Agents of Shield
Yesterday at around 5:00 p.m. I watched Agents of Shield season 4 finally, episode 22 "World's End" on Netflix. It's the first real superhero show that I have watched, the main plot of the show is about a secret agency working to protect the world from unusual threats, for the last several seasons a major one being quelling conflict between "inhumans", people with special mutant powers, and those that fear them. The plot for this particular episode is incredibly complicated, and really makes very little sense unless you have seen more of the show, but I will try and put it as simply as I can. Obvious spoiler alert! Ophelia, a woman with superpowers who used to be an artificially intelligent robot, but grew herself a real body, is plotting to incite more tension between inhumans and humans, and use the ensuing chaos and fear to try and take over the world because her boyfriend dumped her. To do this, she wants the help of a magic book that the agents of Shield stole. In the meantime, the agents are trying to save two of their members who are stuck in a Matrix-style virtual reality world that is being shut down, and will kill them if they are still inside when it does. In the end they succeed in getting the people out of the virtual reality, and set a trap using the magic book to kill Ophelia with the Spirit of Vengeance, a magical spirit that can posses people and make their heads burst into flame. As outlandish and silly as that sounds, it is actually very well executed, and has a lot more depth to it than one might think. If there is a main character, it would be either Phil Coulson, head of Shield, played by Clark Gregg, reprising his role from previous movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or Daisy Johnson, played by Chloe Bennet. Until his role as Coulson, Clark, from what I have gathered, seems to have mostly played fairly minor roles in a number of other films of great variety. Chloe Bennet seems to have had very little else in her acting career. Other main cast include Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May, who is probably best known as the voice of Mulan, and is predominantly a voice actress, Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz, another lesser known actor, but an amazing one if I do say so myself, Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons, again a lesser known actress, and finally Henry Simmons as Alphonso "Mack" MacKenzie, who played Detective Baldwin Jones in NYPD Blue. The show was created by Joss Whedon, who also served as executive producer, writer, and director. He created such shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, and is a co-ordinator of the overall MCU.
The overall feel of the show is very hopeful and inclusive. Major themes in the show are accepting those that are different and always working towards doing the right thing, even if the world, or those in charge, tell you no. I think it does a good job of touching on the current cultural issues of inclusiveness without completely throwing it in your face, even if it isn't being terribly subtle about it. It certainly has "spys are cool" sort of feel to it, with all of the characters uniforms and spy jumpsuits, high tech gadgets and sunglasses and whatnot. With the number of scientists and technical jargon characters spout to make some of the things make sense, it also feels like it is doing a good job on capitalizing on the new trend of "nerds being cool".
The show is of course fairly similar to other superhero shows that have exploded onto the airways over the last decade. It is a lot less melodramatic than most of the CW DC shows like Arrow and The Flash, and being a team show, as well as the characters being linked to an organization gives it a distinct feel from the Netflix Marvel shows like Daredevil and Luke Cage. One thing that I think makes the show feel very different is that the characters have all been doing this for a while. They aren't secret vigilantes that just came into their powers, they are a long term agency that just does this. It takes out all of the melodrama of "oh, what if my significant other finds out?" and things like that, and focuses on the drama of the scenarios at hand. Non of them go to school, or have other jobs, or anything like that. They are agents of Shield. This is what they do.
The biggest stereotypes that the show used to have where in Daisy, Jemma, Leo, and a character who has since left the show, Ward. Very early in the show, Daisy, Jemma, and Leo all had variations of a basic "nerd" stereotype, but quickly grew past it into much deeper and better characters. Ward was as bland of a "cool spy dude" as you can possibly get, until that got completely turned around late in the first season. So really, as of the current state of the show, I would say they have done a good job of either avoiding or subverting stereotypes. I think they did a particularly good job with Melinda May's character. She is an Asian woman who is incredibly proficient in combat, and they have avoided pretty much every terrible asian stereotype I know, including the fact that her combat style is not some campy martial arts or anything like that.
This show most likely targets late teens and adults, probably around age 16-32. It is fairly action heavy and superhero related, so that would lead me to suspect they are probably intending to mainly target men, although I don't quite find that to be fair. College students would fit the bill pretty well.
If I were to glean anything about American culture from this show, it would be that we are having a serious social discussion about being more inclusive, and that it has been a major problem. I might also feel that there is some distrust of the competency and ability of official organizations, and that people are encouraged to take things into their own hands if they feel it necessary.
Entertainment wise, the shows largest weakness is what it takes to get into it. It isn't really a show you can just jump into, and to be honest, most of the first season is absolutely terrible, and they had no idea what they were doing with the show at first. Since then It has really come into its own, with incredibly strong and emotional story lines that effectively capture and emulate real world problems and feelings using fantastical plots and events. It does an amazing job of talking about real world emotions and societal issues using science fiction. The entire inhumans concept is the most blatant example of this, as a stand-in for really anyone feeling marginalized.
Overall, those who manage to make it past the first season's drudgery tend to agree with me. The ratings of season one pale in comparison to the rest of the show. My favorite quote from Todd VanDerWerff of Vox was that "Agents of Shield has gone from crushing disappointment to geeky delight."
