"Seven seasons. Thanks to Coulson Lives. Thanks to the greatest fans in the world. Thank you for going on the ride with us."
Life got way too busy three years ago. I've been behind on tweeting all season and right now I'm trying to finish "Brand New Day" before the finale tonight. So, I have no time to write extensively about how much this show has meant to me these past seven years, the way I wanted to. But you have only to read posts about the first three seasons (and some of the fourth) to know how I feel about it.
"Time is not fixed. It’s a fluid, ever-changing, beautiful thing."
tl;dr Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been an amazing, fun, often heart-wrenching ride. Coulson Lives Forever and his code name should be Phoenix. Clark Gregg is precious. This cast is irreplaceable. I’ll miss this show so much.
I already wrote one of these “It’s almost here! Can you believe it?” type posts a few weeks ago. But this show meant so much to me that, like the best of the best that have gone before it, I’ll never run out of praise. So here we are. Six lovely seasons behind us. One season ahead that I'm sure will leave us more than satisfied, with a bittersweet ache, jaws on the floor and tears streaming. They've done it before.
"So, you're saying to save S.H.I.E.L.D.–"
"We have to save Hydra."
I am not ready for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to end. I'm not even ready for the Beginning of the End. We've been waiting quite a while for it to start, but can we wait even longer, please? Then it doesn't have to end any time soon.
It was such a devastating past couple seasons, and so well done, so sad. Everyone involved did such a great job. There were great things about every season and each improved upon the last. The story continually expanded, the characters changed and grew, some were tragically lost, and the performances got deeper with every struggle and heartache they went through.
I haven't had the chance yet to say more than a few things about the season 6 finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., even though it was weeks ago now. Finales always seem to get away from me. I don't know if I tend to get busier at this time of year or if I keep putting it off because there's plenty of time before the next season. It's really annoying that I do that when I love a show this much. S.H.I.E.L.D. should have all my attention until I've run out of ways to praise it or it's all over.
"I can feel the rage churning underneath my skin...It's all coming back to me. The memories, the pain, her song ringing through every bone in my body."
I knew they weren't done with Sarge after May unexpectedly shot him last week. His story can't end there! We need to know why he looks like Coulson, why they have the same DNA. It would be quite the coincidence that the team just happened to meet the doppelganger of their leader and friend after his death, and that one had nothing to do with the other. The writers wouldn't do that, I hoped all season. Thankfully, they didn't and it looks more epic than I could have imagined.
"Give us what we want and we'll let you live to cry about it."
Oh, yeah, Jemma! I loved sweet, innocent Simmons, but tough Simmons makes me want to cheer. At first I didn't realize this was a clip from the first episode of the season and assumed Jemma and Daisy were looking for the Coulson clone, imposter, parallel world mercenary, whatever. Let's just say menacing doppelgänger for now. Then I thought about it for a second.
"Can you feel it? It's coming. The death of everything."
After hoping for months, we all learned a while ago that Coulson is absolutely dead and gone, and now we have to deal with someone new with his face. I can't wait to find out what this story is, and I'm so glad they were able to write a new part for Clark Gregg, but this is going to be painful...and that is going to make it even more unforgettable than it already was.
It's been a week since this spectacular teaser for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 6 came out and I missed it completely. Where was I? Why did no one tell me? You turn off notifications for a minute and forget to turn it back on for six days, and suddenly you've missed something huge that you've been waiting for on pins and needles.
Unless we take some kind of drastic measure, we'll lose her.
Click for Project Intro
I gave myself a project for the 2016-2017 TV season. I was going to tweet every episode of my five favorite dramas and then gather those tweets into post form, sprinkling in commentary here and there. The only one I managed to finish that season was The Walking Dead S7E8, which was an incredible episode that took me weeks to write about. Then even the summer passed me by and I had nothing to show for it. But I'm not giving up on this project. I'm just turning it in past due, trying to avoid a two-season pile up by the time the 2018-2019 season gets here. Thoughts added after the Marvelverse podcast (more info at the end) are denoted with asterisks.
