How is that not a spin-off?

GreatMuppetyOdin | August 20, 16:47 CET

It has little to nothing to do with SHIELD? It's just... freelancing badassery? Is the best I can interpret from the very confusing description here. I think they're trying to create distance between the shows but I think in any case it's technically a spin-off?

Sunfire | August 20, 17:13 CET

Yeah, it's a spin-off. If "Mork and Mindy" is a spin-off of "Happy Days," this is a spin-off, too.

alliterator | August 20, 17:15 CET

MAoS was vastly improved by the larger cast and by having most of the new cast members be strapping heavy hitters. It would do a disservice to MAoS to separate Blood and Palicki from the show.

I thought ABC announced that Blood/Palicki show was dead after they picked up Agent Carter.

(spoiler) Jeph Loeb said that Lash from the Inhumans is showing this season on MAoS and that Coulson will be looking to find more Inhumans to recruit. It seems that MAoS is going from being a spy show to being a secret superhero show because it seems like they are really going to Inhumans territory.

Tausif | August 20, 18:26 CET

Has anyone been reading the Inhumans comic by Charles Soule?

Tausif | August 20, 18:27 CET

There are indications in some of the stories that this run will be limited and the actors will not leave AoS permanently.

JDL | August 20, 19:00 CET

I'm glad for the actors but agree they injected life into the first show. With new characters also set to come in plus the cast upgrades I hope things don't get unbalanced.

Limited series maybe? Perhaps a place holder in the spring schedule once a few shows get canceled or something? That would be strange for the first show's story flow. The only way I could see that working if it was for at most 8 episodes and they swung back to Coulson around May Sweeps.

Tausif-I've read the first two trades. I'll be interested to see how they pull off Lash both with make-up for the look and special effects for his powers.

Dusk | August 20, 19:16 CET

Just a guess I saw elsewhere but I really like the idea; A prequel of them when they were still married and elements of it tie to their present-day story on the main show like the Peggy scenes from last year.

Dusk | August 20, 19:36 CET

If it were to cause these two actors to leave the show full time, I can imagine a lot of fans of season 2 will also be leaving. Many people only hung around because these actors improved the show and had chemistry with, not just each other, but many more members of the cast. It's a bold move that may not pay off for the original series.

BlueSkies | August 21, 02:30 CET

If it's limited, I'm might be interested. If it's a full fledged show, I'm totally against it. They're are a great asset for the main show and it would be a great loss if they had to leave.

Ricardo L. | August 21, 04:08 CET

Totally agree, a limited series could be good but taking them out of SHIELD would be a bad idea.

Toivo | August 21, 06:58 CET

Wow, such a confusing description. How can anyone say this is not a spin-off, even if it has a completely different tone? Hm.

Anyways, I could also imagine it to be something like a mini-series focusing on their time as a married couple. That's the only way I see this could work, WITH them staying on AoS. I don't like it when a show changes their main cast too much and every season, I think it really wouldn't help AoS :( either way, though, I'll be watching.

Illy | August 21, 07:16 CET

They bring a great energy to AoS. I can't imagine what would happen if they were removed. I can only take so much Skye melodrama. Really I watch AoS while waiting for Agent Carter to come back!

Jillybug | August 21, 07:47 CET

I love this. So excited to have another show in this universe and now AOS can focus on the core team and Inhumans. Win! Win! Win! I have no time for the complainers. There are so many options for good and great genre programming these days that turning the channel (do kids even know what we mean by that phrase?) is easier than ever!

IrrationaliTV | August 21, 09:14 CET

I love the idea of those two leading a show together, but I also don't want them to leave AoS. So I'm conflicted!

With it not being called a spin-off, I guess it's all new territory when you're talking about the MCU. If AoS isn't called an Avengers spin-off, then this doesn't have to be one either. I suspect they also think saying it's not a spin-off will attract more viewers who aren't fans of AoS.

Bluelark | August 21, 09:44 CET

I want them to stay on AoS, too. It'd be spiffy if this aired in the summer hiatus, much like Agent Carter does in winter. Like, they go off on this particular mission and then rejoin the team come fall when S4 starts.

ETA: And if that were the case... it'd be less a spinoff than a side story. And then between S4 and S5, we could get a little Fitzsimmons adventure or something!

