TV Nights: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1
It may be cliched to say this, but it does feel like just a moment ago when I was watching the pilot of this new TV show, the first TV show to take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which I suppose should more or less be called the Marvel Live Action Universe, as I’m pretty sure that the upcoming Big Hero 6 does not take place in the same universe as the other live action films and shows. The show had a rough start for many people, though I enjoyed the show straight from the pilot episode, and the ratings dropped off quite a bit a few weeks into the second half of the season which wasn’t helped by the many multi-week hiatuses. But once the uninterrupted lead up to the season finale began as well as the big shake-up tied in with Captain America, the show finally found its footing and brought back many who gave the show a break with a strong ending and solid foundation for a second season. FYI, I will be talking about the entire season so there will be some spoilers, though I will try to keep some of the big surprises not tied to the movies.
If you haven’t been watching the show or reading my episode recaps throughout the year, the show follows Agent Coulson who is back from the dead after his many appearances in the Marvel movies as a fan favorite non-superhero. He is tasked with building his team whose original purpose I actually don’t remember aside from just being a general on-call S.H.I.E.L.D. multipurpose team with an awesome giant plane. Early on they take on a mysterious hacker named Skye living in her van and part of the Rising Tide, a more or less anarchistic group of hackers who are opposed to S.H.I.E.L.D. Though they eventually fell off the radar of the show after a few episodes. The team also includes the muscle Agent Ward, the pilot/eventual muscle Agent May, and the scientist/doctor duo FitzSimmons. One of the weakest points in this show, especially in the beginning was the fact that there was this supposed budding romance happening between arguably the two least interesting characters, Ward and Skye. And while they both developed some depth in the latter half of the show, I’m certainly not arguing against the fact that Ward is no longer with the team. As far as my favorite? That’s a tough call since Coulson is always awesome, though he has trailed off a bit ever since he found out what really happened to him. Agent May is another close choice because she kicks major ass and looks great doing it, but I would have to go with Fitz. He starts off the show as comic relief more or less, but has really developed the most as a character compared to anyone else on the show and has had the most interesting overall arc, though he’s also the one that suffers some type of life threatening injury in the season finale so we’ll see how that affects him in season 2.
As far as the villains of this season, they’ve been a bit of a mixed bag. I thought that the Gravitonium was one of the stronger early episodes, though it took quite a while for the typical first season freak-of-the-week with the nebulous Centipede organization, but once it meshed into the much more Marvel-centric Hydra led by the mysterious Clairvoyant whose reveal is one of the better moments and one of the best episodes of the season miles better than the weak tie-in with the Thor movie even though that one guest starred Peter MacNicol. But any villainous organization needs a face and there have been a few. Luckily the most interesting two have remained in the mysterious girl in the flower dress Rayna and sleazy businessman Quinn.
My favorite episode
#17: Turn, Turn, Turn
This is the episode I just mentioned which is the Captain America: The Winter Soldier tie-in where the revelation that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been long-infiltrated by H.Y.D.R.A. and totally changes the entire dynamic of the show for the better. For many people who were on the fence about this show, this is the episode that turned them back onto it. Every character changed, and so did their dynamics. Not only that, but one of the biggest problems I had with the show turned into something much more interesting.
What’s in store for season 2
I don’t tend to make too many predictions because I prefer to be surprised about these things. But there’s finally the hint about Skye’s parents which is finally coming to the forefront after being a major annoyance of a plot point during the earlier half of the season. There’s also the influx of meta-human villains for more of the second season as well as the rebuilding of S.H.I.E.L.D. from the ground up and the inclusion of a couple members of the team. There’s several different directions that they could go and I’m looking forward to where it’s going. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.
Posted on May 22, 2014, in TV Nights and tagged Marvel, seasson, SHIELD, television, tv. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 
Turn, Turn, Turn, I’ll agree, was the best episode by a long shot. I also agree about the first Thor “tie-in” episode being one of the weakest episodes (though the Lorelei one was decent.) I’m glad the tie-ins haven’t been “you must see X movie while it’s in theatres”, though. I mean, I guess there’s something of a spoiler with Ep. 17 revealing that HYDRA is back in action in Cap 2, but really, that’s not a spoiler so much as it’s a foregone conclusion. It’d be like an ongoing DC Universe revealing that the Joker is going to cause trouble in a Batman film.
I’m glad that the season ended the way it did, on the whole. A friend and I — do you know Spikor/Bruce? He was a regular commenter on my blog, but I don’t know if you and he interacted — were discussing while it was going on that if Ward were somehow “redeemed” though his “love” for Skye, we were going to puke. And while we were both actually rooting for Skye to shoot him, this is pretty satisfactory.
Also loved the resolution on Paxton’s character. “Found it!” Saw the “not quite dead” bit coming a mile away, but didn’t see that. Hilarious.
As for predictions on the future… I’m hoping that the question of who/what Skye really is gets resolved entirely within the second season and doesn’t become a series-long “mystery”. And if I can place a bet… her parents were “monsters”, but she appears perfectly human. She also has human-level intelligence and emotional capabilities, so we can presume she’s of a sapient race. And she didn’t reject the Kree blood transplant the way most TAHITI patients did, without needing the treatment Coulson had. So that gives us “sapient non-human race, capable of looking like monsters and not looking like monsters, and biologically compatible with the Kree.” I think she’s a Skrull.
Yeah I’ve had Spikor over here once in a while and vice-versa. I hadn’t thought of the Skrull connection, probably because I’m not a big comics guy and I don’t remember the Skrull having a big presence in the cartoons I watched (or if they did it has been 20+ years ago) I also hope they don’t stretch it out too much, though Coulson’s issues feel like they can be stretched out for a while.