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amandajoyce118 · 6 years

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Why I’m Not Mad At Those Agents Of SHIELD Season 5 “Deaths”

During season five of Agents of SHIELD, I noticed that the end of the season saw a lot of outraged fans, fans who called out the writers on social media for stories they didn’t like, fans who were devastated by different plot points. Through it all, I was… fine. I joked that I had reached a new state of SHIELD zen or something. Nothing that anyone else complained about being emotionally manipulative for the audience seemed to phase me. After a couple of weeks of thinking about why the season finale in particular didn’t phase me or leave me angry with the writers, I decided to examine why the three big character “deaths” in the finale didn’t upset me as much as they have others.

Spoilers, obviously, follow, if you haven’t yet watched season five. I’m also going to get a little personal to explain how I feel about the roles each of these deaths fill, so… you’ve been warned.

I wrote this out as my own personal info dump, and I considered not posting it at all because I don’t usually share personal stories on tumblr, but after writing so much, I figured, I might as well. Maybe it will be interesting to someone else.

Let me start off by saying we have three “typical” deaths in the finale. You have the surprise death (Fitz), the one you know is coming even though you don’t physically see it (Coulson), and the hero who lives long enough to see himself become the villain (Talbot).

Let’s go ahead and start with the easiest one for most audience members to stomach, not to downplay it for those who hate the idea of his absence: Coulson.

The audience has, for one thing, already seen Coulson cheat death multiple times. Coulson is also the oldest and highest ranking member of the team we see. It’s a natural progression for him to move on from this job and experience life outside of SHIELD. Coulson leaving the team - whether by death or by choice - is a turning point in the story. It allows the next generation of agents to step up. It allows the story to focus on more characters. It is, in short, the circle of life.

When I was 11, my grandfather was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He was forced to retire (for the second time) because the treatments, and later the surgery, made him too weak to hold down a job. Over time, despite eventually being termed “cancer free,” his illness took his appetite and his energy. We knew it was only a matter of time before he died. His death when I was 12 was expected, well earned after a long life, and marked a turning point for his wife and kids. My grandmother sold the house they’d lived in for more than 30 years and bought a smaller place. His sons had to step out of the shadow of a man who had been a member of the Coast Guard. My mother reconciled with her mother after not speaking for years.

Was it sad? Of course. But it was also a relief that he wasn’t having to hold up a body that was wearing down. It was expected, and his death was just another part of life. That’s very much how Coulson’s impending death feels to me, and why I was pretty quick to accept that the writers didn’t need to end the season by saving him. There are plenty of fans who don’t want to see the show go on without Coulson, and I get that he’s their favorite, but he’s also one person in the ensemble, and there are more stories to tell.

That brings me to Talbot.

Talbot began his time on the show as a threat, but not really a threat. He was comic relief, the guy who says outlandish things, but who doesn’t necessarily mean any harm by them. He was meant to be fun, but underneath all of that, there’s a bit of a menacing edge to him. He was never a bad guy though. Not until Hydra messed with his head and he got ahold of the gravitonium. Daisy launching him into space was a last resort to make sure the use of his abilities didn’t end the world.

Talbot’s arc actually reminds me a lot of Daisy’s season three Hive storyline. Instead of being addicted to Hive’s connection though, Talbot is addicted to the gravitonium. He wants more and more of it in order to increase his power levels. Granted, he’s not doing this to feel good, but because he thinks he’s making himself into a worthy hero, so there is a major difference there. The biggest aspect of the story that made me suspect there was no redeeming Talbot at this point in the series though is that the “big bad” of the final batches of episodes doesn’t make it out alive on Agents of SHIELD. It’s rare for the season to end with the previous threat still looming because the writers like to close off at least one story arc. They can’t leave everything with a loose end or just abandon everything. They have to choose.

