Marvel TV: 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' - The Thread

[Russoguru]

At least now I have a legit reason to start watching Agents of SHIELD again.

[Edward J Grug III]

Really feels like they are trying to make it darker to capture some of the Netflix audience.

But it still has the AoS silliness that has always been there. (I am a fan).

[Russoguru]

Really feels like they are trying to make it darker to capture some of the Netflix audience.

Luke Cage starts end of the month if memory serves.

[k1]

Really feels like they are trying to make it darker to capture some of the Netflix audience.

Luke Cage starts end of the month if memory serves.

Good news! Your memory is correct!

[LucasM]

I enjoyed the episode too.  [Writing with vagueness instead of a spoiler:] The introduction was done in a way that gave the character some gravitas.  Clearly they are using their new timeslot's lessened limitations to good advantage.

[LucasM]

I thought others might find this useful, something I just did (when prepping a season of Blu-rays to send to a friend).  It is a full list of the interactions between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Agents of SHIELD, with films sandwiched between the episodes they fell between, and dates for each.

   Interactions between Marvel Cinematic Universe and Agents of SHIELD
   Spoiler-Free Version

Iron Man . . . . May 2, 2008
The Incredible Hulk . . . . June 13, 2008
Iron Man 2 . . . . May 7, 2010
Thor . . . . May 6, 2011
Captain America: The First Avenger . . . . July 22, 2011
Marvel's The Avengers . . . . May 4, 2012
Iron Man 3 . . . . May 3, 2013

Agents of SHIELD starts . . . . Sept. 24, 2013

Agents of SHIELD  1-6  FZZT . . . . Nov 05, 2013
Thor: The Dark World . . . . November 8, 2013
Agents of SHIELD  1-7  The Hub . . . . Nov 12, 2013

Agents of SHIELD  1-16  End of the Beginning . . . . Apr 01, 2014
Captain America: The Winter Soldier . . . . April 4, 2014
Agents of SHIELD  1-17  Turn, Turn, Turn . . . . Apr 08, 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy . . . . August 1, 2014
[between seasons]

Agents of SHIELD  2-19  The Dirty Half Dozen . . . . Apr 28, 2015
Avengers: Age of Ultron . . . . May 1, 2015
Agents of SHIELD  2-20  Scars . . . . May 05, 2015

Ant-Man . . . . July 17, 2015
[between seasons]

Agents of SHIELD  3-19  Failed Experiments . . . . May 03, 2016
Captain America: Civil War . . . . May 6, 2016
Agents of SHIELD  3-20  Emancipation . . . . May 10, 2016


While researching this (e.g. Epguides.com, Wikipedia for release dates), I ran across an article with descriptions of what the interactions were and how much impact the films had on the shows or vice-verca.  So here's a spoilered version with those descriptions added.  Spoilered for those who haven't seen some of them yet and don't want major (or minor) plot points spoiled.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

   Interactions between Marvel Cinematic Universe and Agents of SHIELD

Iron Man . . . . May 2, 2008
The Incredible Hulk . . . . June 13, 2008
Iron Man 2 . . . . May 7, 2010
Thor . . . . May 6, 2011
Captain America: The First Avenger . . . . July 22, 2011
Marvel's The Avengers . . . . May 4, 2012
Iron Man 3 . . . . May 3, 2013

Agents of SHIELD starts . . . . Sept. 24, 2013
     Avengers: Coulson’s death and resurrection are a central part of season one’s story.  In addition, at various times throughout season 1 the SHIELD crew run into Chitauri weapons and organic material left behind after the invasion that they have to collect.

Agents of SHIELD  1-6  FZZT . . . . Nov 05, 2013
Thor: The Dark World . . . . November 8, 2013
Agents of SHIELD  1-7  The Hub . . . . Nov 12, 2013
     The S.H.I.E.L.D. team cleans up a library in London after the climactic battle in the film.

Agents of SHIELD  1-16  End of the Beginning . . . . Apr 01, 2014
Captain America: The Winter Soldier . . . . April 4, 2014
Agents of SHIELD  1-17  Turn, Turn, Turn . . . . Apr 08, 2014
     Discovery that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been infiltrated by Hydra from the beginning, and ceases to exist officially. This was a major shake up for the show and the hinge point of the first season.

Guardians of the Galaxy . . . . August 1, 2014
[between seasons]
     The Kree are a major presence in the movie, and they were an important part of Coulson’s resurrection and Daisy’s Inhuman backstory.

Agents of SHIELD  2-19  The Dirty Half Dozen . . . . Apr 28, 2015
     Coulson is tracking down Loki’s scepter.  When found, he signals that it is time to send in the Avengers.
Avengers: Age of Ultron . . . . May 1, 2015
Agents of SHIELD  2-20  Scars . . . . May 05, 2015
     Coulson is working on a secret “Theta Protocol,” which is a hidden helicarrier for Nick Fury. In the movie the show's plot line gets a minimal acknowledgment, though its presence does result in many fewer Sokovian deaths.

