Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Trout in the Milk
June 25, 2020 9:10 PM - Season 7, Episode 5 - Subscribe

Sousa experiences his first and second time jumps and struggles with the fashion of the day. Enoch relies on Consumer Reports when picking out his sweet ride. Mack has trouble with the concept of how to pick a location for a date. Deke pulls an unexpected move. Gemma experiences a glitch. May appreciates good HR policy. Yo-Yo teaches the lessons of 007. Coulson digs covert and fashionable uniforms. Daisy appreciates the simpler times (and its simpler technology).

AV Club review

Description from IMDB (in case it's more helpful or informative than my above-the-fold summary): "The team - Daniel Sousa in tow - reunites with more than one familiar face at the S.H.I.E.L.D. hangout and discovers exactly how to dismantle the Chronicoms' latest plan; the Zephyr unexpectedly leaps forward again."
posted by sardonyx (5 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
That opening title sequence was so much fun. Let's hope they keep that up in future episodes.

Style-wise this is the 1970s I remember. Sure there were the exaggerated looks that moviemakers and TV stylists like to poke fun at, but as Coulson said, "these are the clothes adults wore at the time" (or words to that effect). Daisy's outfit in particular was dead bang on--or at least it captured the feel perfectly. I can picture that type of look in a magazine or illustrating a package of sewing patterns. (I'm pretty sure there are some pattern packages around here that scream this aesthetic.) May's dress also recalled outfits from the era. And I can't fail to mention the jackets worn by Phil and Yo-Yo. Yup and yup. Even the men's suiting was good in so many ways (especially the colours and the ties), even if it wasn't exactly vintage.

Speaking of clothes, the SHIELD blue overalls with white accents were a nice treat to long-time Marvel readers, and it's fitting that SHIELD history fanboy Coulson and May--the two agents with the most seniority--got to wear them.

Between this show and Stargirl, it certainly has been a fun season for TV superhero fans who also appreciate automotive history.

I guess I should say something about the plot. As per usual, this show really needs to move the Fitz-Simmons storyline along. Yes, I know it's tradition by now to drag out the process of keeping the couple apart, but they need to start filling in some major plot holes if they want to hold the viewers' interest. Or at least my interest. At this point, I'm long past caring what's happening with those two.

Instead, I'm much more interested in seeing the world through Sousa's eyes. It makes for a nice contrast with Deke who came back to a world where everything was better and SHIELD agents (mostly) proved themselves competent time and time again. In contrast Daniel keeps experiencing the world getting worse and worse and watching the team mess up time timeline over and over. Sure picture-taking phones are great, and the cars might be interesting, but there really isn't much he finds welcoming in the futures he has seen so far.

May's story line is getting more interesting, but I'm not sure I have much to say about it. There's a lot of ground they have to cover with her if they want to get her back to some semblance of normal and then figure out what LMD-Coulson means to her before the series ends.

Speaking of stuff I want to see before the series ends, they'd better bring back Ward for at least one appearance.
posted by sardonyx at 9:32 PM on June 25, 2020 [2 favorites]


Bumping lemons.

I do not want to recontextualize the whole lemon thing when he was leaving them in on Daisy's pillow? Good god what might lemons mean after an apocalypse--
posted by provoliminal at 10:28 PM on June 25, 2020


Nothing really makes any sense at all, but I am happy to let that slide as long as things stay fun. Will it connect back to Coulson’s death in Avengers?
posted by snofoam at 2:14 PM on June 26, 2020 [1 favorite]


Did the direction, editing, and scripting seem stilted to anyone else? Takes seemed held too long. There were a lot of groan-worthy lines delivered stiffly, like everything May said about her condition, or Gemma announcing that the missiles destroyed the satellite right after we watched that happen, or Mack talking about taking Yo-Yo to the Lighthouse for a date.

Sometimes I wondered if they were deliberately trying to make it like a cheesy 70s show, like when the camera zoomed in on the Hydra thug Yo-Yo knocked out, but it just felt off.

Loved the opening credits though, and was so happy to see Patrick Warburton come back.
posted by ejs at 8:43 AM on June 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


I did notice the stilted nature of those things, and I assumed it was part of the ’70s pastiche they were doing.

And I totally agree on the opening credits. I was in a bit of a foul mood when I decided to watch this, but within seconds of those credits starting, I had a goofy grin on my face.
posted by Tabitha Someday at 10:14 AM on June 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


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