Now, when I was a kid, my mom was engaged to a guy for a few years. Their initial relationship was great. He was charming, funny, the life of the party. He was also an alcoholic and an addict who was abusive when he was under the influence of, well, anything. When I was 12, the month before my grandfather died, he also died. Unexpectedly, yes, but his life had been spiraling for so long that it also wasn’t entirely unexpected. He overdosed. His death, like Talbot’s, was like the end of an out of control storyline that had reached its breaking point.

So, I could understand Talbot’s death, even if I had hoped for a different outcome for him.

Now, Fitz’s death is, of course, the one that’s the most controversial of them all, it seems. There’s a lot of anger at that particular plot point, and I get it.

We’ve been set up this entire arc to believe that Elena, Jemma, and Fitz aren’t going to face death. After all, the three of them live long enough to be tortured by the Kree and start a family, respectively. Their safety is (relatively) built into the storyline. They might be able to be seriously injured, but death? Out of the question. Of course, this storyline was also all about breaking a time loop, so there had to be changes to what we thought we knew would happen.

I’ve seen lots of fans argue that it isn’t fair, that Mack and Polly were already safe, that Fitz’s death shouldn’t take their place. I agree. But that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? Life, and more often, death, isn’t fair. Shit happens. Sometimes, we’re prepared for it, like Fitz knowing that Mack and Polly didn’t make it to the Lighthouse in the original timeline, and preventing that. Sometimes, we’re not, like Fitz finding himself impaled by a building as a result. I mean, I could argue that this is, for all intents and purposes, Fitz being proven right about you not really being able to change the future: a tragic death is still going to happen in the timeline, no matter how hard you try to stop it. But I don’t think that was the case here. I think this was a reminder that this group of people has actually been relatively safe from mortality for a few seasons now. They live and work in a dangerous world, and this is the consequence.

Mortality can rob of us our favorites at any time.

Which brings me to my final story of death. Not the final death I’ve experienced, but the final story I’m going to share with you in regards to this particular trio. When I was 12, before my grandfather died, before my mother’s fiance died, my father went in for what was supposed to be a routine surgery. And I never got to speak to him again.

My parents divorced when I was four, and I wasn’t exactly a daddy’s girl. We weren’t close, but I still went to visit him on holidays and summers. My dad introduced me to comic books and science fiction and a lot of the things that I adore as an adult. But when I was 12, he had surgery on his heart, checked out of the hospital because everything went as expected, and then still felt off. He went back for a checkup, and they decided to keep him overnight for observation, just in case. His heart stopped. And no one knew right away because the nurses on his floor were all with other patients. He was temporarily put on life support when he was discovered, but ultimately, there was no brain activity. He died.

It was unexpected and scary and I hated it. And I wanted to blame the nurses on his floor, but how could I when they were all doing their jobs? Surgeries that are called “routine” are supposed to be simple, ones that have been done a thousand times, like Fitz saving a friend has happened countless times. But there’s always a danger to them, complications that could arise, just like Fitz doing his job is always dangerous.

So, yes, this death was surprising on the one hand, but not on the other. I get it. I accepted it. A writer wants to make you feel something in their work. And it’s not always going to be warm and fuzzy smiles. And I remembered that, unlike in my life, this wasn’t entirely the end for Fitz.

It’s important to note that all three of these major “death” storylines feature a silver lining of hope. Not only has Jed Whedon remarked in interviews that there could be a way to bring Talbot back to the show, that launching him into space doesn’t necessarily mean he’s dead and gone, but the original Fitz is still out there, and Coulson gets a chance to have time for life instead of work.

Sure, Coulson could lose his life at any time. And sure, there are plenty of fans who are upset that he didn’t get a cure. But Coulson got to choose. Something Daisy didn’t get to do when it came to getting her powers back. Coulson is going out on his own terms. And he gets to do it in Tahiti with the woman he’s loved for a very long time, but been too stubborn to admit it. He finally gets a break from being the world’s shield. Not many people get to choose how they go. It’s a nice “end” for someone who spent most of his professional life following the rules of a secret organization before learning that sometimes, you couldn’t trust the system. Also, Clark Gregg was supposed to meet with the producers about appearing in some episodes in season six, and he’s back in the movies. He’s not completely gone. Fans can rest easy.

