Agents of SHIELD

OMG! COULSON LIVES!

Spoiler:

That's my guess.

Good pilot. Certainly good enough to keep me watching.

Guy I know quipped on Facebook that he wondered if he should go ahead and start the campaign to save the show from cancellation or wait a few episodes since it was on ABC, not Fox.

"We're gonna have to kill the fish tank."

"It's got a BAR!... A really nice one..."

Good stuff.

The fact that they got muthaluvin' Samuel L. Jackson to make a cameo appearance on a TV show speaks volumes for the support that it's getting opposed to Fox's lackluster support of Firefly. You gotta know, though, that I think Fury was chewing Coulson out more for form than for anything else. He loves Phil. Phil is a good agent. Phil gets shit done.

I wonder about Fury's fixating on "Your authority?!?" As in, "You were built from a kit! You have no authority!"

I was talking to my church's youth minister last night (he comes by on Wednesdays to study the Bible with Dad), and I mentioned my LMD theory, and he said that an LMD would be too obvious to a fanboy, that Coulson keeps referring to Tahiti as "a magical place". So, his theory is that some kind of magic might've been used to revive Coulson.

You can't rule it out -perhaps Scarlet Witch could make it happen.  That said, a simple magical revival doesn't seem like something they'd keep from Coulson.  ("He can never know.")

One other possibility would be that his return was Loki's doing.  It would be a very chaotic thing for him to pull.  Again, though, not really that damaging to Coulson's psyche should he find out.

Also, Coulson displays some really quick reflexes dodging the van door in the pilot episode.  Very matrix-y.  Might have just been really good training, but also fits well in the "not human" theory.

One more thing: Cavalry!  

Which would fit with the Scarlet Witch angle that's been mentioned before (not by us, by others). Supposedly he's dating a cellist. Scarlet Witch is supposedly a cellist (except never in print). And people think he's basically Vision now. Weak? sure, but the idea of magic restoring him would fit with Scarlet Witch, and let's face it, Coulson is every fan's dream. Still a nerd, but he's also one of the most trusted and effective agents SHIELD has. So the idea of him dating Scarlet Witch would just be that much more awesome.

One other theory I saw was that Coulson could have been a less than spectacular recipient of Cap's serum. Gave him long life, but not super strength or anything. In the show he has souvenirs from the 30s and 40s. Maybe those were gathered by him in the field, not collected like a collector would. Dunno. The shows is REALLY good though. I like it lots.

Calvary is kinda awesome.

"Don't call me that."

Ming Na is channeling her inner Mulan to play Melinda May. While we're on the subject of attractive women in the show, there's not a bad looking chick on the team. Skye and Simmons are both mighty fine in their own right.

This week's plot is a textbook Shadowrun extraction, including plot twist.

Indeed. I wonder what Skye's ultimate end game is, though. Obviously, Coulson knows what she's up to. I mean, he's Coulson... isn't he?

That depends...

Also, either SHIELD is a very strange organization, or the Professor was extremely high-value target, for them to ship him in the back of an 18-wheeler with two escort vehicles.

It was a Whedon-esque touch to be sure.

Speaking of Whedon-esque, go rent Much Ado About Nothing. Charming and packed with people from Whedon's other shows.

I would have sent the red masked guys out to keep everyone's attention, and then sent the diamonds out with someone looking like a janitor or pizza delivery guy. (Or maybe lutfisk delivery guy, it is Sweden after all.)

That said, another very Shadowrun-ish plot.

I'm kind of surprised that the SHIELD agents haven't ever encountered mutants. They kept going on that psychic phenomena are scientifically impossible, yet we know that Professor X and Magneto are both running around in their world collecting mutants with a variety of superpowers. Add on to that aliens and ancient gods invading New York, the world saved by an ancient god, a defrosted super soldier, a couple of world class assassins, a billionaire genius playboy, and THE HULK, and you'd think the super spies at SHIELD would be a little more open minded. That cyber eye was pretty much magical technology.

One thing to remember is that mutants and everything to do with them belongs to Fox, not Disney. While *I* think they should include at least the lore from their entire universe, the legal ramifications of doing so might be a pain in the butt they have no wish to endure. And besides, this way even SHIELD gets to be surprised by some things.

Peter MacNichol was surprisingly believable as an Asgardian, but I kept expecting him to start blathering about "Lord Viggo" the whole time...

Yeah, that was a neat twist.

I wish I could find more of these shots...

I really enjoyed Repair (ep. 9). Best use of the stuff from Thor 2, even better than The Wall (Ep . Peter MacNichol was quite believable as what his character was, but I still love his role in Numb3rs best. Actually this role was very much in the same vein as that, so I shouldn't be surprised he rocked it.