Poe Ghostal’s Points of Articulation or PoeGhostal.com? (Also: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. thoughts)

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On September 25, 2013

In Blog

So, a question for you all, faithful readers. There’s yet another redesign coming (I don’t want to say it’s “major,” but you’ll certainly notice it), and I’m debating whether to keep the name “Poe Ghostal’s Points of Articulation” or just go to plain old “PoeGhostal.com”.

I’ve always been fond of the “Points of Articulation” pun, but “Poe Ghostal’s Points of Articulation” is kind of a mouthful for a name (though an easily-identifiable acronym, PGPoA). I’m leaning toward just going with “PoeGhostal.com,” but I can be easily swayed. Thoughts?

—

So, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premiered last night. (Spoilers ahead, I guess.)

The episode was promptly followed by this morning’s revelation that DC “Me Too” Entertainment has inked a deal for a Gotham Central-like TV show, although from the way the press release reads it doesn’t actually sound like Gotham Central, which kind of annoys me since the comic is perfect for a television translation. Casting Bryan Cranston as an older Commissioner Gordon rather than an origin (bleh!) story for Gordon would also be awesome, but that won’t happen.

Either, I am already more excited for Gotham than I was by AOS. I wanted to like it a lot. There were moments of great Whedonesque dialogue; Coulson, Melinda May and Maria Hill are cool; it was great to see Ron Glass; the flying car was a little much for me but I get it, I get it. I also liked the Extremis connection and can really see how neat this show could be if it builds arcs around upcoming Marvel movies. BUT – aside from the three aforementioned characters and possibly J. August Richards as not-(but maybe is)-Luke Cage, I found all the actors and their characters to be uninteresting CW-teen-drama types. The Brits’ technobabble was so rapidly mumbled through accents it was incomprehensible (was Fran Kranz not available?), and the young dude – whose name I can’t even remember – was, well, forgettable. And the story, while it had some interesting ties to Iron Man 3 and the rest of the Marvel flicks, was pretty thin.

But the ratings were huge, so there’s plenty of time for these characters to grow on me and for the stories to get more interesting, with more intriguing (note: not necessarily higher) stakes.

I’m also watching Sleepy Hollow, and I must admit I found that show’s first ep a bit more compelling, although mostly because it’s just not staged on such a massive scale. Not that they’re in competition with each other, anyway. There’s room for both, at least until Sleepy Hollow finds its footing just in time for Fox to cancel it as usual.

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29 Comments

  1. Mario

    I'm at a loss as to what's being going on around here this last little while, & truly, it's kind of bummed me out, but IMHO, your name change is the least of your concerns regarding your site. No offense, & I'm saying this as a long-time reader who's a fan of your point of view, but your site is becoming irrelevant. You're just not churning it out, my man. Pics of the day & Toy Ailse Trolls just ain't won't cut it. What made you you has been nowhere to be found.

  2. pemberto82

    I'm a POA fanatic, both on figures and on this site. I'd miss it if it went.

  3. Enigma_2099

    If you're so fond of the name, why change it?

    • Poe Ghostal

      It's really long and unwieldy, and a bit harder to market than just PoeGhostal.com.

      I'm arguably more fond of the distinctive acronym than the name itself.

  4. dayraven

    stick w/ PGPoA, if my opinion matters… and it likely doesn't, but there it is anyway.

    as for agents of shield, i liked it, but i need more before i know whether the show has legs or not. for example, the relations between the team haven't had time to develop (or not, however that shakes out), and i'm curious to see if we get cameos from the marvel heavy hitters (i would sure expect so)… but i also want to see continued excellence on the effects, since we are talking about superheroes, i want to see the universe i know so well treated fairly and with depth, and i want to see the show avoid becoming too whedonized… i know, it's tantamount to a geek sin, but i dislike whedon, by and large, by virtue of unrealistic dialogue and a sense of self-accomplishment in his work that feels like he thinks he's cooler than me… and he's not. buffy almost killed me, i hated the movie, i hated the TV show, and i had to keep hearing my peers trumpet it's writing and i kept thinking "if you think his dialogue is whitty, i have a skid mark in my boxer briefs that will probably kill you from laughter. his whit is about as sharp as a polished turd." i quite seriously almost got into a fistfight over him at a local con once. i watched "cabin in the woods" at the request of several peeps, and i wanted to kill myself about the time thor died. it was an interesting idea, completely shitted up by bad dialogue, uncharacteristic behaviors, and worse, abuse of the meta-story telling technique.

