Agents of SHIELD 7x03
Jun. 16th, 2020 11:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urth posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tori_reviewsBecause I never met a stray AoS thought I didn't want to share apparently, this got like twice as long during 'editing.'
Agents of SHIELD 7x03
On the balance I'm sure I liked more of this than I didn't, but there is enough on the dislike side that I don't quite feel right saying I liked it. Since I'm guessing this is another two-part story, the whole product could still work its way back to being classed as liking it, in a lot of ways I already do, but where we're at now I'm not willing to say it.
I liked almost everything at Area 51, but I disliked almost everything on the plane; plus the fight scenes were a little...odd. I'm going to need to work my around to a point where I know what I mean by that, but they weren't working for me. So I guess the problem is that towards the end of the episode I lost what ground I had on liking it, so when I come to write this review I find I'm not feeling it.
So after the long rambling reviews of the first couple episodes, this is going to be completely scatter-shot thoughts that I may or may not expand on.
So through all of this, the one time I had to pause it to rant at the scene for doing it wrong, was having any of these characters call May the Cavalry. You all know she hates that name and what it represents, and with the exception of Simmons none of you were around back when people used to call her that (I'm not counting Daisy, she had to ask what the name was about; I suppose I'll grant that Mack was in SHIELD in the old days so might have heard it but has never used it before now). I'm very, very protective of May on this regard, don't ever call her that. If they had said it kind of the same way Coulson and Simmons were at the base, just trying to provoke a reaction through her shield wall, I could probably have been okay with it because that's a reason (and I would have wanted to see her reaction) but this group doesn't call her the Cavalry, I'm pretty sure Coulson made sure that nickname didn't last in rebuilt SHIELD.
I'm glad we got some fallout from Daisy's bad call last episode; though I would have had more if it was me. But because I'm me, my biggest eye-roll at her was when she offered her opinion on May's state of mind. Because I'm sick of people in show and in fandom acting like May was always like this, she was never this; this is taking the unfeeling traits she did have (which I don't deny she did and does) and turning them up to a degree she didn't have before. But then Daisy goes on to claim that May should have been happy to see Coulson and...I think even if she wasn't so shut down it's more complicated than that. If Chroni-Coulson had appeared as May was dying, she would have been entirely happy to believe the lie and die in his arms; but this is a different ask. To ask her to live with this, and what he represents is not necessarily going to make her happy; I had a few bits on this in the fic thing even before we saw how messed up she is.
Also great was that I got some of my favorite groupings with this. Coulson and Simmons going undercover (they've come so far from season 1) where they both get to indulge their fan feelings at times. May and Yoyo, the once and future Cavalries working together and both being messed up and damaged and not wanting to talk about it. Last week I thought Yoyo's problem might have been psychological, that she didn't feel like she was running at full power and it was affecting her ability to do so, but at this point I'd say it does seem like there's something really going on there.
May's problem is...well probably psychological, though there still may be a physical component (or meta-physical), and was I wrong that Simmons had a line in the previously segment about unknown side-effects that I don't remember being said about May in the last couple episodes? It sure looked like she was having a panic attack to me, which is very much at odds with her emotional shut down last episode. I actually felt that state wasn't carried through enough in this episode; in this episode it had been toned back down to just a little above her old usual state rather that set to overdrive unemotional like last time. I get that that can be hard to maintain when they actually have her engaging with the story and other characters, but it was a notable shift.
I didn't get around to mentioning it last week, but I did think it; I don't like that Coulson is back to doing the incidental voice overs, previously on and will return in a moment. If Clark Gregg had still been doing it last year, as the nominal star of the show and they didn't want to redo it, it wouldn't stand out to me now. But they had May do them last year, so why not leave them in her voice this season? Really Mack should be doing them; or maybe they could surprise us each week with which cast member is the voice of the show. Just...don't act like Coulson is back.
I have to admit the 'boy' comment that set Mack off rolled past me without noticing it. Once he did react I got it, and that guy was definitely being racist towards all of the minority members of SHIELD, but for me that specific context didn't ring. Mostly because it was 'your boy' directed at Yoyo, and Mack is Yoyo's boy as in boyfriend, so while yeah this guy didn't know that so all the problems remain, it just didn't pop out to me.
