Agents of Shield and Arrow Last 2 episodes

[Blackferne]

I have been pretty impressed with both shows ramp up to season finales.

Arrow:

Spoiler:

Merlyn is back! And I do not believe Thea shot him, but rather someone behind him. I am shocked that Isabel is after Felicity. I am not sure if that is under Slade's direction, or just out of not liking Felicity and wanting to do another cut on Ollie. Laurel is much better to watch, and Sara seems like her arc is coming to a close with Laurel picking up the Canary wig I would imagine.

Action has been tremendous. The tension has been great, I am so jazzed for the season closer, but afraid of what cliff hanger we will be left on.

SHIELD

Spoiler:

This show is finally where it should have been all along. This last week was a bit lower in awesome than last week, but I think it is a transitional for whatever cliffhanger they will leave us on. I'm glad Simmons is CLEARLY not Hydra like some bloggers/redditors have been speculating. It was neat seeing Cybertek being old school. And Sky being monster or alien from china? Weird, but why the hell not. I guess that is why she won't need the TAHITI treatment like Coulson got. May's gonna teach Sky Hate Fu....so awesome. I love May so much. I can't tell if Ward is gonna be redeemed or not, and I kind of hope he doesn't flip back.

[Furiel]

I have been pretty impressed with both shows ramp up to season finales.
SHIELD

Spoiler:

This show is finally where it should have been all along. This last week was a bit lower in awesome than last week, but I think it is a transitional for whatever cliffhanger they will leave us on. I'm glad Simmons is CLEARLY not Hydra like some bloggers/redditors have been speculating. It was neat seeing Cybertek being old school. And Sky being monster or alien from china? Weird, but why the hell not. I guess that is why she won't need the TAHITI treatment like Coulson got. May's gonna teach Sky Hate Fu....so awesome. I love May so much. I can't tell if Ward is gonna be redeemed or not, and I kind of hope he doesn't flip back.

I haven't watched Arrow, but my thoughts on Shield...

Spoiler:

I think Ward will be redeemed, but still leave the show. I'm betting on him sacrificing himself to save Sky and muttering something about it being a weakness as he dies. And Ward's death is going to trigger something in Sky and the cliffhanger will be her unleashing her inner monster and destroying Garrett and the other HYDRA there and in the process possibly hurting the rest of the SHIELD team. The final scene will be Sky standing alone with bodies strewn everywhere and her going "What am I and what have I done?" and we'll spend the summer wondering did Sky kill everyone, and if she didn't, how will they all deal with her knowing what she can do?

[Dashl]

Shield

Spoiler:

I still think Shield is pretty lame, they have access to an entire universe, but just keep throwing names of the famous ones out. I think IGN called it "the little kids table" of the Marvel universe. With Sky, they should have just went with the origin of Ms. Marvel right from the start, instead of whatever the hell she is. Ward still needs to die. In season 2 they need to bring out the big guns.

Arrow

Spoiler:

Arrow has been amazing. This is how you do a superhero live action show. Cuspar agrees with me (I got him hooked, and he is almost caught up) that Diggle needs to be John Stewart, Green Lantern. They have the same background. I almost expect us to find out that is his real last name or something. They probably won't though, and blame it on being too expensive, and that having "a magic ring" would stop everything and they wouldn't have anything to do. I wish they would go nuts, call it earth 2 or elseworlds, and bring on alternate Batman and Superman and have a Justice League, at least for sweeps. Smallville did that a couple of times, just no Batman or Wonder Woman.

Arrow>Shield

[Bulwark]

Spoiler:

couldn't you make the same 'little kids table' argument for arrow? We have 1 super hero with occasional glimpses of black canary? I like the perspective that Shield is taking. In a universe full of super powered beings, you still have to have normal folks dealing with what is going on around them. We can't just rely of superman to swoop in and save the day every time; that would get formulaic and old. By being weaker, we get to see the rely on theirs wits, not just raw strength to overcome challenges.

[Blackferne]

Spoiler:

couldn't you make the same 'little kids table' argument for arrow? We have 1 super hero with occasional glimpses of black canary? I like the perspective that Shield is taking. In a universe full of super powered beings, you still have to have normal folks dealing with what is going on around them. We can't just rely of superman to swoop in and save the day every time; that would get formulaic and old. By being weaker, we get to see the rely on theirs wits, not just raw strength to overcome challenges.

