Board Thread:Television/@comment-1713281-20131004113215/@comment-1895174-20131009231607

Characters haven't established themselves outside of their archetypes: There's no real depth to any of these characters. You know exactly what they're going to do in any given situation. As we've learned from everything he's done, really, Whedon works best when he's dealing with a ragtag group of characters bouncing off each other, but the characters here aren't nearly as interesting as those Avengers they keep talking about.
 * Coulson worked with the Avengers. And he may or may not be the real Phil Coulson.
 * Fitzsimmons are quirky, Whedon-esque nerds. They can say something scientific that goes over everyone's heads in one breath and then something funny and awkward in the next. They're Wes and Fred except both of them are British.
 * Melinda May is Kyuzo - very dangerous and very quiet, but with a little "I'm too old for this s***" sprinkled on top for good measure. At best, she's up there with Lin Beifong as part of this weird trend of middle-aged women who can fight.
 * Ward is hunky. That's about it.
 * Skye is a member of Anonymous. She's a hacker. She makes semi-anarchist political statements without a full understanding of the realpolitik at work. Also, as Fitz wonderfully pointed out last night, she has boobs. And it's entirely unrealistic. Maybe she cleans up well, but there's no reason someone who lives in a van should look like that. Otherwise, she's a poor-man's version of Arrow's Felicity Smoak.

We get it, show. You're in the same universe as Marvel's The Avengers and the films that led up to it. You don't have to keep reminding us of that with a forced reference to the movies every few minutes.

We also know Whedon's a fan of his Big Bads, and so far there's three different potential ones:
 * 1) The Rising Tide - Maybe the most obvious one, but they haven't done anything yet. But Skye as some kind of double agent needs to be resolved soon, right?
 * 2) Project Centipede - Because surely some bad guys who built a weapon that gives people the powers of the Avengers combined needs to be more than a minor, one-off villain.
 * 3) Franklin Hall - The only character so far to not be an original character created for the show. Graviton's the perfect mix of "legitimate threat" and "not notable enough to be in a movie" that makes him a great fit for the show. Also because he's Voldemort.

Granted, you always need to give shows like this time to grow and find its stride, otherwise, unless you're really into this stuff, there's little reason to stick around.

And you can thank me later.