Some people have referenced Fitz being out in space as lazy writing, as in, “oh, look, this means nothing because double Fitzes!” Something isn’t lazy writing just because you disagree with it. I think that’s something that fandoms in general have forgotten as the social media culture has grown with television/movies/books over the last decade. Any time a large contingent of fans disagrees with a storyline, they decide it’s written poorly and everyone who doesn’t think the same as they do is simply uneducated. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion whether you agree with it or not, but to call something lazy writing just because you didn’t like it is, well, a lazy response.

This plot point is actually the opposite of lazy writing. Lazy writing is having a gifted individual who can ice their body over left at the bottom of the ocean without ever mentioning him again even though ice floats instead of sinks. Lazy writing is never addressing the fact that an Inhuman is going through his second terrigenesis at the bottom of the ocean as well. Or, you know, that there’s a member of the Inhuman royal family on Earth in your same cinematic universe who survives in water. So many ocean related things that never intersect simply because the writers have pushed them aside. Maybe season six will be Agents Of SHIELD: Submerged. But I digress.

This particular plot point does something Agents of SHIELD doesn’t usually do for a few seasons: it circles back to resolve a plot point writers would otherwise expect fans to forget. If this had happened in an earlier season of the show, Fitz out in space would probably have been abandoned for a few years before the writers remembered they left him out there. It also solves the problem of what happens to Fitz decades from now when he wakes up in space and the future he thought he was going to actually didn’t exist. He now has a future, thanks to Jemma deciding they’re going to find him and wake him up. The time loop has already been broken. The Kasius family is not taking over the remnants of Earth. Fitz would have woken up alone, orbiting a planet where there was no one for him to find with just Enoch for company.

If the writers choose to do it, this plot point also allows the writers to take a proactive approach to mental health in the next batch of episodes. Fitz’s friends now understand just how badly his memories of the Doctor affect him. He doesn’t just have those memories. He hears the Doctor’s voice in his head. He’s been living on his own for six months in a military prison, stretching his mind nearly to its limit to find a way to get to his friends. He was already nearing his breaking point then. The stress of trying to save the world, heal a rift in space time, and go against Daisy’s wishes to do it all caused him to suffer that psychotic break. That exact same set of circumstances doesn’t exist anymore. But similar ones still can. This time, the team knows Fitz is both their old Fitz and the Doctor. They can help him instead of just label him as unfit and lock him up. Again, that’s if the show decides to go there. They might not. But I feel like we haven’t seen the last of this whole situation. This Fitz isn’t going to be magically “healed” just because he didn’t do the whole time travel thing.

When I was a kid, my grandmother always said that tragedies occur in threes, and that’s been true as long as I can remember. This season finale reminded me very much of that in my life. I think my reaction as “zen” is more a result of me being able to see the events mirrored in a completely different way than anyone else can. I’ve been there and seen them all happen already. So none of them are cheap, lazy, or given to characters less deserving than others. They all made perfect sense to me.

(As a side note: I feel the need to point out that these three deaths are also all white males, bucking the TV trend of killing off women and people of color for shock value. It’s actually a nice change.)

I realize that this is incredibly long winded, and I highly doubt everyone is going to take the time to read this. So, if you did, thanks for following me down the rabbit hole of death and writing.

#agents of shield #aos season 5 #aos spoilers #real life #long post #i wrote a thing

