Me too. I think it could be a great show if done well, and since Whedon is doing it and he's had a hit or three on TV then I think it will be. I do wish they'd use established characters, even if they are minor ones like Jasper Sitwell. And I get why Whedon wants to go that route and not have Iron Man here one minute and gone the next, but I think they will have to do that in order to sell this. These underdogs are going to have to run into the Avengers or at least other Shield members like Hill, Fury, Widow, or Hawkeye. They don't need the Avenger of the week formula, but they should have them pop up every few episodes as a guest star, if not just a cameo. Even on the X-files Mulder and Scully saw the deptuty director fairly often, which I would assume translates to Hill in Shield.
Its really just too bad they killed Coulson. This series has him all over it. He would have been the perfect start of the series IMO. While I was sad to see him go in Avengers, his death did have that push they needed. I just can't help but hope Fury was up to some more mindmucking like he's usually up to and that Coulson didn't really bite the bullet. The rumors of the spear tip being removed on the Blu Ray even seem to indicate that Coulson may not be quite so dead.
When is this supposed to come out anyway? Next year? Midseason this year? Several years from now? I suppose they could reveal Coulson isn't dead in Iron Man 3 and open this up to star him next fall?
I'm guessing ABC will the the network this is on since thats the one Disney owns right?
And it would be cool if they could reintroduce some of their newly reacquired properties like the Punisher through this show. I mean I could see SHIELD going after Frank for a few episodes. It would at least allow them to test the waters on some more minor characters and see what the response is to them before putting up big money for their own film.