(WARNING: SPOILERS (!) for both ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ and ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ ahead!!)
After 22 episodes, the first season of Marvel’s ‘Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D.’ has finally come to an end and boy what a run it has been. In just
one season, this spinoff of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was able to establish
itself within the continuity of the films and provide an intriguing look into
the world through the eyes of normal people, without the need to have the
series be centered around a superhero… but then again, that may be the reason
why, early on, this show experienced a bit of a struggle critically. It did get
fairly good reviews from critics, but it seems as if most audiences weren’t too
thrilled by it and from what I kept hearing about online, the word
‘disappointing’ was brought up quite a bit for the first few episodes. But, as
the season progressed, those rather negative reviews began to disappear and
this show really started to get good once ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’
hit theaters, a film that really left quite an impact on both the whole
universe and, more importantly, S.H.I.E.L.D. This of course played a huge part
in the last few episodes of the show though in the end, I will always defend
the first half of this season as being far better than what many were initially
saying about it.
First off, I have to address the following sad truth; just
like ‘Star Wars Episode I’ and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, this show was WAY too overhyped
and as I’ve noted before in the past, overhyping anything will result in it
never turning out as well as we all want it to be. I will admit that I too was
really anticipating the show, but this was more a case of me not knowing what
we would be getting from this show. We knew that it would revolve around Agent
Coulson (Clark Gregg), returning after apparently dying at the hands of Loki in
‘The Avengers’, and a team of agents as they investigated all of the strange
occurrences that went on following the ‘Battle of New York’ but we really
didn’t know how this show would handle that scenario and for what it’s worth… I
found myself really enjoying the show on a whole. I really liked the idea of a
show that explored an established universe further and that we would be able to
spend more time in this universe than we would normally get from a two-hour
film and while it would be nice to see one of the superheroes from the movies
appear from time to time, the show would be able to work if the characters were
compelling enough to follow.
But on that note that was sort of the problem that a lot of
people apparently had with the show; that it didn’t really feel like it was
taking place in the same world as the MCU films and that, aside from Coulson,
the other characters were rather bland… well, that’s where I highly disagree
because the six main characters in this show were the main reason why I loved
it so much. Why would I even be watching this show if I hadn’t cared about the characters
so much? To quote Coulson from Episode 14 (T.A.H.I.T.I), they were a ‘family’
and that is why I found them all to be very compelling characters because they
had such a great ‘familial bond’. In my review of the pilot episode, I mainly focused
on Clark Gregg and Chloe Bennet as the standouts of the cast and over the
course of the season, I really liked the connection that Coulson and Skye had,
sort of like a ‘father-daughter’ bond, which would make sense considering that
the main reason why Skye joined S.H.I.E.L.D. so that she could look for her
parents (and it’ll be interesting to see who they are because, in the
penultimate episode of the season, it was revealed by one of the main
antagonists Raina (Ruth Negga) that Skye’s parents were ‘monsters’ and in the
finale Raina visits a man who is apparently Skye’s father). But of course like
with pretty much every Whedon production, the whole cast is fantastic with each
member standing out in their own unique way. That family dynamic was so strong
that when a key twist happened revealing the true nature of one of the
characters, it was genuinely surprising and also gut-wrenching at the same
time.
This twist occurred in Episode 17, ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’, the
first episode following the release of ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’,
the film where we learned that the organization HYDRA had infiltrated
S.H.I.E.L.D., and by the end of the film, S.H.I.E.L.D. was in disarray. In this
episode of the show, Coulson and the team learn about this and by the end of
it, Coulson sums it up perfectly by saying that their next goal is to ‘survive’,
because they know that HYDRA is now a major threat once again. Throughout the
season, the team has been investigating into the identity of a mysterious
figure known as ‘the Clairvoyant’ who has been seeing ‘everything’ and in this
episode, that character was revealed to be John Garrett (Bill Paxton, an
excellent addition to the cast for the second half of the season), a
S.H.I.E.L.D. revealed to be an agent for HYDRA. While he is taken in custody at
the end of the episode, we learn that Agent Ward was also a HYDRA mole as he
frees Garrett, setting the stage for the rest of the season. I’ve heard a lot
of people say that Ward was a ‘dull’ character up until this point and while I
disagree with that (I feel that Brett Dalton was very charismatic in the role),
this was a great turn of events and helped establish a great character arc for
Ward, who was only arrested in the final episode so I’ll be interested to see what
happens after that for him and if he will still play a part in the show.