I tend to binge watch the show whenever a new season finishes, and I was watching the end of the the last season as season 5 just dropped on Netflix. Most of my friends all watch the show, and it is a particular favorite of all of ours. I don't usually engage with the show on any social media or anything, but I took a look at it recently. They seem to mostly post either enticing snippits of upcoming episodes to garner excitement, or fun looking backstage photos of the cast, usually being silly in some fashion or another. Overall, they don't seem incredibly active, but definitely aren't a ghost town.
Overall, the making of Agents of Shields seems surprisingly quiet and uneventful. It is a fairly standard made show, though I appreciate how well the cast seems to get along based on the social media I looked into. Here's hoping season 5 is just as good as the rest I have seen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3T-evQZiQo
It went from this (where you can almost feel the camp)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM-6Zmc7LYg
To this (something actually good)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQJKgtAktLQ
https://www.vox.com/2015/3/18/8250651/agents-of-shield-review
The overall feel of the show is very hopeful and inclusive. Major themes in the show are accepting those that are different and always working towards doing the right thing, even if the world, or those in charge, tell you no. I think it does a good job of touching on the current cultural issues of inclusiveness without completely throwing it in your face, even if it isn't being terribly subtle about it. It certainly has "spys are cool" sort of feel to it, with all of the characters uniforms and spy jumpsuits, high tech gadgets and sunglasses and whatnot. With the number of scientists and technical jargon characters spout to make some of the things make sense, it also feels like it is doing a good job on capitalizing on the new trend of "nerds being cool".
The show is of course fairly similar to other superhero shows that have exploded onto the airways over the last decade. It is a lot less melodramatic than most of the CW DC shows like Arrow and The Flash, and being a team show, as well as the characters being linked to an organization gives it a distinct feel from the Netflix Marvel shows like Daredevil and Luke Cage. One thing that I think makes the show feel very different is that the characters have all been doing this for a while. They aren't secret vigilantes that just came into their powers, they are a long term agency that just does this. It takes out all of the melodrama of "oh, what if my significant other finds out?" and things like that, and focuses on the drama of the scenarios at hand. Non of them go to school, or have other jobs, or anything like that. They are agents of Shield. This is what they do.
The biggest stereotypes that the show used to have where in Daisy, Jemma, Leo, and a character who has since left the show, Ward. Very early in the show, Daisy, Jemma, and Leo all had variations of a basic "nerd" stereotype, but quickly grew past it into much deeper and better characters. Ward was as bland of a "cool spy dude" as you can possibly get, until that got completely turned around late in the first season. So really, as of the current state of the show, I would say they have done a good job of either avoiding or subverting stereotypes. I think they did a particularly good job with Melinda May's character. She is an Asian woman who is incredibly proficient in combat, and they have avoided pretty much every terrible asian stereotype I know, including the fact that her combat style is not some campy martial arts or anything like that.
This show most likely targets late teens and adults, probably around age 16-32. It is fairly action heavy and superhero related, so that would lead me to suspect they are probably intending to mainly target men, although I don't quite find that to be fair. College students would fit the bill pretty well.
If I were to glean anything about American culture from this show, it would be that we are having a serious social discussion about being more inclusive, and that it has been a major problem. I might also feel that there is some distrust of the competency and ability of official organizations, and that people are encouraged to take things into their own hands if they feel it necessary.
Entertainment wise, the shows largest weakness is what it takes to get into it. It isn't really a show you can just jump into, and to be honest, most of the first season is absolutely terrible, and they had no idea what they were doing with the show at first. Since then It has really come into its own, with incredibly strong and emotional story lines that effectively capture and emulate real world problems and feelings using fantastical plots and events. It does an amazing job of talking about real world emotions and societal issues using science fiction. The entire inhumans concept is the most blatant example of this, as a stand-in for really anyone feeling marginalized.
Overall, those who manage to make it past the first season's drudgery tend to agree with me. The ratings of season one pale in comparison to the rest of the show. My favorite quote from Todd VanDerWerff of Vox was that "Agents of Shield has gone from crushing disappointment to geeky delight."
I tend to binge watch the show whenever a new season finishes, and I was watching the end of the the last season as season 5 just dropped on Netflix. Most of my friends all watch the show, and it is a particular favorite of all of ours. I don't usually engage with the show on any social media or anything, but I took a look at it recently. They seem to mostly post either enticing snippits of upcoming episodes to garner excitement, or fun looking backstage photos of the cast, usually being silly in some fashion or another. Overall, they don't seem incredibly active, but definitely aren't a ghost town.
Overall, the making of Agents of Shields seems surprisingly quiet and uneventful. It is a fairly standard made show, though I appreciate how well the cast seems to get along based on the social media I looked into. Here's hoping season 5 is just as good as the rest I have seen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3T-evQZiQo
It went from this (where you can almost feel the camp)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM-6Zmc7LYg
To this (something actually good)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQJKgtAktLQ
https://www.vox.com/2015/3/18/8250651/agents-of-shield-review
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