shrewd.buddha

If I were to meet MQ's character Beth is real life, I might impart the following advice : "If you don't want people (D.M.) to continually try prying into your private live, stop making it seem so damned mysterious. Chill out, girlfriend." Her character is sending out loads of mixed messages - don't look at me - I like to dress sexy for myself - I don't want to talk about my past - I use my past experience to make me better at my job - I need you to tell me everything you know , while I use my position to give you information on a need to know basis... I found it a bit hard to believe that the police could not get a full history on the house and it's former occupants within hours. Days? The writing quality suffers when the needs of the plot stomp all over logic.

Also, Merlin was monologue-ing in some fancy high-rise office with big windows. Not very discreet for a guy who destroyed a good chunk of Starling City and is supposed to be dead. But, whatever ... When the main characters find out something that we the viewers have known for about six months or so (Merlin's alive) , it doesn't seem all that shocking.

Any attempt to redeem Ward would just be further eroding any goodwill most people have for AoS (in my opinion). Most people, and generally kids, tend to want heroes to root for - not complicated murderers who blackmail their way back into the group because they have valuable intel. It makes me think of what George Lucas tried to do with young Darth Vader in the first Star Wars animated 'toon... When Disney got control of the franchise, someone finally had the sense to realize "Hey, this character is going to grow up to be a mass murderer and child killer (!). Maybe we don't want to make him some kid's role model." .. And they dropped Anakin Skywalker like a radioactive rock... (in my opinion)

I sort of enjoy delusional, psychopathic Ward : "I'm still part of the team!!" (I just choose to forget I killed some of them..) ...But his escape was anticlimactic -- who didn't expect that to happen? Writers of AoS, please, please stop with the Simmons, Fitz teary eyed scenes. We Get. It. : ...Fitz has mommy abandonment issues and Simmons is really good at getting tears in her eyes at a moment's notice. Simmons left because she is an agent and has a job to to. She was not hired by Shield to be Fitz's nursemaid. Could Simmons ever see Fitz as a romantic interest? Does she imagine the day when she can pack him sandwiches, straighten his collar and tell him what a special, special boy he is? Their dynamic is the definition of codependent -- and to me, almost as creepy as Ward-Skye.

So, If Cary had just said he had taken a cab -- and paid cash -- there would have been no evidence to condemn him. And the Bail officer is in her 60's or so, and yet is savvy enough to know about and navigate a phone app for a car service within seconds? I highly doubted that. (Also, weirdly, Cary had a bowl of fruit on his counter top, which made me think, "How can a single workaholic lawyer get through a bowl of fruit when the two in our household can barely get through a bag of apples without some going bad?") So Diane, Kalinda, and Alicia think it's a good thing to hire on a completely useless lawyer just so they have have more expensive offices? Where is all this money coming from? It's sad how they are basically creating the exact same law firm they were so eager to break away from... I'm actually losing respect for Diane -- she's coming off as a pampered aristocrat who claimed to be youthful enough for a start-up, but then revealed herself as too old to change her ways.

When I realized this was going to be on at 10pm on Fridays, I thought "Well, they really aren't expecting much from this show .." - so I recorded it to watch later. It was .... okay .. but it felt neither scary nor very suspenseful. I think it was either the pacing or direction. And the main character's flippant attitude about everything sort of made me feel the same way. Sleepy Hollow does this type of atmospheric thing way better. I will be catching up for a few more episodes before cutting it loose -- maybe things will get better.

As far as CBS procedurals go, this is not the worst of the lot. (don't get me started on how ridiculous NCSI: LA is ..) But I'm wondering where they are going with the story line involving the main cast. I figure MQ's (Beth?) BFF is DOA. But I'm not sure about Dylan McDermott and the come-hither co-worker. ...And that's fine by me -- it's not often you can't see a trope coming from a mile away on a typical TV show. Speaking of co-workers -- what's up with the malcontent-ed Level 1 office guy and his hair that has been shaped into a ... shark fin? ... faux hawk? It's very distracting. I wonder why Dylan McDermott's character has not already psychoanalyzed that .. in his usual inappropriate way, of course. I continue to think the concept of this show could work. I mean, how would a single woman realistically respond if she discovered that someone had come into her house and removed all the bulbs from her lamps, but not stolen anything? How could the police realistically respond to that in a way that could prevent a yet-to-be-determined threat? ...But I doubt this show is capable of being subtle about anything.