In a surprise move I actually kind of want to say I think I prefer Legends take on a multi-racial crew of time travelers visiting the 50s. They actually had a story (a few of them actually) that incorporated elements or racial/sexual/gender backwards thinking rather than just something going on on the side so they could point it out as wrong. But it has also been a while since I watched the episode I'm thinking of, so I could be wrong. Also it might have been interesting if Deke took longer to realize what was going on, since where he's from any skin color besides blue is fine.
This episode didn't really deal with the trans-humanist aspects of Chroni-Coulson in any meaningful way. But I actually like the part in the end where Jemma and Daisy comment on how they kind of keep forgetting how much stronger he is now. I wonder a little if CG is enjoying that he finally gets to be the action star of the show when he never was before and I am glad they remember that he'd be just as shut down by the EMP as the other Chronicoms (I couldn't tell if Yoyo's arms shut down, for now I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on remembering it).
Which does bring us back to the question of why the fight scenes didn't work for me. I think they just felt...claustrophobic, making it so the action couldn't show off; or like the director didn't know how to show off fight scenes and so brought it in too tight. The part where it's them running around in the gas served a purpose, as I think something about it was triggering for May and highlighted how much May and Yoyo are not as capable as usual. But the Coulson and Chroni-guy fight didn't have anything that stood out; while the fight at the tower had no defined geography and seemed badly choreographed when it was trying to do something interesting. It also has the effect of making Simmons' success feel like a deus ex machina even though it's obviously set up and being done by a main character; because we don't focus on the struggles to get the EMP working but on the fights. Both of which seem to be going not great for the protagonists, so when Simmons succeeds just in time it feels unearned and letting the combat off the hook for their struggles.
...I'm not sure that made any sense, but we'll see if I can smooth it up during editing. If not, well I did say these were going to be scattered thoughts. (No, thoughts are just as scattered.)
You know, come to think of it, Simmons' behavior seems out of step with what we've seen from her so far, going back to the final bits of last season. While not to the extreme of May, she has been very detached and mission focused (and scary when it comes to getting information) but here she's indulging her Peggy Carter fandom, seems to be enjoying their odd questioning method (because a robot looking for other robots can really make a claim that robots don't have emotional reactions), and definitely has feelings during the final portion of the story. So maybe this episode is just a little inconsistent with where the characters are at emotionally.
I tried to watch May during a couple scenes to see what we could guess at her attitude toward Chroni-Coulson at this point. When they first encountered Sarge last season, May was very insistent that they should not refer to him as Coulson, an attitude that did make a lot of sense because her Coulson was dead. But early in this episode she doesn't rebuke anyone for referring to Chroni-Coulson as Coulson; but should I interpret that as part of her detachment or that she's actually okay with it? I'm not certain, but in the one scene they're both in it seems she's sort of avoiding looking at him much; focused on the mission and not confronting feelings (she definitely doesn't want to talk about them).
Also, all episode I prefer to imagine that Daniel knows Peggy isn't there because she would have told him if she was, they are dating after all (and have been together for the better part of a decade), just on the downlow since it's better to avoid the appearance of any sort of favoritism. But maybe he did hope she'd managed to make it for the demonstration, but definitely wasn't surprised that he found an impostor. I also love the idea that Daniel was totally onto Hydra so long ago, for continuity and because I just love Daniel. Peggy/Daniel forever; fuck off Steve (I will also accept Peggy/Howard fuck-buddies because I'm pretty sure it did happen).
(And yeah, then I went and watched the promo...I expect to be very conflicted next week. Depends a little on what the Chronicoms' actual target is, so I'm not taking a side yet.)
After writing this up I came up with a couple new ideas for what to call Chroni-Coulson:
-Phil-nocchio
-PhilMD
-Coulsoid
-Repli-Phil
-Mecha-Phil
I think there were others I forgot to write down and I'm sure I'm not the first on a lot of them; and while I'm partial to Phil-nocchio (because he'd like to be a real boy), all the Phil ones don't feel right since only May would call him that. I've been trying for the last year to make Coulson and Cylon go together, since I use Maylon, but there's no good way to force two words with that similar of structure together. So I might try out Coulsoid, it is easier to type that Chroni-Coulson.
