Is AOS the underdog?

Here is an article talking about how Agents of SHIELD went from one of the biggest things on television in 2013 to a struggling show in 2018.

[URL="https://tv.avclub.com/how-did-marvels-agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-go-from-pop-cult-1826058082"]https://tv.avclub.com/how-did-marvels-agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-go-from-pop-cult-1826058082[/URL]

Yes, the show is still on, but that is mostly due to Disney's influence. If it were any other show that had the same ratings, it would have off the air after season two. This show may be an underdog, but it is a very lucky one.

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Odd, because it has become one of the best comicbook-inspired shows ever.

[preemptive]one of, not the single absolutely best[/preemptive]

I don't understand how it's an underdog, if anything it's had more advantages than most shows.

In any case it's hardly surprising, it was hyped by the MCU/avengers creating a huge initial viewership and delivered a dull show with the odd bit of excitement here and there. Yes it's gotten better recently but that's going to keep it's fanbase than gain more viewers.

That article pretty much gets it spot on. AoS was expected to bust blocks because of its MCU connection, but it followed the same trajectory as almost all genre shows on network TV... a strong start and a steady decline to settle in somewhere around a 1.0 rating. Very few sci fi-type shows do better than that on a network. Which is why the companies are now realizing that streaming and basic cable are where they should be on the small screen. Network TV is for sitcoms, procedurals, and reality shows.

I'm just happy that the show will end up with a good respectable run of 123 episodes, quality storytelling except for that unfortunate season 1 doldrum, and a proper ending. And I still hope to see a Ghost Rider spinoff starring Gabriel Luna and a Secret Warriors spinoff focusing on Daisy and Yo-Yo with some of the other characters coming in and out at times.

Good article. Right on the money on the MU and show relationship. Once Shield was blown up as a major force, it became Gilligan's Island on a SuperDuper plane. Endless story lines. AOS should have been the agency fighting precise threats on shorter time lines as compared to finding themselves. The digital foray was fun, though.

Making the Inhumans the pseudomutants and not the Inhumans - leading to that abomination of an Inhuman show where Medusa is conquered by an electric hair clipper from Supercuts - what can you say?

I've reached the conclusion that ever since X Files had the endless plot line, too many shows suffer from that dragged out never ending conflict paradigm.

[QUOTE=Captain Smith;3836039]Good article. Right on the money on the MU and show relationship. Once Shield was blown up as a major force, it became Gilligan's Island on a SuperDuper plane. Endless story lines. AOS should have been the agency fighting precise threats on shorter time lines as compared to finding themselves. The digital foray was fun, though.

Making the Inhumans the pseudomutants and not the Inhumans - leading to that abomination of an Inhuman show where Medusa is conquered by an electric hair clipper from Supercuts - what can you say?

I've reached the conclusion that ever since X Files had the endless plot line, too many shows suffer from that dragged out never ending conflict paradigm.[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure what you're on about.

The Inhumans always have been pseudo-Mutants who need funky crystals to get powers. There is no relationship between Agents Of SHIELD and the Inhumans show. There is zero crossover between the shows.
And Agents Of SHIELD did not have an endless plot line. At most you had the two-season-ish TAHITI plot that lead into Daisy's origin story.

It’s a decent article - I wouldn’t disagree with any particular part of it :)

After the first season which was fairly dreadful until the final couple of episodes, and a better but fairly shambolic second season, AoS had found itself, creatively, in season 3, particularly IMO in episode 10, Malveth. It also has ended up, after a while, with a good ensemble cast, particularly with the addition of Mack.

Of course, there are elements I don’t particularly like ;) Despite him supposedly being the draw, I have found myself utterly uninterested in Coulson throughout the show, only slightly more interested in Daisy, and totally uninvested in their relationship, which has after all been a fairly central element. The Nuhumans were also generally (Hive aside) a weak subplot, with their Watchdogs aka Purifiers threat, and their overfamiliar “how can we best integrate these individuals’ concerns into our benign governmental agency” theme.

But what the hell, there’s a lot left to enjoy, and even if it has been won by Disney’s muscle, I’m glad it’s reached a sixth season.

