Marvel Agents of SHIELD

The most recent episode of Marvel Agents of SHIELD was disappointing. The episode in question is entitled: Yes Men and features SIF come to earth to retrieve Amora, a sorceress that has the ability to enslave men with her words and the enslavement is guaranteed if she can touch them. My problem isn’t with the bastardization of Norse mythology or even deviations from the original comic. I’m taking this show as a stand-alone effort and so far I’ve enjoyed it.

My problem with the latest episode is lazy writing. Either it is lazy writing or a crappy premise that they had to write around. No, I take that back, it is still lazy ass writing. It’s lazy because it wasn’t consistent within the confines the show had set up. Forget external consistency, I rarely make those arguments for that way lies madness, especially with all of the remakes and reimaginings going on throughout the land.

I do hold a television show or movie accountable for keeping true to the characters they have set up and consistency in their actions. I’ll even cut them brakes for different seasons and make an exception within a given season if there is sufficient motivation like some life changing event.

There were two huge and one minor inconsistency in this episode that I can’t overlook and they ruined it for me. I’ll give them another chance, but if this is a trend, I’m out.

Warning!! Spoilers Ahead!!

#1.

This is when Ward is out back of the biker bar and Amora lands behind him. Earlier in the episode, they spent time covering two pieces of new information. The first is that they have new updated weapons that disable, not kill that are three times as powerful than their predecessors and even managed to lose the “extra ounce”.  They took these new weapons along with the express purpose of disabling Amora and any man she turned. Would it work on Amora? We never got to find out. The second piece of information was when Sif briefed the entire team on what Amora could do with her voice and her touch. The message? Don’t even let her talk to you but you sure as hell better not let her touch you.

So what does the most lethal and effective agent on the team do when he turns around and sees Amora? He begins a dialogue. His new fangled pistol is pointing right at her and he knew how dangerous she was and he starts chatting her up and of course she walks closer as she talks. Ward is not yet under her spell but lets this Fem Fatale get within touching distance without giving her the old non-lethal double tap. Of course she touches him and that drives the crappy premise forward.

Amora could have just jumped on top of him and touched him before he could react. She is Asgardian after all. But nooooooooo. They have to make one of the strongest and most lethal agent in SHIELD a dumb ass because they are lazy.

#2.

When Fitz is taken over and he lures Sif into the cell with the promise of the fixed collar that is used to prohibit Amora from speaking. Once on, not only is she unable to snare new men but all previously snared men are instantly freed. It is critical for Sif and SHIELD to fix and then affix the collar on Amora. It would be Amora’s #1 priority once she was back on the plane to destroy it completely. She wore it by her own account for six hundred years. She hates it, precious, hates it!!! Fitz knows this yet apparently before he was enslaved, he fixed it. Then after he was taken over he left the fixed and fully functional collar in the cell to lure Sif to her death (though Amora would know that the fall wouldn’t kill Sif). Either Amora herself or Fitz as her devoted new pet would have destroyed the damned thing. Of course if it was destroyed, we couldn’t have our simple episode wrap up. Even if Fitz didn’t destroy it, he could have damaged it. Sif couldn’t fix it, only Fitz could. So why not at least re-brake it and leave it in the cell for Sif? Again, because the only way to free Fitz was to put the collar back on Amora, because apparently Simmons (Fitz’s female science partner) lacked the skill (this could actually be a forth inconsistency).

#3.

The minor inconsistency was the fact that the collar, a device of Asgardian design, was broken by a shotgun blast in the first place. Amora, who is wicked strong, is unable to cause it any damage. But fine, they could have had a scene with Sif and Amora fighting over it and leaving it bent or Sif’s sword could have damaged it if only they had the fight scene earlier between the two. There are probably a dozen better ways to tell the same story and hit the same main points and yet remain consistent to the storyline set forth in the first 14 episodes. Instead, the writers seemed to have phoned this one in, content that two very attractive new women would distract the viewers from the fact of just how bad the episode was. 

So what's your vote? Crappy premise, bad writing or both?

Ok, Nuff Said.