ABC/Disney tries to downplay the live viewer numbers and spin the Live+3 numbers -- so if the majority of the AoS viewers are watching it recorded or on-demand, and ABC is okay with that, then moving it to Friday "shouldn't" affect its numbers.. I feel that ABC/Disney expected this show to be ratings success -- a success that didn't need to be explained by saying "Well, if you look at these numbers instead of those numbers, we are winning ... something..." But after 27 episodes, AoS still feels very Skye-centric (to me) and the general TV audience seems to have no urgent desire to see the show live... which, according to TVbytheNumbers, is what translates into advertising dollars.

Maintaining a prison is not a trivial side job. I was wondering how they would even manage to get food to Poison Gas Man.

Agreed. The actor playing Iris has sold her big sister attitude too well -- there's no sexy vibe between Iris and Barry -- only a brother-sister vibe. Barry just comes off as a guy confused about his feelings (like those guys who romance women before the "maybe I'm gay" light-bulb appears above their heads)...

I'm liking the new team members more than the old ones ... will the old ones start to fade into the background? ( I could handle less Coulson, Ward, Skye and Fitz on a regular basis -- they basically rehash the same stuff each time they appear.) I liked Coulson's game-set-match play of Raina - that's the way Fury would have handled a blackmailer. If only he would take the same no-negotiation approach with Ward...

quoted because I second this opinion : Also, I am glad they addressed Jonathan's "crazy eyes" expression -- it was weird -- it felt as if he was projecting his anxiety into my living room..

I believe the ratings are falling each week because the show is starting to be seen for what it is : a half-baked idea by Joss Whedon to cash in on the Marvel movie success that's been outsourced to people who don't have the vision or passion to make anything really shine (dialogue, plot, direction). Everything has that created-by-committee feeling of blandness. Even the press conferences , news releases and interviews come off as hyperbolic spin. Of course, the producers are saddled with D-List Marvel characters and probably lots of story line restrictions -- but there's no lemon-aid coming from those lemons..

I can't take him any longer... His expressions (and the close-ups of his expressions) make him appear to be a delusional man-child.

Still enjoyable for the second episode... I did find it odd how they tried to ground the concept of Clone Creep with talk about stem cells -- but then went WtF route with cloning clothes and weapons... But after only two episodes I feel like I am being beaten over the head with the Barry/Joe and Barry/Iris "drama". We. Get. It. You don't need to repeat essentially the same scenes from the pilot. If Barry 'almost' confesses his true feelings to Iris one more time, I'll probably start watching a day later so I can fast forward thru the stuff I wasn't very interested in the first five times..

They should have just killed Sarah off-screen. Bringing her back for five minutes just to kill her off was pathetic. And the whole Oliver/Felicity mess of "I love you to much to be with you" felt like crappy teenage fanfic. ("Lookie -- we managed to satisfy the shippers and non-shippers!" ). However, I did like that we didn't have to endure any more scenes in Club Verdant where Oliver's teenage sister is forever stocking the liquor supply.

According to TVbythenumbers.com :

And they have the Hydra symbol on everything -- even their field jackets. For a secret organization that existed within Shield for 60 years, they certainly got a bunch of logos printed in a hurry... And I'm in the same boat of boredom with one of the posters up-thread. I can't exactly pinpoint the reason... Maybe because they are again dragging out the same stories they drug out during season 1 : a) Coulson isn't quite himself b) Skye-flake's issues with ancestry.com c) Fitz needs a lot of TLC.

