Trust Issues: The Gifted Review

Marvel’s Inhumans has been on my list to review for a while now but honestly cannot bring myself to sit through the first episode. Everything I’ve seen from this series has looked terrible, from the effects and production to acting and premise. Best case scenario Iwan Rheon is amazing and makes the show worth watching but I highly doubt even stellar performances from the actors can save this show.

I think in part I’ve been put off by the fickle development of Marvel’s Inhumans. Initially it was intended to be a phase three film in the MCU, then that was scrapped and after a while in limbo there was talk of a television show. Instead of a tv show proper, the Inhumans group was integrated into Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Since Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had improved since its initial season and the Inhumans story seemed to help connect the show to the wider MCU , there seemed to be a renewed interest of Inhumans at Marvel. But what they’ve put together just looks so cheap and I can’t help but feel that if there had been a more focused and dedicated development I’d be more interested. If anyone has watched the series and thinks it’s better than it looks, let me know and maybe I can be convinced to give it a chance.

Instead I have watched The Gifted, another superhero television drama that premiered this September. The Gifted isn’t part of the MCU because it concerns the X-Men expanded universe which is owned by Fox rather than Marvel Entertainment. It also doesn’t concern the X-Men team itself, being set some interterminal time after the X-Men have all but disappeared. The government are actively tracking and arresting mutants. One member of the government involved in prosecuting said mutants is Stephen Moyer’s character, Reed Strucker.

What do you mean Wolverine isn’t coming?

One night, at a high school dance, during an instance of bulling, Reed’s son, Andy, played by Percy Hydes, lashes out and causes earth tremors and other destruction. The school hall begins to collapse and Andy only makes it out thanks to the mutant powers of his sister, Lauren, played by Natalie Alyn Lind. In order to protect his family from the government he works for, Reed makes contact with an underground mutant community that helps sneak mutants across the border to sanctuary, similar to the real life underground railroad that helped slaves in the 1800s.

My main concern going into The Gifted was that the focus would be on the parents and not the children, especially as Stephen Moyer is listed as a lead character. And it turns out to be a justified concern, although not perhaps as bad as it could have been. Reed Strucker is the one who interacts with mutants and makes deals with them, and the show is obviously playing on the conflict of this government guy now having to work against the laws he once upheld. But it’s a predictable conflict and there are much more interesting plots at play instead.

For instance, I think it would have been more interesting to delve into the family dynamic. We do see a couple of scenes of Lauren and Andy bonding over their mutant abilities, but it is also revealed that Lauren has known about her powers for three years and has kept secret about them because of her father and his work. This certainly suggests a level of distrust but yet after the incident she goes straight home and just gives herself up to her parents. The potentially more interesting conflict here would have been for the kids to seek out the underground on their own because of the distrust of their parents and then for their father to have to hunt them down like he normally would but with the intention of saving them.

Even the underground community itself and its inner workings are more interesting than the mundane struggle of the father being caught between duty to family and of that to country. Even a series focusing on an underground group smuggling mutant refugees over the border would be entertaining in and of itself. Instead, the show feels the needs to invest the underground group in helping the kids even more by having one of their own captured and needing Reed’s help to free her.

Andy Strucker goes full-Carrie

This is not to say that The Gifted is over complicating itself. The point is only that by focusing on the father the show has also chosen to focus on what is arguably the least interesting plot point. It also says something about the stakes of the series. It implies that a powerful, high-tech government seeking to erase an entire species or race isn’t serious enough. It suggests that audiences will need a personal reason to be able to relate to the danger that the characters face when really the idea of a government singling out a particular group of peoples for removal is more relatable now than it ever has been in recent times.

In truth, X-Men greatest strength has always been the social and political themes and if The Gifted can tap into even a fraction of those it will be able to capture the imaginations of its viewers, no problem. As it is, it’s a decent show that’s got some good actors attached and some real storyline potential.

But what were your thoughts on The Gifted? Like, dislike, love or hate? Feel free to let me know. You can contact me via the comments below or through any of the various social media profiles to the right. You can also keep up to date with new editorials and reviews by hitting the follow button or check out old posts in the archives. And finally, if you’d rather read some fiction, you can my second novel is available over on Swoonreads.com.

Carter

As I presumed, Agent Carter was miles more entertaining than Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. That comment is intended more as praise for Agent Carter than a criticism of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. To be honest, I can’t criticise Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. because I haven’t watched it since the first season ended. I found that first season so sanguine and unfocused. It was too self referential and too Whedonesque; they had this modern concept and premise and for some reason they decided to go old school with it. It’s my understanding that some of those problems have been rectified with the second season but the first season failed to engage with me so much that I have little interest in watching the second. That’s one area where I feel that Agent Carter differed. It engaged with the viewer.

