"Agent Carter" season one discussion and spoilers

[Rush Limborg]

Act IX:

Peggy REALLY seems to have a chip on her shoulder about men helping her, Jarvis or no.

I love the juxtaposition of the radio and Peggy kicking butt.

More "nothing's going to happen" cliché. Still, I'm still loving this, so far.

 

[Anwar]

I love how the theme for the Cap Radio show is "Star Spangled Man with the Plan!".

 

[Rush Limborg]

Act X:

Heh. "Evening."

OOH, knife in the hand! Pretty raw for prime time.

The symbol in the dirt. I'm curious as to why the guy would help them with his dying breath. Change of heart, or was he working under duress for "Leviathan"?

 

[Alidar Jarok]

^ I thought he had already doublecrossed them.

I wouldn't have minded this

Although it appears literally all leads but that symbol are dead now (and the milk truck guy, but I doubt he'll be much use).

 

[Rush Limborg]

Act XI:

Another great moment. Jarvis speaking to her vulnerabilities...and her shoulder chip.

And the cliffhanger: OH...CRAP. More suspicion against Stark, re: LICENSE PLATE!

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Although wasn't that the reason to ditch the car?

 

[Christopher]

I'm impressed that this is written by the same people who wrote the Captain America movies. That makes it pretty darn authentic. Also, the second episode was directed by one of the Russo brothers, directors of The Winter Soldier. (And speaking of "darn," I like it that Howard didn't curse in front of a lady. That would've been anachronistic, I think.)

The newsreel footage was not so authentic. It looked like modern digital-camera footage (I guess) with some fake grain overlaid, not like actual film footage at all.

I'm a little confused about the timing of the series relative to the short. I'd heard it'd be set before the short, and it seems to be, since Peggy hasn't already founded SHIELD. But there was a clip from the short in the flashbacks at the beginning.

"Crikey O'Riley?"

I may be reading too much into it, but Jarvis had kind of an odd reaction when Peggy said something about Howard's female admirers and Jarvis said "You have no idea." Could Howard's conspicuous womanizing be a cover for being gay? That would be an interesting twist.

Ooh, they've got a Fringe quantum typewriter! Well, not quantum, but it's very similar in the way it operates. And the typing paper looks a lot more period-authentic than the "newsreel."

The radio show is fun, but they're overdoing the helplessness of "Betty Carver." There were some relatively strong women in '40s radio adventure series, like Margot Lane in The Shadow and Lois Lane in Superman. (Also, I doubt an adventure show would've been a whole hour long rather than a half-hour.)

 

[DEWLine]

SO...is "Leviathan" from the comics?

I remember Nick Fury Sr. and company fighting a spy-camouflaged-as-cult-leader called Leviathan in the "Chaos Serpent" arc of NFAoS written by Dan Chichester. Art by Keith Pollard, I believe...?

Also, a Soviet-era variant on the SHIELD concept from Secret Warriors.

 

[CaptainCanada]

I'm a little confused about the timing of the series relative to the short. I'd heard it'd be set before the short, and it seems to be, since Peggy hasn't already founded SHIELD. But there was a clip from the short in the flashbacks at the beginning.

They've said that the short film is now non-canon. They consider it a proof of concept.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I was thinking the same thing about the helplessness angle, but I guess they're trying to make a larger point, however ham-fistedly (and they literally were doing sound effects with hams and fists in that studio).

Loved the last line in the Ant-Man teaser!

 

[Trekker4747]

I never got the impression from Iron Man that SHIELD was a brand-new agency. The only evidence of that was Coulson saying "we're working on it" when Pepper said their name was a mouthful. To me, that only suggested that they'd changed the acronym, not that the agency was new. Although it has since been established by The Winter Soldier that the current full name was in use decades ago. So maybe "we're working on it" just meant they were thinking about changing the name. Or maybe it was just Coulson being Coulson.

SHIELD seemed to me to be a new agency in "Iron Man." The "Homeland" part of the acronym seemed to me to be sort of a nod at the "Department of Homeland Security."

