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monker4444 · 4 years

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My over-indulgent tribute to Agents of SHIELD

In 2012, as a college student, I saw The Avengers in theaters opening night. It was a viewing experience that would change my life. Seeing the audience reaction to that film, hearing the enthusiasm, I realized that my career trajectory was wrong: I didn’t want to write novels, I wanted to write for the screen. I wanted to create something that elicited THAT level of excitement and engagement.

The next year, my sister told me that they were making a spin-off show all about the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization from Avengers, and it would star Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson. I was immediately excited about this show even before I saw the first episode. I had grown up on shows like Get Smart and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. so I was in love with the spy television genre. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. seemed right up my alley, plus I had loved Agent Coulson from all of the Marvel movies up to that point.

I watched the release of the AoS pilot live, and from that moment, it became a weekly ritual. As a writer, I walk away from most movies/shows thinking, “It was really good, but if I had been writing it, I would have done this thing differently.” But the first season of Shield was different. I watched every episode thinking about the writing, “They did exactly what I would have done.” The way they defined and developed their characters, the way they balanced monster-of-the-week type programming with advancing the larger season arc, the way they seamlessly tied themselves into the greater Marvel universe was just outstanding across the board.

I remember the big push they made to have fans go out to the theaters and watch the premier of Captain America: The Winter Soldier between episodes 116 and 117, and boy, watching that movie with the full understanding that its events impacted the narrative I had been engulfed in on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was one of the most surreal viewing experiences of my life. I drove back to my campus with my friends in the car, all extremely rattled by the events of that film, and we tried to predict what the show was going to do. With my writers mind, I remember the moment I pieced it together and realized who was going to turn in the next episode. We got back and basically immediately watched the episode Turn, Turn, Turn and my mind was blown. It was such a huge event, and I truly pity all of the fans that have joined the show late in the game and weren’t there in those early days. There was truly nothing like experiencing that tie-in in real time. It broadened my mind on what was possible to do through TV, and it solidified the feeling that had been festering inside of me for over a year: I wanted to be a television writer.

Fast forward another year and it was 2014. One of my great friends had managed to get us both tickets to the San Diego Comic Con, and the cast and creators of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. would be in attendance. Over the course of that week, I had more dream-come-true fan moments than I could even recount here, but chief among them, I got to meet Maurissa Tanchereon, the Co-Creator of AoS and one of the Showrunners on it. I got to give her a letter I had written and I got to thank her face-to-face for writing the show. As a female writer, I was so inspired by her career, and having her stand right there in front of me, holding my hand while I gushed over her talent, was like a tangible proof that my dreams were possible. I didn’t just have to WANT to be a tv writer; I COULD be. I could do it.

Fast forward another few years and I took the first step towards working in TV. I volunteered as an unpaid PA on a feature film being shot in my area. I made contacts and worked my butt off and soon, I was getting hired onto the next production, then the next one. I worked my way up in the industry in Oklahoma until I was ready to make the move to a bigger market. I moved to Los Angeles at the beginning of 2019 and have been working fulltime in the television industry ever since.

Now, I am a writers PA, closing in on the end of my first stint on a scripted television show, getting to sit in the writers room of a major Disney+ series and hear all of these brilliant writers work their magic. I have finally gotten a look behind the curtain and have learned so much from the talented people in our room. I’ve been able to pitch a few ideas or lines from time to time, and in every possible way, this feels like only the beginning. I am looking for my next gig in scripted television, and in the meantime, I am developing my own pilot. I am doing this, you guys.

And what has remained a constant, through this whole journey, has been the show that started it all: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Every year, they find a way of reinventing this show and telling a new and exciting story. The characters have grown and been challenged in every way possible, and I feel like I have grown and been challenged right alongside them.

Now, I’m sad to say it’s goodbye. Tonight, the show’s finale episode is airing, and you can bet that I’ll be there, decked out in all of my fan gear, to watch the final mission as it airs. And I just couldn’t let a day like this go by without taking a moment to write this tribute, to commend this show for the legacy it has had, and thank those responsible for literally changing the trajectory of my life.