One could argue that Agent Carter has it’s moments of self reference, such as Howard Stark making an appearance and undergoing trial with the same glibness that his son would in Iron Man 2. Or Stark having a butler whose name is actually Jarvis. Or Peggy Carter taking advice from Anton Vanko on how to dispose of an explosive device. But these are all smaller ties to the larger picture and there is the benefit that we actually get to see Jarvis and Vanko. They aren’t just names bandied around for credibility. If you’ve kept up with the movies, those will more similar to revelations than shout outs, such as ‘ah, that’s where Tony Stark got the name Jarvis from’.

The answer to what Eli did after Nucky died.

It helps that Agent Carter feels like its filling in a significant, untold story in the Marvel universe. The post-Captain America world and how S.H.I.E.L.D. came to be is a tale that we’d heard snippets of but haven’t heard all the details. Of course, it’s not going to really affect anything because it’s the events here can’t influence Thor: Ragnarok. But Agent Carter is informed by the events of the future films, or in a way informs them. Events that happened in the films are shown to have roots back here in the pre-S.H.I.E.L.D. and its is exciting to see the beginnings of the feuds and fights that shaped the films.

The Spy genre is also largely untouched by Marvel, which allows Agent Carter to stand out from the many other Marvel projects. In the same way that Captain America as a political thriller contrasts to the high fantasy of Thor, Agent Carter can utilise spy tropes and it can feel fresh because we haven’t seen it done in the Marvel universe yet. And it is rather fun to watch Peggy make use of gadgets such as lipstick that put the recipient to sleep. Sure it’s a little silly but it is amusing too, but because of the genre and the time period. That kind of gadget is exactly the kind of thing they would have thought of in the 40s and 50s, had they got the technology. That and the long distance typewriter that types out replies with the keys moving along. I have no idea how that works but it’s cool. It reminds me of the Fallout Video Game series, a post apocalyptic series where technology has marched on but science and perceptions are stuck in the 1950’s way of life. Agent Carter manages to be just as quirky and fun.

Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter is also very likable. I have the feeling that a lot of fans will like her because she’s a badass woman with sass and heels. Good reasons to like her, certainly. Fighting on top of a moving milk truck is definitely cool. But I don’t like Peggy Carter because she’s a strong female character, I like her because she’s a strong character period. In the aforementioned milk truck fight she sustains a wound to her leg and Jarvis sews it up for her later. On the one hand this does askew typical gender roles but more than that it simply shows that although she is tough, she’s not invincible. In another scene, she tries to retrieve something from an evidence box and stumbles upon a picture of Steve Rogers. The memory brings tears to her eyes. In the same episode, Peggy is shown to be strong and vulnerable thus creating the picture of a well rounded character, regardless of gender.

Hiding in plain sight.

The contrast between the show and in-show radio dramas hasn’t escaped my notice either. The drama annoys Peggy Carter,  though whether that’s because the woman is a damsel in distress or because it’s a constant reminder of Captain America is hard to say. On the one hand the drama paints a contrast between Peggy and the female in the drama who needs a man to save her. Alternatively though, one could say that the drama is made up of flat characters. Captain America shows up and fights Nazi’s and that’s the extent of his involvement. The Nazi’s are evil and do evil things because they’re evil and like doing evil things. The contrast here isn’t strictly between the women. Unlike the radio drama, the characters in Agent Carter are deep and developed. No one ever needs rescued in the show but Peggy benefits from the independent intervention of Jarvis. It’s nice juxtaposition that shows that well written characters are dynamic and have changing roles.

Much like Gotham, Agent Carter succeeds where Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. faltered because it’s plot isn’t dictated by some wider world. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe and sharing that world allows for a more organic build between movies. But for a TV series its soul crushingly limiting. It can’t go too big or the real heroes would intervene and it can’t go too small or viewers would wonder why they even bother. Agent Carter has carved out a niche in that shared world but off to one side where it can do its own thing without being too imposed upon by the big daddy shared universe. If you like The Americans and early James Bond films then give this a shot.

Brooding

Earlier this week, Fox TV Show Gotham reached its mid season conclusion. The show, which details the events of Detective James Gordon in the crooked police force prior to the arrival of Batman, will return in January but, thus far, prospects are looking good. I was being cautious in my optimism when I previewed the show back in September, given that Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. wasted what I felt was vast potential. Of course, it still got a second season and it’s not really close to getting cancelled so it wasn’t that bad.

In regards to the numbers, Gotham is beating Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the ratings by virtue of about two million viewers. That’s actually a bit misleading though. When compared to Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. first season, Agent’s tenth episode actually did better than Gotham, though not by much. It might be worth noting though that Agent’s fell further, having drew over twelve million for the pilot before dropping to about six million for the mid season. Gotham started lower, at eight million but quickly leveled out to somewhere in the region of six million.

