TV Review – Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Episode 1

In this debut episode, we get introduced to all of our main characters who will make up the Agents as well as the return of everyone’s favourite “not so dead anymore” secondary character Phil Coulson, once again played by Clark Gregg. An early cameo from Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) sets up all the expositive dialogue before our Agents jump into action to track down a superhero who is keeping himself in the shadows and out of the limelight.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. shows a lot of promise. Fans of the movies will revel in all of the references to the Cinematic Universe and the idea of expanding it out further than big budget blockbusters is incredibly appealing (as proven by the most recent Agent Carter One-Shot). Not only that, but Joss Whedon is a man who can pander to the geek crowd while still appealing to the mainstream. But for everything that could be good about the series, there is very little of it on show in this first episode and it features an awful lot of problems.

Joss Whedon is a good writer and has proven so time and time again. But his biggest problem is that he seemingly cannot write a scene without inserting some form of joke. There are few scenes in this first episode which are played 100% straight and after a while it just becomes infuritating. This is mostly a problem because the jokes themselves are neither funny nor do they benefit the scene. In an early portion of the episode, there is a moment where Coulson is looking over Maria Hills’s notes on Agent Ward and he mentions she’s drawn a picture of a poo with knives sticking out, something which Hill then points out was meant to be a porcupine. You could remove this “joke” from the scene and it would have played out exactly the same, therefore making it a pointless addition – and the episode is littered with “jokes” like this.

The other problem with Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and something that could become a major issue, is that the majority of the characters are either horribly written or just horrendously annoying. You could make the assumption that the duo of Fitz and Simmons are supposed to be the comedy relief, but their characterisation is so heavy-handed and forced to be overly-Scottish and delightfully British to the point where they feel the need to make a Hermione Granger joke. Agent Ward is a cardboard cut-out stock hero with an impeccable track record in the field and zero personality and Melinda May (who is at least played well by Ming-Na Wen) is every typical Whedon “strong independent woman” ever written. However the biggest criminal of the bunch is the incredibly annoying and dreadfully written Skye played by Chloe Bennet. Whether it’s the writing she was given or the actor’s performance, every time she’s on screen it’s teeth-grindingly difficult to watch.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. could be a good show. In fact, it could be a very good show. But this debut episode was very underwhelming and featured more things to criticise than praise. Perhaps now that all of the set-up is out of the way, we can focus on the series long storylines such as the tease of another organisation (presumably AIM or the resurgence of Hydra) as well finding out why Coulson is still alive (LMD?), but whether these characters will get better is another matter. The stories might be great, but these characters and Whedon’s writing could really hurt the show.

Plus, the final shot of the episode is laughably awful.

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.