So thank you to the brilliant creative team, Maurissa Tanchereon, Jed Whedon, Joss Whedon, Jeff Bell, Jeph Loeb, and many others. Thank you to the wonderful writers who have inspired me for years with their great work (I can’t possibly list them all, but here are the writers behind just a few of my favorite episodes), Rafe Judkins, Lauren LeFranc, Drew Greenberg, DJ Doyle, Craig Titley, Brent Fletcher, Paul Zbyszewski, Monica Owusu-Breen, and so many others.

Thank you to the talented cast who brought the pages to life: Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Ming Na Wen, Elizabeth Henstridge, Iain De Caestecker, Brett Dalton, Henry Simmons, Nick Blood, Adrianne Palicki, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, Jeff Ward, Joel Stoffer and so so many others.

Thank you to Mark Kolpak and his amazing visual effects team for making the impossible look so real (and also for his incredible social media presence, serving as our man on the inside and releasing all of the behind the scenes goodies). And thank you to Bear McCreary and his team for creating the iconic soundtrack to this epic adventure week after week. The sound of that main theme on the French horn will never fail to inspire me and make me feel like an Agent.

There are countless other people that I don’t know by name and can’t thank but they too played a vital role in making this show happen, so thank you.

This show has been such a huge part of my life for the past seven years. It has broken my heart, made me belly laugh, and pumped me up more times than I can count. It has given be new friendships that will be with me all of my life. It has inspired me to try and succeed. It has influenced the way I write and the way I watch. And one day, I’m going to create a show that is exactly as good, maybe even better.

So thank you Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I’m proud of you. You’ve been the best. And I’m ready for tonight’s final mission.

--Agent Grice

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ayankun · 4 years

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real quick before I get into season 6

So this is my second time watching Season 6 and I’m p. excited. This last week or so I’ve been dredging up bits and pieces, but most of it is a blur. It seems the memories that lasted this whole year were mostly of the huge armored truck and the nonbinary character who works at *spoilers*’s tech startup.

I’m curious to see if the second time through it’ll settle in like it belongs. I remember Season 5 really didn’t make any sense to me until I saw it again.

But really I’m just excited that in 11 hours I can watch the new stuff?!

But first, before I forget, here’s my last thoughts on Season 5.

So remember how I was surprised at Season 1′s structure, that it folded up nicely down the middle with some pretty tidy symmetry?

None of the other seasons do that.

Instead, I remember particularly strongly how jarring the end of the Ghost Rider arc was in the middle of Season 4. And then again when the (what I’m calling) Kasius arc also wrapped up mid-season.

I’m not sure when I read about it, but it probably was circa Ghost Rider, that they’d intentionally decided on what I’m pretty sure they called “pods” of episodes, these seasons-within-a-season sort of narratives.

Season 2 sort of kicks it off, what with the race to Terragenesis taking eps 1-10 and the Afterlife/splinter SHIELD stories filling 11-22. Then Season 3 has the monolith/Maveth mystery to start, followed by Hive & the Inhumans for the second half. S4 is super poddy, obviously branded as Ghost Rider/Agents of Hydra, and S5 also splits neatly into future!Lighthouse and present day!Lighthouse.

Two points to make on this:

Kasius is such a rockstar villain that I feel really bad for Hale/Ruby/Talbot. They’re so apples and oranges but having the highlight come first allows for unfavorable comparisons to be made. It’s like asking any well-to-do Kree to compare Xandarian snail to oops all berries.

Good thing they’d had all this practice writing complete stories in 12 eps, since I’m hoping Season 6 (and obvs Season 7) will still feel as fully formed as their longer antecedents.

Anyway, that first point is my major point for S5.

S3 already feels like the second half of S2, and its internal halves are the most similar to each other as any of the other “pods,” so it’s not like people have a reason to go around saying “I liked the first half of the season waaay better than the second.”

