I’m not going to tag this as anything because I don’t like drama but I was thinking about Agents of Shield recently (who am I kidding? I think about it a lot!) and I’m not totally up to date because UK channel 5 are annoying but I have an idea of what’s coming. #NoSpoilers because I don’t like them, I did try and avoid them but that’s next to impossible on tumblr heh.
Under the cut because I’m a coward. I just want to get this off my chest basically. I mean I don’t think anyone follows me for Agents of Shield so it’s likely nobody will even read this, but writing it down makes me feel better so /shrug. Just my two cents folks.
Anyway, to cut a long ramble short I’ve seen some posts expressing unhappiness about recent storylines. Again I reiterate I haven’t seen it myself, so I’m going off what I know and also (far more importantly!) what the show has been like in the past. I know I should probably wait to post this until I’ve seen the episodes myself but at channel 5′s pace that’ll be a couple of months away, and that’s if they don’t decide to take a summer hiatus mid-season.
Two arguments I’ve read
1) It’s the Fitzsimmons show and the other characters don’t get their due
2) What Fitz is going through right now is OOC and destroying his character etc.
THE POINT OF THIS POST – I just gotta disagree.
Two reasons for that
1) Early on I felt it was the Skye show and to be honest wasn’t a huge fan. On a rewatch I noticed that was unfair. I’d let my initial dislike of Skye colour my viewpoint and I noticed tons of awesome moments for all the other characters afterwards. One of the reasons I love Agents of Shield is because personally it feels like everyone gets a fair shake.
It’s true that they have character/relationship arcs that are more prominent at certain times but they take turns. Season four started heavy on Daisy with the Ghost Rider, then LMD May focused more on Philinda, the framework was Fitzsimmons and Mack etc. True I wish there was more of everybody but unfortunately the episodes are only 40 mins long. I would totally sit and love a 2 hour movie every week but the budget wouldn’t allow it heh.
Now I know that sounds just like a “you’re wrong” response and so I wish to clarify. I love everyone on Agents of Shield – I even love Daisy now – so I’m not seeing anyone on screen and wishing they’d leave so the time can go to my faves. HOWEVER I have watched so many shows where that has been the case, so I totally get why it feels like the show is all about X if you don’t like them/don’t ship it.
For me personally the show feels pretty balanced.
2) Oh this is the big one – consequences.
I love Once Upon a Time, please nobody misunderstand, but the show didn’t really deal with anything. Stuff happened, characters went through horrendous trauma, but that trauma was never ever dealt with. It would occasionally be mentioned but 95% of the time even that didn’t happen. The show just moved onto the next plot and didn’t go any deeper.
I suppose to a certain extent that’s why I love Once so much – it’s so inspiring. There is such rich, untapped material, that my imagination can go wild. I will never ever run out of fanfic ideas that’s for sure.
Anyway, another reason why I love Agents of Shield so much is that they don’t forget. They reference past events repeatedly. Characters learn from what’s happened and the trauma is shown and it’s not just used for an arc and then ‘ok you are better now’. Instead it’s a building block and it adds up.
Fitz had brain damage – referenced in 5×05 and that happened in the season 1 finale. He slowly improved over season 2 from issues with motor function and speech, but that didn’t mean he was magically better. Fastforward to more recent time and May said about the framework “it was like another life, the memories are as real as this one”. Fitz takes that to heart which is why he’s developed the current problem #NoSpoilers but Mack fights that, just declaring it’s not real, and punishing himself for how he feels about his ‘virtual’ daughter.
We don’t get to see everything – there’s only 40 mins per episode – but a lot plays out on screen. What’s even greater is like I just said above, the characters act differently, they are allowed to argue, to disagree but they still respect one another and are friends. The plots inform the characters, rather than the characters just acting out the plots.
Agents of Shield is damn amazing for that. I can’t think of many shows that have that same level of consistency. *gets off soapbox*
Let’s all cross fingers for season 6 and then more seasons after that shh don’t jinx it