[QUOTE=Coin Biter;3836287]After the first season which was fairly dreadful until the final couple of episodes, and a better but fairly shambolic second season,[/QUOTE]

After the first 6 episodes of season 1, when I realized that AoS was not going to live up to its potential as a team of elite humans confronting superhuman threats, I slogged through season 2, but the magic of those first 6 episodes was gone, and I never regained an interest in a low budget superhero team.

[QUOTE=AJBopp;3836577]After the first 6 episodes of season 1, when I realized that AoS was not going to live up to its potential as a team of elite humans confronting superhuman threats, I slogged through season 2, but the magic of those first 6 episodes was gone, and I never regained an interest in a low budget superhero team.[/QUOTE]

You basically let crappy marketing that tried to sell a show as something it never tried to be ruin it for you.

[QUOTE=Carabas;3836968]You basically let crappy marketing that tried to sell a show as something it never tried to be ruin it for you.[/QUOTE]

Man, this winds up being a tough one.

While he is correct about that they set it up as a straight up "S.H.I.E.L.D." show, you are right about that they seem to have had other intentions all along.

Something far more like [B][I]Secret Warriors[/I][/B] was always where they intended on going.

Despite being launched by an important part of The Avengers the events of Agents of SHIELD never get referenced elsewhere, in the MCU or the other shows. The Most Wanted show never happened and Agent Carter is set in the 40’s. The Netflix shows have had their own Avengers moment in The Defenders. The MCU films never reference AoS, and it’s almost like it’s grown beyond any dependence on the MCU. Fury hasn’t told the Avengers about Coulson being alive again, and the source of the helicarrier in Age of Ultron was only identified as Coulson’s project in Agents of SHIELD. Fury didn’t even say something like “curtesy of an old friend”.

[QUOTE=jbmasta;3837113]Despite being launched by an important part of The Avengers the events of Agents of SHIELD never get referenced elsewhere, in the MCU or the other shows. The Most Wanted show never happened and Agent Carter is set in the 40’s. The Netflix shows have had their own Avengers moment in The Defenders. The MCU films never reference AoS, and it’s almost like it’s grown beyond any dependence on the MCU. Fury hasn’t told the Avengers about Coulson being alive again, and the source of the helicarrier in Age of Ultron was only identified as Coulson’s project in Agents of SHIELD. Fury didn’t even say something like “curtesy of an old friend”.[/QUOTE]

That's not really an Agents Of SHIELD thing.
Nothing from the tv or Netflix shows has ever been referenced in the films. The Helicarrier you mentioned is the closest the films have ever come to acknowledging the MCU being bigger than the films.

But that's what happens when the movie guy and the tv guy have... issues with each other.
Kevin Feige and Ike Perlmutter do not see eye to eye on... anything, really.

The movies do not consider Coulson to be alive.

[QUOTE=Carabas;3837125]That's not really an Agents Of SHIELD thing.
Nothing from the tv or Netflix shows has ever been referenced in the films. The Helicarrier you mentioned is the closest the films have ever come to acknowledging the MCU being bigger than the films.

But that's what happens when the movie guy and the tv guy have... issues with each other.
Kevin Feige and Ike Perlmutter do not see eye to eye on... anything, really.

The movies do not consider Coulson to be alive.[/QUOTE]

Even just the non-films are also harsh on Agents of SHIELD. No spin-off has been successfully launched, there’s no shared universe where the characters team up with other shows like with the Defenders on Netflix. In the first season or so the writers got to have a film tie-in, usually timed to promote a movie (the theatre and home media release of Thor The Dark World), now a plausible case can be made for the show existing as its own entity separate from the MCU. After the fiasco that was Inhumans I doubt they’ll ever appear on the show in a prominent role again. As for an Inhumans film, James Gunn being reinstated is more likely.

Well, to be honest the "Most Wanted" spin-off WAS an extremely crappy idea.

What they should have went for instead was a Secret Warriors spin-off.
Divide the 'Agents' and the 'Inhumans' stuff into two shows.