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.

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.

True, I forgot about that. Also, can we have more Ron Glass now.

I dislike the LMD potential because I think it involves a level of cruelty to the people who care about Phil. I get that the Avengers aren't involved in this show for movie/TV separation purposes, but story wise there are huge swaths of SHIELD who know "Coulson" is around and working (the crews working on the plane, support staff for the team, etc.). Word will get back to the Avengers. Maybe Fury is OK with casually yelling at "Coulson" for wrecking the plane, but I don't see the Avengers shrugging it off so casually. So either there are massive amounts of handwavium going on or this is going to be addressed. And I don't see ongoing angst about "Our friend is dead but that thing that looks and sounds like him and thinks he's him is wandering around" is what Marvel/ABC is looking for in a relatively lighthearted show.

Also, with everybody so certain that there is no such thing as ESP, we're definitely gonna see a real telepath (or something kinda like it) at some point, yes?

Not until they change the premise of the show, no.

Yeah, I think Marvel has decreed that all powers on the show are science-based. No mutants, hence "registered gifted." Because they don't have the X-Men movie rights.

So this is a world where mutants don't exist? Got it. I guess I just thought that no mutants could be on the show not that they would deny the existence of mutants all together. Is that true of all the non-X-Men Marvel movies as well? Like in The Avengers/Iron Man/Captain America/Thor universe, there are never going to be any mutants or non-science or alien powered beings? I mean, I guess there haven't been but I didn't know there couldn't ever be. Huh. I learn something new every day from Buffistas.