It was also very implied that SHIELD was a new agency as they were working on coming up with an acronym for the long-winded department name they had. I'd think if the agency had been around for the better part of 70 years "SHIELD" would have jumped out at them by doing what acronyms do and taking the first letter of the words in a sequence and forming a new word.

And the past-stuff we've seen of SHIELD in TWS suggests that the organization started in the 1940s shortly after Cap disappeared. The stuff in AOS have more or less bore this out in the past-sequences we've gotten.

But, I say all of this without having yet watched Agent Carter.

But, for me, "Iron Man" heavily suggested SHIELD was a new agency.

 

[The Master of Tarquin Hill]

I'm really happy with what I'm seeing.

I also like the fact that a healthy looking women is doing the fighting. Actors with stick figure arms doing fight scenes bothers me.

Based on just these first two episodes, I certainly think this show is strong enough for a second season.

 

[Christopher]

They've said that the short film is now non-canon. They consider it a proof of concept.

Which means it's still odd that they used a clip from it in the show.

Maybe we should think of it like a lot of the origin stories in Marvel's actual comics: The first account of the story is rather short and simple, and later accounts flesh out the story and change the details while still treating its broad strokes as true.

I was thinking the same thing about the helplessness angle, but I guess they're trying to make a larger point, however ham-fistedly (and they literally were doing sound effects with hams and fists in that studio).

Good one!

SHIELD seemed to me to be a new agency in "Iron Man." The "Homeland" part of the acronym seemed to me to be sort of a nod at the "Department of Homeland Security."

True... which is why it annoyed me when The Winter Soldier showed that version of the acronym in the decades-old bunker where they found Zola. That was a major anachronism.

It was also very implied that SHIELD was a new agency as they were working on coming up with an acronym for the long-winded department name they had. I'd think if the agency had been around for the better part of 70 years "SHIELD" would have jumped out at them by doing what acronyms do and taking the first letter of the words in a sequence and forming a new word.

I'm sorry, but that's a bizarre interpretation. If the agency had existed for 70 seconds, they could've come up with that acronym. Besides, as Grant Ward said in the AoS pilot, it's obvious that the name was chosen with the specific purpose of forming the acronym SHIELD. That wouldn't happen by accident.

When Coulson said "We're working on it," he certainly did not mean "We're too stupid to know how acronyms work." He probably meant they were trying to think of a different name altogether -- or maybe he was just being facetious. He is Coulson, after all.

But, for me, "Iron Man" heavily suggested SHIELD was a new agency.

Suggested, perhaps, but the thing about ambiguous suggestions is that they're easy to retcon away. And SHIELD has now been unambiguously established as an agency that's been around since the SSR disbanded in the late '40s. So there's no point belaboring something that was already definitively retconned at least a year ago.

 

[Greg Cox]

Although wasn't that the reason to ditch the car?

They ditched the car so that it wouldn't be found and traced back to Stark. But now that the SSR has the license plate, they don't need the actual car. They still have a link to Stark.

 

[CorporalClegg]

That was fantastic!

The pacing was right. The action was good without being over the top or ridiculous. The suspense was timely and on target. I loved the gadgetry.

If there was one area I think it can improve on is the humor. That's not to say it's bad, the bit where she posed as the health inspector was a riot. I just think some of the "witty" dialog wasn't so witty. It would be okay if it was a serious show, but it seemed to me like they want to parallel Shield in tone. I know that's not a fair comparison since Shield has a Whedon working for them, but I still think they can do a little better. Atwell's charm (all two-million megatons of it) can only carry so far.

I'm curious though, is there a lot of time travel in Marvel stories? Because, whether this gets turned into a series or not, it's totally going to happen.

I'm a little confused about the timing of the series relative to the short. I'd heard it'd be set before the short, and it seems to be, since Peggy hasn't already founded SHIELD. But there was a clip from the short in the flashbacks at the beginning.

They've said that the short film is now non-canon. They consider it a proof of concept.

Besides, they only had so much stock action footage of her kicking ass to use.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I'm a little confused about the timing of the series relative to the short. I'd heard it'd be set before the short, and it seems to be, since Peggy hasn't already founded SHIELD. But there was a clip from the short in the flashbacks at the beginning.