(although I might. I might say that, actually. but not because the halves were branded separately from one another)

And S4, though the two halves are barely identifiable as coming from the same show much less the same season, they’re both good. Robbie Reyes is perfect. The effort to incorporate new MCU topics/aesthetic from Doctor Strange is great. Robots who just want to be a real girl is my JAM. All the Framework cameos really make my day! And then Robbie Reyes comes back all deus ex machina (ironic) and saves the day, and

it makes sense that he does because the function and nature of the Darkhold was well established in part 1 and

it’s GREAT that he does because he’s perfect and we miss him.

Then here comes S5. I really really respect so much about the creative decisions that took the story where it went (ie, outside Papa MCU’s sphere of interference), and getting to reuse the same set in a different context while minimizing “on-location” shoots is just technical and financial genius, okay.

But there’s so much about the first half, in the future, that compels me waaaaaaay more than the gritty anger of the second half.

Kasius, WOW what a villain. Dominic Rains, everyone. I have nothing unkind to say about the performance, the character, anything. Impeccable. Spectacular. Perfection.

The mystery of the season opener! We had the tag scene where Coulson’s “in space” and plenty of time to ruminate on the how and why, especially with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 coming out right as S4 ended and Thor: Ragnarok literally sizzling in the theaters at the same time as this season started. They answer the question by the end of the episode, but not before several characters come up with and pursue several different theories, and that’s fun.

What a way to capitalize on the Inhuman storyline your show’s been about for years now, without forcing Papa MCU to contend with all this good work you’ve been doing. Just go somewhere he can’t reach you (the future), and then un-write all of it anyway. V. tidy. Extra style points will be awarded.

LEITMOTIFS. If y’all’ve seen BSG, then you know Bear McCreary is a master of the art. But this season has so many good themes, my friends. The Daisy/Quake theme that’s been knocking around for a season is here in full force, and Sinara’s is the best bad guy theme you could have wanted, and dearest sweetest Flint has the best great guy theme you ever heard.

Just, while we’re here. Sinara. She says nothing for episodes (it feels like, I wasn’t counting) and her first line is a scornfully growled “compassion.” Give it up for Florence Faivre !!! She hardly has any lines but you always know exactly what she’s thinking and what she’s about. Sinara and Kasius have the richest on-screen chemistry of anybody on any show from any era fight me on this I dare you.

Mack’s coming down from his second life in the Framework, and that suuuuucks that these folks never have a moment to rest before barreling into their next story. But he gets to be a father to Flint! And Yo-Yo gets to be a mother!!! UGH why couldn’t they have brought Flint instead of Deke lololol oh well.

I think I know another reason why Lincoln seems overhyped to me. That other Inhuman, Ben I think his name is? He’s in like two episodes, serves a narrative purpose, and is disposed. I know Lincoln’s in like 18 times as many episodes but they have the same exact overall impact on my brain-hole. Imagine if it was Ben that came back with them instead of Deke. That’s how I feel about Lincoln. Like, how did this obviously disposable character make it this far?

Then you have Deke. You love to hate him. He’s a very well-fashioned character who is flawless in making you feel the way the showrunners want you to feel. That’s the kind of character that gets killed off twice and still comes back, and it doesn’t surprise you.

So, Enoch. Enoch is everyone’s favorite character, right? Right. Give me genderless robots with a soft spot for humanity ANY DAY. PLEASE where are they I need them. (I’m un-repressing memories of S6 and I feel like somehow I should be careful what I wish for) Man I remember with 1000% clarity the absolute glee I felt sitting down for the opening montage of S5 the first time, how ballsy weird it was, just watching this freaky bald alien of a man go swimming with some fun electro pop number playing in the background. 100/10 please make more television like this

More monoliths!! The time one is so pretty!

(remember when there were more monoliths and no one knew where they came from or what they did but then it didn’t matter because they got instantly exploded?)

