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| Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Highly Anticipated |
With Marvel’s Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D about to hit the small screens by the end of the week, Patrick
gives us an insight into what he wants to see from the one of the newest and
most anticipated Fandom shows this year.
WARNING: MILD BUFFY AND
FIREFLY SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!
The golden era of television is apparently upon us and that sentiment
can certainly ring true for members of the geek fandom with huge variety and
choice for all geeks. One show that will certainly be on most of those fanboy
and fangirl’s chart is Marvel’s Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D. This blog entry is going to outline what I would like to see
from the show before it airs.
Strong Characters
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| Ensemble: Which characters will be fans' favourites? |
As we know from Joss Whedon he does ensemble extremely well. Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Avengers Assemble are all indications of
this. He handles group dynamics pretty well. Every group member has their own
characteristics and they come to the fore now and again. I feel it’s important
for the balance to be right in a show like this.
The fact that this is an agency of secret agents means, for me anyway,
that they should all be strong characters. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be
wrong in situations or back down from things at times, but I feel for this
series to work we have to see each character showing a strong-willed-ness (is
that a word? Probably not. Apologies) in the series.
I don’t know how much Agent Coulson is going to be used but I feel that
they have to have a foil for him. Coulson calling the shots all the time will
become boring after a while if the others don’t step at times and show their
value in situations. I have a good feeling that this won’t happen as over the
course of the series I can see the other characters taking centre stage at one
time or another, after it’s called Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D and not the Agent
Coulson Show. Plus Whedon and his team have handled this well with Giles
as the authority figure in Buffy.
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| Coulson: The main man? |
My worry is that there will be a wallflower character as seems to be a
trait in Whedon’s rag tag teams. In Buffy
(which I have started watching from the start recently and haven’t finished
yet so don’t judge anything to harshly about what I say about it yet) Willow
has for the four seasons I’ve watched been a painstaking (pun intended) shy and
retiring type, coming out of her shell only once and a while so far to perform
spells. Heck even Xander throws himself into the action, which inevitably gets
him hurt sure, but that sense of leap before you look shows you how brilliant
Buffy is at “slayage” and provide the audience with action and humour.
In Firefly for the most part
Simon is the wallflower, stumbling over his words when he talks to Kaylee and
doesn’t know what to do expect hide at time of crisis. Okay, I know he can’t be
centre stage as he and River are technically fugitives, but he could still make
some leap into action at points during that lone season of Firefly.
In essence this is what I mean by strong characters; that each character
has their strengths and weakness and that they aren’t apologetic about any of
them.
Humour
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| Xander Harris: Master of "quippage" |
Whedon and the team of writers he has worked with over the years have
produced great humour in their shows. Having seen Firefly and over half of Buffy
now, it shows that humour is essential to a show that has characters
fighting for their lives every week. The audience wants to have fun when they
tune in and hopefully that is what we will get.
I think the Avegers: Assemble
showed that the humour of Whedon translates seamlessly into the comic book
domain and this will help the popularity of the show I have no doubt. Having
regular witty and comedic intervals with character like Xander (Buffy) and Wash
Story arc
Firefly had River’s
mystery (explained in Serenity); Buffy had the rise of the Master, the
Mayor’s Ascension etc, as story arcs and Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D will need the same. This may lead to a big bad of some kind,
what kind I’m not sure. Most likely one that will be capable of being taken
down by the S.H.I.E.L.D agents themselves or else Superheroes will be needed
and unless they introduce ones in the show, which is possible but I doubt they
will introduce any big name heroes on TV, which will mean conspiracy of some
kind. I think this will work well and I hope that will be the road they take
the show down. Introducing a mystery like River’s could help to keep the
intrigue and help keep interest going from week to week.
Play down the Superhero
element
I know the Superhero element of the show is a huge thing, but I feel
that this has to be its own animal in way. Yes, the superhero element can be in
the majority of the episodes but I think seeing the agents deal with super
powered villains/events would be much more interesting than them finding and
recruiting superheroes. Again, the title suggests that this may be the case but
we will have to wait and see if it will remain the case. A reason I feel that
the superhero element needs to be played down is that special effects on TV
don’t always look the best. One of Buffy’s
strongest suits was the use of practical effects and I hope that this is a
trait that is continued in Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D, however I don’t know if this will happen but this is only a
small thing too. Overall I have a preference for practical effects but special
effects would not be a deal breaker either.
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| Phase 2 of MCU |
Link it the MCU
I think linking the show to the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) will
happen but I hope it is in a subtle way rather than an obvious way. Throw away
links like “We have a situation arising in London ”
(linking it to Thor: The Dark World)
or “We dealt with something similar in Malibu New York
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| Agent 13: Could VanCamp make an appearance? |
It would also be nice to see the show’s big storyline impact on the
cinematic universe too, again even if it is in just a throw away manner. As for
cameos from big name players, I think Mark Ruffalo is the most likely of the
MCU to make an appearance or maybe Don Cheadle’s Rhodey or Kat Dennings’ Darcy
could make an appearance too. Future MCU stars like Anthony Mackie and Emily
VanCamp (who we know is playing Agent 13 in Captain
America: Winter Solider) are possiblitues as well. However I don’t think
the success or the less likely failure of the show will be down to the number
of cameos or lack of cameos in the show from their bigger cinematic brothers.
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| Don't Touch Lola! |
I have high hopes for this show and I hope that they will hit me with a
few surprises too. At the end of the day that is what makes good television.
Marvel’s Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D. starts on RTÉ on Sunday at 9.00pm and on Channel 4 on Friday at 8.00pm
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