Spoiler:

I think the Arrow is kids table argument is pretty valid. Green Arrow is not usually considered a first round pick on the Justice League (see Justice League in the Timverse, or the current round of Justice League in the comics. Green Arrow BEGGED to be part of the JL in the comics only to be turned down (and in the case of Hal Jordan mocked).

It basically comes down to the tiers of heroism. You have the Cosmic tier which require someone like a Lantern, Superman, or Wonder Woman to deal with. Then you have a step down to more city and street level heroes. Batman should be in this tier, but he gets to basically be Prometheus so he can hang with the JL.

That said there are great stories at the street/city level hero tier. That is my favorite zone for the most part because it isn't gods fighting. I love Arrow, but it is on par with SHIELD on the pantheon. The difference is that the MCU is so rich right now with Iron Mans, Thors, Captain America etc that AoS feels like the kids table, while DC's cinematic universe has Man of Steel and Arrow available, so Arrow gets to really shine.

[Dashl]

Spoiler:

I am going with Shield still being the little kids table, because compared to Arrow, they are on a larger network, have more money for a budget, and have access to tons of characters. Yet, they use mostly newly created for tv characters. I also think that it is very boring show. I still watch the show, but I did read that the viewers have declined to half of what they were at the start of the season.

[Whiteness]

Spoiler:

I am going with Shield still being the little kids table, because compared to Arrow, they are on a larger network, have more money for a budget, and have access to tons of characters. Yet, they use mostly newly created for tv characters. I also think that it is very boring show. I still watch the show, but I did read that the viewers have declined to half of what they were at the start of the season.

Viewers declined to half of the pilot, but the show dropped a 1/3 of viewers from the pilot to the second episode so the current numbers aren't that drastically different than the early episodes aside from the pilot. They've also been airing it sporadically since it came back after Christmas, 2 episodes in January, 1 in Feb, 2 in March and only in April have they been shown weekly again. It has strong DVR numbers.

[Dashl]

I know the plan next season is to air half, then take a break and a small order of the new Agent Carter series will air, then the last part of Shield. That should help, instead of a new episode then two or three repeats after that.

[Blackferne]

I want to say I think Dashl and I are largely in agreement. Arrow is the better series at this point, and has I think been the better series show for show through each of their first seasons. Shield did/has problems, but it is still entertaining. I think the biggest problem is that tying it to the MCU winter Soldier movie really made it feel stalled for a while. Regardless next year we have all these comic shows to watch

1) Arrow (featuring #bitchwithwifi)
2) Flash
3) SHIELD
4) Gotham
5) Constantine
6) Peggy Carter
7) iZombie (know nothing about this one, not sure if it is in my interest zone)

[Dashl]

Yeah, that is a lot of tv to watch next fall. At least Hannibal was renewed. Sucks about Community though.

[Bulwark]

I think the biggest problem is that tying it to the MCU winter Soldier movie really made it feel stalled for a while.

Spoiler:

Honestly, I like how shield has been tied to the last couple of movies. It makes it feel like a bigger universe where important things are going on beyond the scope of the series. That's a hard impression to get across in a tv show. Granted, the winter soldier tie in has made things drag along for a while, but I enjoyed how the buildup to the hydra takeover was timed perfectly to the same even in the movie.

[Blackferne]

Bulwark

Spoiler:

Don't get me wrong I think that the tie ins have made both better. Seeing Sitwell in Captain made his Hydra allegiance that much more of a "OMG!" and Cap destroying SHIELD has mad the show better. It just felt that the repeated break weeks, and episodes which didn't feel like they were advancing the plot, made the show suffer to a degree.

One thing I still have hope for is that SHIELD gets a Babylon 5 plot thing going. If you have watched Season 1 of Babylon 5 it seemed like the story was all over the map at times and had Jess and I both going 'why do people love this?'. But Starting in season 2 every episode in Season 1 was for a reason that became more apparent as the series goes on because the show runner apparently had a big 5 year plan in a binder from the start.