[Ed: Please welcome new ADTV contributor Jonathan Holmes. Kicking off what will be regular episode recaps, Jonathan takes a look back at the first season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.]
Awards Daily, the television section. Wow. Never in my dreams would I have thought I’d be here. I’ve been an avid reader of this site back when it was dubbed Oscar Watch back in 2005 as a sophomore in high school, and my interest in film was rapidly growing, so to be here and contribute for the small screen is a daunting challenge, but one I’m fairly up for! I’ll be your watcher for two series that are on my watch list: the hotly anticipated origin story, Gotham for Fox, and the second season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC, the latter of which I’ll be talking about right now, as it pertains to last season.
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing this show isn’t so much that it could be seen by cynics as Marvel Studios trying to cash in on the wild success that was 2012’s The Avengers, but that the absence of leads like Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, or Chris Evans as Captain America or Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow respectively would mean that only hardcore fans of the shared universe would tune in and give a damn.
The fact there’s no big superhero sighting (there’s mostly only mention of their names) in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actually works to its advantage by not overshadowing the colorful, interesting characters that have joined agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg reprising his role from the films) to form a team tasked with investigating strange cases in a world changed after the events of New York as they played out in The Avengers.
There’s agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), one half of the muscle (or the muscle if you ask fans of her character) of the team, a former weapons and pilot expert who reluctantly comes back into the field out of loyalty to Coulson. She also flies the Bus, which is the nickname of the S.H.I.E.L.D. plane that acts as their base of operations. Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) meanwhile is the other half of the muscle on the team. He’s a black ops expert who has a rep for being an enigma and not being very sociable with coworkers. Scientists Leo Fitz (Ian De Caestecker) and Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstrige) are the team nerds. Leo handles the cool gadgets and weapons the team uses while Jemma studies both the human and extraterrestrial beings the team encounters. Finally, there is Skye (Chloe Bennet), a skilled computer hacker who initially distrusts S.H.I.E.L.D. but ends up working for them in order to find out her mysterious past.
I’ll be honest in saying, while I was hooked into the series from its pilot episode, the show seemed to get stuck in a rut. Coulson and his team investigate some strange paranormal activity somewhere in the world, Skye spouts off some technobabble exposition, Fitz and Simmons play comic relief, Ward and May act moody and kick ass, the team saves the day. Lather, rinse, repeat from Episode 2 ”0-8-4” to Episode 10 “The Bridge” where co-series creators Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen (who also helped write several of the show’s teleplays for season one) finally begin to shed light on how exactly Phil came back from the dead after being fatally stabbed by Loki in The Avengers.
Episodes like “0-8-4”, “The Asset” and “Eye Spy” act more as individual cases rather than fitting into an overarching narrative. The show began to remind me of the Anime series, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, except when that show went into individual, stand-alone cases, we were able to dive into each character – we explored their back stories, how they tick, and their overall skill set that makes that person valuable to the team, making the individual episodes thoroughly entertaining to watch. The furthest S.H.I.E.L.D. goes to achieving this is with Skye, but even there it’s kept largely a mystery. At least we are given a solid and compelling reason for why she’s sticking with the covert intelligence agency.
Now, in talking about the second half of AoS, I’ll have to talk briefly about the latest installment to the MCU that was nearing its spring release date: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, because as it turns out, both the film and the aftermath go hand in hand (Be warned – the rest of the way will contain major spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the sequel yet, you’re better off watching the film, then returning later). The filmmakers had teased how this film would set the stage for 2015 when Cap, Iron Man and friends would reteam for the Avengers sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron. They weren’t lying: the Nazi subgroup Hydra had been hiding in plain sight within S.H.I.E.L.D. and were planning to use drone-like Helicarriers and an algorithm called “Project Insight” to kill off people who posed a threat to Hydra or anyone else in the future who would stop them from world domination. Captain America, with the assistance of Black Widow, director Nick Fury, and a new ally Sam Wilson (aka: the Falcon) stopped Hydra from carrying out their goals, but dissolved S.H.I.E.L.D. as a result, completely laying waste to their intelligence apparatus and leaving the agency in total ruin.
The shockwaves of S.H.I.E.L.D. being destroyed and Hydra’s resurgence is the focal point for the last 7 episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Coulson and his team must deal with a stronger Hydra network, but also a world where the government has listed S.H.I.E.L.D. as persona non grata. The bonds that held them together through most of the series become threads that are barely keeping them from dissolving. May has been keeping tabs on Coulson to make sure he doesn’t ask too many questions about his resurrection. Mike Peterson (J. August Richards), who was supplied the Extremis serum (think the plot to Iron Man 3) by the mysterious Project Centipede, taken in by S.H.I.E.L.D. to act as backup for the team and presumed killed has now been transformed by Hydra as Deathlok. Most dramatically, however, one of Coulson’s team, Grant Ward, ends up revealing himself as a double agent.
Watching the team struggle to stay one step ahead of their enemies and figure out where they belong with the agency they once worked for now being defunct is compelling because they’re put into a position of vulnerability and, up until this point, we’ve never seen these characters really challenged as fiercely as they have been.
Another good addition to the second half of the first season is the appearance of Bill Paxton as John Garrett, another S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who partners up with Coulson’s group. In a major twist occurring during the episode that takes place after the events of The Winter Soldier, Garrett is revealed to be the “The Clairvoyant”, a Hydra agent who had been plaguing S.H.I.E.L.D. all season long. Paxton’s having a great time playing this shifty, cocky middle-aged snake in the grass (who can kick ass as well as take names), and his character’s personality blends in so well with the other cast members, that it’s actually a shame he isn’t a main character on the show.
Season One of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a series made for fanboys of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it isn’t exclusively for them to the extent that no one else need apply. The show has enough exciting action, interesting characters and a near-excellent second half to keep audiences watching what happens to the team next. If you stopped watching because of the slow, repetitive nature of the first half of the first season, definitely check out the second half, starting with “T.A.H.I.T.I” all the way to “Beginning of the End”, then watch The Winter Soldier, and finish off the series from there. It’s well worth the time and the patience.
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