And it’s out. The much-anticipated Joss Whedon project that
gives us weekly doses of live-action Marvel adventure. And, I have to say, I’m
underwhelmed. Pilots are not necessarily an indication of a good or bad season,
but this one felt clichéd and uninspired. I came to it with high hopes – I’m a
big fan of Whedon’s Firefly/Serenity
and Much Ado About Nothing, and I
can’t ever seem to get enough superhero action. The opening sequences were
exciting. They combined a made-for-television superhero world like Alphas with the espionage panache of Covert Affairs. But as the episode progressed,
the spy genre was dropped in favor of developing the superhero-y world. And
that might have been a good choice, if Whedon had anything interesting or new
to say about the genre. Instead, he siphons off The Avengers’ mythos in an attempt that feels like trying to
channel that film’s success into a TV format. And it doesn’t work. The Avengers’ main appeal, to me at
least, was the eye-candy. It had exciting fight sequences that spanned the front
wall of a movie theater, not to mention gorgeous people in form-fitting
costumes. But even nerd auteur Whedon can’t reproduce that very cinematic
experience on TV. What I think he can do, based on his previous projects, is
develop an interesting narrative arc. And when he finishes off-loading
exposition and allows himself to create an artistic boundary between Agents and Avengers, I think that this could become a compelling new show.
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