What that suggests is that Gotham has managed to hold on to most of it’s initial viewers. Two thirds of the viewers who tuned into the pilot are still hanging around to see the adventures of Benjamin McKenzie as Detective James Gordon. But it’s also useful in predicting the future by suggesting that by this time next year when Gotham is in its second season, it may have shed a further third. But that doesn’t necessarily matter. If Gotham goes to Netflix in the interim between seasons, it could pick up a strong online viewership and following that could keep it afloat despite fletching ratings, or could even help to improve ratings. Netflix was a big reason for Breaking Bad’s surge in popularity.

Anger is a common emotion of a man with a city fighting against him.

Ratings are not a reason to watch a show, however. Gotham’s premise is strong and it allows for some good stories. The story of Detective James Gordon coming up the ranks and cleaning up the police force in the years prior to Batman draws from the comic book arc ‘Batman: Year One’, written by Frank Millar, but with one notable change. No Batman. So often in Batman films and programmes and comics, we are told that Gotham is corrupt and needs Batman. Gotham presents that city and we begin to see how much it needs Batman’s intervention as Gordon struggles to enforce justice, constantly taking one step forward and falling two steps back.

Part of the problem I had with Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was that it never truly detached itself from the wider universe. The team would spend episodes going on cool sounding missions but those missions always had something to do with Extremis or they would talk about Thor and Captain America, basically reminding the audience of the more exciting things going on that this team isn’t a part of. It was like someone wrote a fanfiction where they and their friends were friends with the Marvel superheroes but the superheroes never show up. It gets boring when you’re watching a show for it’s special guest appearances.

As I said in my preview, Gotham avoids that issue by virtue of just being itself. Gotham can actually give us Batman, albeit the innocent boy version but that’s an interesting story in of itself. Viewers know the story of Bruce Wayne training to become Batman, but Gotham explores how seeing his parents murdered drives the boy to become a crime fighter. How did he become the world’s greatest detective? Gotham shows him poring over police files and analysing crime scenes. When did he begin to develop his physical strength and ability? Gotham reveals that Bruce was bullied and asks Alfred to teach him to fight. It’s very compelling to see Bruce Wayne growing into Batman.

This might be the most amicable that we’ve ever seen Batman and Catwoman.

The actors themselves are great, with David Mazouz, Sean Pertwee and Robin Lord Taylor as the standouts among the cast. Mazouz plays Bruce with surprising deftness considering his age and Pertwee manages to strike a well maintained balance of mentor, authority figure and servant which draws audiences into scenes without stealing the spotlight. Taylor too is truly creepy as Oswald Cobblepot, already known as The Penguin. Outside of those three I have seen praise for Jada Pinkett Smith and criticism of Benjamin McKenzie. My feelings are to the contrary. Personally, I believe McKenzie brings an earnestness to the role that makes him genuine and sympathetic. Furthermore, the show hasn’t given him much range to display other than gritted determinism and frustration. Pinkett Smith, on the other hand, often comes across as over the top.

That might be a problem with the tone of the show rather than the fault of Pinkett Smith’s acting. There is an issue in that at times the writers want Gotham to be gritty and realistic, like the recent Christopher Nolan trilogy, but then it veers towards Adam West territory by introducing villains such as ‘Balloonman’ who kills his victims by strapping them to weather balloons. It’s true that Batman has his fair share of silly villains and comical stories but they generally vary from writer to writer, not from scene to scene.

So far Gotham has been enjoyable to watch. There’s an obvious shelf life on the story, given that at some point Bruce Wayne has to disappear for training. If he waits too long, characters such as Harvey Dent and Edward Nygma, who are already several years older than the boy, will be old men by the time he takes up the mantle of Caped Crusader. Until then, I’m just going to enjoy the journey and look forward to the change of scenery as Gordon takes up a security position in the newly opened Arkham Asylum.

Tenth

This year, 2014, marks the tenth anniversary of ABC’s science fiction series, Lost. The event celebrating the event was back in March, although the premiere episode actually aired on September 22nd. Even though the show only ended four years ago, it still feels strange to think that ten years have passed since that initial showing. I can’t think of a single show since that has come close to matching the build up and hype of Lost. Not even Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or the more recent Gotham have come close. From the get-go, Lost was enigmatic and drew in viewers because no one knew what to expect.

Coming from me, this maybe doesn’t mean a lot. I’ve made my love of Lost quite clear. But while I will admit to some bias, generally I’m also with the majority in that I thought the afterlife ending was a lame finish. Unlike some viewers, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it ruined the whole show but it was disappointing. The audience expected more from the minds of Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, Maybe we wanted too much from the two main writers and were simply setting ourselves up for disappointment. We’ll never know if it could have been done better…

Or maybe we will. In an interview back in April, Cuse stated

“I think it’s likely that at some point, ABC will want to reboot Lost because it’s a valuable franchise, and there will be some young, bright writer or writers who will come up with a great idea that the network responds to, and that’ll be great.”

