like looking stuff up after the show’s over. Nice.

Unlike last week, I really want to know what happens next, especially given that we know that Coulson was brought back to life by S.H.I.E.L.D.’s technologies.

Around the Water Cooler: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “Repairs” (spoilers!)

I would be smirking, too, if this were a part of my morning routine. © ABC/Marvel Studios
I would be smirking, too, if this were a part of my morning routine. © ABC/Marvel Studios

After a hell of a morning, I definitely needed to relax with this commentary on the latest episode of “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”, now available to watch on the official website.

  • This may be a bit rude of me, but I totally love how Ward’s complicated plan to hide his “no-strings attached” relationship with May is circumvented by her just leaving the hotel room—thus, subverting the regular gender norms regarding casual sex. I do have to wonder, however, why she didn’t wear a bra. Even smaller breasted women need support.
  • I love how this entire ensemble worked together in this episode. The way Ward almost instantly picked up on Fitz and Simmons’ prank on Skye regarding May’s reputation was perfect and did much to make him that much more likable.
  • Tangential to this, I think I wouldn’t mind if they did a small web series during the hiatus about Skye attending S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy training.
  • The Monster of the Week was a bit weak—more of a MacGuffin, really—for the great character moments between the core cast. I haven’t read other reviews or reactions yet, but I think I’m totally okay with this.
  • I’m also totally okay with the “explanation” of the “Cavalry” nickname, even if I’m not sure I understood its import and how the situation was more dramatic with her going in with no weapons and a facing a cult with hostages inside rather than the outlandish stories that Ward, Fitz, and Simmons spun.
  • Perhaps the weakest bits were when Skye and Hannah were talking about God. I cringe whenever mainstream shows touch upon religion when it’s not normally a part of its makeup; this was no exception.
  • Of course, I love the post-credits scene here. It’s a nice, natural progression and I can’t wait to see May open up a bit more.

What were your favorite bits?

Around the Water Cooler: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “0-8-4” (spoilers!)

Agent Melinda May is having none of this bullshit. © ABC/Marvel Studios
Agent Melinda May is having none of this bullshit. © ABC/Marvel Studios

Care for a spoilery place to talk about the second episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., now available to watch on the ABC website? Click on through!

  • The only thing that kept me from yelling at Coulson for letting the Peruvians on the plane is the fact that a) they are part of the official government, even if their leader wasn’t smart and didn’t bring a helmet into a zone with known rebel activity and b) Coulson’s way of trusting competent people to do things competently usually works for him. Note: I said “usually.”
  • Halfway through this episode during Skye and Ward’s talk in the lounge area of the Bus, I realized during his speech about being “the whole solution” that Ward is the Captain America-analogue, the ideal soldier—or in this case Agent—who always gets the job done perfectly. And Coulson’s reference to Skye being a consultant in the same way that Tony Stark is means that she’s supposed to be the Stark-analogue: brilliant, unpredictable, irreverent. I’m not sure how to feel about that. Part of me feels like that’s a trick that a fanfic writer would use to get someone interested in their “original characters.” Heck, most of me feels that.
  • I’m not sure I liked the way the camera movements or the edits foreshadowed that the Peruvians were going to do a heel-face from the instant they got onto the Bus. I noticed it as soon as they did the close-up onto the locking mechanism on the weapons case. Same with the foreshadowing of how important the flying investigation drones were. It all seems so obvious.
  • As lovely as it was to see Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury doing a cameo, I think it was a wasted effort because of how much it was a throwaway scene. Cobie Smulders’ cameo in the pilot episode? It did much to move the plot and felt less contrived.
  • I’m still trying to get a handle on Fitz and Simmons. She’s definitely the alpha between the two of them, and I kinda like that.
  • If Ward is Captain America-ish, then Agent Melinda May is very Zoe Washburn. You could hear it in her voice just before she drove the SUV into the lab. I don’t know why I feel better about this character-trait lifting than I do the Ward/Captain America fusion.

What did you think?

Trisha’s Take: “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

rsz_marvel_agents_of_shield
Created by Joss Whedon
Directed by David Straiton, Joss Whedon
Starring Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge
Guest Starring J. August Richards, Cobie Smulders, Ron Glass

Like most people, I loved and adored Agent Phil Coulson ever since he started bothering Tony Stark in Iron Man. And throughout the new Marvel movie universe, Clark Gregg’s Coulson has slipped in and out, around, and through dense blockbuster movie plotlines to deliver bon mots, a practical everyman’s view, and a certain insouciance that can’t be analyzed but rather just needs to be enjoyed.

So when I first heard that Agent Phil Coulson would return to the ‘verse in a TV series called “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” as the leader of a small strike force within the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization and that the TV show would be created by Joss Whedon, I was conflicted. Would this be awesome, like “Firefly”? Or problematic, like “Dollhouse”?

Note: There will be spoilers in this review. Oh yes, there will be spoilers.

Having missed all of the pre-show hype at Comic Con in San Diego and other places completely, I went into the episode blind to most of what the rest of the Internet has already known about the series: Agent Phil Coulson would be returning from his movie death in The Avengers to lead a team of non-super-powered humans from within the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization. I didn’t know exactly how they were going to pull off the Coulson-reveal, but I have to admit the way it was scripted and the way Gregg delivered it, I couldn’t have asked for more. And a bit reminiscent of the unsettling nature of Cabin in the Woods and “Dollhouse,” just when the audience could sit back and bask in his triumphant return, Ron Glass’s generic S.H.I.E.L.D. doctor character revealed that there’s even something sinister involved with Coulson’s return to active duty. (Please let it not be Mister Sinister?)

