I'm pretty sure Rising Tide was de-emphasized when higher-ups feared showing a group with legit beef against SHIELD might clue people into Winter Soldier's HYDRA reveal. Which was a shame, I was really looking forward to seeing what Wikileaks/Edward Snowden would be like in the MCU.

Lots of shows have slow starts, but many (especially now) crackle right out of the gate as well. I definitely was looking at the creative team behind the show and expecting something better than what I got for the first 14 hours.

Fair enough. SHIELD's first season was a pretty major experiment, so I understand its growing pains. Still, it's a pretty teachable moment for any future cross-media adaptations.

That being said, it's really the show's fault. At least Buffy's bad first season was only like 10 episodes, and had a more compelling visual hook than SHIELD.

I've stuck with it this long, but the show to me was still a guilty pleasure in the back half of season one. Bill Paxton (and later, Kyle MacLachlan) saved the show for me.

It's interesting that you think the show feels too small. If anything, especially after last season, it felt the show was stretching itself too thin, too big, and wasn't personal enough.

SHIELD's come under fire for its representation before, and I honestly don't get it. Especially when everyone attacking it conveniently ignores Ming-Na Wen and Chloe Bennett as main castmembers on the show.

Should they have recast him instead? Pretty sure swapping out one black actor for another is much worse!

Season one's actually better than that, Chloe Bennett is half-Asian (she uses her Americanized name in order to not get typecast as an Asian actress and then get turned away when she shows up to auditions not "looking Asian enough").

Also hard to get angry about him taking Trip's spot when the actor left SHIELD to be a regular on another show…

This is a superhero spy show, where many of the characters transform into monsters and/or die. It also can boast some of the best Asian representation on-screen, introduced the first gay character to the MCU, and as the review mentioned, has some of the best female characterization for any superhero property.

Apparently, since shows like Game of Thrones are completed far in advance of airing, they're able to upload the entire show to the HBO Go/Now service so it can premiere at the same time. Since Last Week Tonight is filmed on Sunday, it takes them time to upload the episode and it generally doesn't go live until the…

Not at all. Launching Keeping Up With The Kardashians and thrusting your family into the national spotlight is a HUGE departure from mere day-to-day decision making. My issue was with your suggestion that criticizing any closeted individuals' actions is in some way transphobic. Being in the closet informs and…

Many people hate the Kardashians because they're reality TV stars who - in the words of people on my Facebook feed - "got famous for doing nothing/having a sex tape". Caitlyn, as part of that brood, also gets it. I find it odd, personally. If you don't like them, just ignore them. But I guess I can see that as kind of…

There's criticism, and then there's the language that was used. It was hyperbolic and an unnecessary personal attack, especially since the shirt was made for him by a female friend. Turning a major scientific achievement into a tirade against one man for representing everything sexist about science is ridiculous and…

I wouldn't really consider what happened to the shirt guy appropriate criticism. The Verge in particular was raging hard about it.

It's not continuity - if you want Elba to have a decade-long run, he's going to be Octopussy-era Roger Moore-old at the end of his run. And no one wants an old Bond.

I'd disagree. Skyfall was successful because it leaned so heavily onto the 'classical' elements of Bond. The finale took place at his old home in Scotland, and the plot and imagery was informed by his past as well.

Have you seen a later Moore film?

It's one of the more divisive ones, to be sure. I'm of the age that it's legitimately great to me, though, just as Live and Let Die is another generation's favorite Bond movie.