Since my post on Monday, I’ve gotten to see the newest episode of Agents of Shield (AoS or “Agents” from now on) where “Everything Changes,” and yes, quite a lot did. While watching, I made sure to keep an eye out for similarities in the plot and references between the film and movie. I’m not usually a stickler for such things. Usually, I like to just sit back and be entertained, but this time I certainly noticed some great similarities and call backs to the Captain America: The Winter Solder (CAtWS from now on). From here on out be forewarned: these waters are full of spoilers for both the movie and the episode.
There was a lot to like about how AoS handled viewers that might be watching the show without having seen CAtWS yet. The first ten minutes of the show were spent establishing that Shield had been infiltrated by Hydra, no one was trustworthy, and that Agent Fury was dead. Even having seen the film, I didn’t feel like this recap took anything away from the episode; although I was not shocked by some things that were clearly intended to be shocking to those that had not seen the movie, like the seemingly unnecessary action beat at the beginning when Shield drones attacked Coulson and Co. The events were set into context with the film so well, that my guess is that all this was supposed to happen around the time of Cap’s elevator fight, just as Hydra was beginning to take over. However, there will be more discussion on when this episode takes place in the movie’s timeline later.
Smaller callbacks also worked very well, in my mind. There were some small, relatively insignificant references, like Fitz’s cutter, which the team used to escape the airship as it was boarded, was also used by Fury and Hill to escape vehicles in similar situations. This was moment, especially when Fitz laments that it was “never put into wide production” and Agent Garret says, “All the top agents have them.” This was fun once Marvel, but please don’t let this become a lazy “heroes get out of jail free” card any time soon.
Agent Garret also referenced Sitwell’s betrayal and Agent Hand explaining that “If we are too survive, we must learn to strike first,” was a clear reference to the prevailing attitudes of Shield (at the beginning of CAtWS) and later Hydra, which is one reason I was skeptical of her innocence, not that it seems to matter much now.
While the show did reference and seem to situate itself well in the movie’s timeline, the problems in the show were uniquely AoS level problems. Coulson’s crew was having to deal with getting the team back together, a friend’s betrayal, and whether or not to trust Agent May. Additionally, the show extends much farther than the movie. Crisis break out at the Shield Academy and there are more important areas to defend than the Triscellion, such as the Hub and the Fridge. Additionally, the crew makes it a point to protect information they have gathered that they do not want Hydra to get their hands on. Cap is concerned with higher order villainy, like the three airships, while the Agents are trying to make sure that smaller, less dangerous secrets are kept. Still, it would not surprise me to see that some of these secrets were captured and may even show up in later episodes or films, making this first season of AoS still very important to the transmedia universe Marvel is creating.
Of course, this is still early in their transmedia experiment, and Marvel can learn a lot from what I think are gaffs. Some of these are small. In the first episode, Coulson welcomes Ward to security level 7 and says that the Avengers are not level 7 yet. However, in the film Cap is level 8. This is a small difference, but I know others will have noticed it as well, so I thought to mention it here. It’s easy to explain this away though. Cap is one of the few Avengers that has gone on to work closely with Shield, so his clearance would likely be higher.
While Shield is effectively dissolved at the end of the film, it seems to live on so far in the show. Ward and Hand mention the fact that they might be the highest ranked agents left and make a plan of action for how to contain the disaster that’s taken place. I’m not great at judging timelines in films though, and it’s entirely possible that they haven’t gotten the memo about Shield’s dissolution yet.
Finally, I do have some problems with how the timeline as a whole worked. At the beginning of the first events in AoS were around the time of Cap’s elevator fight, based on when Fury died in the movie, then events that seemed to take weeks in the film took place in the space of an evening in the show. If this evening is while Cap is destroying the airships, which is revealed in the episode, why are we just learning that Fury is dead?
One possible explanation is that this takes place well after Fury’s death, which Hydra kept secret, and is just now beginning to emerge as information, but that too seems unlikely. Agent May was apparently keeping close tabs on Coulson and crew and reporting to Fury. Certainly, if all this takes place during the chaos at the Triscellion, she would have reported to Fury at some point when he was presumed dead. The end of the episode certainly takes place during the fight at the Triscellion, because we see the airships falling and Hand gives a nod to Cap’s exploits (this may be considered a spoiler, but did anyone planning on going to the movie think Cap was going to lose?). However, if all that fighting is happening, who is going to take the time to answer May’s call to Coulson’s private phone? Wouldn’t it have been more apt to say, “Fury’s dead and oh yeah, we’ve also been infiltrated by Hydra and things are really going south?” Get it together, Shield administrative support staff.
So, what does this tell us about how they are going about transmedia storytelling? Well, we know a few things now. First, they seem to be playing it a little safe. This is a good thing. Transmedia storytelling asks a lot of those trying to keep up with it. Keeping it to a TV show and several films is ambitious enough. I’m glad they are playing it safe.
However, they also don’t seem to be playing this entirely the right way either. At the beginning of the episode, I thought this took place at the start of the film’s second act. However, by the end of the episode, it seemed to be at the end of the film. This isn’t really a discrepancy, but engaged followers of the transmedia universe will want to have these questions answered clearly, and I didn’t think it was clear from the start of the episode. I don’t think that’s a huge quibble though.
Taken as a whole, I’m impressed by what the writers managed to tie together. This a great feat and a good job of showing two different sides of the same story. On a personal note, I’m impressed. While the higher ups have given up on Shield at the end of CAtWS, the agents on the ground are still hard at work mining through the details and dealing with the threat of what Hydra might become and that can only lead to better movies and TV shows.
Blog|Stephen Bush 