The low-key obvious answers to the season’s questions, what with the Inhumans running all over the shop, Quake there to tear everything down and Flint there to put the pieces back together I’m not crying you’re crying

Oh man, and Simmons getting to mentor not one but two Inhuman youths to be confident and trust in themselves and their powers. What a ways from the fear-panic response to Daisy when she turned.

Also, yeah, it has to be said, this show’s blatant “you’re different and that’s okay” agenda sits very well with me. Agents of SHIELD says LGBTQ+ rights!

So anyway, part 2 falls a little flat for me because its strength is its themes, but I’m not really compelled by the stakes and definitely not by the villains and not really even by the intra-team drama.

Obviously S2 touched on parenthood, but it was pretty specific. S5 digs in and brings us a lot more on the topic.

Kasius desperately desires his father’s approval but very deeply despises the methods and the people who earn it.

Hale was indoctrinated by Hydra and was very earnest in wanting to uphold the values of the organization, until the organization (and Whitehall) shared with her their narrow appreciation of the gift of her loyalty. Even then, she struggles to make sense of this loyalty, only realizing too late that being a good Hydra pawn and a good parent are categorically mutually exclusive.

Ruby, obviously, is like a mini-Kasius, the brave-faced rebel who wears her mother’s disappointment on her sleeve like a badge of honor to pretend that it isn’t crippling her.

The Von Strucker kid, boy is he messed up (and his Hydra dad had something to do with it)

((echos of Ward are still heard even this far after his demise, and we know what his father figures were like))

Poor Talbot, got some brain damage and some Hydra conditioning on top of that, cracked that noggin wide open. He just wanted to do good by his family. Just wanted his son to know he loves him.

Polly and Robin. The daughter who needs constant special care because she’s stuck inside her own mind and the mother who’s been through hell and back and still manages to do her best. Even when she knows she won’t always be there for her daughter. Even when she knows she’ll be replaced.

May getting a glimpse at the life she and Andrew once talked about. Getting a chance to do right by that little girl.

Mack recovering from getting that same glimpse, from the echoing memories of a life time spent with his greatest regret erased. Being roped into being a thug and threatening that dad without knowing the meaning behind his threat -- being told that people like him don’t deserve the privilege of parenthood. But then getting to know Flint, and having Yo-Yo at his side while they fast track this kid through all the things he’s gonna need to know in order to be the Big Damn Hero the world needs him to be.

The timey-wimey promise that FitzSimmons will one day be parents to a brilliant daughter who will unfortunately give birth to a Deke.

Coulson and Daisy. Another parent placing enormous expectations on his daughter, desperate that she be ready for his responsibilities because his time is running out. A daughter who mishandles these expectations and refuses to stop fighting a losing battle, not because she’s not ready to step up, but because she doesn’t want to face the fact that she’s losing the man who raised her.

Anyway, aside from all this good Theme work, part 2 wades perfunctorily through musty remnants of the previous season, from The Doctor to The Russian. Which makes sense, because that season ended in a way that left so many loose threads -- but then this season comes along and summarily ties them up, all cute little bows, the lot of them. Dusts its hands. Nothing to see here. Move along now. Time’s up.

#Agents of Shield #aos

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pcinvasion-blog · 7 years

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New Post has been published on PC Invasion

New Post has been published on https://www.pcinvasion.com/battlestar-galactica-deadlock-review

Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock Review

Battlestar Galactica’s 2004 revival and its various spin-offs disappeared from our screens a few years ago, but it’s a series that retains a strong following. Despite this level of name-recognition and a setting almost tailor-made for the medium it hasn’t had much success in the world of videogames. Until now that is, when the license has been astutely dusted off by Slitherine and Black Lab Games for Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock; a title dominated by tactical fleet combat.

Based around the 2004 version of the series, Deadlock is set during the events of the First Cylon War. As prequels go, that puts it a long time before any of the events involving Adama and company. However, a couple of familiar surnames do crop up throughout, and the campaign story-line takes a brief pass at some of the more overt themes: uneasy Colonial alliances, authoritarian military decisions in times of crisis, and the ontological status of the Cylons in relation to humanity.