I will admit that in the first few episodes, some of the six
main leads weren’t really given much to do, specifically Fitz and Simmons.
While Coulson, May, Ward, and Skye were all given solid screen time and character development for the first five
episodes or so, Fitz and Simmons were just really stuck in the background just
doing their jobs and nothing else. Thankfully, that changed with Episodes 6 and
7 (‘F.Z.Z.T.’ and ‘The Hub’ respectively) where the two of them really shined and
by episode 8 ‘The Well’ I had become completely invested in all six members of
the team and I think that it was that episode that really got me invested in
the show as a whole as well… even though this was still around the time when
most people weren’t too fond of the show. So when did the show itself start to
get really good? Well, I think it was right around the time ‘Captain America:
The Winter Soldier’ came out, ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’ to be exact, the first episode
in the series that really felt like a continuation of the films and giving us a
really well-written episode where Coulson and his team deal with the fact that
HYDRA has infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and having it end with us learning that one
of the six characters that we had grown so attached to was actually with the
bad guys. This made for one of the best hours of television this past year.
But no matter what, I will still stand by the first few
episodes of this season, when most people were saying that the show was either
disappointing or that, to be frank, it just sucked. I just feel that the show
was being unfairly criticized for not living up to the lofty expectations that
we were all setting for it. Sure, it would’ve been nice to have seen a few more
superheroes from time to time, but to me this show is a great example of how
you can do a show within a pre-established universe, and a superhero universe
at that, and not have it focus on certain characters if you have great writing
and I feel that this show fit the bill for that. I didn’t mind the whole idea
of them doing a ‘baddie of the week’ thing for the first few episodes and I
wasn’t annoyed by them having to frequently reference the films because it did
kind of have to do so anyway. After all, this show doesn’t have as big of a
budget as the films so we can’t have something as big as ‘The Avengers’ every
week (I’m also saying this in response to the numerous criticisms about the
show’s visual effects that I kept seeing early on in the season… I thought the
visual effects were actually pretty good for a show of this magnitude). It
seems like they’re moving away from that, which they certainly did in the
second half of this season, but I won’t mind too much if these kinds of
episodes still occur from time to time down the road.
I’m really glad to see that this show has really attracted
much more positive reactions in recent episodes. But, at the same time, I’m
also rather bummed that it did take a long time for that to happen because this
is one of those cases, like with another Marvel property, ‘Iron Man 3’, where I
feel like this show was better than what everybody was saying about it. Sure,
I’m not going to say this show is ‘as good’ as ‘The Avengers’ or any of the MCU
films but it really doesn’t have to be. It serves its purpose by running parallel
to the films but for also exploring this universe not through the eyes of
someone like Iron Man or Captain America but from regular people like
everyone’s favorite agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Phil Coulson, and the team of agents
that he leads to ‘protect the ordinary from the extraordinary’. This was really
the only show these last few months that I watched on a regular basis (sorry
fans of ‘Arrow’, but I have no interest in that show at this time) and I’m
really excited to see that it has been renewed for a second season (along with
another Marvel series, ‘Agent Carter’, that I’m also really interested in
seeing as well). I can’t wait to see what happens next on this show and I’m
hoping that it will gain a much bigger fan base next season so that it won’t
end up like the last few shows that Joss Whedon has produced, like ‘Firefly’ or
‘Dollhouse’; prematurely canceled…
And now, I close this
out with my Top 5 personal favorite episodes from Season 1… but first, some
honorable mentions…
‘PILOT’
While I was very positive towards the pilot episode of the
show, directed by Joss Whedon, it misses out on being in the Top 5 because,
like with a lot of other great shows, while it gets the ball rolling, some of
the later episodes were just better than this one. However, I still enjoy the
pilot episode very much as it introduces us to the team, has plenty of funny
moments (like when Ward is injected with the ‘truth serum’ that apparently
wasn’t real as we learn two episodes later in ‘The Asset’), and paves the way
for a few intriguing character mysteries, most importantly how Coulson survived
his death in ‘Avengers’. It did what pilot episodes are supposed to do… set the
stage for what will come in later episodes.
