It's a great way to explore the many untold great Marvel stories that have yet to show up on screen.
Can't wait for this.

This is going to be cool.

I'm really looking forward to HULK agents of S.M.A.S.H. Skaar will be in it!

Boy, I really had to dig for this topic.

Does anybody watch this show? I do and I love it. But the inconsistent schedule makes it hard to follow.

But the action, comedy, and character relationships make the show quite enjoyable.

I really like it, but I agree ABC is dicking around too much with breaks. I get the Olympics, but honestly they wonder why their primetime ratings are down yet they keep putting shows on break. Once, just once, I'd like a sense of assurance that when I turn on the television my show will be on.

I've heard mixed things about but I think I'l watch it.

I'l more than likely wait until the whole thing is out and watch it from start to finish, It kills me when Arrow takes unexpected breaks too lol.

The metaphor I seem to keep using when I discuss the show with people in real life or on other forums is it reminds me a LOT of the first season or two of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I keep waiting for it to get good, but EVERYBODY on the cast is Commander Riker, and none of them have grown the beard yet.

Started watching it two weeks ago. So far it's...no bad. It's not the best series I've ever watched, but so far its entertaining.

I went in with cotton gloves on, ready to give this thing a chance to breathe and develop. It quickly squandered that patience with mediocre, bog standard TV action/drama. Boring by any measure, even if the elephant in the room was the agonizing, prolonged absence of anything identifiably interesting from either comic, or movie.

Even in an age where less is the (sometimes demanded) standard, it was mind boggling they'd stray so far from the thing most people were going to want from the show. I don't think it helped reading interview matter where the absence of references was pitched as a good thing. The drips of sci-fi/fantasy that were there - identifiably Marvel or not - managed to be delivered in fairly uninteresting fashion.

I get the sense I'm supposed to care about characters other than Coulson, but I don't. They vary from boring, to a little on the obnoxious side. The waft of Whedon is on the unearned assumption that these are cute, endearing character dynamics, but you can also clearly tell it's a cousin, rather than the (sometimes insufferable) real thing. I gather some more reliable actors have been filtering in lately -- including some more references -- but I've long since lost interest.

The final insult might be the introduction of Deathlok. Again; where movies and TV of the 70s, 80s and 90s felt like a compromise on the path to getting 'the real deal' - their late 00s/10s progeny approach the material as if those previous decades were establishing precedent. Bland versions of colourful pop fiction are par for the course. Even by those standards, this stuff has been pretty miserable. The phrase 'not a Deathlok's arsehole' comes to mind. Even with bits of plastic stuck to the pyjamas.

They're talking up the fact it's all heading to something amazing and never before seen. I can't think of any aspect of the show that hasn't come off as second-rate, or less. If they actually have an A-game, I think they've probably left it too late.

I'm glad somebody is deriving enjoyment from this. I don't know how. Even the worst films set the bar significantly higher than this. Fingers crossed Defenders can put a much better foot forward. The Agents of SHIELD experiment has not earned confidence.

- So What the @#$% Happens to Marvel’s AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.? SPOILERS

Again: read SPOILERS. The above link is an article concerning the fallout of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and what it means for Agents of SHIELD. If you wanna talk Cap, hit that thread.

- Samuel L. Jackson Just Filmed Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Season Finale [SPOILERS]
- "Agents of SHIELD" Cast Teases Direction-Changing Episode [TEASERS]

"Jackson has popped up on the ABC program before, as have Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill and Jaimie Alexander as Sif, and he said he appears at the discretion of Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige: "If they ask Kevin Feige and Kevin says, 'We'd like for you to do it,' I do.""

This one's wrapped up in those big ol' Winter Soldier spoilers, so if you're worried about that sort of thing, you might want to run in the other direction.

For those in-the-know: You've got to think the next step is reasonably obvious, but the question is: Will a shake-up of the show's baseline direction help things -- and will it even warrant another season?

Even with some familiar names and faces ducking in late in the game, it still reeks of the most impotent, dull and boring corner of the Marvel movie universe. Putting their eggs in the final basket was a bum move, I think. Can be sure this is less spoiler; more promotion.

- Tancharoen & Whedon Detail the Fateful Post-"Winter Soldier" "Agents of SHIELD" [SPOILERS]

I feel like I've read a lot of interviews with the show runners and they never make me feel any better about the direction of the show. Beware spoilers, mofos.

- 'Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.' Reveals The Clairvoyant, And It's... [MAJOR SPOILERS]

Zzz...

- Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Exclusive: Cobie Smulders Brings Agent Hill Back for May Sweeps [SPOILERS?]

TVLine has learned exclusively that Cobie Smulders — who has played S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill on the big screen in both The Avengers and the Captain America sequel — will reprise the character in the Tuesday, April 29 episode of TV’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I'm sure this is technically a spoiler, but again, I think the predicament of the show means this stuff falls squarely under promotion. I don't think anyone will be too surprised, particularly now that How I Met Your Mother is in the can. Whether or not it's enough to jolt the show to life -- maybe some of the true believers can chime in. Still seems like a lame horse to me, particularly with the show's latest "big" reveal.

I think we all sort of guessed she'd join the show after How I Met Your Mother ended; she'd have been a fool not to- the more she inserts herself into that universe, the more likely she is to become a larger presence, the larger the paychecks.