Ant-Man . . . . July 17, 2015
[between seasons]

Agents of SHIELD  3-19  Failed Experiments . . . . May 03, 2016
Captain America: Civil War . . . . May 6, 2016
Agents of SHIELD  3-20  Emancipation . . .May 10, 2016
     Following Civil War, the Inhumans working with S.H.I.E.L.D. must deal with the registration and limitations from the Sokovia Accords. S.H.I.E.L.D. also comes back as a public entity.

Agents of SHIELD  4-?? . . . . Nov 1, 2016 ?
Doctor Strange . . . . Nov 4, 2016
Agents of SHIELD  4-?? . . . . Nov 8, 2016 ?
     It's been stated that the story of 'the box' starting in the season 4 opener of Agents of SHIELD will interact heavily with the Doctor Strange film.  There are what some might consider spoilers in the linked article (including one on a possible future guest appearance on SHIELD).  To me, the article was just a clear warning to not watch any SHIELD following Nov. 4 until after I can manage to see the film.

For anyone interested, the core of the descriptions of the effects of the films on Agents of SHIELD came from here: http://mcuexchange.com/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-will-tie-in-with-doctor-strange-and-fury-could-be-returning-to-the-show/  However, I've altered them to clarify them, add some additional information, correct minor content errors, and fixed a couple spelling mistakes the source page has (e.g. following Dark World they have "climatic battle" instead of "climactic battle" - the plot wasn't about changed weather patterns ).

[Ortega]

Like the introduction of Reyes and the Ghost Rider, but overall was kinda underwhelmed at the season premiere. And it has nothing to do with the show in general.  My own thing is the show is dealing with the aftermath of Civil War, and thats what kinda ruins it for me.

I HATED Civil War(It was a good movie, with good action, but a flawed and unwanted premise, at least to me).  I HATED the comic storyline, and i wasn't thrilled when they announced the movie.(The entire book storyline was horrible, and i won't defend that hamfisted Patriot Act allegory)  It basically destroyed the Avengers, and made Stark(who was already an asshole), into a huge asshole, without the charm of previous movies.  It put tension into a hero stable that didn't need it. And now the show has to rake through the muck of all aftermath.  It was interesting during the backhalf of season 1 and 2 for AoS to deal with that, and it did that pretty well.  However, with this season, I reserve judgement if it can.  To me the show is awesome when it does its own thing, it just seems to me when ever the show does something, the movies promptly ignore it.  But when the movies does something, the show is forced to deal with it like a younger brother having to deal with his asshole alcoholic brother's drunken binges.

That's my own personal opinion, but with no new major Captain America or Avengers movie on the horizon, hopefully they can get to tell a more coherent story this season.

[LucasM]

Like the introduction of Reyes and the Ghost Rider, but overall was kinda underwhelmed at the season premiere. And it has nothing to do with the show in general.  My own thing is the show is dealing with the aftermath of Civil War, and thats what kinda ruins it for me.

I HATED Civil War(It was a good movie, with good action, but a flawed and unwanted premise, at least to me).  I HATED the comic storyline, and i wasn't thrilled when they announced the movie.(The entire book storyline was horrible, and i won't defend that hamfisted Patriot Act allegory)  It basically destroyed the Avengers, and made Stark(who was already an asshole), into a huge asshole, without the charm of previous movies.  It put tension into a hero stable that didn't need it. And now the show has to rake through the muck of all aftermath.  It was interesting during the backhalf of season 1 and 2 for AoS to deal with that, and it did that pretty well.  However, with this season, I reserve judgement if it can.  To me the show is awesome when it does its own thing, it just seems to me when ever the show does something, the movies promptly ignore it.  But when the movies does something, the show is forced to deal with it like a younger brother having to deal with his asshole alcoholic brother's drunken binges.

That's my own personal opinion, but with no new major Captain America or Avengers movie on the horizon, hopefully they can get to tell a more coherent story this season.

I completely agree on the comic Civil War (for reasons summarized here).  I felt that if they had to translate it to film, at least they managed to make it less obvious a "ham-fisted Patriot Act allegory" (as you so perfectly described it).  I agree that it made Tony even more of a narcissist (bordering on sociopath) than already depicted, as he was almost single handedly responsible for the major problem (but took no responsibility for it!) that occurred that was not 'outside forces' - the one that actually gave the name to the Accords (i.e. Ultron, where the first truly major event, the first Avengers film, was an invasion from another dimension, so out of everyone's control and no-one but the Avengers could have solved it).

I would like it if there wasn't as much fallout from the films in Agents of SHIELD as well.  But with the organization government-linked, they get blown with the political wind a lot easier than Daredevil, Jessica Jones, (presumably Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and the Defenders as a whole as well).

Honestly, I feel like it is similar to what happened when J. Michael Straczynski was working on the Spider-Man comic(s).  He was doing some interesting stuff with the 'animal/spider totem/spirit' stuff, and was clearly heading in a particular direction with it.  Then the comic Civil War catastrophe hit, and all of a sudden Spider-Man became mundane.  It didn't surprise me at all that he quit the title VERY shortly after Civil War hit and he was - one can only presume - told, "you have to do x, y, and z in this title, because we need this totally out-of-character stuff to be done by Peter."  So that intended path was wrenched away from JMS (and us) and he was handed a full diaper that he was expected to change, when he'd had no intention of having that baby...  just like Agents of SHIELD.  [Though one would hope that AoS at least gets advance copies of scripts, so they can plan ahead for the stuff hitting the fan, where JMS was likely given very little lead time for the Spider-Man changes required for the comic Civil War.]

