I hate how small scale S.H.I.E.L.D. has become!
Apr 29, 2018 14:57:54 GMT
Jemma Simmons and Black Widow like this
Post by ayanami on Apr 29, 2018 14:57:54 GMT
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the next Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
"Oh, I can't watch the news, it makes me crazy."
I know that this line was basically the writers acknowledging and at the same time handwaving the current events from Infinity War, but it also feels like a fitting comment on the current state of S.H.I.E.L.D. and AoS in general. Sure, what with this being a TV show, they've always had to deal with stuff on a smaller scale than, say, the Avengers, especially budget wise, but it never really felt like it.
Even in season one with its monster of the week formula, the team was still part of a global organisation and at least occasionally that did shine through. Then with the fall of Fury's S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson et al suddenly found themselves in the centre of the rebuilding process and the fight against Hydra that literally spanned the whole world. Sure, they were acting from the shadows and off the public's radar, but Coulson was still an important power player who had a direct line to the Avengers through Maria Hill, dealt with the U.S. military and was at odds with the heads of Hydra. Oh, and let's not forget that he was (re-)building a fricking Hellicarrier on the side!
Season three not only saw a huge budget boost for S.H.I.E.L.D. from the merger with "Real S.H.I.E.L.D." (and probably from selling the Illyad
), but also another global phenomenon with the appearance of Inhumans all over. While I did detect a certain decline in the show's writing, it still dealt not only with the Inhumans, but also with a huge new government player in the ATCU (heck, even the President made an appearance), and it gave us enemies like Hive and Gideon Malick, who was after all a former World Security Council member!
I think the playing field really changed with season 4. Sure, S.H.I.E.L.D. was back on a path to legitimacy under Mace's leadership, but to me it still felt as if its world had gotten a lot smaller. As cool as Ghostrider was, on the show he was hardly more than a guy in a car roaming the streets of L.A., settling a grudge. As soon as he got a glimpse into what lies beyond our world, he was gone, mostly due to budget constraints. I suppose that was ultimately the reason why most of season four (and now five) was so… contained. Because as much fun as much of it was, it wasn’t nearly as global as the show used to be. We got the streets of L.A. instead of aliens in Portugal, the Watchdogs instead of Hydra and LMDs on the team instead of the worldwide collapse of S.H.I.E.L.D. And then, of course, there was the Framework, which, while a very cool story line, was also an entirely fictional computer simulation that didn't have anything to do with the real outside world at all.
*sigh* No wonder the movies aren't really forced to acknowledge the show, if it progresses into non-relevance…
Well, of course now there's still hope that season five will at least in the end break this cycle, after the team has been absent from Earth for half the season - what with the destruction of the entire planet on the horizon. I guess one could argue, though, that it's pretty symptomatic of the show's decline that the huge alien spaceship over the U.S. appears just in that moment as all hell breaks loose in Infinity War.
Not that it matters to the current incarnation of S.H.I.E.L.D. anyway. After all, our future Director prefers not to watch the news…
"Oh, I can't watch the news, it makes me crazy."
I know that this line was basically the writers acknowledging and at the same time handwaving the current events from Infinity War, but it also feels like a fitting comment on the current state of S.H.I.E.L.D. and AoS in general. Sure, what with this being a TV show, they've always had to deal with stuff on a smaller scale than, say, the Avengers, especially budget wise, but it never really felt like it.
Even in season one with its monster of the week formula, the team was still part of a global organisation and at least occasionally that did shine through. Then with the fall of Fury's S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson et al suddenly found themselves in the centre of the rebuilding process and the fight against Hydra that literally spanned the whole world. Sure, they were acting from the shadows and off the public's radar, but Coulson was still an important power player who had a direct line to the Avengers through Maria Hill, dealt with the U.S. military and was at odds with the heads of Hydra. Oh, and let's not forget that he was (re-)building a fricking Hellicarrier on the side!
Season three not only saw a huge budget boost for S.H.I.E.L.D. from the merger with "Real S.H.I.E.L.D." (and probably from selling the Illyad
), but also another global phenomenon with the appearance of Inhumans all over. While I did detect a certain decline in the show's writing, it still dealt not only with the Inhumans, but also with a huge new government player in the ATCU (heck, even the President made an appearance), and it gave us enemies like Hive and Gideon Malick, who was after all a former World Security Council member! I think the playing field really changed with season 4. Sure, S.H.I.E.L.D. was back on a path to legitimacy under Mace's leadership, but to me it still felt as if its world had gotten a lot smaller. As cool as Ghostrider was, on the show he was hardly more than a guy in a car roaming the streets of L.A., settling a grudge. As soon as he got a glimpse into what lies beyond our world, he was gone, mostly due to budget constraints. I suppose that was ultimately the reason why most of season four (and now five) was so… contained. Because as much fun as much of it was, it wasn’t nearly as global as the show used to be. We got the streets of L.A. instead of aliens in Portugal, the Watchdogs instead of Hydra and LMDs on the team instead of the worldwide collapse of S.H.I.E.L.D. And then, of course, there was the Framework, which, while a very cool story line, was also an entirely fictional computer simulation that didn't have anything to do with the real outside world at all.
*sigh* No wonder the movies aren't really forced to acknowledge the show, if it progresses into non-relevance…
Well, of course now there's still hope that season five will at least in the end break this cycle, after the team has been absent from Earth for half the season - what with the destruction of the entire planet on the horizon. I guess one could argue, though, that it's pretty symptomatic of the show's decline that the huge alien spaceship over the U.S. appears just in that moment as all hell breaks loose in Infinity War.
Not that it matters to the current incarnation of S.H.I.E.L.D. anyway. After all, our future Director prefers not to watch the news…
Besides, Daisy is not acting like the leader of SHIELD, she is acting like the over-protective daughter of Phil's.
), do you really think it would be sans Coulson? It would be like the Star Trek reboot killing off Kirk. (Make that permanently killing off Kirk.) If Coulson's around, he's going to lead. Because that's what he does. 