[ edited by swanjun on 2015-08-21 20:47 ]

swanjun | August 21, 11:45 CET

The fact people want the characters to stay on SHIELD means spinning it off is exactly the right thing to do. See also, Angel - the same conversations happened when Angel was announced on t'interwebs.

gossi | August 22, 10:41 CET

I would say it's a different situation, gossi. I liked all the other characters on Buffy. On SHIELD, these are my favorite characters by a significant amount. The show was better once they were added.

Jason_M_Bryant | August 22, 16:31 CET

It's fairly clear that Angel's storyline had to a large extent played out on Buffy when he was spun off. He was defined by his relationship with Buffy, and spinning him off allowed them to hugely expand his character and story. That was a sensible creative choice, whereas taking these characters off of SHIELD permanently wouldn't feel like a similarly good choice at this point.

[ edited by Toivo on 2015-08-23 14:31 ]

Toivo | August 23, 05:23 CET

I think it is a great idea. I don't understand what the issue is. Anyone who doesn't care for AoS (and there seems to be tiny but vocal minority who don't) characters but love these 2 now may have a show they enjoy more to watch instead and they no longer have to complain about characters and story lines they don't care for. Those of us who are enjoying the whole story and all the characters in it get an additional show to watch. Win, win, win.

IrrationaliTV | August 23, 12:24 CET

I don't think you should spin off vital characters to a series when its just now finding its footing. It could hurt the show.

eddy | August 23, 15:53 CET

The issue is while we think the show greatly improved over S1 a big source of the improvement to us came from Lance and Bobbi. Adding their new dynamic was the biggest early change last year and at least partially course-corrected the previous flaws. Most of us commenting here think the show is decent without them, otherwise we would have stopped talking here and joined the minority elsewhere. It's just with so many cast changes/new faces we worry about a negative upheaval and possibly a regression into those flaws again.

[ edited by Dusk on 2015-08-24 02:22 ]

Dusk | August 23, 17:22 CET

Season one was great, season 2 was great and very crowded. Bring on season 3. I like the ride. I hope major characters are ripped from us unexpectedly Breaking our hearts and strange pairings happen that you slowly learn to love over several seasons. I hope heroes become unforgivable villains and villains have motivations that make you love them. I hope powerful new characters are added that are race bent and gender bent and we can drink bigot tears when that happens.

Mostly I hope to be completely surprised so I wouldn't presume to know what the writers have planned or question what I have no clue about. But that's me. I like storytellers to tell me the stories they want to tell because it's their story and I get to watch it for free. It's a really good system. I do absolutely nothing and they give me live comic book superheroes!

IrrationaliTV | August 23, 22:45 CET

As a longtime Whedon fan, I am of course paranoid about things like this. Bobbi and Lance were important and popular additions to season 2, I think they helped the ratings. But the ratings still weren't awesome, and it's hard not to fear that they're now stripping the show for parts in search of a major ratings hit.

AoS got a third full season, which under the normal rules means it should be safe for a fourth season. But the normal rules have been changing quite a bit lately. Is syndication still as important as it used to be, here in the age of streaming?

If they take these two characters off the show, they need to replace them with something that will be equally cool and equally popular. I'm not sure how much more of "the good stuff" is going to be available for them to play with, since Marvel is planning infinite movies with a finite A-list of characters.

AndrewCrossett | August 24, 05:14 CET

First of many posts in the upcoming a TV season saying that published public ratings information is worthless and no longer drives network decisions on shows like AOS that are produced "in house." If Universal produced it and it aired on ABC then you can use ratings as a very rough barometer but since it's all Disney, ratings are less than 10% of the real picture. I know this and subsequent posts from me on this matter will be ignored even though I've been right about it for the last 2 years. Worrying is just too much fun it seems. Meh.

IrrationaliTV | August 24, 07:06 CET

I wouldn't worry about any of it, personally. Marvel is all about world building through multiple connected properties, and having effectively a SHIELD spin off (although for marketing, nobody call it that) sounds like another potential world building win. I actually really like Mockingbird and Hunter, and think they deserve their own show, so do the people behind the scenes involved. Ultimately ABC will find out how well the pilot tests and make a decision from that.

[ edited by gossi on 2015-08-24 20:00 ]

gossi | August 24, 11:00 CET