As you might know when Doctor Who is airing I write , a regular column where I dissect the latest episode. I thought I would do a similar thing with new show Marvel's Agents of SHIELD but then I realised there were a few geeky programs on this week that I might also want to talk about. And thus a new feature was born to fill the quiet Sunday spot where every week I will chat about the latest things I have been watching. Oh and it'll be full of spoilers so steer clear of a section if you don't want the episode spoiled.
MARVEL'S AGENTS OF SHIELD: 1.01- PILOT
"With great power comesa ton of weird crap that you are not prepared to deal with"
A TV show which is set in Marvel's Cinematic Universe as the regular (or at least non super-powered) guys at SHIELD face all sorts of weird and wonderful things. And Agent Coulson is back from the dead. I was always going to love this. The plot of the first episode is pretty simple- Coulson brings a team together to handle Michael Peterson, a man who has been given super powers but it struggling to cope with them. It all works out OK but we are left with lots of questions of who exactly was behind giving him these powers. As it is the first episode I thought it would be a good idea to discuss the team:
Agent Coulson: Everyone already loves Coulson and he continues to be brilliant as soon as he steps out of the shadows. There is a mystery surrounding his apparent death in The Avengers. Coulson seems to reckon his death was faked and he spent some time in Tahiti. Agent Hill and Dr. Streiten implied this was wrong suggesting he did actually die. But if that's the case how come he is here?
Agent Ward: The tough guy of the team who likes to get dirty and beat people up. He's a bit of a smart alec too. I like him.
Agent May: The reluctant member who was supposedly only called upon to fly the plane. We didn't see her that much but she seems pretty awesome. And the actress that plays her voiced Mulan!
Fitz: The team's engineer who is pretty much the character of Scotty reborn. This is no bad thing really.
Simmons: A biochemist who has a pretty terrible English accent. It's hard to like her with such a bad accent.
Skye: The woman who does the usual TV thing of joining the team in the pilot episode. She is pretty badass though. It is great to see some strong female characters but you would expect no less in a Whedon show!
The show was packed with Avengers and Marvel references such as the flying car, the phrase "Journey into Mystery" being used, Peterson saying it's an origin story and the fantastic Spider-Man misquote from above. There was literally endless ones and I liked how Peterson had been given super powers through all the ways the Avengers became superheroes (technology, gamma radiation, super soldier serum) and how he was an Extremis. Therefore this must be set after the events of Iron Man 3 and as SHIELD knew about Extremis they must have known about Stark's activities in the latest film. All in all it was a great show, sort of like a Marvel version of Torchwood and I see that as no bad thing at all.
THE IT CROWD: THE LAST BYTE
"I don't want Anonymous after me. I'm in Anonymous. I think!"
How can the IT Crowd have ended forever? I adore that show and its a shame to see it go but at least we did get a final send-off, a hilarious hour of the trios final adventures. In the episode Moss discovers wearing women's trousers gives him confidence and Jen and Roy get into all sorts of trouble after an unlikely series of events sees them hated by the internet. It is hilariously funny and manages to take the mickey out of lots of things along the way like Twitter and Anonymous. It's also packed full of past references as Jen appears with the internet and Richmond makes a brief appearance and has a lovely, if unlikely ending, where our heroes suddenly end up in charge of the company. Who would have thought that? A great final episode which was very funny and successfully tied the series up in an understated way.
ATLANTIS: 1.01: THE MAN BULL
"You're the Triangle Guy "
Atlantis is the BBC's new Saturday tea-time drama to replace the slot vacated by Merlin. It had a bit of an odd start as it saw a man called Jason looking for his missing father by going down into the ocean in a submarine.Something went wrong and then he washed up on the shores of Atlantis to discover an Ancient Greek style city with real monsters in it. The Oracle informed him he was actually born in Atlantis and is destined to save the city. His Father remains missing and his Mother is apparently dead. But Jason has shown signs of almost having superpowers so my early theory is that he is a demigod and one of his parents, probably his Mother, is a Greek God.
I'm still undecided as to whether the whole modern start thing was a good idea or not. Jason soon seemed to feel at home though and made friends with Pythagoras (yes, the triangle one) and Hercules (probably not the hero one). From then on the story turned into the classic Minotaur story as Jason was sent into the Labyrinth and managed to kill the man bull. I have to say it was probably the best version of a Minotaur I've seen on TV. I'm guessing a few classic Greek myths will be retold over the course of this story but they are all brilliant so that is no bad thing. I'm wondering if Jason will become the Jason with the Argonauts and the golden fleece etc? It's not perfect but Atlantis was good fun and found it's feet quickly so I have high hopes for the series. I guess only time will tell
And that's all from this first edition of Square Eyes! Do let me know your thoughts on any of the shows mentioned and I'll be back next week talking about the difficult second episodes of Agents of SHIELD and Atlantis and some other stuff too! Thanks for reading, see you soon!
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