Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is always at its best when the show’s allowed to be its own thing. When the series can focus on its own characters and the stories they are a part of, without feeling the need to engage with other, bigger parts of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it can be a really great show, one that is as fun and as thrilling as anything else on network TV. However, as soon Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. starts to act as promotion for an upcoming Marvel film, it loses itself; the show’s focus and sense of urgency are lost among convoluted twists or unnecessary scenes that try to provide some sort of “connection” between the movies and the TV series. What they really end up doing, though, is cause problems.
All of this is a prelude to me saying that I, for the most part, really enjoyed last night’s episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., right up until its closing moments, which felt so utterly shoehorned in to make connections to whatever will happen in Age of Ultron, or maybe other future Marvel films. As great as it is to see Cobie Smulders pop up as Maria Hill, her conversation with Coulson about Loki’s scepter and Theta Protocol doesn’t seem like anything that’s actually pertinent to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as a show; instead, that scene, at best, felt like a hint at things to come in future Marvel films, or at worst, was sheer promotion for the studio’s upcoming movie.
And maybe I’m one of the few who feels this way, but I want Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to be able to stand on its own without needing to feel like it has to make references to The Avengers or somehow link up to the storylines in Marvel’s bigger projects. What worked so well in Agent Carter and in what I’ve watched so far of Daredevil is that both of these series felt like they took place in the same universe as The Avengers films without needing to force some sort of connection between them. Agent Carter and Daredevil both use events from Marvel movies (Steve’s “death” at the end of the first Captain America film and the damage done to New York in The Avengers) as backdrops or instigators to kick off their more central stories, and during its best run of episodes, from “Turn Turn Turn” to this season’s mid-season finale, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. followed the same process: it allowed for Hydra’s infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D., first shown in Captain America: The Winter Solider, to help push its own stories forward in new and interesting ways. That dramatic change, which essentially rebooted the show, gave Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. the chance to more fully define its characters and to become the awesome spy show it was always meant to be.
My main complaint during this second half of Season 2 has been that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. feels too spread out and isolated, that its characters and plots are not bonded together well enough, as the series is attempting to deal with too many different ideas. The apparent need for the show to somehow synch up with Age of Ultron only further showcases that problem. S.H.I.E.L.D. is starting to become too many individual, decent shows wrapped into one, instead of the very good series that it had transformed into during 2014.
Still, though, despite these complaints (and I’ve spent much more of this review listing my issues with “The Dirty Half Dozen” than I had wanted to), what worked in this episode really worked well. I was glad to see Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. acknowledge the changes we’ve seen in Simmons throughout Season 2, which reached a whole new point last night, with her attempted murder of Ward and her actual killing of Bakshi. Coulson is continuing to lie to May, and that won’t be without consequences; after watching them be each other’s rocks for so long, it will be very interesting to see what the fallout will be if/when May finds out that Coulson is still hiding things from her. And, frankly, despite Ward’s awful and awkward speech, it was pretty great to see the original team back in action. As much as I enjoy Bobbi, Mack, and Hunter, having the focus of the series back on characters like Skye, Fitz, and Simmons was refreshing (and watching Skye back in the field, taking out Hydra agents? So much fun).
With so many disparate stories heading into the season’s final three episodes, I’m curious to see if Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. can end as strongly as it did back in Season 1. But no matter what these last three hours offer, I hope they have more to do with these characters and their journeys. When the spotlight is on the likes of Skye or May or Fitz, and they work together, there’s no need to call in The Avengers: they’re entertaining enough on their own.
Other thought:
– The single-take sequence of Skye taking out a bunch of Hyda henchmen was really impressive. One of the best action scenes S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever done.
– So it turns out that Gonzales and Coulson both had their own motivations for working together. No surprise there. I’m really hoping something big happens soon with this whole “Real S.H.I.E.L.D.” story, because with it and the Inhumans and Hydra and the constant threat that is Cal, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has a lot of balls up in the air, probably a few too many if I’m being honest.
– It is now officially confirmed that Raina is having visions. I wonder how her ability will play out throughout the rest of the season. Will it help or hurt characters?
– Ward’s speech about his regrets about breaking up the team was awful and went on for way too long without someone stopping him. Also, the attempts at humor afterwards were awkward and fell flat. S.H.I.E.L.D. typically does a better job of mixing in laughs with its action.
– “I thought her gift was spinning really fast to collect gold rings.” Skye was the best part of this episode.
What did everyone else think about last night’s episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Did you like it more than me?
[Photo credit: Kelsey McNeal/ABC]
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