The narrative is pretty sparse (and while I did watch the show I’m not a die-hard, so I don’t know if this plot retcons anything), but it does a reasonable, if slightly confusing, job sketching out a version of events for the war. It’s with aesthetics, though, that Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock does the series much more justice.

Space bureaucracy, someone named Agathon … yep, this checks out.

The ship roster on both Colonial and Cylon sides has been expanded in order to depict earlier designs and provide a decent line-up for each. Alongside Jupiter-Class Battlestars and Cylon Base Stars you’ll find vessels like the pragmatic Adamant Frigate and the Raider-filled Cerberus Carrier. These creations fill their respective tactical roles, but also look and (mostly) sound the part.

Audio in Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock is handled very well. DRADIS pings sound straight from the show, and, while the studio didn’t get Bear McCreary, Ash Gibson Greig’s score does a fine job channelling a similar tone of space-mysticism. Combat effects are a bit more mixed (engines and missiles are generally good, Viper attack runs sound rather weak), and the voice acting ranges from decent to somewhat flat. You can’t skip any of the dialogue sequences, sadly.

The fact that it treats the license with care should automatically win the game a certain amount of affection. Those looking for a squadron-based fleet tactics game with a lighter dynamic campaign overview will find things to like too. After a few linear tutorial missions, Deadlock opens its galactic star-lanes up with a few elements reminiscent of XCOM. Cylon threats will harass the Colonies, resources run thin as planets consider defection, and named fleet commanders can be upgraded with straightforward skill trees.

Two fleets, and two Cylon threats. But I’ve also got missions to deal with.

The strategic campaign mechanics have a bit of an ‘old school’ feel to them, which I don’t mean as a pejorative, but which I do mean to imply are initially unforgiving. Aspects like how dedicated you should be to putting out the fires of Cylon raiding fleets, and what amount of ship losses can be deemed ‘acceptable’ without tanking your long-term prospects are left rather obtuse. A few display choices, like the method to check on Cylon fleet strength (not by clicking on them, or hovering over, but in a dedicated tab in the bottom-left) are poor decisions.

Only the semi-random Cylon fleets have their strength displayed at all, so whenever you approach a side or main mission you’re going in blind. Main missions escalate in a pretty identifiable pattern, but the side stuff (a useful way to acquire more resources) remains haphazard. You won’t know until you’re there whether you’re facing a handful of corvettes or the brute force of a Cylon vanguard (except for the missions that explicitly state it’s a Cylon strike team in their text). Retaining some suspense about enemy forces is fine, but the more egregious moments are likely to just get players re-loading a save.

But even though it’s somewhat flawed, the campaign layer of Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock does succeed in getting you to think carefully about allocating sparse resources to ship construction, research, and even to travel (spooling up your drives every single turn gets costly). That said, I think most will resort to creating powerful second or third fleets and auto-resolving the steady stream of Cylon raid encounters, as the alternative is awfully repetitive. I’m also unsure if you can ever truly ‘lose’ from too many Colony departures, as that never happened during my campaign.

Definitely blundered out of my depth here.

The tactical heart of the game is in the more crafted fleet encounters. In-game logistical limits mean that battles are restricted to seven (on your side) versus seven-but-sometimes-more on the part of the Cylons, but that often turns out to be plenty to consider when ordnance and fighters are included. I’m also not sure the present UI could handle the density of more ships.

Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock uses a turn-based system dubbed ‘WEGO’, in which orders are input for both forces and then the turn plays out in real time. That means you need to keep in mind where the enemy ship will be when you bring your firing arc (hopefully) to bear upon it. Same goes for the movement trajectory of all nearby vessels, because you don’t want to end up with a collision. Unless, of course, it’s a last-ditch suicide maneuver. Space in Deadlock is 3D, so there is a Z Axis in play with any movement decisions as well.