‘F.Z.Z.T.’
Earlier I mentioned that in the first few episodes of the
show, Fitz and Simmons really didn’t get much to do and that changed with this
episode (as well as the next one ‘The Hub’ which isn’t an Honorable Mention or
in my Top 5) where both of them really shined, especially Simmons, who in this
episode ends up getting infected by a virus that has been killing people that
came from a Chitauri helmet recovered from the ‘Battle of New York’. We really
see the connection that Simmons has with Fitz, who risks his own life to help
his friend before she ends up being a victim of the virus as well. Both Iain De
Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge did phenomenal jobs in this episode, which
at the time I proclaimed to be the best episode yet… though some even better
episodes soon came afterwards.
‘REPAIRS’
It’s safe to say that Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) has
been one of the most popular new characters on this show, and I can see why.
Ming-Na gives the character a real badass but also stoic persona that makes you
interested in finding out what happened to her a while back that led to her
initially not wanting to go back into the field back in Episode 1 (and heck,
even why she’s known as ‘The Calvary’). This episode gave us our first clue
into her past as the team investigates a series of explosions that are linked
to a girl named Hannah, though we learn that they were actually caused by one
of her co-workers, who was actually trying to protect her. Definitely one of
the best episodes of the first half of this season, ‘Repairs’ was a very good
episode giving us insight into one of the most popular characters on the show
though it does feel like there’s more to May than what we learned from this
episode.
‘END OF THE BEGINNING’
The final episode that aired before the release of ‘Captain
America 2’, this episode was the first time where the writers really hinted at
the darker things that were occurring in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as
Coulson, his team, and their allies begin searching for the Clairvoyant. This
episode has a lot of great character moments, some interesting reveals (like
how May was in contact with Nick Fury because he had her keeping watch over
Coulson following his resurrection), and a pretty effective and creepy cameo
from Brad Dourif as a man who was suspected to be the Clairvoyant… until we
learn that the Clairvoyant was actually amongst them the whole time and was
even an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. It ends on a great cliffhanger as the team finds
themselves in a situation where they have absolutely no idea what’s going on…
until the next episode, of course.
Top 5 Favorite
Episodes
5. THE WELL (Episode 8)
No, you didn’t read that wrong, one of my favorite episodes
of this season was episode 8, ‘The Well’, which was promoted as being a tie-in
to the then recently released ‘Thor: The Dark World’… though, as the critics as
this episode will no doubt point out, this didn’t really connect that much to
the film. The episode revolved around Coulson’s team who are basically brought
in to ‘clean up’ the mess after the final battle of ‘Thor 2’, and they come
across a mysterious Asgardian staff that gives its user super strength but also
fuels them with rage… yeah, I don’t recall anything like that being mentioned or
shown in ‘Thor 2’… but anyway, despite the fact that this episode didn’t really
tie-in to the movie that much, I really enjoyed this episode for other reasons.
As I mentioned earlier, it was at this point in the season when I truly became
invested in the six main characters and I felt that this episode offered a
solid story arc for Ward as we began to delve into his troubled past… which
came into play yet again in a later episode, ‘Ragtag’. Overall, this was a nice
little character-driven episode with some great direction from ‘Star Trek’ alum
Jonathan Frakes.