Also on later reflection, this season has the makings of the same problem I had with much of last season, and s5 to a lesser extent, and even at times in s4. They're packing the action into such a short timeframe that no one has time to breathe, and after a while it annoys me. The fight with Izel was what, three days ago for these people? (Obviously not Simmons, but I have my own thoughts on her.) I think that's part of my problem with why May and Simmons seeming to be in slightly different head spaces comes in. There has neither been time or impetus for their attitudes to change.
It's also connected with my long standing aversion to the show validating Daisy. It was part of my do-not-want list for this season that they would end up putting her in charge by the end of the series, even though she still sucks at any kind of leadership, And if there was a time skip, maybe they could make me believe that she grew into it, but if things continue to happen so quickly they can't. If the show ends with Mack still the Director then this episode showing Daisy as a competent agent but bad leader is fine; the show just spent so long validating Daisy's terrible decisions and behavior that I haven't quite gotten past the worry it will do so again.
I forgot to discuss where I stand on the Coulson swap after this episode. Narratively it didn't change my stance that it's a logical end point. But I will admit that Simmons' description of how their time drive works makes it a bit more difficult to make work...probably. Remember how in the premier I pointed out that all the extra crew members from the s6 finale disappeared, and asked why they needed a chunk of the monolith when the Zephyr could already time travel; maybe FitzSimmons had a secondary mission to save Coulson that we'll see pay off by the end of the season. In an odd sort of way it would make May's disconnect important to the story structure; because the fact they have a time machine and a super-healing chamber would occur to May and she would at least raise the question if not just say 'fuck that noise' and hijack the plane to save him. Would you care to argue she wouldn't do it?
And because of how my brain works wanting to connect Watsonian and Doyalist reasoning...what if FitzSimmons accounted for that? After all, Simmons did the same thing and Fitz absolutely would, and Simmons at least (with other Fitz) saw how May would make the same kind of call. So what if there's some sort of emotional block they developed, and maybe that's part of why Simmons keeps insisting May spend so much time in the healing pod when she seems completely healed and getting around even getting in fights? And something in the gas (or just the adrenaline surge) somehow disrupted it a bit; not completely, but May is naturally more comfortable not expressing her feelings anyway so even only heightened control would still be controlled?
I don't really expect any of that to be true (beyond maintaining even odds on the Coulson swap), but it's an example of how my brain works I suppose.
Agents of SHIELD 7x03
On the balance I'm sure I liked more of this than I didn't, but there is enough on the dislike side that I don't quite feel right saying I liked it. Since I'm guessing this is another two-part story, the whole product could still work its way back to being classed as liking it, in a lot of ways I already do, but where we're at now I'm not willing to say it.
I liked almost everything at Area 51, but I disliked almost everything on the plane; plus the fight scenes were a little...odd. I'm going to need to work my around to a point where I know what I mean by that, but they weren't working for me. So I guess the problem is that towards the end of the episode I lost what ground I had on liking it, so when I come to write this review I find I'm not feeling it.
So after the long rambling reviews of the first couple episodes, this is going to be completely scatter-shot thoughts that I may or may not expand on.
So through all of this, the one time I had to pause it to rant at the scene for doing it wrong, was having any of these characters call May the Cavalry. You all know she hates that name and what it represents, and with the exception of Simmons none of you were around back when people used to call her that (I'm not counting Daisy, she had to ask what the name was about; I suppose I'll grant that Mack was in SHIELD in the old days so might have heard it but has never used it before now). I'm very, very protective of May on this regard, don't ever call her that. If they had said it kind of the same way Coulson and Simmons were at the base, just trying to provoke a reaction through her shield wall, I could probably have been okay with it because that's a reason (and I would have wanted to see her reaction) but this group doesn't call her the Cavalry, I'm pretty sure Coulson made sure that nickname didn't last in rebuilt SHIELD.
I'm glad we got some fallout from Daisy's bad call last episode; though I would have had more if it was me. But because I'm me, my biggest eye-roll at her was when she offered her opinion on May's state of mind. Because I'm sick of people in show and in fandom acting like May was always like this, she was never this; this is taking the unfeeling traits she did have (which I don't deny she did and does) and turning them up to a degree she didn't have before. But then Daisy goes on to claim that May should have been happy to see Coulson and...I think even if she wasn't so shut down it's more complicated than that. If Chroni-Coulson had appeared as May was dying, she would have been entirely happy to believe the lie and die in his arms; but this is a different ask. To ask her to live with this, and what he represents is not necessarily going to make her happy; I had a few bits on this in the fic thing even before we saw how messed up she is.