But I've digressed (rather a lot)....

[Pak-Man]

Eh, I like the movie tie-ins. The show didn't really even find its feet until Winter Soldier shook things up, and the little touches that make the universe cohesive are a lot of fun. I really don't think  there's been a huge impact on the show since then, either. A helecarrier subplot here, an Asgardian there, a couple "Sokovia Accords" name-checks to justify things the show seemed to already be heading toward. Of course I enjoyed Civil War, as well, so grain of salt.

[Ortega]

It was a few things:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Coulson no longer Director, the team being split up into different departments, Skye(Daisy, Daisy, Quake, whatever) being on the run seemed to be aftereffects of the Slakovia Accords

Hopefully with Reyes and the Ghost Rider, they can have a storyline that won't have any Cinematic tie-ins that can hamper it.

Also, with the expection of Civil War, I've enjoyed the MCU films.  Age of Ultron was enjoyable, and Winter Soldier was fantastic as Hydra was unveiled.  And most of the standalone films are great.
I just think they tie-in them movies, without even the barest mention of the shows in the movies.

[LucasM]

I have liked many of the crossovers.  But to me the core idea of Civil War (comics especially, less so the film) is an irritant.  But far more than the 'hero fights hero' (which is a tired enough trope), I massively dislike the 'government takes control/registers/captures superbeings' trope.  It is a distraction from other events that could be happening, and I think far more often than not, results in repeated disruptions of the flow of the storyline.  At the very least, like the Spider-Man/Civil War comic problem I mentioned in a previous post, it makes the story mundane.  If/when I want to watch something about day-to-day politics, I'll watch Designated Survivor.  I watch comic-related films and TV to get something different, more S-F/fantasy based.

Hopefully with Reyes and the Ghost Rider, they can have a storyline that won't have any Cinematic tie-ins that can hamper it.

Sorry to say, Ortega, but it's been stated that the story of 'the box' will interact heavily with Doctor Strange.  There are what some might consider spoilers in there (including one on a possible future guest appearance).  To me, the article was just a clear warning to not watch any SHIELD following Nov. 4 until after I can manage to see the film.

Also, with the expection of Civil War, I've enjoyed the MCU films.  Age of Ultron was enjoyable, and Winter Soldier was fantastic as Hydra was unveiled.  And most of the standalone films are great.
I just think they tie-in them movies, without even the barest mention of the shows in the movies.

I think the thing limiting the cross-overs is that the two divisions (TV and film) are run by two different people, with the scripts for the films having to be written often well over a year before the film is released (e.g. they're working on Infinity War now).  For that reason, there could never be any kind of timely commenting about anything going on on any of the TV shows unless they are cross-planned well in advance.  The reverse is not at all true, as it is easy for a TV series - being written just a few weeks to a couple months before air-date - to insert a quote about the latest film event (when, presumably, they have access to shooting scripts to plan accordingly).  So I think it is largely practical reasons, rather than aesthetic ones, that prevent most in-film referencing of the TV series events.

But with SHIELD supposedly disbanded since Winter Soldier, and with them working in secret, theoretically no-one below a certain clearance level would know that non-Hydra agents were still active and being hunted (since I think Talbot lumped them all together in the TV press contacts shown on-screen [though I could be mistaken]).  I agree though, that now that they are legit again, they could be known to exist by the film heroes and mentioned accordingly, though any timely mention of plot events from SHIELD seem unlikely, other than those planned out well in advance (e.g. the 'box'/Doctor Strange crossover, and previously Winter Soldier and Civil War).


[[Clearly, with the volume I'm writing, I'm likely seizing and need to STFU.  LATER EDIT: yeah, just edited this for like the fifth or sixth time to hopefully get it 'just right'... definitely seizing.]]

[Darth Geek]

So I think it is largely practical reasons, rather than aesthetic ones, that prevent most in-film referencing of the TV series events.

There's also the budget issue. While Agents of SHIELD has a high budget for a TV show, they don't have the budget to deal with the more elaborate movie based characters. I remember right after the events of Winter Soldier they discussed how SHIELD safehouses had been breached and many of their more dangerous captives had escaped. Including Blonsky! You'd think that recapturing THE ABOMINATION would have been a pretty high priority for them. But no, we don't have the budget to show that.

[Russoguru]

Okay, I tried watching the season premiere of AoS and I was... I hate to say it, but very bored. 

[LucasM]

Fun/enjoyed event in the latest ep.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The flaming chain was a confusing point in the promo poster to some, since James used one last season.  I liked that Ghost Rider hadn't used one during the first three episodes, and grabbed it during the fight when James was using it as a whip, then looked at it like, "hmm... think I'll keep that." 

[Edward J Grug III]

Yep, we just watched the last two eps and they were excellent.