Plus, considering how
Ward was acting like an angry Bruce Banner at points, I couldn’t resist making
this joke via Twitter…
4. T.R.A.C.K.S. (Episode 13)
Here we had a pretty darn good episode where the team boards
a train as part of their investigation of the Clairvoyant. There were a few
aspects of this episode that I really liked; I liked how it continuously
returned to a certain moment, giving us the full picture of the situation that
Coulson’s team was getting into as all of them were split up into teams (plus
we had a nice little cameo from good old Stan Lee… that’s always nice). The
episode also ended on a pretty shocking cliffhanger as Skye ends up getting
shot twice by one of the bad guys, Ian Quinn, and is left for dead by him until
Coulson and the rest of the team find her. This leads into the next episode,
T.A.H.I.T.I, where the stakes were pretty high as they were trying to find a
way to save Skye which ended up with them giving her the same drug that
S.H.I.E.L.D. used on Coulson when he was near death. Plus, as we learned from
the last episode ‘Seeds’, there’s more to Skye than meets the eye in that she’s
actually an ‘0-8-4’, an object of unknown origin similar to the device that the
team found in Episode 2, fittingly titled ‘0-8-4’. Overall, ‘T.R.A.C.K.S.’ was another
solid episode that had us on the edge of our seats as it ended up until the
next episode aired a few weeks later.
3. NOTHING PERSONAL (Episode 20)
I’ve heard a lot of people say that the weakest part of ‘The
Avengers’ was the character Maria Hill (played by Cobie Smulders). While I’m
fine with Smulders in the role and her role in the film as a whole, I can sort
of see what everyone’s talking about as it sort of feels like this character
was possibly one of the last additions made to the film and ended up getting
lost amongst everything else that was going on in that film. But recently
Smulders has really gotten more comfortable in the role via her next
appearances within the MCU, especially in ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’. She has a
great moment in the pilot where she remarks about Thor’s arms after Ward
questions whether Thor is actually a god. She makes a return to the series in ‘Nothing
Personal’ and has another great moment in the second half of this episode when
she pulls a ‘verbal smack down’ on Ward (at this point, Coulson and the rest of
the team have learned that he’s with HYDRA), allowing Coulson to sneak onto the
plane so that he can rescue Skye. An even bigger moment in this episode is when
Coulson learns that he was in charge of the T.A.H.I.T.I. operation that brought
him back to life. Overall, this episode was full of great reveals, some great
scenes between Ward and Skye, and possibly Cobie Smulders’ stand-out appearance
as Maria Hill.
2. THE ONLY LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS (Episode 19)
This episode takes the cake for some of the most
heartbreaking moments we’ve witnessed this season. In this episode, we finally
meet Coulson’s cellist ex-girlfriend who was first hinted at in ‘Avengers’,
Audrey Nathan (played by Whedon regular Amy Acker) as Coulson, Fitz, Simmons,
and Agent Antoine Triplett (B.J. Britt; hopefully he becomes a regular next
season) travel to Portland, Oregon to save Audrey from a man named Marcus
Daniels (known as ‘Blackout’ in the comics) who obsesses over her. The material
involving Coulson and Audrey’s relationship is the highlight of the episode and
is some really, really sad stuff as Audrey tells Simmons about what happened
when she learned about Coulson’s ‘death’, saying that now she feels like he’s ‘watching
over her’… and the sad irony is that Coulson is leading the mission to protect
her and she doesn’t know about it. It gets even more heart-wrenching after
Coulson and the team defeat Daniels. Audrey gets knocked out and before they
leave, Coulson comforts her, again without her knowing he’s alive. Seriously,
this was a sad episode but also one full of some fun MCU references (including
references to ‘Winter Soldier’ and Bruce Banner (heck, Simmons even makes a ‘Doctor
Who’ reference at one point)). I hope they bring back Audrey in future
episodes, not only because Amy Acker was fantastic in the role, but I’m hoping
that Coulson will eventually get the chance to reveal to her that he’s alive.
The writers owe us that much after continuously pulling our heartstrings during
this episode.
1. TURN, TURN, TURN (Episode 17)
Yeah, you can’t really argue against this one. ‘Turn, Turn,
Turn’ was the best episode of the season and as many of the early critics of
the show noted, this episode was when the show finally started to get really
good and of course, while I’ll defend that the first half of the season was
better than it was credited as, this was definitely the game-changer episode of
this season, perfectly tying into ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’. Now
that HYDRA has taken over S.H.I.E.L.D., this episode follows the group that
definitely has the biggest connection to S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson’s team, as they
try to survive after learning this. Not only that, but this episode has some
great surprising moments, including when Garrett was revealed to be the Clairvoyant
and, most importantly, when Ward reveals his true colors. This was a fantastic
hour of television in every way.
Final Season Rating: 4.5/5
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