And so, S.H.I.E.L.D. has returned from its’ hiatus. And?
Well, Daisy and Jemma, primarily, are in a terrible new
world where Hydra won. Let us give kudos to the team AoS – they actually tried
to address the issue as to why Radcliffe & Aida decided to utilize Hydra as
a part of their utopia – and it floats. Sort of. The explanation, that is.
In truth, of course, this is a partial reboot: the second
and third seasons of AoS created something of a morass where the once-promising
show got stuck, so now AoS is trying to do something different…over and over
again. The Ghost Rider mini-arc was one of them, and ‘Agents of Hydra’ is
another. AoS could have gone and saved itself a long time ago…but it did not.
True, maybe its’ people don’t consider that it needs to be
saved to begin with – they put their fate into the hands of the various critics
and co., they got the contract with MCU and Disney, and while the contract
lasts they’re as good as gold, but once the contract runs out, what then?
Well, maybe the entire team AoS just breaks up and everybody
goes their separate way. J. Whedon, for example, has already left all of MCU
behind and went over to DCEU, where he will be directing a Batgirl movie
instead. There is no indication that S4 is going to be the end for AoS
completely, but similarly you cannot dismiss this possibility either.
The episode itself? Solid acting, very good and poignant
plot, AoS delivers this sort of thing as it always does, and so it happened
now. Sadly, it does not seem to have gone better or worse than the ‘Hot Potato
Soup’ episode, so there is that. By now, the fans have formed their opinion of
the show and it is not likely to change. If the scriptwriters are planning to
redeem Ward, it will work for some people – and piss-off others. The same will
happen if they do not. If it is just a question of money – it is easier to work
with Dalton than with Luna or anyone else new, then this is what will happen,
most likely, and the fans can go hang.
I mean, take a look at Marvel’s ‘Iron Fist’ or the 2017 ‘Ghost
in the Shell’ movie. In both cases, the fans made a lot of noise about
whitewashing. Guess what, no one cared, and ‘Ghost’ didn’t do so good, while ‘Iron
Fist’…well, ‘Iron Fist’ is a Netflix TV show, if you want to see for real, you
either get a pirate copy, (which brings an entirely new set of problems), or
pay Netflix to see it, (as well as the rest of ‘The Defenders’ TV series so
far), so ‘Iron Fist’, and the rest of ‘The Defenders’ are set for now.
With AoS’ it is somewhat different – there is no whitewashing
issue, hurray, but the problem is not unlike that of the 2017 ‘Ghost’: bad
depiction of good ideas. The true problem of ‘Ghost’ is that is simplified the
plot a lot, and badly: the original, 1995 version of the film became so popular
because of the plot, of all the moral Timbits and quirks that it addressed; the
2017 version just ignored them in a typical ‘Western’ fashion. AoS did
something similar – it just rode roughshod all over the plot holes and similar
issues from the finale of S1, and not unlike ‘Ghost’ it ended up in a bad place…but
while ‘Ghost’ can take this, it’s a one-shot of a movie, there aren’t going to
be any sequels, AoS cannot – it a TV series that is a continuous, ongoing
process so if it gets enough bad hits over time, it is over.
And why not? ‘Agent Carter’ ended after just two seasons, so
AoS is never too secure…contract or no contract. Mind you, it had been metaphorically
buried on a regular basis as well, so let us not be too sceptical or dismissive
of AoS either.
Therefore, that is it for ‘What If’, actually – a standard,
solid and good fare of an episode. However, is it, and the future episodes, be
enough to keep AoS going just because? We will just have to wait and see.
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