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ryanmeft · 4 years

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2019 in Film, Part 1

We’re closing out the decade with one of the best years for film I can remember. There was so much great stuff in 2019 that it got me back to writing reviews after I had given them up as a hopeless endeavor in an age of polarized opinions. We had A-list actors turning in top-notch work about deteriorating relationships and alternate histories of Hollywood. We had forgotten or controversial actors---Antonio Banderas, Sienna Miller, Adam Sandler, Paul Walter Hauser, among others---proving they deserved to be A-list. We had great new films from the likes of The Safdie Brothers, Robert Eggers, Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach, Pedro Almodovar and more. It wasn’t all sunshine and roses. Clint Eastwood did his best to undermine his own filmmaking with sexist and anti-press leanings. Disney continued to gobble up everything it could, threatening the future of legitimate filmmaking and the theatre business. And some excellent creators turned in movies that, well, didn’t meet the hype. But what year is perfect? Below, a compendium of every 2019 film I saw, and my absolutely correct opinion on each one. This covers films through the letter G, and I’ll be posting H-N and O-Z shortly. I’ll also be updating these lists as I add new reviews and see more movies, since I live in the arse end of nowhere and there’s still a lot I haven’t seen. Enjoy.

21 Bridges: 3 Stars

-A throwback to the relatively stripped down cops-and-criminals thrillers of the 90’s, this tightly made and well acted tale of corruption will appeal to anyone who remembers the likes of The Fugitive.

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/urvdfx2

Ad Astra: 3 Stars

-A toothless finale and a weak role for Tommy Lee Jones can’t derail the quality of Brad Pitt’s performance, one where most of the character is developed inside his head.

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/whkonyy

The Aeronauts: 2 Stars

-This attempt to emulate the adventure epics of the Golden Age of Hollywood features spectacular sights and two great actors doing their best, but falters when developing an interesting story or drawing us into their struggle for survival. Currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/tce4ps6

The Aftermath: 1 Star

-Lifeless, listless and generally not knowing what it wants to be, the movie switches back and forth from serious post-war thriller to cheesy erotic novel, and fails at both.

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/vjfefuq

Ash is Purest White: 4 Stars

-A patient poem of life, which leads you to believe it will be one thing---a crime drama about small time street hoods in a dying industrial town---and instead becomes a quiet ode to personal perseverance. One of the year’s best films.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: 3 Stars

-Tom Hanks is ephemeral as the children’s icon with the recently resurgent reputation, and Matthew Rhys and Chris Cooper are effective as the estranged, battling father and son who Rogers helps to heal. The definitive statement on Rogers is last year’s documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? This movie is mostly a fantasy drama revolving around Rogers’ ethos, with minimal insight into the man.

Alita: Battle Angel: 2 1/2 Stars

-Featuring stunning technology, good performances (especially from Mahershala Ali and Rose Salazar) and an incredibly weak script co-written by James Cameron, this is the kind of movie that would absolutely kill if you got a better screenplay to go with it. Hopefully they get a second try.

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/qnl3ggd

American Woman: 3 1/2 Stars

Sienna Miller has flown under most stardom’s radar, and here in this small film no one saw gets one of the year’s best performances. She’s an irresponsible mother who has to learn to grow up after her daughter’s disappearance, but that is mere plot. The key is the sympathy the film has for the problems of people we wouldn’t ordinarily cheer on.

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/uz7x67z

Avengers: Endgame: 3 Stars

-Fan service through and through, Endgame delivers every thrill you could possibly want with few real surprises, but also leaves you wondering where the MCU could possibly go from here.

Birds of Passage: 4 Stars

-A fictionalized look at the rise of the drug trade in Colombia, this Godfather-like film traces the fall of indigenous cultures to the lure of international criminal activity with a steady hand and a de-emphasis on overt violence.

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/ww8m98v

Blinded by the Light: 3 Stars

-You really do gotta be a Springsteen fan, but if you are, this one is ready to make you smile and cheer. You may forget it after you leave the theatre, but then, it has already done its job.

Booksmart: 3 1/2 Stars

-Olivia Wilde continues the rehabilitation of the once trashy teen comedy, making a movie about alienation and identity that can stand alongside films like The Duff, Eighth Grade and Edge of Seventeen. It may not break any new ground, but it is so relatable and so funny it doesn’t really have to.

Brightburn: 1 1/2 Stars

-A for effort, F for execution. There’s blood to be wrung from the “What if Superman were evil?” stone, but instead of taking the concept and giving us a unique take-off of the world’s most well known superhero, the movie is content to repeat the famous origin story, weakly flipped to the horror genre.

