4.22 World's End

[Cli-Fi]

Ghost Rider makes a surprising return; Coulson and the team work to stop Aida from ending the world.


I would give both Fitz and Mack an emmy this year. So much pain.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Evil Fitz was good.

I really liked the surprisingly long dark otherworld of the framework. Perhaps the best alternate/dark mirror type reality I can remember seeing. However, the ending, in the real world, was a bit diablos ex machina.

 

[WaylanderToo]

tee's up the next season quite nicely... very intriguing!!

 

[Brian G Turner]

I didn't enjoy how the season was going toward the mid-point - but everything got ramped up nicely for the Agents of Hydra section, and I really enjoyed that.

 

[thaddeus6th]

I wasn't against the first half (I did like Ada) but it was a little directionless. The latter half was great, best dark mirror type world I think I've seen on TV.

 

[Ursa major]

In retrospect, I can understand why the pre-Agents of Hydra episodes had to be somewhat directionless (although I myself enjoyed those episodes as the were): the show was

1. setting up Ada's existence (which had to be done from the ground up)
2. setting up the environment in which it could work (also created from the ground up, at least for those of us who never read the comics that may have mentioned it);
3. setting up the conditions by which Ada could be defeated;
4. giving a reason for Holden Radcliffe to help the agents (even though the ante had been upped so that his own existence was threatened by his giving of that help);
5. providing plausible villains of the piece in the meantime.

I think the Agents of Hydra section would not have worked as well as it did -- and I agree that it was great -- if all that groundwork had not been laid properly. A series of rushed set-ups would have looked too much like a combination of Chekov's guns waiting above various mantelpieces and convenient uses of deus ex machina.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Interesting observation, Ursa. That has echoed of the first season, the first half of which seemed to go on a bit, but without that the latter half wouldn't've had the same impact.

As an aside, Stargate Universe is being repeated and it's odd seeing May and Mace in practically reversed roles.

 

[Ursa major]

They do seem to have got the knack of building to a big (and emotionally engaging**) season climax, even when the characters have been dealing with what could be seen as -- and occasionally were -- existential crises at many points during a season.

Even the end a person who's been portrayed as morally grey (at best) was moving, even though we knew it would be happening. (I'm referring to the "dropping" of that glass of spirits onto the sand. A really nice touch, I thought.)


** - Rather than simply, say, upping the size of the explosions.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Aye, that departure was a nicely done moment.

And I agree. Bigger explosions is the TV equivalent of bullet sponge bosses in videogames. Adds nothing.

 

[Glaysher]

Interesting observation, Ursa. That has echoed of the first season, the first half of which seemed to go on a bit, but without that the latter half wouldn't've had the same impact.

As an aside, Stargate Universe is being repeated and it's odd seeing May and Mace in practically reversed roles.

Jason O'Mara wasn't in Universe?

 

[thaddeus6th]

Glaysher, upon checking, you're right. They're completely different people. Ahem, my mistake.

However, looking at Mace in Supermodels of SHIELD and Young in Stargate Universe, they do look pretty alike.

 

[Marvin]

In retrospect, I can understand why the pre-Agents of Hydra episodes had to be somewhat directionless (although I myself enjoyed those episodes as the were): the show was..............

Good job they have 22 episodes to play with!

---

I think we have all become numb to ever larger explosions, since the advent of cgi, writers have been regularly leveling cities and destroying whole worlds.
Explosions just don't cut it any more! Hopefully writers are seeing this now and it will lead to more thoughtful scenes - like the glass in the sand.