So it is entirely possible that ABC will do something with the rights to Lost and expand the franchise with a different set of writers. Of course, this isn’t even news. First off, this was about seven months ago and secondly, Cuse is not privy to the ABC boardroom meetings. Cuse’s words simply highlight the possibility not a certainty that any sort of reboot or remake or continuation is in the works. ABC might never try do anything more with Lost, happy to let it remain as a creatively exciting period of television history.

Nowadays you can find Cuse running Bates Motel and The Strain while Lindelof is behind The Leftovers.

What makes this worth talking about isn’t the ‘what if’ potential. It is entertaining to speculate how Lost might flourish under the direction of an established industry pro, such as Darren Arkonfosky or Joss Whedon. It would be equally interesting to compare the 2004 show to modern series that employ similar themes and tropes, such as The CW’s The 100 or the 2013 adaptation of the Stephen King book of the same name, Under the Dome. What makes this worth talking about is that future generations won’t even care.

The thought struck me when I thought about modern remakes and new visions of old franchises. Consider Dallas, Beverly Hills 90210 and Hawaii Five-O which have all seen revivals in recent years. Those shows were incredibly popular in their generation, with Dallas especially being consider one of the most watched shows of the Eighties. The revived serieses of those shows all have their own followings and fans but it would difficult to argue that they are as popular as the originals. Fans of the originals probably don’t even watch the revived versions, seeing them too dissimilar. It’s not that Dallas, 90210 and Hawaii Five-0 aren’t good shows, they just don’t appeal to the generation that grew up with the originals.

That’s what really got me thinking. If ABC waits 20 or 30 years to remake or revive Lost,  my children will watch that show having no familiarity with the original. And that Lost will appeal to that generation so much that it will seem alien to me, a viewer of the original that grew up watching to know what was in the hatch and who Jacob was. I don’t begrudge that. I understand that ABC have to market their shows to the current generation and a modern demographic, whatever that might be in the 2020’s and 2030’s. But it is odd to imagine that a new vision of Lost will be so far removed from anything that I know or can even expect.

Is this what a Lost reboot might look like?

This isn’t me panning the reboot before it even has a chance. Revived shows have all the potential in the world to become great in their own right. Take Doctor Who for example. Despite it’s flaws and people’s complaints, Doctor Who continues to consistently draw ratings and within the past few years has expanded and created a strong foothold in America. Another example is Battlestar Galactica. While the original 1978 show only ran for one season due to expense, lawsuits and competing network schedules, the remade series ran for five seasons and spawned two spin offs. With the right people behind it, any kind of recreation of Lost has every right to do well.

At the time I was intrigued by the possibility of expanding Lost into a franchise. Why wouldn’t I be? Lost and Breaking Bad were two of the biggest shows of the 2000’s that challenged television norms and really just excelled from a creative standpoint. There were issues with both shows because I don’t think any television programme is perfect, certainly not for everyone, but for what they were, they were amazing. And the prospect of that continuing was just as enticing.

Having thought about it though, I’m not excited by a remake as much anymore. Maybe ABC will surprise viewers with a remake in the next five years and that might be cool but if a remake does happen I think it will be further down the line. And it won’t be for me, it’ll be for the new generation of television audiences and what appeals to them as a culture won’t be what appealed to us. Again, this is pure speculation. Perhaps those six years are all we get of Lost. And I’m content with that.

Gotham

Ah, yes, Gotham. How could I forget DC Comics and Warner Brothers big television adaptation of Commissioner James Gordon’s time in Gotham city prior to Batman’s arrival? It might be because I’m well and truly burnt out out from the squandering of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. potential last season. And I’ll be the first to admit that I was wrong in hyping up the show. But I still maintain that it could have been better and that’s really not a feeling I want to have again with Gotham.

That’s not to say that I’m not excited for Gotham because I am. I would label myself as quietly optimistic. Part of that optimism comes from the fact that the show will air on Fox. As I explained in my pre-Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. blog post, Disney owns the ABC network as Warner Bros. owns The CW. It makes sense that when Disney have a big TV project based off of a film series they would air it on ABC, which is one of the big four American networks along with NBC, CBS and Fox. The CW, where Warner Bros. airs The Flash and Arrow, doesn’t pull in the same options. It shows an incredible amount of faith in the product to go the hard way and present Gotham to another network, rather than taking the easy route and airing it on The CW.