    to put this another way… i think "cabin in the woods" was considerably less well done than "rubber" at way more than 3 times the cost… and so, with agents of shield, i will tune in, but i kind of expect that any minute now, it will suck sour frog ass.

    • stack32

      While there are plenty of valid criticisms of Whedon's work, given his career as a director, producer, screenwriter, and comic book writer he most certainly is cooler than you.

    • EriktheDuck

      Thank you! I can’t stand Wheaton and am constantly getting crap because of it. I did like Agents of Shield, but I too would like it to avoid getting too Wheaton-y.

    • Enigma_2099

      This show has Clark Gregg AND Wil Wheaton?!?!?

    • Poe Ghostal

      I get what you mean by "unrealistic dialogue," in that occasionally Whedon's dialogue is a bit too clever or twee, but overall I absolutely love his dialogue, find it realistic and more importantly, far more interesting than the dialogue in many a TV show.

      But clearly we differ entirely on Whedon so I won't try to convince you.

      I have wondered myself which movie stars will make cameos. I imagine it will occur around sweeps weeks (I can see Samuel L. Jackson popping up in February and May) and whenever a movie comics out (cameos by the superhero stars, potentially, especially the ones that need more PR like Thor, GotG, etc.).

  5. newtongimmick

    Might I suggest, Daddy Mac's PG Shack?

  6. Dead Man Walking

    Drop the POA subtitle; it's a POS.

  7. Mark

    I enjoyed the AoS pilot. I loved seeing the contrast being Coulson and Ward and the quirky humor. But honestly, I haven't watched any television since Arrow so I'm probably not the best judge of tv shows.

  8. shindanrod

    As a life long marvel reader, I never understood the Coulson hype….

    • Poe Ghostal

      I think it's more that Clark Gregg made him a fun character – plus he's become the connecting node between all the movies.

      Has Hasbro made a Coulson figure yet? In any scale?

    • lanerb

      Depends how you define 'figure'. If you mean articulated, nope. He did get a Fighter Pods of him in the Ultimate Spider-Man assortment- that is clearly holding the big gun from Avengers. So there's that.

  9. VENENOR

    As most have stated, I like the full PGPoA name.

    If you do shorten it to just poeghostal.com then the "Points of Articulation" tagline should be used for all future toy reviews similar to your use of "Toy-Aisle Trolls" and "Odds & Ends" for those particular posts.

  10. Harrig

    I like points of articulation, it underlines the character and humour that sets this site apart.

  11. Misterbigbo

    Ditto on the name change. If you think it's necessary or will reflect your vision, go nuts.

    I enjoyed Shield, even though it was formulaic. Coulson is a great character, but much of what was around him was less impressive. I'd have to see a statistical breakdown of the jokes vs. action per minute of show, but it seemed to me to sway a little more toward the funny than much of the rest of the Marvel stuff thus far. I might be wrong, but the formula seemed off a tad.

    But hey, most shows improve from the pilot.

    • Poe Ghostal

      It's true. The thing that got me was it just seemed very 1980s, A-Team-ish…just a very straightforward plot. But DMG liked it a lot, so maybe I'm just viewing it through my anal-retentive, overly-critical supergeek lenses.

      And…+1 PGPoA, I guess?

  12. Bigbot

    I'd keep PGPoA. We already know to go to poeghostal.com, I see no need to use it as the name as well.

    I wasn't too thrilled for AoS for the same reasons you mentioned. I just don't see any characters I'll really like (besides Coulson and May). I'll give the show until the christmas break and see where it goes.

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