I don't think there's ever been an episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that I haven't loved for one reason or another...or many others. By the end of the season, we'll see where "Uprising" falls, but I liked it a lot. ***Rewatching just the moments where Jemma said that May wouldn't last another day unless they did something drastic and Mace telling Coulson he has to deal with the blackout instead, those were small but powerful moments that turned my "liked it a lot" into "loved it a ton."
Any time Clark Gregg gets to do even the smallest thing, he's just golden, bringing so much emotion to a look, showing Coulson as both determined on the outside and scared as hell inside. Clark brilliantly and subtly conveys the concern of a man trying to keep it together while the person he knows best, the person he loves the most, is dying. He wears his heart, Coulson's heart, in every worried line on his face.
"You ever notice we never get to check up on, like, a brightly-lit place filled with nice, friendly people?"
I gave myself a task for the 2016-2017 TV season. I was going to tweet every episode of my five favorite dramas and then post them here with sprinkles of extra commentary. Things did not go to plan. The only one I managed to finish was The Walking Dead S7E8, which took weeks. That's what I do when I get hung up on one amazing episode. After that I never caught up, but I'm not giving up on this project. I'm just turning it in past due and making sure I don't have a two-season pile up by next May. Wish me luck.
Here we have another fantastic episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Is there any other kind? If there were, then I wouldn't have to write so darn much about it. I actually got to pay attention this time. Last week I was trying to keep up with tweets. Guess I had to relearn that lesson. Because of that, I definitely missed some things and have to watch "The Ghost" again. Of course, I have to watch *all* episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. again.
Wow, I just looked back through my posts and discovered that the last time I talked about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was on October 4, and that was just a promo for my little MAOS store. Before that, I had finally finished my thoughts about Absolution and Ascension just a couple hours prior to the season 4 premiere. I've been mum since. I've certainly been vocal over on Twitter, though, and that's why I wanted to gather all my thoughts from there and post them here.
But a whole thing happened where I just had no time at all, with my work, starting a business, the holidays, cleaning the basement nearly every weekend, an enormous post about The Walking Dead's mid-season finale, and then my mom going to the hospital again; she's doing much better now, thank you. But it was just one thing after another and all at once. Now I have 15 of these tweetcaps saved up for MAOS alone and 4 other shows to take care of, too. As of this moment, there are 56 drafts waiting for me to do something, anything, with them and 2 more about Doctor Strange and Logan, which I saw and adored and was messed up emotionally by last night.
In case you didn't notice the section in the right column titled "Shop Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." before, I'm going to tell you a little something about it. I've wanted to make a store page for this wonderful series for years. I was always stopped for some reason or another. I thought I wouldn't have time for it, because I just knew I would start commenting on the show with every product I picked. I would turn a simple page of affiliate links into a huge deal that I would let languish in my drafts forever, the way I've done with my section of favorites series, movies, music, and actors that I said was "Coming Eventually."
But a few weeks ago I realized something vital to actually getting things done: I don't have to do everything. I can choose just one series to start. I can choose to just show the boxsets, or some individual episodes, and a book or two. I don't always have to go nuts and do everything. Hip hip hooray to breaking an annoying habit!
I knew someone was gonna go. I just didn't know everyone would. —Daisy to Coulson, "Absolution"
In memory of Dan Schmidt, the founder of Across the Airwaves, who sadly passed away this summer. The tribute episode for him can be found here.
Here we are, right down to the wire. It's the end. The final two episodes of the superb third season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. I would have liked to separate these two to have easier to digest posts, but how could I? They aired together. They belong together the way "S.O.S., Part 1" and "S.O.S., part 2" belong together.
Cap, Agent Carter: They were my heroes growing up. Both of them were there at the beginning of S.H.I.E.L.D. Now we may be there when it ends. —Coulson to May, "Emancipation"
In memory of Dan Schmidt, the founder of Across the Airwaves, who sadly passed away this summer. The tribute episode for him can be found here.
Emancipation? What does Daisy have to be emancipated from? The people who love her and only want the best for her?" That would have been my reaction if I had known the title before watching the episode. Sometimes the title of an episode can give away too much or, usually in the case of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., make me really anxious about what it really means, especially when there's a double meaning.
Image copyright Marvel Television and ABC Studios.