Brittany Runs a Marathon: 3 Stars

-It isn’t without its cliches, but it’s nice to see a good film like this which doesn’t lionize impossibly perfect looking people as the only ones who can realize a dream. Jillian Bell is both off-putting and likable, a rare trick. Currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

By the Grace of God: 4 Stars

-Frances Ozon’s dispassionate, drama-lite look at three men taking on a skin-crawlingly vile abusive priest is impossible to look away from, even when characters are simply discussing their lives. Ozon makes ordinary life lived with trauma almost as tense for the audience as for those living it.

Captain Marvel: 3 Stars

-When people say the MCU movies are factory-produced, this one could be Exhibit A. It does almost nothing wrong and takes almost no risks, leaving a movie that’s fun while you’re watching it and forgotten as soon as you’re not. Bonus points for Annette Bening playing a murderous A.I.

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/sw8247t

Captive State: 1 Star

-An intriguing sci-fi premise with a lifeless script, the potential for interesting twists and turns is neutered by a lack of narrative flare.

Cats: 1 Star

-The kind of movie that makes you want to shower afterwards.

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/tzjx5v8

The Current War: 2 1/2 Stars

-More flash than substance, which in an odd way makes it a suitable treatment of the very publicity-minded battle between Edison and Westinghouse. Overall, it feels more like an educational video or a History Channel special, but there are things worth the trip, like the performance of Benedict Cumberbatch.

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/urewluk

The Dead Don’t Die: 0 Stars

-Jim Jarmusch has made some of the finest films I’ve ever seen and some of the worst. This unfunny, painfully obvious satire is firmly in the latter camp.

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/w8bafdl

Doctor Sleep: 3 1/2 Stars

-An absolutely delicious villain coupled with overall strong performances and engaging, old-school filmmaking result in one of the better of the many Stephen King adaptations.

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/sns6nhh

Dora and the Lost City of Gold: 3 1/2 Stars

-It takes a show meant to educate young kids about languages and turns it into a genuinely funny, exciting and engaging adventure movie that pulls of an “All-ages Indiana Jones” vibe shockingly well. One of the few movies that actually needs a sequel.

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/t7tzyxq

Dumbo: 3 Stars

-The original is outdated enough that for once a Disney remake doesn’t feel like a cash grab, and Tim Burton turns in a beautiful movie with a great villain (who, strangely enough, is an obvious stand-in for Walt himself).

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/wnkkvuz

Fast Color: 3 Stars

-A decidedly different superhero movie that scuttles itself a bit with its own franchise ambitions, but the first two acts deliver a serious story focusing on things superhero movies rarely touch on: addiction, abandonment, forgiveness and parenthood.

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/sgytshn

Ford v Ferrari: 3 Stars

-Two hours of the movie is bog-standard biopic stuff elevated by Damon and Bale’s performances. The last third is an incredibly thrilling, no-special-effects race scene that will get the blood pumping even if you don’t give one whit about race cars.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters: 2 Stars

-An improved emphasis on visuals helps this one be better than its predecessor, but that ain’t saying a whole helluva lot.

Full Review: https://tinyurl.com/vcuhc44

The Good Liar: 2 Stars

-A strange mix of obvious twists and spoilers you couldn’t possibly see coming, the movie feels like it both plays fair and cheats with the audience. It’s a lurid potboiler elevated considerably by the immense talents of Mirren and McKellan, who are playing well below their weight class here.

Gloria Bell: 3 Stars

-Julianne Moore turns in a lovable, relatable performance in a movie that doesn’t otherwise differentiate itself much from the divorced-people-finding-their-life-again sub-genre of feel good movie.

Greta: 2 1/2 Stars

-The sleazy thrills of seeing Isabelle Huppert, one of the best of actresses, playing an unhinged psycho stalker is worth the price of admission, but the film itself doesn’t do enough to stand out from the thriller pack.

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