Something that REALLY threw me was the shot of the catwalk over the plane's cargo bay. I know people have made sarcastic comments about Joss sneaking Firefly back on the air, but did they really have to recycle the ship set?

I am liking Skye and Agent Lone Wolf better, but am idling on the technobabble twins and Coulson is actually losing ground with me.

I keep waiting for them to say something like "We should run this past Stark" when they run into brand new tech. Perhaps they're saving it for something robotic, a la Thor's (first) movie.

Some of my dissatisfaction with the show is dread about what they're going to reveal about Coulson. I don't *want* him to be a clone/LMD/whatever. I was actually quite happy that that wasn't a plot point, till Amador brought it up.

Probably the same set designer -- I do know that split-level sets do make for more dramatic staging....

I was actually quite happy that that wasn't a plot point, till Amador brought it up.

How is that different from what they've been hammering home since the pilot?

Some of my dissatisfaction with the show is dread about what they're going to reveal about Coulson. I don't *want* him to be a clone/LMD/whatever. I was actually quite happy that that wasn't a plot point, till Amador brought it up.

I think it has been a point all season. It was just more subtle before last night. And I want it to be something big, otherwise it cheapens the sacrifice in the Avengers for me.

I keep waiting for them to say something like "We should run this past Stark" when they run into brand new tech. Perhaps they're saving it for something robotic, a la Thor's (first) movie.

I'm guessing this is going to connect with whatever they did to Coulson. If the character last night was able to see something in Coulson, I'm guessing Stark would be able to figure it out pretty quickly as well. So, they're keeping him away.

I love that Fitz and Simmons were given some separate personalities last night, and I'm really beginning to love them.

There's the organization behind almost-exploding not!Gunn in the premiere, who maybe are also behind party-trick eyeball!Amador. But they don't really feel like a big deal, probably because SHIELD isn't talking about them.

To me it feels like a slow build toward a big bad. Like on Buffy when we heard about the Mayor a few times before we knew anything about him.

Right, which is why they don't count. There's nothing driving the action forward, really. It's just a bunch of quippy attractive people flying around in a superplane solving crimes. Which isn't to say it's not fun, but the show still hasn't answered the question of why they're doing it at all.

Because they can,and therefore they have an obligation to? Honestly, I don't understand this at all. How is this any different than any other show with a monster of the week format?

Because they can,and therefore they have an obligation to?

Did Buffy ever explain why the Scoobies fought evil? I mean, I know a lot of stories hang themselves up on that point, but requisite I've never found it, and I don't think "straight" procedural is the only other option--people who are comfortable with their option to fight crime and have other quirks and drives can flesh out a story just fine. Ward and May and Coulson are all sitting on their pasts (1/3 uninteresting, 2/3 with potential), and the other half of the group are either doing it because they like the job, or for reasons they're unfolding as the b plot.

I'm all justified up. Doesn't mean the characters couldn't be written better, but wrt the job, I don't need much other than what they seem to have indicated we're going to get.

I don't understand this at all. How is this any different than any other show with a monster of the week format?

Maybe it's not. Maybe there are lots of boring procedurals I don't watch! But if that's all it's going to be, without stronger characters I'm gonna bail.

Did Buffy ever explain why the Scoobies fought evil?

The Scoobies rarely heard about evil happening somewhere and went to fight it just because. Most of the evil they fought affected them very personally. I mean there's a reason most episodes weren't just about Buffy out on patrol dusting random vamps.

[AtS started out as a monster-of-the-week show, but changed into a character driven drama pretty fast because the writers realized the MOTW format wasn't going to work for their audience. I'm hoping SHIELD can do the same pivot.]

Some of my dissatisfaction with the show is dread about what they're going to reveal about Coulson. I don't *want* him to be a clone/LMD/whatever. I was actually quite happy that that wasn't a plot point, till Amador brought it up.

I think it has been a point all season. It was just more subtle before last night.

Except for the premiere, with Dr. Ron Glass saying "He can never know," which is about as dramatic of an anvil as you can drop.

Maybe it's not. Maybe there are lots of boring procedurals I don't watch! But if that's all it's going to be, without stronger characters I'm gonna bail.

For the record, I wasn't talking about procedurals, but shows like Buffy and Angel, which is why I said monster of the week rather than mystery of the week.

The Scoobies rarely heard about evil happening somewhere and went to fight it just because. Most of the evil they fought affected them very personally. I mean there's a reason most episodes weren't just about Buffy out on patrol dusting random vamps.

I don't completely understand the distinction here. I can't imagine Buffy or Angel finding out about evil happening anywhere and not going to find it whether or not that evil directly affected them or not. It just so happened that evil kept finding them on their home turf. However, if it being personal somehow is a criteria for you, how does this episode not count? This mission was very personal to Coulson.