Saturday, 21 April 2018

S.H.I.E.L.D. 'Roads' - April 21


‘All roads lead…’ Lead to where?

Firstly, bad news – last week’s episode of AoS had the lowest numbers ever. For reasons discussed that week, it is not surprising. This week’s the tendencies continue: AoS continues to hemorrhage actors, even though they give their best performances ever, just look at Dove Cameron and her character, Ruby.

No, really, let us look at Ruby and her interactions with the rest of AoS characters. In a twist of… something, AoS killed Ruby on this week’s episode, leaving her mother, general ‘No First Name’ Hale to deal with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the alien Confederacy. With her hair literally down general NFN Hale does look more formidable and more Hydra, so there is that – good for her, hooray!

Back to AoS proper? Dove Cameron is a great actress and she delivered beautifully, but the thing is? Her character was supposed to be Daisy’s archnemesis, and that did not happen; in fact, the plot backflipped and presented Ruby as a very scared young woman who was in desperate need of love…and then Yo-Yo killed her with Ruby’s own chakram.

The chakram deserves a mention of its own – like, who was the genius who came up with it? And what was the motivation behind it? Was it some sort of a homage to Lucy Lawless, who played the character of agent Izzy Hartley for a couple of episodes at the beginning of S2? Frankly, that was not LL’s best character role, and anyhow, since we are in the final third of S5, this is a bit of stretch, plus Dove Cameron and Lucy Lawless do not have anything in common, so the chakram is a bit of a flop, just as Simmons’ declaration about her and Fitz’s advancement in the last week’s episode was. And speaking of Dove Cameron…

She is a great actress and expects to be paid accordingly. And unlike, say, ‘Blindspot’, AoS relies heavily on special effects, and CGI, and the like, which aren’t cheap either, so they probably cannot afford any heavy hitters from real life actors to keep on their payroll for very long, not considering that their main cast is big already. So’s ‘Blindspot’s’, but…

But ‘Blindspot’ is going for something different, and it is not the show in threat to be cancelled; AoS is. Of course, since the S5’s finale is named curtly ‘End’, it may be that this is the last season of AoS, cancellation or no cancellation. Gregg is remaining in MCU, since he is appearing in the upcoming ‘Captain Marvel’ movie at least; Wen is voicing a character in a GotG animated movie/cartoon, so MCU is not done with them, no, but with AoS? That’s another story.

And even now the show continues to mangle its’ characters; Deke has devolved into some scruffy schmuck; general Glenn Talbot became Hydra’s most incompetent brainwashed agent; Hinton the seer girl remains the most unsympathetic child actress ever.

No, seriously, is her character supposed to have the emotional range of a washroom tile wall or what? Her lack of emotions could do the Cavalry proud…but it is done in a bad way, to a point where the young Robin is unsympathetic, (whereas her senior citizen version is insipid and simpering), and that is bad. AoS is playing for speed now, events in its’ episodes are rushing like a spooked horse herd, and the actors and their characters are leaving just as fast: Anton is gone, and so’re Werner and Ruby. Creel is not gone, but his character was driven insane by gravitonium, so odds are he will not be appearing any time soon in AoS’ episodes either. What is left?

A good show that has been dealt a bad happen. In the second half of AoS’ S2, most of the actors left suddenly but at the same time, causing a shock. From S3, however, the actors still leave suddenly, in large amounts, (only the main cast remains, and even that underwent some changes as the show’s seasons went by, and now it has gotten worse. It is unknown of AoS will continue beyond this current season, but if it does – lucky for it!

That is it for this time, see you all soon!

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