Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D… where do I start… I want to like this show for two main reason: it is inspired by comics and created by Joss Whedon (I dug all of his other shows & films). But it’s not clicking with me. Something is missing. It seems tame, almost like the creative team is holding back. Would the show have a different tone if it was on another network? Did the ABC/Disney element mute the tone?
What I liked:
The hints of characterization for May before she reverted to cliche warrior woman.
More clues about Coulson has changed after being shanked by Loki (I still believe that he’s Life Model Decoy (highly advanced robotic duplicate of SHIELD Agents)).
The prospect of improved Extremis villains.
More details about Skye’s past.
What I was expecting:
Some of Steranko’s trippy spy fiction.
High tech weaponry and gadgets (the hovercar isn’t enough).
Official Uniforms.
Recognized Agents like Carter, Wu, Dum Dum, and Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine
Some actual villains because the “making of Graviton isn’t enough” and these pastiches of established characters aren’t enough. Tired off the misunderstood post-humans after NotLuke Cage.
A fully fleshed out cast: it seems like Coulson and Skye are getting all of the characterization, Ward, May, Fitz & Simmons are so cliche.
Review (Spoiler Free):
Tonight’s episode felt like a remix of the pilot episode. Both episodes featured seemingly innocent post-human goes nuts after interacting with Centipede. “Scorch” lacked the emotional tether & motivation of NotLuke Cage and the drive for acknowledgement wasn’t enough for me.
As a small community prepares to execute a remorseless killer, the sky above the town turns pitch black. Even as the Sheriff and the town priest try to figure out what’s happening, the town prepares to administer its own version of justice.
Some reviewers have complained that this Twilight Zone episode is a bit too heavy-handed for its own good but it’s actually one of my favorite episodes, (Then again, I’ve always been against the death penalty and, for the most part, critics only consider a show to be heavy-handed when they disagree with the message.) While the writing may not be subtle, this is a well-acted episode and, while watching it, you truly do get the feeling that a community is slowly giving into the darkness of hatred.
This episode was written by Rod Serling and directed by Abner Biberman. It was originally broadcast on March 27th, 1964.
John Newland is back with yet another “true” story designed to take us One Step Beyond. In this episode, a young boy named Dewey goes missing but then shows back up and says that he’s been hanging out with a Bigfoot-like monster.
“I see when the shit hits you’re standing there with a shovel.” — Daryl Dixon
[some spoilers]
Last week saw the return of AMC’s wildly popular horror tv series, The Walking Dead. The show ran huge ratings numbers which seems to still confound it’s critics. These are numbers that rivals Sunday Night Football ratings numbers. Yes, the show has had issues with character development and acting, but it continues to bring in more and more viewers. Could it be that the show is satisfying a jaded public’s appetite for bloodlust? If that’s the case then gory horror films should be doing much better in the theaters, but that’s definitely not the case.
With the show’s return we get to see what sort of long-running arc new showrunner Scott M. Gimple has planned for the series. With the first truncated season it was all about Rick adapting to this new dangerous world and reconnecting with his lost family. The second season saw a change in showrunners with series creator Frank Darabont fired and replaced by veteran producer Glen Mazzara and we saw the change in the show’s pacing and storytelling. What was a much more deliberate pacing under Darabont became much more about forward momentum. This worked for the most part and complaints about the show going in circles and nowhere died down, but Mazzara was soon replaced by the end of season 3.
So, the Scott M. Gimple era has begun and with last week’s premiere we found a season the started off full of hope and normalcy, but since this is a horror series that peaceful serenity ended just as fast as it was introduced.
“Infected” takes up very quickly after the cliffhanger of the season premiere which saw one of the new cast members die of some disease (I’m guessing a strong strain of the flu) in the showers and left unattended. If we’ve learned through the three seasons of this show that any death will cause the body of the deceased to reanimate and go looking for living flesh. So, that rule hasn’t changed and we see Harry Potter, I mean Patrick, get up from where he died in the showers and into a cell block full of sleeping people.
Tonight’s episode played out almost like a sort of crucible that Rick had to go through once more to find his true self. Last week’s episode showed us how Rick has turned his back on being the group’s leader. He’s stopped carrying his revolver when stepping beyond the prison’s fences. He’s trying to be a better role model for his son Carl who we saw last season become much colder and murderously pragmatic. Tonight we saw Rick having to face that decision to stop being a fighter and leader to become a farmer instead.
From the very beginning of the episode we see the seeds of doubt being planted in Rick’s mind that while his decision to forgo being a leader and fighter may save his son Carl from lsoing his childhood innocence he must believe deep in his heart that it’s a fool’s task. Rick is trying to regain a semblance of pre-zombie apocalypse world by being a better father to Carl, yet in doing so the group lost a person who had protected them from Atlanta and through Woodbury. It takes and outbreak within Cell Block D and the sorry state of the prison fences to finally wake Rick up from his utopian dream. By sacrificing the piglets Rick was dropping the act of being a farmer and going back to what he was good at doing and that’s protecting the group and killing zombies.
We see the opposite happening with the once meek and victimized Carol who has taken all the personal loss she’s had to go through the last three seasons and allowing that crucible to forge her into a survivor of this new world. She might’ve sounded harsh when dealing with the young girls and how they must learn to defend themselves even if it means killing a dying loved one, but nothing she said tonight was in the wrong. She’s adapted and accepted her new role as protector of the group even if it means she might alienate some. Rick was like this but could never find the balance between ruthless efficiency and empathy towards other survivors. It’ll be interesting to see what sort of pay off Carol’s character growth will mean not just for the group as a whole, but for Daryl who has formed a close relationship with the former victim.
