And so, the adventure continues in "The Inside Man". AoS continues in the same vein as it did with the previous episode, but-
But the episode 'Bouncing Back' was something of a portmanteau, dealing with a 'regular day' in the life of S.H.I.E.L.D. on one hand, and introducing Yolanda Rodriguez on the other. Since she's also Slingshot of the Secret Warriors, she deserves another mention, this time because she may be Mack's love interest, now that May seems to be back with Coulson, sort of. However, one of the last scenes back in 'Bouncing Back' seemed to be pairing Yolanda with Joey instead, on one hand, and on the other, NCB is still largely a guest star, who seems to come and go as a recurring character...and they tend to vanish on AoS leaving plot holes behind: Ian Quinn, the (remaining) Koenig brothers, agent Weaver, etc. There's no indication as to what has happened to them...and in this episode, agent Mackenzie is noticeably absent, as is Joey...but Joey was a recurring character with a spotty appearance record from the start; Mack is different: he is a part of the regular cast, so what gives?
It all probably comes down to the budget and the fact that the show seems to have peculiar relations with its cast - it tends to re-use them, as it did with Creel; in this particular episode, not only he had returned, but he had been redeemed by the military, in the character of general Talbot. When the latter starts to talk about redemption, there's some stabbing and unwitting criticism of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s tactics, I suspect. Hive is a man-eating monster, but Grant...well, he should've been either shot from the start, or offered something along the lines of Creel - also from the start, not when it was too little too late.
Talbot himself is not so much redeemed as developed further, depicted as a more well-rounded and likable character rather than the sherrif of Nottingham type of character he appeared in S2. Of course, his previous informal alliance with Coulson didn't go so well, so one cannot blame him for not trusting or liking Coulson, especially at first, and to putting his faith in Creel too.
Creel is going to be important as himself as well, since apparently his blood can counter the effects of the Terrigen, which - a minor or not so minor plot point - is the part of an argument between Daisy and Lincoln about him settling into S.H.I.E.L.D. Meh, he cannot go anywhere, he's still something of a wanted man, so he'll stay there, alongside Daisy, May and Coulson, and the FitzSimmons (who barely got any screen time at all during this episode - ouch!).
This, of course, brings us to the potential spinoff of Hunter and Morse - the 'Most Wanted'. It still hasn't gone through, and it just may never do, because by now, AoS doesn't have a very big fan base as it did in S1, and let's be honest - there are some people who are watching the show primarily for Hunter and Morse, as opposed for the FitzSimmons, for example, so if they're off the AoS and onto MW, then this part of AoS viewers will most likely go with them, which means another drop in the audience numbers. Yes, AoS has been passed on for S4 in the future, but things happen. In fall of 2015, for example, a series called 'Blood & Oil' was aired. It was supposed to consist of 13 episodes (and possibly passed on for S2), but S2 doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon, and the number of episodes was cut down to 10. So yeah, things happen, even in TV land, and AoS seems to have problems as a franchise too - there were several comic runs of 'Agents' (none of which have anything to do with the show, unlike some 'Agent Carter' comics), plus Daisy/Quake comics, Howling Commandos comics, InHuman and Mockingbird comics, all of which diversify attention and make it very hard to figure out where the 'Agents' stay in the greater Marvel world. Go AoS. Not.
But the TV series have seemed to gotten it together at last, one way or another. The only question is whether or not this will be enough to enable the show's - and the franchise's - audience to flourish and grow once more.
No comments:
Post a Comment