CliqueClackAgents of SHIELD needs characters I can connect with
While I won’t say it’s a bad show, ‘Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD’ is missing one key element it needs to improve upon somehow to make me love it: the characters.
I fell in love with the pilot of Agents of SHIELD. As I’ve said to others, it had the stink of Joss Whedon all over it, and I was taking it all in. Alright that sounds gross, so let’s just say it had all the elements I love about Joss’s writing style, and it glued me to the TV. I admit I’m a big-time fan of all things Whedon, but I don’t let that get to my head and simply flat-out love everything he does unconditionally. Dollhouse, for example, was not what I consider a fine example of what Joss is capable of, and I had a pretty hard time finishing that short-lived series. For me, Dollhouse had the same thing plaguing it that SHIELD now does: I’m unable to connect with its characters.
After that fantastic pilot, for me, the show took a slight downward turn in its enjoyability somewhere. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I knew it was clearly not as strong. After the third episode, things were pretty much level with the second, but not improved. I started to peel back the layers to put my finger on what was wrong. I put aside that this was a Whedon project, that this was an awesome geek-fest of Marvel shout-outs and cameos, and Chloe Bennet’s cuteness. What I was left with was the story and the characters. The stories weren’t faulty: it was the characters. With the exception of robo-or-something Coulson, I don’t give a shit about any of them. They’re not exactly unlikeable; I just don’t connect with them at all. I care about Coulson and what happened to him … or what he really is. But I don’t care about Skye and who she’s working for, what the deal is with Fitz and Simmons, or anything, really, about Grant Ward. The only other character I might have some interest in is Ming-Na Wen’s Melinda May; I admit she’s definitely bad-ass, but she’s not given enough to do beyond being tough.
One of my biggest gripes about these characters are Fitz and Simmons. I get these two are the geniuses of the SHIELD team (or, at least, among the ones we follow), but they’re overly contrived and cliché without being funny most of the time. The show sort of gives the duo a pass for bumbling on the job from time to time, but it’s a hard pill to swallow given the situations they’re in.
Ivey has, in the past, often called out the famous line by Ronald D. Moore, after his Battlestar Galactica series ended: “It’s the characters, stupid.” The saying is meant to defend a show’s faulty storyline — or overall plot, for that matter — by pointing out that the story’s been about the characters themselves all along; that the characters are what you should be paying attention to. I can’t say that holds true with SHIELD. I never really agreed that character connectivity mattered that much for the enjoyability of a show, but — at least with SHIELD — that’s the case for me.
I will say that this latest episode saw some improvement on the characters front, but only slightly. If it doesn’t find a way of bringing out something about the non-Coulson characters that make me care about them, we may be parting ways sooner that I’d ever expected.
3 Comments on “Agents of SHIELD needs characters I can connect with”
most of the complaints around the web seem to be about fitzsimmons. i think we need an episode that delves a little bit into them and makes us care. we don’t know anything about them – they just appeared on the scene with absolutely no back story. and agent ward needs to develop some sort of funny neurological disorder, to make his lip pull down on one side & give him some tics.
but i trust in joss. i loved dollhouse in spite of its many flaws. i have high expectations for this show and so far they have not been met (except in the pilot) but i’m sticking around – for one thing, if it survives into another season, joss plans to become much more involved once he’s done with the current avengers movie. there is so much room for improvement, it’s almost exciting.
I dunno, isn’t that how Firefly started as well? All the characters either knew each other from way back already, or just kind of showed up in the first couple episodes. It wasn’t until a few episodes in, when their past came to haunt them, that we started learning about each character. I’m assuming that’s the plan for SHIELD.
I agree, Keith. Damaged characters are interesting, and so far Coulson and May are the only ones who seem to have sustained real damage in their pasts (which makes sense, as they are the oldest of the main characters). The others seem like a bunch of blank slates. The writers need to make us either feel sorry for or angry at these kids in order to make them interesting – either make them seriously suffer or make them go evil; that will immediately inject life into the characters.