Just a few things : 1) Gasoline burns. When the stalker-killer poured it over his head as if it were water, without even squinting his eyes, it looked pretty fake. 2) The premise could make for good series. Stalking is a legal gray area which is difficult to prosecute -- but if the show keeps trying to up the ante and becomes violent torture porn ( like Criminal Minds), then I won't be watching on a regular basis. 3) I actually liked that DM's character called out MQ's character on the way she dressed. (Although the dialogue was poor.) Is she a police department leader or a Calvin Klein jeans model? Those pants were skin tight - and even the camera lingered on her flagrantly exposed cleavage. It's a bit like Lady Gaga wearing a meat dress and getting upset that someone stares. Would someone actually think they could dress provocatively (for themselves - ugh) but think that only attractive and respectful suitors should be allowed to take notice and make comments?

He killed Agent Eric Koenig, whose brother is in charge of their new 'playground' bunker. Wonder if the 'new' Koenig will ever bring that up? And Ward killed Victoria Hand, but I suppose her popularity isn't that significant in TV-land. ..But it's going to get old if we have to spend a segment of each episode having Ward give a Hannibal Lecture to the team. Basically, Coulson is negotiating with terrorists when he allows Ward to dictate the terms of how he shares information. Remember in the pilot episode when Coulson shot Ward with a serum that allowed Syke to ask him any question and he was unable to resist answering truthfully? ..Because the writers apparently don't.

After last season, I was already tired of the Fitz&Simmons BFF Care Bear Cuddle scenes, but they're still at it -- even tho it's in Fitz's head. Ugh. If Fitz's character is always going to be a sad sack who needs Simmons to pat his head and give him hugs and pep talks, I'd rather he be gone. ...Though the notion of Simmons being a regular character, but only in Fitz's head, is intriguing ... Ward as Hannibal Lector just feels forced to me. It appears as if the writers just want to keep the actor no matter if it makes logical sense or not. And Ward only wants to redeem himself in Skye's eyes only? Perhaps they could decorate his cell with pictures of the people he killed, you know, just as a reminder... I'm not sure if Lucy Lawless' character is dead or not -- but if she is dead, I hope they are not going to create as much media hype in the future for guest stars that are only going to be cannon fodder.. Overall, it still feels like the same show to me... Still centered around Skye, still over-explaining everything, still trying to be a band of sympathetic misfits and high-tech bad-asses at the same time..

I was offended on Cary's behalf when Alicia was slow flirting with Finn when 'battling' over bail terms. "Oh, Mr. Finn, let's promise to always be friends, no matter how vigorously you try to keep my partner in jail." "Oh Mr. Finn, your legal maneuvering is so skillful -- I did not see that coming." Perhaps if she were to make it personal, Cary might catch more of a break. Would she be so tolerant of the system if her son was the one in jail? For a while there, I almost suspected Diane of setting Cary up to eliminate any opposition to her power play in joining Alicia's firm. You know, the firm founded by a group of people Diane considered traitors a short while back. Well, that's ... not very original... I don't know... another season of seeing the same people basically doing the same things as before and facing the same people in court...?

Clearly, Molly and John were not fit to raise either robot or alien children... Overall, I found it all to be pretty underwhelming -- too many tangents and subplots that didn't seem to go anywhere.

Ah, this must be a magical fantasyland, adjacent to Seattle Grace hospital, where the sick kids never seem very sick (except for 15 seconds at a time) and the hospital looks like a modern art museum. Gotta love doctors and nurses who permit underage drinking on the night before surgery. I guess this show is no more unbelievable than Glee is/was, but it is definitely for a select audience. The sap rises too high for me ....

None of the 'master' plans on this show make much sense... The old rich guy puts a plan in motion that threatens the financial stability of the world -- so he can be immortal, but poor? The hacker chick helps to take down the internet -- so she can basically be useless? The Master and his evil Nazi butler know who Abraham is and could easily determine where he lives. But the Scooby gang decides Abraham's place is the best place to be? This show is starting to lose me...