As far as the first episode goes, the formula for the ongoing series seems fairly simple: S.H.I.E.L.D. gets wind that someone is exhibiting supernatural powers, Coulson’s team goes in to investigate, something goes wrong, the team saves the day. It’s a formula which works for many a mystery novel and has worked for cop dramas since those things were invented; as any fan of these knows, it’s the characters doing the investigating which keep viewers and readers coming back for more.

Obviously, Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson is the top draw, but what about the rest of the team? Here are my impressions of them in no particular order:

Brett Dalton plays Grant Ward, a covert ops agent who is assigned to work on Coulson’s new team. It was hard to tell from the debriefing session between Ward and Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders, reprising her role from the movie) whether or not he was a particularly good agent because while he did get the job done in an action-filled sequence near the beginning of the movie, you could have plugged another competent agent into that job due to the nifty gadgets he used and the end result would have been the same. The character flaw that he’s given is that he has “poopy” people skills; that’s probably why he works alone so often. (Also, he’s supposed to have combat skills on the same level as Natasha Romanov? I don’t buy that for one second.) I don’t think it’s Dalton’s fault that I didn’t like Grant Ward; I’m going to have to blame Joss Whedon and his two co-writers (and family members) Marissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon for not giving him enough pleasant things to do. At one point, though, I did feel a lot of empathy for Ward, and that was when he was being reverse-interrogated by Skye.

Ah yes, Skye. Played by Chloe Bennet, Skye is a social anarchist, a hacker, and currently not a favorite character of mine. Perhaps I’ve been watching too many “NCIS” or “Criminal Minds” reruns, but when I think of competent hackers and other “Fuck the system, man!” character-types, I don’t picture a woman who looks like Skye. I think that the character might have rung a bit more true with me if she’d been styled to be a bit more plain (hoodie, T-shirt and jeans as opposed to stylish preppie clothing) so that she could later surprise me with her brilliance the same way Miracle Laurie did at the end of the Dollhouse episode “Man on the Street.” I also had a lot of difficulty believing that Skye had enough skill to break into a secured S.H.I.E.L.D. communications line; then again, hacker groups have been breaking into lots of supposedly secure systems left and right these days, so perhaps I should go a little easy on her.

The technology team consists of Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Elizabeth Henstridge (Jemma Simmons), who are introduced together. He handles all things mechanical, she all things biological and together their characters fill the roles of both a forensics team and a Q-like quartermaster in one. I’m pleased to note that both actors are from the UK; hence, any ardent cries of “Their accents are so fake!” can be met with equally ardent defenses. In the few scenes they had to show off their characters’ strengths, it’s revealed that Simmons has the cooler head among the two, but Fitz has more genius under pressure as it’s he who’s able to come up with the magical cure to guest star J. August Richards’s “exploding head” problem.

Finally, rounding out the group is Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) who is pulled out of a self-imposed, mind-numbing clerical job and back into action as the team’s pilot. (Did I mention their command center is a gigantic plane? Just checking.) There’s a lot of juicy background to her character as even hot shot Ward is dismayed (or astounded) that they were able to get her to be on the team. I’m actually pretty glad to see that the “One They Pull Out of Retirement” is a woman this time, and Wen embodies the role just perfectly.

As far as pilot episodes go, the plot and story arcs that were introduced were both standard and unique, sometimes at the same time. For example, J. August Richard’s character is first seen as a hero, but then as the investigation proceeds, he becomes the antagonist. A scene with the “innocent bystander” he saved swings him back around into “good guy” territory again, his rampage through Union Station with the captive Skye in tow has him doing another heel-face turn. And by the end, you’re not entirely sure whether or not to agree with Ward’s proposal to kill him with sniper fire or Coulson’s assertion that he needs to be saved. Considering that many of us live in countries who have decided that personal freedoms can be overridden in the name of “national security,” this kind of flexible thinking and plotting is a refreshing change from shows where the line between protagonist and antagonist are never crossed or blurred.

There’s one major problem I have with the plot, and it revolves around Phil Coulson. In the debriefing scene, Maria Hill tells Grant Ward that because the Avengers only have Level 6 security clearance, they haven’t been told about Coulson’s return. I take this to mean that any information about Coulson being alive is going to be severely restricted. At the same time, however, the final standoff between Coulson and Richards’ character takes place in the middle of a busy Union Station. And while I understand that S.H.I.E.L.D. would have cordoned off the area and evacuated all the civilians, when the camera pulls back a little, two civilians can be seen on the second level, watching the scene. And who’s to say that they won’t tell their friends about the Man in Black they saw?

So was this a perfect pilot? Heavens, no. Is there enough to make one want to continue watching it? Perhaps, and for me it entirely depends on how the characters are developed further.

Which means that even though he’s surely capable of doing it, Phil Coulson definitely can’t save this situation on his own.


“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” airs on ABC channels at 8 pm Eastern/7 pm Central if you have cable TV; if you don’t you can see full episodes (with commercials) on the ABC website and on Hulu.