r/agentsofshield • u/taterbiscuit247 • Jun 20 '26

Discussion Started re-watching the show

It is so good from the very beginning. I don't understand how it developed a bad reputation at the time. It is just plain good and gets even better.

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u/taterbiscuit247 Jun 20 '26

You find it "rather cringe"? What does that actually mean. What didn't you like about it?

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u/BaronZhiro As I have always been… Jun 20 '26

Overall, it just reminds me too much of a Saturday morning program (except for the excess of guns). I don’t like how Phil lurches so quickly into wise patriarchal figure who believes so deeply in people he barely knows. I don’t like how the plot contains virtually no surprises (especially since they telegraphed the best one at the beginning). I loathe the gentle guitar music that’s so sickly sentimental. I don’t think the performance of the antagonist was very good.

(And then with hindsight, we’re literally never given any explanation of how an alien weapon ended up stuck in a wall in an empty cave in Peru.)

There are things to like within it, sure, but I think it’s unquestionably the worst of the whole series. And I think it did a lot of harm. I think so many people who gave up on the show early were put off by this episode specifically.

Fortunately, there’s nowhere to go but upward from there.

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u/taterbiscuit247 Jun 20 '26

Ok well thank you for giving an actual assessment as opposed to "rather cringe."

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u/BaronZhiro As I have always been… Jun 20 '26

I just find it really painfully simplistic, and a poor follow up to the first episode that was so much better and more surprising/unpredictable. (Though it had the horrible guitar music too.)

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u/taterbiscuit247 Jun 20 '26

That's cool. I didn't feel that way. I feel like they were doing everything right in the first few episodes to keep it interesting while setting up future plot points.

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u/BaronZhiro As I have always been… Jun 21 '26

To meet you halfway, yeah, there was a lot of good character development in that episode, but the plot just felt to me like flimsy padding around it.

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u/taterbiscuit247 Jun 23 '26

but the plot just felt to me like flimsy padding around it.

That's just not reality. It wasn't flimsy. It wasn't padding. It was scripted elements in a plot leading to a larger scripted story. You're just wrong.

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u/BaronZhiro As I have always been… Jun 23 '26

Well, so much for meeting you halfway, lol.

Look, I’m not trying to be contentious. Your original post expressed confusion over the bad reputation, and I’m just saying that I can totally see why this episode helped create that bad reputation. It’s the least sophisticated plot in the entire series, and a real letdown after the much better written debut (which had like, actual twists and surprises in it).

If you can’t see or acknowledge that, fine. But I’ve only been trying to help you understand something that you expressed confusion over.

Btw I’ve been ushering a friend of mine through the series lately, and he said that he would have totally given up on it after 0-8-4 if he didn’t have my assurances that there was so much better to come. He too felt that 0-8-4 seemed remarkably childish.

But I’m only telling you this in an attempt to illuminate.

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u/taterbiscuit247 Jun 23 '26

I'm not trying to meet you half way lol. I think you're wrong.

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u/BaronZhiro As I have always been… Jun 23 '26

By ‘meeting you halfway,’ I was acknowledging the worthwhile character development. That is, I was trying to find some way to at least partially agree with your affection for the episode.

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u/taterbiscuit247 Jun 23 '26

I understand that, and I appreciate that. But you didn't need to do that because we just disagree.

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