Also great was that I got some of my favorite groupings with this. Coulson and Simmons going undercover (they've come so far from season 1) where they both get to indulge their fan feelings at times. May and Yoyo, the once and future Cavalries working together and both being messed up and damaged and not wanting to talk about it. Last week I thought Yoyo's problem might have been psychological, that she didn't feel like she was running at full power and it was affecting her ability to do so, but at this point I'd say it does seem like there's something really going on there.
May's problem is...well probably psychological, though there still may be a physical component (or meta-physical), and was I wrong that Simmons had a line in the previously segment about unknown side-effects that I don't remember being said about May in the last couple episodes? It sure looked like she was having a panic attack to me, which is very much at odds with her emotional shut down last episode. I actually felt that state wasn't carried through enough in this episode; in this episode it had been toned back down to just a little above her old usual state rather that set to overdrive unemotional like last time. I get that that can be hard to maintain when they actually have her engaging with the story and other characters, but it was a notable shift.
I didn't get around to mentioning it last week, but I did think it; I don't like that Coulson is back to doing the incidental voice overs, previously on and will return in a moment. If Clark Gregg had still been doing it last year, as the nominal star of the show and they didn't want to redo it, it wouldn't stand out to me now. But they had May do them last year, so why not leave them in her voice this season? Really Mack should be doing them; or maybe they could surprise us each week with which cast member is the voice of the show. Just...don't act like Coulson is back.
I have to admit the 'boy' comment that set Mack off rolled past me without noticing it. Once he did react I got it, and that guy was definitely being racist towards all of the minority members of SHIELD, but for me that specific context didn't ring. Mostly because it was 'your boy' directed at Yoyo, and Mack is Yoyo's boy as in boyfriend, so while yeah this guy didn't know that so all the problems remain, it just didn't pop out to me.
In a surprise move I actually kind of want to say I think I prefer Legends take on a multi-racial crew of time travelers visiting the 50s. They actually had a story (a few of them actually) that incorporated elements or racial/sexual/gender backwards thinking rather than just something going on on the side so they could point it out as wrong. But it has also been a while since I watched the episode I'm thinking of, so I could be wrong. Also it might have been interesting if Deke took longer to realize what was going on, since where he's from any skin color besides blue is fine.
This episode didn't really deal with the trans-humanist aspects of Chroni-Coulson in any meaningful way. But I actually like the part in the end where Jemma and Daisy comment on how they kind of keep forgetting how much stronger he is now. I wonder a little if CG is enjoying that he finally gets to be the action star of the show when he never was before and I am glad they remember that he'd be just as shut down by the EMP as the other Chronicoms (I couldn't tell if Yoyo's arms shut down, for now I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on remembering it).
Which does bring us back to the question of why the fight scenes didn't work for me. I think they just felt...claustrophobic, making it so the action couldn't show off; or like the director didn't know how to show off fight scenes and so brought it in too tight. The part where it's them running around in the gas served a purpose, as I think something about it was triggering for May and highlighted how much May and Yoyo are not as capable as usual. But the Coulson and Chroni-guy fight didn't have anything that stood out; while the fight at the tower had no defined geography and seemed badly choreographed when it was trying to do something interesting. It also has the effect of making Simmons' success feel like a deus ex machina even though it's obviously set up and being done by a main character; because we don't focus on the struggles to get the EMP working but on the fights. Both of which seem to be going not great for the protagonists, so when Simmons succeeds just in time it feels unearned and letting the combat off the hook for their struggles.
...I'm not sure that made any sense, but we'll see if I can smooth it up during editing. If not, well I did say these were going to be scattered thoughts. (No, thoughts are just as scattered.)
You know, come to think of it, Simmons' behavior seems out of step with what we've seen from her so far, going back to the final bits of last season. While not to the extreme of May, she has been very detached and mission focused (and scary when it comes to getting information) but here she's indulging her Peggy Carter fandom, seems to be enjoying their odd questioning method (because a robot looking for other robots can really make a claim that robots don't have emotional reactions), and definitely has feelings during the final portion of the story. So maybe this episode is just a little inconsistent with where the characters are at emotionally.
