If you're being sarcastic, it's not coming across too well.

I understand the being wary (and weary) of 'cutesiness'; I know the older And Then There Were None films are generally fine in their way, but I hate that they try to be 'fun', with silly set pieces and a happy ending (even though it's one Christie herself came up with). The tone of this one was pretty spot on for the…

Ah, now I do see your point on the 'thematic murder' cliché. I hadn't considered that, probably because I first read the book a long time before I became familiar with that cliché in other media. At the same time, I feel it's an important part of the story, and its bearing on the characters (particularly Vera) is hard…

But it affected no-one. Malick wasn't bothered by it, and Coulson didn't seem that pleased by it. Where's the fallout, besides a hypothetical 'the villain's losing money', which he doesn't seem to need for his current plan anyway. Where was the fallout to that subplot?

I adore the book and so had high expectations for the series… and it started well. The first 40 minutes were great, perfect atmosphere, great introduction of characters… then it all started to go wrong. It may just be nitpicky, but it could have been so much better. The pacing went way off from towards the end of part…

True, but usually everything within a C plot is still relevant to the rest of the C plot.

…right. Told, not shown.

Still 'told' rather than 'shown'. Malick didn't even seem annoyed by it, so why would we suppose it's an effective blow?

That's what they said, but it wasn't exactly evident on screen. Malick barely reacted, and had already sent the drone thing to pick up Meduseyes. In fact, you could edit out Coulson's whole subplot with kid Strucker and not affect the rest of the episode at all, even the rest of the stuff with Coulson in.

I was afraid after they'd mentioned it that they'd get all heavy handed and give him a moment 'confessing' it in full to, say, Daisy. Very pleased they just let it be a thing about him that affects how he connected to this one person (and possibly others). Heck, they didn't even say what faith it was! Well played, AoS.

I too liked the exploration of Elena's character and powers, and fortunately the opening flash-forward all but confirms she'll be back for more. (If they don't develop her powers so they can have a sequence of her running through a crowd of enemies utilising her forward movement as her 'safe spot' while bouncing…

Yeah, it just happens that Lincoln is the most obvious dead-weight. Unfortunately with the sprawling cast size even some of my favourites feel easily droppable; I love Mack, Hunter and Bobbi, but if any of them had been killed in tonight's mission of the week I don't think it'd have hurt the broad picture that much.

…ah, was the abducting of Meduseyes still in the police station rather than in the SHIELD base? I misconstrued, my bad.

Solid review of a pretty solid episode; thanks Alex/Mr McCown/sir (I've yet to get the hang of internet etiquette), pleased to have you helming the community. There was the odd idiot moment in tonight's episode (Coulson calling Malick and neither really accomplishing that much, Hydra demonstrating that they can steal…

That may be the case, but it put at least me off by not committing fully to being a musical. The comedy, for me, was pretty hit and miss, and as a musical it failed (even if that was partly deliberate).

It was a weird episode in general, with most of the stuff with the main group feeling very off (but with some really good stuff towards the end). I doubt the scene would have detracted from the episode as it was too much.

For me it was the montage at the end of Environmental Science (ep 10) that had me completely sold on the show (although I'd like the first 9 episodes well enough). It was with that sequence, which I won't spoil here, that I knew I'd be watching the show forever.

…and a…

Yeah, that was especially weird given that they doubled up 6 and 7 then 8 and 9, leaving 10 by itself. Who decided on that?

I too got the Jayne comparison, and I really appreciate that they took him to a different endpoint than Jayne (who basically returned to the team after a bit of punishment).