S.H.I.E.L.D., Potato Soup - Jan 31

‘Hot Potato Soup’ was aired. And?

And it was a good episode. The Koenig family rocked. The interaction of the FitzSimmons and Mack against LMD Radcliffe Mk I was poignant and dramatic. So was Ming-Na’s performance as LMD May, (no doubles this episode). Radcliffe the original is shaping to be a very formidable villain, but – when did he look into the Darkhold the first time? He certainly did not do it onscreen, even during the Ghost Rider mini-arc, and before S.H.I.E.L.D. secured it, it was lost, discovered by Lucy Bauer and her husband in some crazyass hideout instead. When and how did Radcliffe fit into this chronology?

Aida is continuing to evolve as a villain, which brings us to the apparent Superior of the Watchdogs and etc. – a Russian villain named Anton Ivanov, who has a submarine. Pause.

Firstly, it is a Russian villain. The show attempted for him to have a dramatic entrance, but the truth is, without his nationality, he is just another villain, who ‘is not Hydra, really’, a psychopath, apparently, but that is it. In many ways, Anton is yet another disappointing villain, alongside Malick, and Lucy Bauer, and Ely Morrow – even Radcliffe is a better and smarter villain than all of them combined, and he still has sympathetic traits in him. Hive has ruined it for AoS villains – after an alien space worm that has almost destroyed Earth’s civilization, it is hard to be taken seriously when you are just a crazy guy in a sub.

The matter of nationality…yeah, in S3 AoS did bring forth the ‘evil Russian stereotype’, and ‘Hot Potato Soup’ alludes to it directly: it is ‘Parting Shot’, where Bobbi and Lance, (Blood and Palicki) left the show. So far, they are not coming back, so AoS has introduced a new agent instead: a girl Koenig, and she is not played by Mr. Patton…probably because that would have been too much even for Mr. Patton. Oh well, he still rocked, and so did the Koenig family of both genders, unlike the AoS’ idea of Russian villains. This is cliché, or cast-typing, and real life being what it is, the president Donald seems to be actually friendly with Russians, so it’s possible that right now the cast and crew of AoS are having a collective facepalm/cringe moment regarding ‘Hot Potato Soup’ – they probably thought that Hillary was going to win the election and continue Obama’s policies, including the foreign ones, including the ones dealing with Russia.

…BTW, Russia became ‘un-democratic’ on Hillary’s watch when she was handling U.S.’s foreign affairs, so there is that. Furthermore, her opponent supposedly came into power via Russian hackers, but no concrete proof had been presented during the ‘interregnum’ and now that the Donald is in charge for real, and doing some damage to the U.S. for real, there is no talk of it being the Russians fault… So what?

Well, it means that for all of its’ stupidity, the American society and government, (and the relationship between the two has its own issues) can get its’ head out of its’ ass and start to fight for it really considers to be important, regardless of whatever histrionics Hollywood pulls out as part of its effort (remember Madonna? Yeah, this is a case when naiveté and passionate speaking make things worse, not better). At this moment in history, Russians make good bogeymen, but nothing more. This isn’t the best attitude to approach them with, and the use of Russian (and Russia) related clichés in such shows as AoS isn’t helping anyone either; even ‘The Last Ship’, which is much more political than AoS is, has moved past this cliché; so why AoS is returning to it? …It may be just the straw to get it cancelled, instead.

On the other hand, ‘The Last Ship’ is relevant to this rant also because in the original novel, (different from the TV series, BTW) because it featured a Russian submarine – just as AoS is, now. Of course, ‘The Librarians’, S3 premiere, has also featured a submarine, (just not Russian, more like a museum piece, hijacked by Apep), so AoS is not even being original here: the good guys, (S.H.I.E.L.D.) have a quinjet, so the bad guys, (not Hydra, most definitely, even though ‘The Patriot’ depicted Hydra coming back) have a submarine. Clever, right?

Well, no. This is more of the entire recycling of ideas. In S2, the late Robert Gonzales commanded his faction of S.H.I.E.L.D. on an aircraft carrier called the Iliad. AoS being what it was, it has not mentioned the Iliad since the end of S2, though there was info that agent Weaver was now running the vessel, nor has it made an appearance. Between this info, and the fact that Hydra is back, yeah, AoS is back utilizing S2 ideas – the Ghost Rider related reboot is failing right now, even if one ignores how the LMD May is Kara in a nanomask, yeah? However, amazing performance by Ming-Na – she brings both of her characters to life now.

So: awesome delivery by the actors, but a much less amazing plot, with potential real-life repercussions (as we have seen, the Donald isn’t shy in using his power around – just look at Ms. Yates). That is it for now, see you all later!