Of course, Warner Bros. are getting increased exposure in the deal. Not that they probably need to promote Gotham much. Batman has become such a badass icon to millions of internet users that they’d probably flock to a television adaptation. But creator Bruno Heller should be commended for not relying on the name value alone. In fact, it seems that Batman will probably not feature in the show constantly but more as a recurring character because the caped crusader is still a child at this point. It is an interesting concept to see Bruce Wayne become the Dark Knight through the eyes of James Gordon. Cop shows and nerd culture are the two big staples of modern television and Gotham manages to draw on both.

The many faces of Gotham’s heroes and villains.

The question then is how does Gotham avoid becoming like Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Actually, that’s pretty easy because Gotham has already evaded Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s biggest flaw: Joss Whedon. For the record, I like Joss Whedon. Buffy the Vampire Slayer defined a generation and formed a lot of the tropes that modern television series’ abuse. Angel  was great too because for as much as it borrowed from Buffy it also carved its own path. That those were two shows that weaved seamlessly through each other. But none of Whedon’s other projects like Dollhouse or Firefly have come close to replicating that success and that’s really part of the problem; it feels like Whedon is trying to replicate Buffy.

So Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s greatest burden was never going to be Gotham’s problem anyway. And not having a pre-existing legacy to live up to will allow Gotham to forge its own path. Heller’s previous works include co-creating Rome and his own solo creation, The Mentalist. His work on those shows reflects clear experience with unorthodox police procedural shows and programs with more highly sexualised and violent content. What really works in his favour though is that Heller is not a household name in the same way that Whedon is. Gotham could quite possibly put him on the map but few people are likely to compare Gotham to The Mentalist or Rome whereas everyone was comparing Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with Buffy the Vampire Slayer before the first episode was over.

It is unfair to nail all of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s faults and failures on to Joss Whedon and it is equally unjust to analyse Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. based entirely on its similarities to Buffy. That said, however, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t stand well on its own merits either. The show forces it does our throat that Chloe Bennet’s computer hacker Skye is special when she was really just annoying and stealing screentime from far more interesting and charming characters. Trying to intertwine the series with the cinematic universe utterly failed too. Rather than feeling rooted and connected to a wider world it felt segregated. And when it did tie into the films it was arbitrary and irrelevant, like ‘oh, look, we’re standing where Thor was standing.’ The response was a resounding meh.

Hopefully Gordon gives Bruce better advice than Clark received from Pa Kent.

Again, these are problems that Gotham should avoid by just being Gotham. As far as we know, this series won’t tie into the upcoming Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice film, although who knows, maybe David Mazouz could grow up to be Ben Affleck. That could happen and it still wouldn’t affect the show’s ability to just be itself. And we know for a fact that James Gordon isn’t special so he won’t get the Skye treatment. He’ll rise to Commissioner but for Batman’s presence to be necessary in Gotham City, crime and corruption must continue to run rampant.

What might put people off Gotham is possibly the casting of Ben McKenzie in the lead role. Most people will remember McKenzie as troubled teen Ryan Atwood in The O.C. That probably isn’t the first image that comes to mind when you imagine Commissioner Gordon. However, he’s also had roles as a cop in NBC/TNT’s Southland and voiced Batman and Bruce Wayne in the animated film, Batman: Year One. It’s safe to say then that he has both experience and a familiarity with the source material.

At the end of the day though, it’ll come down to the episode to episode content and whether the writing and acting can draw the viewer into these character’s lives. This has all the makings of a great television show but I’ve said that before and been wrong. Still, it is hard not to be excited for this series and when September 22nd rolls around I will definitely be watching.

Line-Up

August is drawing to a close with September being literally only a day away so it’s just about time to set our attention on the 2014 fall television line-up. I did this last year as well, looking at shows such as Chicago P.D., Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Intelligence. Some I liked, some I didn’t like and some I thought would be hits and some I thought wouldn’t last. Read that article and decide for yourself how on target I was with my assessments but I think I was on the button for most of my analysis.

For some, like Betrayal, I was disappointed that my predictions came to pass, but that is just the nature of television. Heck, Us and Them didn’t even make it on air. On paper, there might be obvious flaws but in the watching the show takes on endearing qualities. But they don’t fix the faults, so ultimately the show runs it course. No doubt some of the shows on this list will meet that same fate.  Unfortunately, there is also not enough space here to cover all of the shows available, much like how The 100 was absent from last years list. If I miss any amazing shows, please let me know. I’m always on the look out for good television shows to watch.

Anyway, that’s enough of an introduction. Here’s what is coming up this fall:

A to Z

The premise sounds cringe worthy. An online dating company details the A to Z’s of romance. Sounds like a show with a gimmick which will quickly wear thin and awkwardly titled episodes as they try to shove the letters Q and Z in an arbitrary attempt at a full check-list.  What might save it is the cast, which includes Ben Feldman, incase you’re dying to see him again since he was carted off to the loony bin in Mad Men, and Cristin Milioti, the mother from How Your Mother Played Second Fiddle to Robin (regionally known as How I Met Your Mother). It’s also narrated by Katey Sagal. Might be worth a look for the cast but it probably won’t be sticking around.