The AI doesn’t have any particularly incredible tactics, relying instead on numbers and (in missions) scripted surprises, but it does stick well to its roles. Smaller Nemesis ships will use their hacking abilities to cripple your fleet’s systems, Gunboat-type vessels will close in for broadsides, missile barges will generally stay back and launch salvos, and so on. It’s up to you to figure out the best counters to these combined-arms assaults. Often, that’s the ever-reliable Adamant Frigate, which can equip both ordnance (armour-piercing, anti-missile, even a nuke once they’re researched) and fighters.

The latter are incredibly useful. A few Viper squadrons can obliterate a much larger ship with a hole or two already punched through its armour. They’re quite handy in defense too, able to shoot down approaching missiles.

Things can get a little crowded when you’ve got a full fleet of seven and fighters galore.

A further layer is added by the ‘ship posture’ mechanic, allowing you to tweak how much of an attacking or defensive stance the vessel will have that turn. You can ramp up the defense to stave off a hacking attempt a little longer, or go for maximum levels of firepower just as you lure a ship into several firing arcs at once. The UI for applying all of these things is adequate, but also fairly basic in presentation and large enough to obscure parts of what can become quite cluttered space battlefields.

Satisfaction in the 14 mission (12-15 hour, on Normal difficulty) single player campaign comes from overcoming the odds in combat and leading your stretched forces to victory. Lack of resources (and the fleet cap) means you’ll always be up against it in the story missions, but deft use of the tools available will always give you the advantage over a capable, but somewhat predictable AI.

It’s then possible to revel in these victories even further with the post-mission replay function. I don’t normally make great use of these systems (a one-off spectacular goal in FIFA or something unique like SUPERHOT, perhaps), but the one in Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock is rather brilliant. It replicates the in-fight camera style from the show (a lot of pan-and-zoom, and Viper nose-cam) to retell the story of the battle. Several missions in, I was still dipping in to these to watch a bit of glorious tactical acumen played out in cinematic style.

Dramatic nose-cam action.

But while the post-battle replays are great, a major incentive to replay the actual campaign is presently a bit lacking. Upping the difficulty to its hardest setting (and struggling with even fewer resources) is really the one and only option, because once you’ve played the main missions you can’t ‘unlearn’ the times when additional Cylons show up. That initial mad scramble to adjust to new threats won’t really happen a second time.

To find new challenges in Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock you need to turn to Skirmishes (which can be both single and multiplayer). Offline, you can test yourself against Cylon forces as either Colonial or Cylon forces in mid-sized or large matches between pre-created or customised fleets. I can only presume you can’t fight against Colonial AI because it doesn’t yet exist.

Multiplayer offers both one vs one combat and two player co-op against the AI, the latter of which is an unexpected but welcome inclusion. All the tactical options from the single player campaign are available here, as are the same point-based and numerical fleet caps.

Playing around as the Cylons provides a neat change of pace.

Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock earns itself a lot of goodwill for the attention it pays to an unloved (in the world of games, at least) license. That care extends furthest to the tactical combat, which in many ways is a logical extension of Black Lab’s previous Starhammer title. Fleet limitations mean the conflicts are more squad-sized, but this does result in each ship being more of an individual unit than an expendable war resource; plus it avoids the awkwardness of even more UI clutter. The combined-arms approach of firing arcs, missile types, and fighter roles works well, and means each mission can present a compelling set of challenges with various solutions.

The strategic campaign layer is the weaker of the two distinct parts. Having the threat of Colonial defections affecting your resources is a solid retread from XCOM, but the Cylon raids are too haphazard and end up more like irritations than a genuine, constant danger. But it does possess a certain old school, obtuse challenge that I appreciate, and commits to making you allocate slender supplies. While Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock has its share of minor problems, they don’t significantly detract from some engaging tactical encounters within a universe of familiar sights, sounds, and Cylons.

#Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock

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