Tonight’s episode was much stronger than last week’s by a wide margin. Where last week’s season premiere seemed like a new showrunner playing it safe with tonight’s episode we see a stronger and more focused narrative that looks to dominate at least the first half of this new season. So far, the new season had promised a new danger to harry the group and now we see what it is and we still haven’t seen the absent Governor. Scott Gimple promised that the show was going to go back to making the zombies a true danger once again after the human-on-human carnage from last season and if the first two episodes for season 4 were any indication he’s keeping his promise.
Notes
“Infected” was written and directed by series veterans Angela Kang and Guy Ferland.
Just when I thought Greg Nicotero and his make-up effects wizards at KNB EFX couldn’t top themselves they come up with several gory gags in just the first 20 minutes of the episode.
While some think it unbelievable that no one heard Patrick chowing down in the next cell one has to think that these people thought they were safe. The way the dead just geometrically expanded from Patrick to suddenly many in less than a morning was a nice touch.
It looks like we now have two new medical professionals with unnamed dude with the beard and Bob “On the Wagon” Stookey.
Carol has definitely grown as a character from the damaged housewife from season 1 to growing badass in Season 4. She’s even dressing up to look like one to match the new survival mindset.
The show has never been gun shy of putting children in danger but it was a tough scene to watch the one young mother carrying the small, bloody bundle out of Cell Black D to be buried.
I was very surprised at the event which finally looks to bring out the badass locked inside bug teddy bear Tyreese. I was thinking that it was something terrible happening to his younger sister, but definitely did not see Karen’s death at the hands of an unknown assailant as being the catalyst.
One the best gags in tonight’s episode was a nice homage to George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead were Greg Nicotero apprenticed with FX master Tom Savini and also appeared as one of the soldiers tasked with protecting the scientists. Here’s the scene in question from that film…
Tonight’s episode will definitely not amuse PETA. Not one bit.
Talking Dead Guests: Series exec. producer Greg Nicotero, comedian Doug Benson and Paramore singer Hayley Williams.
Of all of the world’s real-life monsters, Jack the Ripper is one of the most iconic. Whether it’s because he was never actually caught or because he committed his savage crimes during an era that we associate with emotional and sexual repression or maybe just because he has a memorable name, Jack the RIpper continues to both fascinate artists of all genres and haunt the nightmares of viewers and readers like me.
Tonight’s episode of televised horror on the Lens deals with Jack the Ripper. This episode of Thriller was originally broadcast on April 11, 1961 and is based on a short story by Robert Bloch. It was directed by actor Ray Milland.
Without further ado, here is Yours Truly, Jack the RIpper…
When I first decided to feature episodes of televised horror, I very much wanted to include the classic Twilight Zone episode, Nightmare At 20,000 Feet. However, the full episode wasn’t available on YouTube and that was truly unfortunate. Along with being a scary episode of classic show, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet was all about flying, which is something that scares me.
However, as I was searching through YouTube, I did come across an episode of Ghost Stories entitled Last Flight Out, which also deals with this very primal fear that so many of us have. It’s no Nightmare at 20,000 Feet but it’s effective in its own way.
As for Ghost Stories, it was a horror anthology series that aired from 1996 to 1997 on the Fox Family Channel. As you can probably guess, each episode told a story about ghosts and, in the great anthology tradition, each story ended with a twist. Each episode was narrated by Rip Torn.
Thanks a lot, YouTube! Way to protect those valuable reruns of Goosebumps!
As a last minute replacement for that forbidden episode of Goosebumps, here’s an episode of Hammer House of Horror. First broadcast way back in 1980, Into the Abyss deals with Satanists in London. It may not be R.L. Stine but it is Hammer and that’s not bad.
Much as I knew that, when I started featuring horror-themed television show for October, I would have to include at least one episode of Are You Afraid of The Dark?, I also knew that I simply had to include at least one episode of Goosebumps.
After all, R.L. Stine helped to introduce me to horror so I owe him a great deal.
The episode below — A Shocker On Shock Street — first aired on September 6th, 1997.
(AGCK! Apparently, the copyright police suspended the YouTube account that hosted this video! Sorry about that — Lisa)
Scott, Fred, and Steve may be teenage rebels but they’re rebels with a cause! And that cause, of course, is to conquer humanity and maybe find a girlfriend. And, of course, all three of them wear black leather jackets…
This is actually one of the sillier episodes of The Twilight Zone but I like it. I think any girl who has ever wondered if boys are from a different planet can appreciate this episode.
Black Leather Jackets was originally broadcast on January 31st, 1964. It was written by Earl Hamner, Jr. and directed by Joseph N. Newman.
When Flight 107 out of Buffalo, New York makes a perfect (if unannounced) landing, airport officials are shocked to discover that the airplane has no passengers, no luggage, and no pilots! It’s up to Grant Sheckley (Harold J. Stone) to solve the mystery but Sheckley has a secret of his own.
This episode of The Twilight Zone was written by Rod Serling and directed by Boris Sagal. It was originally broadcast on September 22nd, 1961.
Through the Shattered Lens 