Who wore it better, Amy Pond or Nebula?

Selfie

The great thing about Selfie, aside from giving Karen Gillan a job between Doctor Who  and Guardians of the Galaxy, is that the first episode was already released on twitter. Audiences can already watch and make up their minds about the show before the season starts. Bold move. For me, it got a few laughs here and there but it’s not hilarious and I think the character would fall flat without Gillan behind the role, really throwing herself into the portrayal. It’s also good to see John Cho as well, but it already feels like know where this show is headed. Maybe it’ll prove me wrong and for the meantime, I’ll probably keep watching but I don’t see it being another breakout hit like Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Black-ish

I like Anthony Anderson but he has not had a lot of luck with television since leaving Law & Order in 2010. Guys With Kids was charming but it didn’t last so I’m hoping, for Anthony’s sake, that this one sticks. With Lawrence Fishburne in a recurring role, it’s got that little bit of extra star power to bring in viewers but if it wants those viewers to stick around for more than one episode it’s got to be funny. Dealing with cultural identities within a modern black family has real potential to be poiyant as well as humorous. Whether it matches that potential remains to be seen.

Constantine

If you’re looking for something as dark and morally ambiguous as the comic book, you’d probably be best served to look elsewhere. This John Constantine, played by Matt Ryan, is much more likely to be a rogue with a heart of gold, probably having the abilities of a con-man but eventually using them for good. I don’t really trust David S. Goyer to write anything so complex given his scripts for Batman and Superman in the past. Daniel Cerone, having served as showrunner for Dexter, might be able to bring Constantine to life on the small screen but this is airing on NBC not Showtime. Adjust your expectations appropriately.

Gracepoint trades Sophie Chapman for Skyler White.

Gracepoint

Incase you didn’t know, this is the American remake of the British show, Broadchurch. That fact doesn’t make it any better or worse, and it doesn’t even mean that British fans will know what to expect because American remakes have a habit of changing things. What will set this apart from crappy remakes is that it’s written by Chris Chibnall who also wrote the original Broadchurch. If that’s not enough enough for you, the cast includes recent Emmy winner, Anna Gunn, and another import from the original series, David Tennant.

Marry Me

When I read the premise for this show I thought it was about the difficulties of an engaged couple, which sounded a little too simplistic and broad. After some research, it turns out that the show is about a couple trying to get engaged following some botched proposals. This feels like Betrayed or Mixology from last season. There’s an inevitable outcome to the show, the main couple are going to get married, and there’s really only so long that they hold out on that. If it’s your cup of tea, great, but beware the expiry date.

How to Get Away With Murder

In what appears to be the strangest idea for a television show, a law professor teaches her students how to get away with murder and then someone on campus is killed. So long as each episode isn’t punctuated with a lesson by their professor then this could be a gripping thriller. I’m already intrigued because I don’t know where they’re going with the premise but there is no point to a good hook if the writing that follows isn’t as equally strong.

Agent Carter could be the show to restore our faith in Marvel TV shows.

Agent Carter

This won’t air until the midseason, along with shows such as IZombie and Empire but it is worth mentioning because last year ABC had Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and that turned out to be far less entertaining than many, myself included, hoped. So why should we care about Peggy Carter? Well, firstly I think not having a direct tie to the main cinematic universe will actually allow the series to grow and flourish in its own way. Furthermore, although not directly involved, the creation of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the past will create a nice parallel to the rebuilding of S.H.I.E.L.D. as it happens in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. this season.

Alright, so I know I missed some other shows that are coming out this season such as The Flash, Stalker, Madam Secretary, Red Band Society, Scorpion, The Mysteries of Laura and Katherine Heigl’s return to television in State of Affairs. The above is far from a comprehensive list and mostly contains shows that stuck out to me as weird, wonderful or just plain bad. Still, I feel like I’m forgetting something again. I remembered Agent Carter. What could it be?

Shielded

Don’t judge a book by its cover. Or so the idiom goes. Yet, it happens all the time. Films are bought based on pitches, books are published based on a two or three paragraph query and a television shows are green lit based on the quality of pilots. The idiom is still true though because most novels and films rarely go from first to final drafts without any editing, however, the same doesn’t really apply to television shows. Of course, TV pilots go through changes too, most notably ABC’s LOST replaced Jack Shephard actor Michael Keaton with Matthew Fox when they decided not to kill him in the first episode.

