Anghus Houvouras marks the ninth episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. by weighing up the series’ pros and cons….
We’re almost halfway into the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I felt it was time to do a little review. A kind of pro/con list if you will. The show seems to be rapidly working at course correction, as the preview for the next episode revealed. J. August Richards’ Extremis powered everyman returns to join the team for a mission and potentially a regular gig addressing the primary pout fans have had about the show: A lack of supers. The online geek community has been extremely vocal about their displeasure, so I thought it was time to break down everything so far this season to provide some much needed perspective on this oft maligned Marvel series.
PRO: Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson
Coulson is still the glue that holds Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. together. His earnest, optimistic outlook and belief in his team gives the show some heart and soul. Gregg is a fantastic straight man, and his Agent Coulson is still the number one reason to check in every week. We’re just starting to get some insight into what happened to Phil after being killed by Loki. I still have all my bitcoin on Coulson being a Life Model Decoy. Hopefully this mystery will get solved soon.
PRO: When the show is in procedural mode, it works well
The best bits so far this season have been the ones where the team is abandoning the interpersonal shtick and faux-family tropes and just getting the job done. At times, the show feels like its fighting itself between cute character moments and deadpan procedural show focusing on weird happening around the Marvel Universe. Here’s a hint: The deadpan procedural stuff is working wayyyyy better. The best characters are Melinda May, Agent Ward, and Coulson. These are the kind of Agents I expect to find in S.H.I.E.L.D. I realize this show is attempting to appease all four quadrants, but the warm and fuzzy stuff isn’t nearly as endearing as watching the Agents kick ass during their weekly mission.
PRO: Mythology
Creator and Geek Icon Joss Whedon has traditionally been excellent at weaving a deeper mythology into the show. The week to week adventures are fine, but there are a number of seeds being planted to be harvested late on. There’s the aforementioned mystery of Coulson’s resurrection. Melinda May’s tragic backstory which was given some focus in Episode 9. The shadow organization experimenting on super powered individuals and tinkering with the Extremis formula. These fleeting glimpses of a larger story have been keeping me confident that this show is heading for more grand adventures.
CONS: The lack of scope
Everything about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. feels low-rent. Even as a fan of the show, I find the limited scope of the Marvel Universe to be debilitating. I’m fine with the disparity between the $200 million staging of the Marvel films and the $2 million per episode staging of the Marvel TV show, but Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. often feels like it takes place in an entirely different universe than the cinematic world it’s tethered to. It’s a minor ‘Con’, and I realize television has limitations, but I think an overhaul in Production Design wouldn’t hurt. Neither would a few more cameos.
CONS: The Name Dropping
Nothing kills my admiration for the show more than those hokey moments where they work in a reference to a Marvel character. The first two or three times it’s funny. After five or six episodes of it, I’ve started to audibly groan. Yes, I get it, this is the world where Thor and Iron Man hang out. It doesn’t require a reference every week. Fortunately they’re getting better about spacing them out.
CONS: The Warm & Fuzzy isn’t doing it for me
The procedural aspects of the show work. The warm and fuzzy characters aren’t contributing enough. If you told me in episode ten that Fitz, Simmons, and Sky were ejected from the back of the plane at 30,000 feet, I’d be OK. There’s too much quirky cuteness on the team. They need something to tip the scale: Like Peter MacNicol’s Asgardian refugee or J August Richard’s tortured everyman to give the team a little more weight.
Episode 9 was another solid entry, but it’s time to ditch the world building and embrace the weirdness. The promise of a super-powered team member is enough to get me through some of the redundancies and rhythms the show has fallen into. There’s still a lot of entertainment value to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I’m just at a point now where I’m ready to see all this potential become fully realized.
Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the novel My Career Suicide Note, is available from Amazon.
Originally published November 27, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
