A decline in quality

I watch three broadcast TV shows (other than the news) at the moment:

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Person of Interest
• Sleepy Hollow

I'll probably give "The Tomorrow People" a try tonight, just out of nostalgia for the crappy old ITV series from the '70s and I'll watch "Arrow" when it returns. That said, I freely acknowledge that "Arrow" is pretty bad and I have very low expectations for "The Tomorrow People".

Where I ran into problems was my elevated expectations on two of my current-three viewings.

"Sleepy Hollow" had promise. Headless horseman. A Revolutionary War soldier thrown into the present. Witches. Demons. It was like "Supernatural" only weirder. Then they decided to take everything in the direction of Revelations from the Bible and... just... yeah. It's not working. "Supernatural" did it much better and... just... yeah. Not working at all. "Sleepy Hollow" would have made an outstanding mini-series, but it's already been renewed for a second season. They're... what? Three? Four episodes in? I'm already bored. I may drop this from my list.

That said, I'm liking the nutjob sister character they added. I may give it more of a chance.


"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." aired their third episode last night. I dunno. I just expected more from Team Whedon on this. You have Marvel's rich backstory and mythology coupled with the nearly-limitless storytelling potential of S.H.I.E.L.D. You could dump in Hydra, A.I.M., and countless other nefarious villains. What do they do instead? Ambiguous and forgettable antagonists. A contrived group of pretty-people who fill cliche slots. Stories that are really just very "meh".

Even the pilot, which should have been a crowd-grabber, was surprisingly low-key.

Then there's the forced-feeling "mystery" surrounding the resurrection of Agent Phil Coulson. He's either a clone or a Life Model Decoy (android). As of last night's ep, I'm leaning towards clone and finding myself really not interested in the mystery at all. I'm hoping they leave it a mystery at this point 'cause any explanation they come up with will pretty much suck.

They're toning down the everyday quiet badassitude of Coulson and making him a little more bumbling. I'm not sure I approve. Oh, I like that he's a very mortal everyman, but he's a high-ranking agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Lessening his badass factor is just a bad idea.

Honestly, the only show that's remaining fairly awesome is "Person of Interest" and I read somewhere that their ratings are slipping. FSM knows why.