Now, there are rumors, that Agent Carter, (AC, not
AoS), can be cancelled. To be frank, this can happen, and it will be wrong. AC
has its own flaws: S1, in particular, was somewhat lackluster and almost verged
on uninspired (which is one of the worst things that can happen in a TV show),
but curiously, after the S1 finale, there were no rumors of the show being
cancelled, and now, after a more successful S2, there are.
Let us pause and talk about what makes AC different from
AoS. (Yes, there are Marvel shows on Netflix – ‘Daredevil’, ‘Jessica Jones’, etc.,
but they are a different case.) It does not try to do plot twists and turns the
way that AoS constantly does, since the beginning of S2 – it is a fairly
straightforward show: the good guys are good; the bad guys are bad; and yes,
they both seem to be coming out of a Hollywood movie (and not an A-lister
either): they may be almost clichés, but they are grounded in historical realism,
which makes them more enjoyable to watch.
Yes, this is correct: AC does care about ‘historical
authenticity’; maybe through a prism of sexual, and later on – racial inequality,
but it is still more than what AoS does. Yes, Joey seems to be a gay character,
but he comes and goes on screen, and the writers just might decide to write him
off by killing him as the much-vaunted AoS S3 finale. …And it would be a bad
idea – ‘100’ has killed off one of their sexual minority character, and maybe
even more than one, and now they had a lot of bad reactions from the critics,
something that AoS is trying to avoid in the first place. …Of course, this sort
of ‘avoidance’ isn’t a best course of action too – ‘Blindspot’ (and maybe ‘Quantico’,
maybe also ‘The Family’) is doing its best to depict the more controversial
interracial and same-sex relationships; ‘The Catch’ is quite big on interracial
relationships too.
The latter deserves a mention of its own. By now, most
people know about the ‘Zootopia’ movie, which too has dealt with a number of
modern controversies, including, perhaps, the racial issue, disguised there as
the issue of relationships between various species,
for example Nick the fox and Judy the rabbit, who are the main characters of
the movie. For a further twist, Judy was a cop and Nick a street hustler for
the better part of the movie – and now, in ‘The Catch’, we have two protagonists:
a con artist and a private detective. Cough.
Yeah, the cough was intentional: ‘The Catch’ is largely ‘Zootopia’
for adults, turned TV series and with realism – i.e. it is a criminal/mystery drama,
no sci-fi, no nothing. It is… a drama, with the actors acting out their
characters really good; it is the other parts – the detective mysteries, the
cons, etc. – that do not deliver and seem to be largely secondary, to add
further spice for the drama. That said, it is not a bad TV series, just,
almost, uninspired. Then again, so’s the latest version of ‘Supergirl’, and she
is still very popular among the fan audience.
This brings us back to AC and AoS. The S1 of AC too was kind
of uninspired and flat – but between the historical realism and a small, but
tightly knit, cast, it still worked, and got even better in S2, where not just
historical realism got more intense (i.e. the references to WWII), but humor
got added, and integrated, quite well.
Now, AoS also uses
humor as break in the tension, but sparingly, and only for a greater dramatic
effect, as it did in ‘Failed Experiments’ episode, for example. When standing
side to side, AoS is much more serious and dark than AC had become, not to
mention the way it treats its characters, by killing them off on a regular
basis? The AC does not do it, no, just no. Every member of the character cast
is important and is not killed just
for extra realism or drama…unlike on AoS. And no, do not talk about this sort
of ‘fridging’ being important for realism – so far, ‘Blindspot’ is much more
realistic than AoS is, (for the obvious reasons, but still), yet it doesn’t
kill of characters just for drama. Yes, the FBI protagonists of the show often
kill ‘bad guys’, but they are largely that – nameless, almost faceless,
douchebags who are terrorists, or some other sort of criminal, and almost
deserve to be killed by the heroic FBI people.
…Yes, this sort of attitude has led the U.S. to its defeats,
military and otherwise, abroad, but still, this is more honest than AoS, it
makes more sense than MCU, who want to make the audience ‘feel’ for Thanos.
They already tried it with Grant Ward, and as a result made him into a more
controversial character than they must’ve liked, so they tried to turn him back
into ‘just’ a villain’ in the first half of S3, before just killing him off.
Frankly, the man was better for it, while Coulson, who did the actual deed, is
worse off, for the way that AoS has done it? It could have been done better,
period, without the unnecessary drama, for example. Xena, the warrior princess,
(cough, agent Izzy, cough), had killed Callisto once on her
own show, and she did it much better than what has gone down with Coulson and
Ward.
…And then there was the talk of redemption and second
chances. Even S1 (Grant as Hydra) story arc didn’t really handle it very well,
and when Coulson had tried to channel Obama during S2, when he was selling
T.A.H.I.T.I. to Grant (and ignoring Kara, which was even more wrong), it didn’t
really go down well either – for the audience. (In-between character interactions
are a different thing). As a result, the entire talk of trying to save
Daisy/Skye (at least), while creating parallels between her and S1 Grant are
hypocritical, at least in part. Period.
And in AC, on the other hand? There actually is redemption, and mercy, even if they
actually are not spoken about aloud. Dot, who was an evil minion back in S1, is
becoming her own person, (and maybe not fully evil anymore), in S2. Whitney,
who was the ‘big bad’ of S2, is not killed either, but is incarcerated, (which
is better than death is, yeah?). Nothing like that has ever happened in AoS,
where all villains die, period. (Moreover, see above, regarding ‘Blindspot’ on
this sort of thing). Add this to the tightly knit character cast, and you get a
different show from AoS yet again.
Yes, it is about Lance and Bobbi. Part of AoS problems is
the fact how it tried to integrate this couple in itself in S2, only to part
ways with them completely in S3, as they finally got their own show, (whose
relationship to AoS is somewhat blurry at this stage). Seriously, WTH was with
that? Blood and Palicki needed more cred with the audience? Considering how it
went down with Kara and Bobbi, they really could have lived without it instead –
and nothing like this has happened on AC either. (Not yet, anyhow.)
Anyhow, let us stop. AC is a very good TV series, and it does
not deserve to be cancelled. The catch that at least one another TV series,
Primeval: New World, became cancelled, regardless of it being fairly decent in
its own right. P: NW became cancelled because the entire Impossible Pictures™
company went down – in part because of its own inconsistency, but in part
because BBC™ was releasing a ‘new’ version of ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ TV
series – this one a 3-D film regarding dinosaurs, and it was clearing the field
from competition beforehand. One cannot help but wonder if this is something
similar in MCU – AoS, and maybe ‘Most Wanted’ (the one that is going to star/be
centered on Hunter and Morse) is trying to get rid of competition? One hopes
not.
…In either case, I hope that I gave a good explanation as to
why AC has become a better show than before, and why it does not deserve to be cancelled.
End
PS: And speaking of shows and cancellations? Hello, ‘Castle’.
‘Castle’ without Beckett just won’t be the same, you know? Now there is a show
that should just quit on a high, rather than a low note. Period.
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