Freelancer_FR

This episode was enjoyable and intriguing because it dealt both with a bizarre mental illness (prosopagnosia or the inability to identify or recognize faces, hence the title) and background world events (children soldiers in former Zaire). I was shocked, however, to learn that the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has switched official languages from French to English, and nobody warned me! It must have happened when Zaire became DRC, I'm sure. Why else would two DRC immigrants speak with a blatant African accent from English-speaking Africa? More seriously, I find it hard to believe that the series' production team was unable to find actors who would be originally from French-speaking Africa especially in a country like Canada that prides itself on its bilingualism.

I'm surprised at the number of blasé reviews I've read about this show. It has attractive leads, action, suspense, super-powers, cool gadgets, and a lot a humor, especially dry (my favorite). In short the pilot kept me entertained from the first second to the last one. And isn't that what good TV is supposed to do—entertain? Maybe blasé viewers should stop watching TV for a while, especially journalists, and read a few books for instance, before they return to the Tube with fresh eyes.

I would agree, however, that the novelty level for this show is not through the roof. But that's to be expected, because the "Agents of SHIELD" draws both from a classic comics series and a blockbuster movie. You're indeed expected to feel comfortable in a universe you're already familiar with, with a lot of insider references, while still being surprised, entertained and wanting for more. If you expect innovative scripts, you should watch original shows.

The only thing that bothered me is the use of non-American English native accents to make SHIELD "sound" international, as if including a Scotsman (Iain De Caestecker) and a English woman (Elizabeth Henstridge)—and I'm not even talking about Ming-Na's Chinese background—was enough for that. The escalating use of British accents (and actors, obviously) on US shows is really bothering me. As if these were the only English accents that supposedly insular US audiences were prepared to cope with. As a non-native speaker I find British accents to be more difficult to understand that US accents and, to me, they sound unnatural and affected or conversely uneducated. (When hearing a cockney or Irish accent for example, I'm, like, why can't these people speak proper English? But that may be because French is much more normative.) I find this trend to be purely gratuitous and crowd-pleasing. If I wanted to hear British accents I would be watching British shows.