TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2
TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 2
Episode “0-8-4”
Original Airdate: 10-2-13
The first episode had a lot going for it, but also had to give a lot of time for setup and introductions. This is the first episode where we have the full team and we get to see them actually act as a team. There are of course going to be a few bumps along the way, and I felt like the quality of some things didn’t quite live up to the spectacle of the first episode, but I still had a great time and enjoyed a lot of the little things throughout the episode as well as the fun extra at the end. The episode is centered around an “0-8-4” aka an object of unknown origin that has been found in Peru and the team goes on their first mission as an actual team in order to assess and retrieve it. Things of course go sideways when the Peruvian military show up, calm down when it turns out to be an old flame and colleague of Coulson’s, then go sideways again when rebel forces start attacking them both.
I’m honestly not entirely sure whether I like this episode more or less than the pilot, I’m hampered by a bit of a distracting watch which is no fault of the episode itself. I didn’t think the writing overall was as tight as the first episode, and I also felt like they are starting threads of a romance that I don’t think the show needs and is a little too cliché. The high point of the episode is Ming Na’s Melinda May, she gets to kick some major ass more than once in the episode, and also gets some of the best laughs, just never call her the Cavalry. There are once again some nice tie-ins to the movies: Coulson mentions that the last 0-8-2 was a hammer, the 0-8-2 itself is a weapon using Tesseract technology from the Captain America movie, and of course there’s a great scene at the end with Samuel L. Jackson popping in as Nick Fury. In my opinion, it feels like it’s hitting a good balance of giving fans some nice tidbits without overselling them and hope these continue.
I did like some of the hints of ongoing storylines, I like the fact that they are giving up a little bit more of Coulson’s backstory. He does realize that he wasn’t just severely injured, he was stabbed through the heart by Loki, which makes me think that he actually does know a little bit more of what’s going on than just his “magical” trip to Tahiti. I also like that they’re giving hints of Melinda May’s backstory, even if it’s just her old nickname “The Cavalry” so far. They also set up that Skye is still working with the hacker group The Rising Tide, even as she is becoming more a part of the ragtag team. I’m not completely sold on it yet, there’s some good characters, Ward still isn’t much of a standout yet, and even Coulson felt like he had a bit of a misstep in this episode, but I do still like the direction it’s going.
M.A.O.S. Declassified on Hulu episode 2: This show is growing on me, it had a lot of laugh out loud moments for me in this episode, like the picture of the bunny. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still very fluff, but it’s very funny fluff and worth 5 minutes of your time. And during the commercial towards the end, I noticed that it says something about be sure to watch the end of every episode, and this one had Nick Fury guesting on it. I think it would be great if that trend continues and has other quick cameos at the end instead of cliffhangers like other shows tend to do. Anyway I’ll be back again with next week’s episode. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.
Posted on October 3, 2013, in TV Nights and tagged Marvel, review, SHIELD, television, tv. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 
The characterization did feel just a tiny bit more fleshed out with this episode. Hopefully that continues… and continues in a non-irritating, non-cliche way.
It does have hints of cliches, especially the possible spy-turned-true-member-of-the-team Skye. I honestly don’t know what would be the most interesting way to handle her character though. The way I predict is that there will be moments throughout the season that make you question her true loyalty, and then there will be a moment during the midseason or season finale where she has to make a pivotal choice whose side she’s on. And considering this is Disney/Marvel I would bet on the S.H.I.E.L.D. side.
Still not loving. Fury appearance was nice though 😀
The response I saw on Twitter was pretty even between calling it better or worse than the pilot. We’ll see.
One more episode and i’ll decide to watch or not, so far its mostly not 😦
This episode felt okay, and I did really like Ming Na’s work in it. The main plot was alright, even with the connections to Captain America and The Avengers. The Nick Fury appearance was a cool surprise, and it’s still heading in a good direction. I don’t think this will end up being one of the better episodes, though.
Yeah, it still feels very setup-y and yet to find a unique foothold for all of the characters yet. Headed in a decent direction so far.
I still like it enough to want to keep watching but I hope they’d continue to improve. Nice to see Fury’s cameo, I wonder if there’ll be more planned in future eps w/ other Avengers 😉
I’m curious about that as well, it seems like a far cry to get some of these big names into a tv show cameo, but it’s Disney & Marvel and there could be some good fine print in those contracts. I highly doubt any Tony Stark cameo though, Kat Dennings or Jeremy Renner? Maybe.