Monday 9 May 2016

TV Review No. 23 Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Spacetime (S3, Ep15)

Strong Points:
Awesome time mechanic
Explanation of the 4th dimension
Tense
Great choreographed (in the literal sense this time) action scenes
Great acting from all
Nice cinematography
Exoskeleton fun
Funny - 'You're off the team' line etc.

Weak Points:
Some storylines took a backseat
A lot to take in
Long flowing robes are a bit at ends with Hive/Dead Ward's image
Tad gruesome for the shows usual standards
Still more of Daisy 'I'm a God' Johnson

In-depth Review:
Time is of the essence. As is space it seems in one of the best and most thought out episodes of this series. The Inhuman we met today was a prophecy giver (who had driven himself out of his own home due to not being able to touch his baby daughter - all fun, all fun *sobs*) although not just any prophecy no, but a prophecy of someone's death. Great.

Learning about your future can be a scary thing, especially if it forecasts the demise of yourself. This is the case for this episode with not 1 but 3 people thoroughly 'disheveled' (to put it lightly) by the visions this Inhuman gave them. And the problem with your future is that at some point, it's going to happen. 

This idea of time being the 4th Dimension and so going to happen was expertly described by Fitz (even if his outburst of 'all of this is going to happen and we can do nothing about it' was a little disheartening to say the least) and is an interesting concept to think about, although very difficult to picture. 

Something that wasn't very difficult to picture however (as we watched it), was the action sequences which were very well done this episode. I mean, which literally saw some being choreographed. In what was a great idea by Daisy to try and beat her vision, she sets up the room exactly like she saw in her vision and gets the team (and a few extras) to act out the fight scene so as to try and get May quick enough. From Simmons being told to be more aggressive and fall over to May's 'bang bang' gun it was a really enjoyable scene to watch and coupling it with us actually being able to see it for real (with Daisy this time) was great. It was also in 1 take and who doesn't love that?

One thing that could've been done better or at least given more time too was Andrew and May's goodbye. Put in to balance out the action going on at the other end, it was a nice ending to the saga of Andrew and May, as well as it giving more life to Andrew (guessing he'll be used to kill Dead Ward) but it is a shame that they didn't dedicate an episode to it although it is fitting with May's no-nonsense personality.

Misinterpretations of prophecies are always interesting and this episode had plenty. From the old 'the glass is actually a 1 way mirror' to Daisy saving people instead of needing to be saved it was nice to see that the characters had some power over the proceedings. Also the snow actually being ash was a nice, if slightly dark twist. Another twist was the team finding out about Dead Ward being alive Dead Ward but to be honest, the audience have known he was alive for so long now that I forgot the team didn't.

Finally, we got to see the some of Dead Ward's powers in what was quite a gruesome display. Literally sucking the skin from a boardroom full of people certainly is a way to get peoples attention and what you want (an exoskeleton for Gideon in this case). This exoskeleton was for Gideon to gain more power (in the most literal sense) so after flipping over a table he proceeds to crush the skull of the CEO of the exoskeleton company. Lovely.

The final scene was quite poignant with both the imagery of the Robin (like at the beginning of the episode) and Gideon's panic attack as we finally see some humanity in him. What's quite horrible as this episode has actually made me pity the man as Dead Ward is slowly sucking the life that was built on promises.

Conclusion: overall, this was one of the best episodes of the series, and I hope they can keep it up with the reveals hinted at this episode!

Rating: 89%

Thanks for reading, Satamer.

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