But pilots are not a good indicator of the quality of the entire series. For a book or movie, the entire product is assessed when a story is edited. That isn’t to say that studios have no control over a show following the first episode but the motivations and intentions are very different. A pilot is originally intended on getting people onboard and interested with where a story can go. If the first episode doesn’t capture the viewer’s attention or whet their appetite for more then the writers and directors are already fighting an uphill battle. They may not abandon the series completely but it will require more work to hold on to their audience.

One month ago, nearly, I posted a blog suggesting that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had the potential to be one of the biggest new programmes out this year. The first episode was good. Not great but it also wasn’t bad. The tone was jovial and fun, the story was logical enough and easy to follow whilst investing the viewer in the plight of the characters. Speaking of, the characters were set up with each taking a role and being defined by it for each of remembering. Brett Dalton was the atypical man’s man, calling himself a lone wolf and being very good at killing things. Of course, Whedon then proceeded to humiliate him and bring him down a peg or two. Ming-Na Wen plays Melinda May, a tough Asian woman who has a reputation for being the best fighter around but doesn’t want to be a field agent anymore. Ian De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstride come as a two for one deal as the scientific duo Fitz and Simmons and rounding out the team is former rival Skye, a hacker played by Chloe Bennet.

 

The agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. go all Indiana Jones for episode 2.

The pilot didn’t elaborate too much in regards to the characters or the greater scheme of things but no one expected it to do so. Setting the pieces up for the game was the point of the exercise and it opened up questions to be explored in later episodes such as why Melinda May no longer wants to be a field agent or why Fitz and Simmons are so close. There were plenty of character points that required development that could have gotten the viewers really invested in these character’s histories and personalities. Unfortunately, the second episode failed to really capitalise on any of that.

The team appeared to work much better together in the first week when Skye wasn’t a part of the group. Fitz and Simmons developed a weapon and Dalton’s Grant Ward fired it, suppressing the enemy threat. May, understandably stayed out of the combat. This week though, Ward didn’t do much at all. He blamed his inability on having to look out for the others but that doesn’t make much sense. He is supposed to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. trained black ops agent and a weapons specialist. Are we really supposed to believe that he has never had to extract a civilian from enemy territory? His main role in this episode appeared to be learning a lesson about teamwork and parroting Skye’s words about assimilating the ideas of the many. Did they just forget about all the teamwork that they did last week?

I get the point. Manly men are silly but it undermines the talents of the character if he isn’t given anything to do except learn lessons about how he needs other people. It also undermines your characters if they have the quirk of not wanting to work in the field despite being the combat specialist and yet fight anyway. It isn’t like I thought she should have ran away screaming but it would have been more in line with the characterisation to have her actively avoid countering or returning fire. The Fitz and Simmon’s friendship went unexplained as well. Instead, all we got was a generic ‘dysfunctional team learns to work together’ plot.

 

Agent Coulson almost dies to bring the team together…again.

Not all the answers will be given in the second episode but give the writers should have given the audience something. There is only so long that a series can rely on surprise guest appearances, snappy one liners and ‘who are they really working for’ twists. That kind of revelation isn’t character development. It shines a new light on the motivations of the character in question but character development would be more like if a good character came to understand the enemy’s mentality and then became a double agent. Suggesting that one character may already be a double agent is not.

Whedon knows character development. Look at Willow. It took two or three seasons for her to fully come out of her shell and in becoming more confident she also made a lot of mistakes. I want to become as invested in these character as I was in Willow’s evolution but that won’t happen if the characters aren’t given time to grow. Though it’s still early days for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and it’s probably harsh to compare it to Buffy the Vampire Slayer already, but there is so much potential for this show and at the moment it is being wasted on quirky characters and generic stories.

At 8 million viewers, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is still doing extremely well for a new series and there is always a drop between the pilot and the following episodes. The show is still very likable and inoffensive but I’m simply concerned about the direction it’s going. It might live up to its potential or go the way of other Whedon shows, ostracising the mainstream and garnering only a cult following.

Hype

Oh, yeah, how could I forget about potentially the biggest television show of the twenty-first century? I am, of course, talking about Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. There are plenty of new and interesting programmes being shown on the big networks this year but none of them are bigger or more engaging than Marvel’s foray into television. Am I hyping it too much? Possibly. However, this show isn’t like other shows and it hasn’t been built up in the same way.