They've said that the short film is now non-canon. They consider it a proof of concept.

Link?

 

[Rush Limborg]

I may be reading too much into it, but Jarvis had kind of an odd reaction when Peggy said something about Howard's female admirers and Jarvis said "You have no idea." Could Howard's conspicuous womanizing be a cover for being gay? That would be an interesting twist.

I think it's reading too much; I seem to recall Peggy saying it sarcastically, as if she doesn't buy into the womanizing(probably due to her friendship with him). Jarvis is confirming that, yes, it's true.

The radio show is fun, but they're overdoing the helplessness of "Betty Carver." There were some relatively strong women in '40s radio adventure series, like Margot Lane in The Shadow and Lois Lane in Superman. (Also, I doubt an adventure show would've been a whole hour long rather than a half-hour.)

Yeah. Another thing I really think they're overdoing: the sexist remarks by the guys surrounding Peggy at SSR (not to mention the subplot in Part I about the jerk at the diner). "Wiggle over there," that kind of thing. It's like they're banging a metal club on our heads: "HEY, EVERYONE!!! MEN IN THE 1940'S WERE SEXIST!!!" ()

It reminds me of Camille Paglia's thoughts on Mad Men: that contrary to all the accolades, it's not an accurate portrayal of the 1960s, because it so choc-filled with the pretentiousness of hindsight: "Oh, look at how the kids were playing in the back seat of the car because there weren't any seat belts! Oh, look at how women were treated at the office!" That sort of thing.

(BTW: Paglia went on to note, if you want a real look at women's plight at the office in the 1960s, pull out Psycho and watch the first act, with Marion Crane's experiences at her job. There's the boisterous jerk who obnoxiously flirts with Marion...without the anvil.)

 

[kirk55555]

This show is so tedious. It felt like half of the first episode did absolutely nothing. So far, the show has one message that it screams at the top of its lungs:

WOMEN WERE TREATED BADLY FOR A LONG TIME, ESPECIALLY IN THE WORKPLACE BACK IN THE DAY

That is a fact, and not something they should have ignored, but I was ready to scream by the second SSR scene in the first episode. Then there was the horrible nightclub scene, some generic "action" and just overall barely any story. I mean, we know Stark isn't a traitor, and that he lives at least until Tony is, what, 10-18 years old? So sometime in the 1970s or 80s? Since Tony didn't grow up the son of a traitor (that would have been brought up by this point), this whole Stark storyline is pointless.

Jarvis is decent, and Carter is ok (except in the stupid nightclub and milk delivery service scenes), but it feels like there is barely any story. Its a worse start than Agents of SHIELD had, and as much as I like the show the first 8 or so episodes of AoS were pretty bland at best, outright bad at worst. I'm sure I'll end up watching every episode of Agent Carter, but so far its easily the worst thing ever connected to the MCU.

The plot (what it has) is boring. A fairly obvious frame (that anyone who has seen any of the Iron man movies can guess is definitely a frame), a generic secret organization, some lame characters and basically nothing particularly interesting going on. It practically screams about sexism, which is an important topic but is a really boring recurring theme in a show like this. I wanted to see Carter save the day and kick butt, not go around in goofy disguises or pretend to be meek around SSR agents I want to see brutally murdered ASAP. As it is, the show is tedious, preachy and fairly pointless so far. Hopefully it will turn around, or its going to be a long wait before AoS comes back.

 

[DigificWriter]

The impression that I got from The Winter Soldier is that the SSR and S.H.I.E.L.D. are and were the same agency, just under different names and with different budgets and allocations of resources.

That impression was also borne out by tonight's Agent Carter premiere episodes, since the stuff that Carter does is almost identical to the stuff that Black Widow is shown doing in The Winter Soldier and that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. shows its agents doing.

 

[Rush Limborg]

Loved the last line in the Ant-Man teaser!

Darn right! Who coined the name "Ant-Man", anyway? (Same genius who coined "Absorbing Man", I trust? )