This was a solid, entertaining pilot. And I’m very excited for the rest of the season. So, as is my wont, I’m going to give my first episode character impressions.
Hints, but I try not to have any outright spoilers. For that small handful of people who want to see it, but haven’t yet. I’m sure they’re out there somewhere.
Borrowed from starburstmagazine.com
Coulson behaved more…unconventionally than I was expecting for his position as the leader of an elite team. It fits with his character and it makes sense–a good sense of humor is certainly one way of dealing with a near death experience. It makes me wonder at who’s letting him run loose like this. If it’s Nick Fury, I definitely buy it. After all, Fury pulled off the same thing on a bigger scale–putting together an unusual team, regardless of whether or not they wanted to be put together.
I like that he’s unusual for his position. After everything he’s been through, it even makes a kind of sense that he goes for a different leadership style. It’s like it’s a sign of maturity for him, that he’s not about posturing as much as he’s about doing exactly what he needs to do to get the result he wants. How he handled the interrogation scene was unusual, but kind of brilliantly manipulative for it.
Borrowed from dvdbash.files.wordpress.com
Melinda May–We don’t see much of her, but her reluctance to go back into the field hints at backstory. And then when she gets pulled into the action, by an attack on her, the aggressiveness of her response is fantastic. It’s such a counterpoint to her earlier reluctance–she sounds fully ready to go after the guy who knocked her out and make him pay.
Borrowed from blog.zap2it.com
Ward is all hard-core professionalism. He is definitely the best character to have gotten hit with a truth serum, because we really did need to get under that serious mask of his to appreciate him more. And seeing him not fully in control of himself for once was a great way to make him relatable.
Borrowed from shieldtv.net
Skye is personable, forward, and quick with the comebacks. Her interactions with this week’s main guest character, Mike, show her as enthusiastic and pushy to the point of sounding crazy, but she manages to insert just enough genuine warning to be taken seriously. She seem so far to place a high value on the truth, which is how Coulson wins her over.
Borrowed from disneytube.mytakeondisney.com
I really like the Fitz-Simmons dynamic, especially when they’re both essentially saying the same thing, but she’s smiling and excited, while he’s reserved and even somewhat grouchy. It’s a great contrast.
J.August Richards as Mike was amazing. The first five minutes made me love the character (and it doesn’t hurt that the actor was in Joss Whedon’s Angel). And you don’t understand how happy I was to see Ron Glass (aka Shepherd Book from Firefly) make a cameo. I imagine there’ll be a lot of casting bonuses for long standing Whedon fans, since he does seem to enjoy working with people he already gets along with.
So I’m very happy with the dynamic that’s being set up, and can’t wait for the show to start building up from the foundation of the earlier episodes, as Joss Whedon tends to do.
Also, there are plenty of science portrayal stuff for me to comment on in this episode, so expect another post this weekend tackling that topic.
How about you guys? Liked it, didn’t like it? Love/hate any characters yet?
The Retired Blog 
“And you don’t understand how happy I was to see Ron Glass (aka Shepherd Book from Firefly) make a cameo.”
Oh, but I think I do.
Fair point. Bad wording on my part.
lol, you’re fine, it just had to be said 8)