Today's News: another 'Agent' series for Marvel?

Got a scoop in at MovieScene the other day, and here it is:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/150196/marvel_overweegt_serie_over_agent_carter

I doubt this will happen. Agent Carter currently stars in a Marvel (Cinematic) One-Shot because she is the stuff One-Shots are made off: a character that doesn't really fit into the presently running world of comics but is still intriguing enough to warrant a single solo adventure, just to leat readers know he/she is still around somewhere and might come back to the fold later on. Yes, she is smart, strong and sexy, but historically speaking (comic book history that is) there's not enough to Peggy Carter to base an entire series on. She played off well against Captain America, but that's not gonna happen again, since he got frozen in the Arctic and ended up in a future world (from his perspective), while she lived life on a naturally linear level, battling her way through the last phase of the Second World War and the Cold War.  Unlike other Marvel films and shows now in production or planning, an Agent Carter show would be a period piece, hardly connected to the rest of Marvel's universe at all because of the time difference. Marvel is currently weaving a carefully interconnected cinematic universe where all characters and films share the same time frame so as to allow various sorts of hints and references to one another, both for story purposes and for fun, always keeping the option of a good crossover open. Agent Carter, being active in the Fourties, Fifties and Sixties, would be a definite standalone character that hardly seems to fit in Marvel's present strategy. In fact, Carter got cut out of The Avengers, for which a scene was shot where Cap visited an old Peggy after he was defrosted to let her know he still loves her but time came between their romantic entanglement. Then again, you might argue this excising was done intentionally so as to make her storyline, whatever was planned at that point, feel less conclusive. Who knows, maybe she'll end up in the present herself somehow. Stranger things have happened in the comics of the House of Ideas after all.

I agree, an Agent Carter series could be fun, but I don't see it happening as a fullfledged, regularly running show. Maybe as a miniseries. Which in many ways is basically what a Marvel One-Shot is. Why not simply start there? It seems more logical to watch the results of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. first, and see how well Marvel's Cinematic universe branching off to home cinemas works for the studio and what ramifications it has story wise for the actually 'Cinematic' Universe. I bet that is exactly what Marvel is thinking itself. As Deadline states, this possible Agent Carter show is just one of various TV projects (the others all unnamed at this point) Marvel is playing with for potential future development. Nothing else is known about these, or Carter, at this point. For now, any notion of other Marvel TV shows (no matter how much I'd like to see them) seems nothing but speculation. But I daresay there's more obvious choices for a second Marvel television series than this.

Today's News: S.H.I.E.L.D. show is a go / La Cinquieme Saison mini-review

This news has been on MovieScene mere minutes and it's already available here:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/147013/marvels_s.h.i.e.l.d._officieel_een_serie

Personally I can only say: bring it! Yes, the overall story synopsis sounds like a bland retreat of shows like The X-Files or The 4400, but hey, I liked those shows and I like Marvel so I still have no reason not to be thoroughly excited. Plus, I've been a great admirer of the way Marvel is constructing its larger cinematic universe in theaters and I'm quite intrigued by the question of how they will continue keeping this up on the small screen. After all, it's one thing to have a series of movies that are referring to one another culminating in one big giant super movie (The Avengers, remember?), but it's quite another to incorporate a TV series into this whole. TV shows just work via different logistics, different methods of production, different ways to keep their principal actors in check, etc. It's laudable ABC dares to take the risk, but also rather understandable considering the box office results from both The Avengers last year and currently Iron Man 3 (though the latter didn't deserve it as much as the former unfortunately). Be it in the TV business or in Hollywood, you can't keep a good exec away from the promise of being showered in precious dough, eh? And what's up with that likeable Agent Coulson playing the lead of this show, despite having died in The Avengers? Seems there's already one big mystery to solve to begin with.

With Marvel, Joss Whedon and TV (the last two categories alone would pique my interest already, really) all mixed together, I can safely say that however Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will turn out, it will be interesting on multiple levels, regardless of its eventual quality or lack thereof. I for one think it might actually happen to be a good show, and I'll definitely seek it out to shield me from boredom!


By the way, it's been quite a while since I posted a review (mini or otherwise) on this blog of mine. Guess I should go and remedy this critical drought, and why not start now? So here's a little review to let you know I have not forgotten about posting other things than my pieces for MovieScene. I saw this fascinating little film at Provadja recently:

La Cinquième Saison

Rating: ****/*****, or 7/10

A poetic European look at Apocalyptic cinema, this film deals with a small rural community which is confronted with the sudden emergence of a new season. Nihilistic in nature, it falls between winter and spring and is basically a season of nothingness: there's no snow or rain, but nature stays dead as nothing grows, except for the desperation of the townspeople as their resources dwindle. Soon people go to ever increasing lengths just to stay alive or to explain this unusual break in seasonal patterns, to shocking results. Young girls prostitute themselves simply for food, while the town's outsider is branded a cause to all the town's dismays, targeted as a human sacrifice and burned alive. Though much more esoteric in tone than regular end-of-the-world dramas, the film proves all as haunting and unsettling as it successfully registers the dark side of man and his unwavering ability for cruelty when faced with inexplicable catastrophe and basic survival. Also explored is mankind's role in this world under the uncompromising rule of the environment (though it is never addressed whether mankind itself is at fault for the creation of this fifth season), which can still play hell with our sense of civilization and kindness when it comes down to creating unsustainable living conditions that make society crumble. The visual imagery the film resorts to is both gritty and raw as the material demands, but at times surprisingly off-beat and confusing. The Apocalypse has truly gone arthouse, as La Cinquième Saison proves.