I find all of the cast inoffensive at the end of the day. I'm not watching the show for them or Coulson, and that's not going to change so I had to accept it and enjoy every display of superpowers that I could.
By 'inoffensive' do you meant that as in 'they don't bother me' or as in 'boring'?
I feel like they're all a bit too blandly polished to really drive interest. I didn't notice it until someone pointed it out, but Skye being this airbrushed, long-haired glamour model in terms of looks hurts her character quite a bit. It didn't convey a hacker who'd been living out of their campervan for a year. When she has all that took with her ex-boyfriend about money, it's hard to believe that Skye knows anything about being poor.
The whole cast is like that really, they've all got the requisite tragic backstories, but none of them feel like people who've actually gone through those things (apart from May maybe). They're all pretty people passing some witty banter back and forth, which isn't a good background to contrast Coulson either
They don't bother me Tom.
Ah, sorry =D
TV characters in general have pretty much always looked way better for wear than they ought to. :/ And also cave bears live in caves.
i care but i'm restless, i'm here but i'm really gone, i'm wrong and i'm sorry, baby
That's true, fighting against that in some way is always a good method to standing out a bit. Breaking Bad's bald head is a good example of that.
I think the way they're pretty looking is particularly blandening here though. Like Kaylee of Firefly was always a pretty character, but she wasn't pretty in the gloss magazine way. In Shield they always look like they're modelling for a particularly vapid magazine. (Apart from May and to a small extent Coulson, but Coulson's character was meant to be a little fussy in terms of that sort of thing it's just his crew aren't giving him anything to contrast against)
Oh man thinking down that route is giving me another mini-rant again. Part of the cool of Coulson's character was he was a bit awkward, a bit unpersonable and not the sort of person anyone would expect could ever really be heroic. And then in Avengers all that is paid off and made awesome because it turns out he was heroic all along in his own geeky way and actually all those things Tony Stark would write him off for are actually kind of cool and admirable in their own way.
But the early episodes of Shield play it absolutely straight and forget all that stuff to lionise Coulson. Coulson's always cool, Coulson's never wrong, in any situation he walks in and makes it right. It takes like 5 episodes in before they even have a story that doesn't resolve with 'Coulson's right'. And it kind of spoils what made his character special and what made his moment in the Avengers special
I think it's because he's the leader of the group. Coulson has to step it up in such intimate surroundings because this isn't a large group of people running around randomly and spread out. This is a bunch of people in a plane. Besides, they've talked about how he was different before he came back to life. And he was.
I like the show, I don't care for Skye either, I put up with her as a necessary evil and for dumping all the cliche storylines onto. My favorites are Fitz and Simmons and suspect it will be one of them to die next. It is the Whedon formula.
If it's true that wherever you go, there you are, maybe you need a better map.
Honestly, while I do like the show, I think it's pretty clear the writers, actors, and directors haven't found their niche yet. But that's okay, lots of shows took time to figure out what they wanted to do and became better once they did. A great example of this would be Star Trek: The Next Generation, or, heck, even Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. So while I'm still waiting for things to really kick off, and a bit worried the show will be cancelled before they can, I'm going to keep watching and waiting. If things do finally come together, it will be worth it.
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So-So Super Secret Spies
As of this writing, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has aired half of its first season. I'm a relative newcomer to the prime time drama community, but I expected a lot more out of it by the half way point. Maybe that's being unfair, but when you want something to succeed you have to hold it to a higher standard.
Ao S has a good premise. Agent Coulson leads a team of his fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents as the world adapts to super beings after the Battle of New York. We're introduced to Agents Ward, Fitz, Simmons and May relatively quickly while wild card Skye is brought in as the audience surrogate, the newcomer to the shadowy para-government deal. I don't have a problem with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s logo being everywhere, if they have their hand in every pie then its stands to reason they can't be that secretive. I like it's portrayal as a higher-than-high government division.
What I don't like is Skye (Which has been strongly hinted to not even be her real name. How mysterious). Before, Coulson brought a lot of dry, spot-on humor to the films. Now, everyone gets in on the lighthearted joking action, leaving Coulson's quips a lot less indicative of his character, and no character is more guilty of this than Skye. I can't shake the feeling that she's meant for all the uninitiated female viewers to project onto. That's not bad in and of itself, but the most cliche stories were drawn up for her. She's quirky, motormouthed, unrivaled with networking and computer stuff, able to get in and out of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top secret databases and flirts shamelessly with Ward. If those two don't end up together in the most drawn out, agonizingly melodramatic way, I'll be honestly surprised.
Skye aside, the show also suffers from a lot of slow episodes and redundancy. So far, Ward and May do the exact same stuff, fight really well, except May is better at it and Ward has a Tragic Childhood. Fitz and Simmons hide away in the lab and got a grand total of one defining moment each while Skye and Ward smolder at each other. And Coulson delivers his quips sandwiched between two comedic scenes.
All told, I do like Coulson's team. Ten episodes might be a little unfair, and I do see the show blossoming beautifully as Skye moves out of focus, but for right now, blowing up a minor character and kidnapping a team member just don't have me gripping the edge of my seat.