SHIELD episode 2

[bluflamingo]

Somehow fandom went from squee, loving it to mrr, giving it up in one episode, but I liked episode 2, so I'm sticking it out.

I dunno, levels of disappointment seem really high and I'm not sure why, or what people were expecting and didn't get. Or maybe I'm easier to please with tv? I think it's a bit like Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters - it's not going to win any Oscars and it's got issues, but it's entertaining and funny and the cast is pretty, and apparently, I'm easy at that point.

So, episode 2:
1. I never really got why people said Coulson was hot until the penultimate scene of him a bit roughed up with his tie loosened. Somehow, that makes the man ridiculously good looking to me.

2. May's angsty backstory! And Coulson's failure at apologising for dragging her into a combat zone! And everyone knows she's awesome and legendary!

3. I love Skye's line about everyone having 1% of the solution and coming together to solve the problem. That's a beautiful way to think of society (Skye! Don't turn out to be a bad guy, please!) And her and Ward trying to make sense of each other through talking, and listening, like grown-ups. And trying to see each other's way of looking at things. I love this.

4. Ward's sort of growing on me? Like, in my head, he kind of loves being on a team a ridiculous amount and totally won't admit it because he's a badass tough guy - but he gets all warm and fuzzy thinking about team bonding with beer and teasing the scientists. And wanting to mentor Skye.

5. I'll admit it: I don't know which one is Fitz and which is Simmons either. I know boy scientist is physics and girl scientist is biology, but I can't get their names straight.

6. Coulson/Reyes flirting! That woman is smoking hot, and I would climb her like a tree. Though this is rapidly becoming my femslash fandom and so I would have loved it to have been May/Reyes flirting.

7. Fury! No more nice bar makes him sad :( And quite right about the fish tank - you can't keep fish on a plane, that's just wrong! Get a cat instead.

Yeah, my response to this show is basically squee and happy exclamation marks (and wishing people would tag their episode reaction posts with whether they're going to be happy or criticising, so I can skip the critical ones, but, as yet, the world doesn't bow to my will, so I'll have to struggle bravely on)

Comments

[astridv]

I dunno, levels of disappointment seem really high and I'm not sure why, or what people were expecting and didn't get.

I'm really puzzled because I'm having a ball watching it. I have no idea what people were expecting.
And the characters are all already growing on me. :) I also don't understand the Skye and Ward hate but whatever. By now I'm used to my tastes going contrary to fandom mainstream.

eta: I also LOVED Hansel and Gretel. :P

[bluflamingo]

By now I'm used to my tastes going contrary to fandom mainstream

Same - Clint/Coulson is an anomaly in my tiny pairing shipping history :) I don't get how anyone can hate Skye - she's awesome and talented and snarky and has a beautiful vision of the world. Even Ward is, okay, a little dull, but not hate-able.

Hansel and Gretel lovers unite! I saw it with my then girlfriend who had all sorts of issues with it's attitude to female anger and so on and so forth and I was just sitting there going - yes, but it's fun! And Mina and Gretel are hot like burning.

[ignemferam]

Fitz is the boy, Simmons is the girl. gosh, i love those two geeks!

and Melinda May!!! <3

[bluflamingo]

Thank you! Maybe I can remember it as Fitz like Martin Fitzgerald (from Without a Trace) and Simmons like... Dr Simpson from SGA? That might work

[oriolegirl]

I'm loving it, too, and am also puzzled about a lot of the negativity. I think perhaps they are not watching the same show I am watching. ;-)

Fury was all over that bar. "It was a nice bar." I think he needed a drink.

[bluflamingo]

I often come to the conclusion that fandom's watching a different show to me - comes of actually liking SGA at the end, I think :)

Fury needed all the drinks. Poor man, he's got the Avengers, the World Security Council, and now Coulson's off destroying things as well. Hell, I'd be drinking, and I don't even drink!

[sian1359]

Reyes, was Chaya from SGA; definitely looks better with dark hair than the red IMO.

I thought this episode was better than the first, much more evenly written, with the personal elements being about the team instead of the 'monster of the week', as it should be when we're in the first blush of deciding whether we like the characters or not. Ward wasn't as much of a tool, I could understand what Fitzsimmons were saying, and we got glimpses of May's backstory (and Coulson's) without them hammering everything about them over our heads. As for Skye, it's a Whedon show, so I'm not going to guess good or bad or something else (I'm saving that for Tahiti ;) since there's a reason jossed is now a verb.

I don't think Avengers fandom is going to be happy with the series unless the Avengers are the focus, even in absentia, and as a Clint/Coulson girl myself, it's a bit hard to deal with a Coulson that doesn't seem to care about the Avengers, but I'm trying very hard to judge the series on its own merits instead of how it messes with or helps me write fic. So far it's definitely the show I'm still most looking forward to watching each week (although that may be because the rest have let me down or are just good background noise).

[bluflamingo]

It definitely hasn't taken Coulson where fandom thought he'd go, has it? I'm a little ambivalent about whether I want more or less Avengers involvement - a crossover episode would be cool, but vanishingly unlikely. On the other hand, there's more Avengers films to come, where Coulson might pop up?

No-one's mentioned Clint at all yet in the show, though, which is weird (or I'm reading too much into it!)

[rhi]

Yeah, I've actually quit reading some people because of the levels of negativity. It's as if they expect it to be perfect from the beginning (possibly because of the double Whedon involvement?) instead of allowing that it's gonna have some eps where it's still growing into itself? Anyway. No, it's not perfect; yes, I'm enjoying it, too!

[bluflamingo]

Makes me think... did everyone love Firefly when it was airing, or just now it's over? Because, honestly, Firefly had some dodgy episodes and dumb character moves, but now everyone loves it.

I'm just going to cross my fingers that all the people who hate it stop watching, instead of sticking with just so they can talk about why they hate it.

[colls]

I think sometimes we can have such high expectations of things that we felt let down. OTOH, if we don't buy into the hype we tend to enjoy something a lot more.

I am enjoying it. I don't have any deep thinky thoughts or anything, but it's entertaining. I love May.

[bluflamingo]

Same here. I don't need deep thoughts from my TV and movies, I just want it to be enjoyable and fun to watch, with characters I like who ideally don't die too early on. So far, it's hitting all my buttons.