And what if you fail, if they decide to turn on you instead, to come after us with their weapons of war, to kill me...kill all of us? What then? —Hive
Then I will rip their hearts out. —Daisy
In memory of Dan Schmidt, the founder of Across the Airwaves, who sadly passed away this summer. The tribute episode for him can be found here.
Looks like "Failed Experiments" was another fantastic episode that should be counted among the best of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I just had to be reminded since this wasn't the Summer of Erin, where I got to rewatch all the series I've been wanting to rewatch for years, but the Summer of Erin Must Do a Million Things and Have No Time for Herself. There were so many of these impressive episodes in the third season, maybe more than the first two years. While every episode has a reason to watch - even if it's something as simple as a perfect one-liner, a sweet moment, or the look on someone's face - the further Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. gets into the mysteries and closer to the edge of disaster, then the deeper the storyline and friendships, the more developed the personalities, and the more involved we the audience are.
Image copyright Marvel Television and ABC Studios.
"This alien creature messed with the wrong team. It thinks if it breaks our legs, we'll stop fighting. But it doesn't know how damn stubborn we are, especially when it comes to protecting our own. Hive is building an Inhuman army, but we're not gonna let that happen. — Coulson, "The Singularity"
In memory of Dan Schmidt, the founder of Across the Airwaves, who sadly passed away this summer. The tribute episode for him can be found here.
I forgot about this speech. How did I forget about this rousing speech?! Shame on me. This is one of those moments that the show is all about. And now I'm thinking of Coulson talking about how the team was still a team, that they weren't "Agents of Nothing." Both fantastic scenes, and three years down the line, now not a desperate, heartbreaking plea but said with confidence that they were going to win.
In memory of Dan Schmidt, the founder of Across the Airwaves, who sadly passed away this summer. The tribute episode for him can be found here.
What can I say here about "The Team" that I didn't cover below? Undoubtedly a heck of a lot, since there's always so much going on in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but I'd have to watch it again first. When I'm done with all these tweetcaps, I still have to finish a post about one of the most triumphant yet dark episodes of the season, "Maveth," and the one episode missing from my site, not including the five I have left to post before the season four premiere on September 20. I think it's a tie between "Laws of Nature," "4,722 Hours," "Maveth," and "The Team" for the best of season three and the entire series.
In memory of Dan Schmidt, the founder of Across the Airwaves, who sadly passed away this summer. The tribute episode for him can be found here.
This is sixth in a series of twelve tweetcaps I'm trying to post before the premiere of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s doubtlessly spectacular fourth season on September 20. So, I'm half way there! But I should have been half way there days ago. Now I have to scramble to get things done again. No matter. I enjoy this quite a lot. It's nice to have most of these already complete. It's almost like someone else wrote it for me and I'm just editing.
In memory of Dan Schmidt, the founder of Across the Airwaves, who sadly passed away this summer. The tribute episode for him can be found here.
If you've read any of my four previous posts about the second half of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s spectacular third season then you can skip this paragraph. For the rest of you, you'll find below my tweets from the night "Spacetime" aired. I never had the chance to do a review of the episode, and I would have liked to post this mini recap sooner, but everything got away from me. I don't even know where the summer just went. For the second half of the third season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., I expected I would do the normal thing and talk about the episodes that gave me a lot to think about. I thought I would be doing a lot of writing, but it didn't turn out that way. That's not the show's fault at all; it just gets better and more intricate and is always well-done and beautifully performed.
In memory of Dan Schmidt, the founder of Across the Airwaves, who sadly passed away this summer. The tribute episode for him can be found here.
This is the fourth in a series of twelve recap type posts that I'm releasing before the fourth season premiere of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on September 20. Twitter is an ephemeral sort of thing and I love to save certain things I've written about my favorite shows. I didn't like that I neglected the second half of this spectacular season on my blog. So, these are all of the tweets I did for Watchdogs and some extra commentary that I shared with Across the Airwaves.
Until the series ends, I'll always be behind adding to this playlist. I had to stop for quite a while, so there's a big gap. Still, there are 170 songs to enjoy.
This is the essence of The Blacklist. Probably my favorite is Disturbed's cover of "Sound of Silence." The scene it played over was one of the most devastating ever in the series.