Luke Owen reviews the second episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D….
It’s fair to say the much hyped debut of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. failed to deliver in the eyes of most television viewers. While it had its supporters, the majority of the feedback ranged from “this show sucks” to “meh”. So, after a very uninspiring opening episode, can Joss Whedon’s creation pick up the pace?
Episode Two sees our Agent heroes head off to the Aztec Zone of The Crystal Maze to track down a piece of technology discovered by an archiologist that suggests alien life forms have been to Earth before. However they are attacked by a group of soldiers who then, after teaming-up to get on the S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft, double cross them and take them hostage.
For everything wrong with the first episode, it would be hard to argue that the “Monster of the Week” gimmick wouldn’t be a perfect fit for the show. The Agents could track down the latest Super Villain, have a fight, and come out victorious at the end – it works for comic books so why not here? And while this episodes’s storyline wasn’t exactly “boring”, it was really dull to watch. A lot of stuff happened, but it felt like nothing was accomplished. Nothing was gained, nothing was lost and nothing moved forward. We’re two episodes in an it already feels like they’ve given up on trying.
What doesn’t help the boring story however is the cast of bland and uninspired characters who are virtually impossible to engage with or care about. Fitz and Simmons are awfully contrived, Ward has the charisma of styrofoam and Melinda May is too cliched to be interesting. At least Skye isn’t as insufferable this week, but they somehow managed to give Coulson even less of a personality than he had before. This is the show’s biggest problem: the characters are nothing more than badly-written props that spout forced dialogue with lame references to better-written movies.
Plus, can you block up a hole on an airplane with a rubber dingy?
A comment made on Anghus’ review after the episode aired in the US raised a very interesting point against those who feel that the show isn’t amounting to anything – “you have to lay the table before you can have the steak”. This is true of most TV shows and a lot of the negative reviews to Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are perhaps just coming from impatient comic book fans who want to see an awesome show based on a Universe that they love (not this review, obviously). But while the statement is true for other shows, there is little evidence to suggest that Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s steak is going to be worth the wait and the table is being laid very poorly. It’s true that the show could be good, but this episode has shown the cracks in its foundations. It’s utterly boring with little to no creativity, haphazard references and contains nothing that could excite a viewer or make them tune into next week’s episode.
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published October 6, 2013. Updated November 7, 2019.