With most shows, an idea is shopped around all the different networks and if one picks it up, a pilot is made. If the pilot is any good, the series is green lit and a series is produced. That’s a very general summary of how a programme goes from idea to reality. It’s a lot tougher than it sounds. But Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was born in a different way. Firstly, it didn’t have to be shopped around the networks. Marvel Television is a division of Marvel Entertainment, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company to which the Disney-ABC Television group is also a subsidiary and the ABC Television network is a division of that. In other words, it is all owned by Walt Disney, so if Marvel were ever to have a live action television show, it would always be on ABC. This is not unlike how Warner Bros. television shows such as Smallville and Arrow usually end up on The CW.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. also differs from the usual structure because it was created through the films. Sometimes television shows get so popular and so expansive that spin-offs are created. The Originals, a new television show coming to The CW this fall, is a spin-off from The Vampire Diaries, which centres on the Mikaelson siblings. ABC also have Once Upon a Time in Wonderland a spin-off from the main series, Once Upon a Time, which unsurprisingly focuses on Lewis Carroll’s fairy tale, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. And this isn’t a new concept. Angel was a spin-off from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as was Private Practice from Grey’s Anatomy and Laverne and Shirley was a spin-off from Happy Days.

 

Back from the dead and already recruiting. You’d think he’d take a sick day.

Unlike all of those though, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t get started in television. Instead it was born through the Marvel Cinematic Universe. S.H.I.E.L.D. has always been a part of the comics, sometimes a force of good and sometimes an annoying hindrance to the heroes. It is only natural that they would appear in the films too, by bringing the heroes together but also working their own contingencies. They show up most prominently in Thor and The Avengers, though they make an appearance in Captain America and the Iron Man films and will appear in the Captain America sequel The Winter Soldier. That means that pretty much anyone who has seen a Marvel film in the last five years will know who and what S.H.I.E.L.D., even if it is just as Samuel L. Jackson in an eye patch.

A television show such as The Vampire Diaries or Grey’s Anatomy relies on its current viewer base to be involved enough with the programme that they would want to watch different characters in a similar setting. They are probably hopeful that, within time, the spin-off will generate its own fan base. It’d difficult to compare because success in television and films are calculated differently but compared to the three million people that watched The Vampire Diaries last year, The Avengers made $1,511,757,910 at the box office. For The Vampire Diaries to generate that much money, each viewer would need to pay nearly five hundred and ten dollars every time they watched the show. It could be argued, therefore, that without having a single episode aired, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. already has a bigger audience than anything currently on the American networks and it already has a global fanbase.

So ratings for the pilot are likely to be through the roof. So what, right? After the premiere, the novelty will wear off and traditionally superhero television shows haven’t managed to sustain their success (cough,Heroes,cough,Mutant-X,cough,Alphas). Well, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. bucks the trend there too because it will tie into the film universe. Joss Whedon’s brother Jed suggested that the series will ‘weave in between the films and try to make them more rewarding on both ends’. So imagine you spent all year watching this cool TV show about superheroes and something that happened in the show was mentioned or had an effect in next Thor film or part of New York was destroyed in an upcoming Avengers film and the finale of the show had the agents scrambling on the ground level trying to evacuate the area and ensure the safety of the innocent citizens. Not only does it enhance and build up the movies but it makes the viewer think “I’ve got to watch this show next week’.

 

Luke Cage or not Luke Cage, that is the question.

I’m not worried about the fact that television shows about superhero groups tend to be short lived because, unsurprisingly, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. won’t actually be all about superheroes. The show will actually revolve around a group of agents, just as the title implies, discovering new superheroes and identifying threats. Imagine then, that the group of agents locate a superhero that ends up becoming a part of the Avengers Initiative in a later film. But, for the most part, the show will centre around five agents (six if you include Agent Coulson who runs the division); Ming-Na Wen as a female pilot/weapons expert, Brett Dalton as a black op specialist, Chloe Bennett as a computer hacker, Iain De Caestecker as a weapons technology specialist and Elizabeth Henstridge as a life scientist. Cobie Smulders will reprise her role as Maria Hill but won’t be a regular.

So far that is pretty much all that’s known about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It will follow a case per episode format, like pretty much every cop show nowadays. Some shows, such as Person of Interest have managed to make the format interesting though. It won’t be unlike the monster of the week format that Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel used. Though therein lays my biggest concern. As much as I like Joss Whedon’s work, I don’t want this to become Firefly with superheroes. Whedon’s Cabin in the Woods was great and it actually didn’t feel like anything he had ever done. With The Avengers however, I could see aspects of the ensemble dynamic and strong, female characterisation peering back at me. There’s nothing wrong with either of those styles but because Whedon utilised them so often much of his work becomes rather samey. Angel and Cabin in the Woods were actually interesting because they were different and much of Whedon’s usual themes and styles were pushed to the background.

The potential for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is enormous. Undoubtedly, some people won’t like it but I do believe that this programme has the potential to be one of the biggest and most viewed shows in recent memory. It will all come down to the premiere. If the first episode can capture enough of what people are hoping the show to be then that will be enough to build upon. On the other hand, if it is terrible then Marvel has missed a massive opportunity and Whedon has another failed television project for his already sizable list.