I tried to watch May during a couple scenes to see what we could guess at her attitude toward Chroni-Coulson at this point. When they first encountered Sarge last season, May was very insistent that they should not refer to him as Coulson, an attitude that did make a lot of sense because her Coulson was dead. But early in this episode she doesn't rebuke anyone for referring to Chroni-Coulson as Coulson; but should I interpret that as part of her detachment or that she's actually okay with it? I'm not certain, but in the one scene they're both in it seems she's sort of avoiding looking at him much; focused on the mission and not confronting feelings (she definitely doesn't want to talk about them).
Also, all episode I prefer to imagine that Daniel knows Peggy isn't there because she would have told him if she was, they are dating after all (and have been together for the better part of a decade), just on the downlow since it's better to avoid the appearance of any sort of favoritism. But maybe he did hope she'd managed to make it for the demonstration, but definitely wasn't surprised that he found an impostor. I also love the idea that Daniel was totally onto Hydra so long ago, for continuity and because I just love Daniel. Peggy/Daniel forever; fuck off Steve (I will also accept Peggy/Howard fuck-buddies because I'm pretty sure it did happen).
(And yeah, then I went and watched the promo...I expect to be very conflicted next week. Depends a little on what the Chronicoms' actual target is, so I'm not taking a side yet.)
After writing this up I came up with a couple new ideas for what to call Chroni-Coulson:
-Phil-nocchio
-PhilMD
-Coulsoid
-Repli-Phil
-Mecha-Phil
I think there were others I forgot to write down and I'm sure I'm not the first on a lot of them; and while I'm partial to Phil-nocchio (because he'd like to be a real boy), all the Phil ones don't feel right since only May would call him that. I've been trying for the last year to make Coulson and Cylon go together, since I use Maylon, but there's no good way to force two words with that similar of structure together. So I might try out Coulsoid, it is easier to type that Chroni-Coulson.
Also on later reflection, this season has the makings of the same problem I had with much of last season, and s5 to a lesser extent, and even at times in s4. They're packing the action into such a short timeframe that no one has time to breathe, and after a while it annoys me. The fight with Izel was what, three days ago for these people? (Obviously not Simmons, but I have my own thoughts on her.) I think that's part of my problem with why May and Simmons seeming to be in slightly different head spaces comes in. There has neither been time or impetus for their attitudes to change.
It's also connected with my long standing aversion to the show validating Daisy. It was part of my do-not-want list for this season that they would end up putting her in charge by the end of the series, even though she still sucks at any kind of leadership, And if there was a time skip, maybe they could make me believe that she grew into it, but if things continue to happen so quickly they can't. If the show ends with Mack still the Director then this episode showing Daisy as a competent agent but bad leader is fine; the show just spent so long validating Daisy's terrible decisions and behavior that I haven't quite gotten past the worry it will do so again.
I forgot to discuss where I stand on the Coulson swap after this episode. Narratively it didn't change my stance that it's a logical end point. But I will admit that Simmons' description of how their time drive works makes it a bit more difficult to make work...probably. Remember how in the premier I pointed out that all the extra crew members from the s6 finale disappeared, and asked why they needed a chunk of the monolith when the Zephyr could already time travel; maybe FitzSimmons had a secondary mission to save Coulson that we'll see pay off by the end of the season. In an odd sort of way it would make May's disconnect important to the story structure; because the fact they have a time machine and a super-healing chamber would occur to May and she would at least raise the question if not just say 'fuck that noise' and hijack the plane to save him. Would you care to argue she wouldn't do it?
And because of how my brain works wanting to connect Watsonian and Doyalist reasoning...what if FitzSimmons accounted for that? After all, Simmons did the same thing and Fitz absolutely would, and Simmons at least (with other Fitz) saw how May would make the same kind of call. So what if there's some sort of emotional block they developed, and maybe that's part of why Simmons keeps insisting May spend so much time in the healing pod when she seems completely healed and getting around even getting in fights? And something in the gas (or just the adrenaline surge) somehow disrupted it a bit; not completely, but May is naturally more comfortable not expressing her feelings anyway so even only heightened control would still be controlled?
I don't really expect any of that to be true (beyond maintaining even odds on the Coulson swap), but it's an example of how my brain works I suppose.
