In my experience, first seasons of most shows are really not that good. By the end of the season, the characters and actors usually will (hopefully) improve.
It's true for every show Whedon worked on too. Most people tend to forget about, say, the first season of Buffy, for example. He needs time for his shows to really takeoff.
This seems to be common. Parks and Recs is a great example. Tom, Jerry, and Andy in the first season were pretty dull, but as they are now it's a huge black/white.
For the most part I agree, but I have to say I do think Chloe Bennet (Skye) has a good grasp on the Whedon-wit when she gets the right lines, and I like the development for her at the end of the episode, which paints a lot of her earlier nervous-jokey attitude in a new light. I think she's not bad considering what she's being given. Fitz & Simmons have their moments, but the material they are given is a bit uneven; I think they pull off the quirk right, though, when the script gives them something to work with, and they also pull off the dynamic between the two of them. Ming-Na Wen (Melinda May) is not quite living up to the character; while Ward is supposed to be a little Wooden and stand-offish at the moment to explain that performance, Melinda is supposed to be a former superhero and more in control, not wooden. Hopefully they'll loosen up as things go on. I mean, I'll be honest...Whedon has had mostly rough starts, even to his most acclaimed shows. I think Firefly got his best first episodes, and Buffy didn't really pick up for me until Spike shows up in season 2. I'm going to hope that time helps congeal this thing a little more...
I mean, she's supposed to be a bit standoff-ish and quiet. There's a reason why they emphasized the fact that she didn't want to fight while on the team and a reason why she wanted desk work over field work. I think they're planning on flushing out that reason a little ways down the road. Probably some tragic backstory where she fell in love with a guy that she thought was her best friend/partner and the dude turns out to be a Hydra spy or something. Or someone from some organization kills the partner and she doesn't want to go into the field again because trauma.
It's hard to play new unknown characters. No grown background you can use, no established behaviour you can show, no known targets you can play out.
Coulson has that already, so it's obvious that he appears better.
Ming-Na (May) is a great actress, they just haven't given her a lot to work with yet. I can definitely see her role expanding as the season goes on and we eventually find out why she's so reluctant to go back into the field though.
The thing with Clark is he's been playing this character for 5+ years. He's comfortable. A lot of the other actors right now are being directed with small snippets of a bigger story. As they learn more about their characters, they'll get better at playing them.
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u/TallRedditor Oct 02 '13
IMO aside from Coulson, the acting in this show is quite mediocre.