She'd certainly be within her rights to walk into Agents of SHIELD with some serious swagger. I don't have particularly strong feelings about the character one way or the other, but as she was portrayed in the comics, Smulders feels like too much of a lightweight to do it justice. Which has always made it seem like she was cast for the sole purpose of taking over the TV show. Which - with such a low bar so far - seems entirely plausible, reasonable, and possibly necessary if it's to continue on.

- ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Hits Ratings Low With ‘Captain America 2′ Tie-In [SPOILERS]



It’s important not to put too much weight into this report, since Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn’t enjoyed the ratings numbers that Marvel would have hoped for since it first launched. But with a highly hyped episode tying directly to the current king of the box office, not to mention the promise that a major character from the film will be returning for the series’ finale (and even more before then), this slip in ratings is as worrisome as it is surprising.

The ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’ episode suffered its lowest ratings among adults 18-49 to date, with the rest of ABC’s lineup suffering a drop as well. It’s a shame too; despite the episode that set up the events of The Winter Soldier being not perfect, ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’ managed to tackle the task of cross-media synergy exceptionally well (read our review) – not to mention, a closing scene that will have even casual fans talking over the next week. But none of that matters if the people don’t tune in.

I'm surprised anybody could be surprised by this decline.

Yeah this show has been remarkably unremarkable and I stopped watching it probably around ep. 6 or 7. Not introducing a more iconic "big bad" or having characters that I actually enjoyed (beyond Coulson) just left a really hollow feeling. It got to the point where I'd "watch the show" by having the TV on in the background while I do other stuff. That's how unengaging it became.

- Hail HYDRA: Brett Dalton on Ward's "Agents of SHIELD" Team Shift

More post-Cap 2 chatterings for anybody interested.

- SHIELD Shattered in "Agents of SHIELD" Finale Poster



I caught a chunk of one of the recent episodes with Bill Paxton's character. It was at least better TV than everything I'd seen, but they're still grappling with the issue of being bland as piss.

Anybody still with the show? Any new impressions as the show wraps up?

I wonder if there's anything to suggest a second season is what it needs.

Edit: Speaking of second series...

- Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Renewed, Marvel's Agent Carter Picked Up

In breaking news, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” has been renewed by ABC for a second season to begin in Fall 2014 while “Marvel’s Agent Carter” has been picked up to series to debut on ABC.

While I fully understand and agree with the prevailing view that the show was a slow start, I think it did actually do the right thing by avoiding too much integration into the universe until Cap 2. Yes, it could have been better executed but the concept of using those early episodes to hit some B and C list villains that would never have a realistic shot at a big screen presence wasn't the worst idea.

I'm assuming the reason a lot of them were less impressive than they could have been is purely because of budget. Deathlok is lame, no doubt. But Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was an experiment that I'm guessing was feared wouldn't work which is probably why it took this long to renew. I would never have imagined a show airing alongside feature films and sometimes outright requiring the audience watch those films during the opening weekend or miss out on important plot points. Hell, people had a four day window to watch The Winter Soldier before S.H.I.E.L.D. covered the same event. That's not only unheard of, it's arguably insane from any non-hardcore fan point of view. Marvel took the tie-ins galore strategy of every major comic event and applied it to TV and film. So as much as S.H.I.E.L.D. may have struggled to gain its footing, I've been willing to grant it leniency due to the uncharted territory its in. S.H.I.E.L.D. is as much proof of concept as it is a TV show.

What's been happening now that we're passed the monster of the week formula and firmly knee deep in HYDRA gives me hope that they've become confident enough to finally kick everything into high gear. With any luck, season 1 Deathlok will be treated like an extended beta stage and we'll get the real deal come season 2. And as long as they don't chicken out, avoiding the common pitfall of making only minor characters traitors and double agents is a bold enough move that I'm willing to forgive the first half of the season.

PREACH!

I wonder if/how Agent Carter will tie in to Agents of SHIELD.

I hope that it's able to pull in some recognizable, yet not-earthshaking characters. 1946 is a hard time to put a pin in characters other than the Invaders and the Howling Commandos. Namor is owned by Universal, so he's out, the Human Torch is too unbelievable for the 1940s (and Fox might get their panties in a bunch about the name), and no one in any of the movies -thus far- has mentioned anyone else taking up the mantle of Captain America.

They could, maybe, have William Naslund and Jeffrey Mace as agents, but that's as far as I could imagine them actually being in the cinematic universe. However, I think they could get away with fully turning Falsworth into a form of Union Jack; secret agent, James bond type.

And of course, you still have Dum-Dum Dugan.

What I'm really interest in, is that if some of the speculation is right and part of Ant-Man takes place in the 1960s/70s will that be the bridge between the 40s and the presents.

Don't forget - there was a Human Torch cameo in First Avenger.

I'd really like to see at least Union Jack making occasional appearances, for sure. But this is exactly the kind of speculation that I had going in to Agents of SHIELD. Plausible, feasible characters for television that couldn't have been farther from their minds. After the cynical experience of Agents of SHIELD, I wouldn't be surprised if Agent Carter is being built to be their internal point of reference. Instead of building something interesting from the comics into it -- they'll build something else bland to tie together.

Hope that's a lazy, completely incorrect assumption on my part.