CliqueClackAgents of SHIELD – Finally a step in the right direction
Many have said that ‘Agents of SHIELD’ has turned things around in the last couple of episodes, but from this reviewer’s perspective, “Seeds” was the first real evidence of that change.
For the last couple of episodes, many critics have been talking about how Agents of SHIELD was finally starting to turn things around. Despite premiering to incredible numbers and even more hype, it would be hard to classify ABC’s freshman drama as anything but disappointing. Recently, the show has begun to move beyond its early stumbles, but “Seeds” was really the first episode where I began to believe in what the show could be.
Last week, the veil was finally pulled back on the “mystery” of Phil Coulson’s rebirth. I had long suspected that the story behind that mystery would never live up to the hype; “A Magical Place” definitely proved me right. Moving past the “what” and onto the “why” is the only way to save this arc. Learning the truth about Tahiti, Coulson has begun to develop trust issues, specifically with SHIELD. Considering the rumored plot for April’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, beginning to layer in a distrust of SHIELD’s leadership should not come as a surprise.
This episode’s big reveal was a big step up from Coulson; baby Skye was an 0-8-4 with “powers.” May and Coulson’s investigation lead them to a place that I didn’t think SHIELD would go. Whatever special abilities Skye exhibited as a child that pinged SHIELD’s radar have obviously gone dormant, but now that she – and we – know just a little more about her childhood, I doubt that will be the case for long. While no one made a Smallville-esque “no-capes, no-tights” promise, team Mutant Enemy has always sold this show that features regular humans in a superhuman world. Will Skye develop into something that changes that dynamic?
Dylan Minnette’s Donnie Gill (AKA Blizzard) is the latest entry in Agents of SHIELD’s slowly developing Rogue’s Gallery. I found him easily the most interesting thus far. I appreciated the relationship between himself and Fitz. The whole concept of bad seeds, how the SHIELD Academy’s incredibly capable students can go bad is a theme that I hope recurs in this show down the road. Homegrown enemies are generally more interesting (see: Solider, The Winter). Centipede is obviously the more immediate threat, but putting out the “seeds” for the future is a good thing.
Notes and Quotes
- “Huh. Bucky Barnes.” I know that many are not big fans of these throwaway references to the greater MCU, but I don’t mind them. This one, though, was a subtle one – perhaps too subtle – of a storyline that will become front and center later this spring: the death of Bucky Barnes.
- Did anyone flash to Real Genius when Simmons brought Ward and Skye down to the boiler room?
- I know that Skye’s never been given a last name, but considering her developing backstory, I’m wondering if that might become more relevant.
- I know the Fitz/Simmons pair has been criticized a great deal on the internets, but they’ve been one of my favorite aspects of the show from day one. Their interaction with Ward and the Academy as a whole continued to solidify that.
4 Comments on “Agents of SHIELD – Finally a step in the right direction”
well, it was better. I’d hardly consider it good though. They’ve done a poor job at fleshing out characters and making them interesting in general. I recognize the need to walk a fine line between “no capes” and becoming an equally bad version of Heroes but it’s tough to watch this show every week and being confronted with bland on top of bland.
Oh, I don’t disagree. Everything up to now has been bland. But moving in the right direction has to begin with a first step, and this was — at least in my opinion — exactly that.
This was the first episode really worth watching. All the others have been so bland, though not as bland as the characters themselves, that I’ve forgotten half of them already.
I hope the show continues to take steps in the right direction instead of the slow shuffle it had been doing. It’s just too bad it began to get interesting long after the other 3/4 of my family gave up on it. If that’s any indication of overall audience satisfaction there may not be many people left to see the show become something worth watching. That is, of course, assuming this last episode wasn’t a fluke with regard to being good.
I have been a fan of this show since the pilot. During the holiday break, I went back and rewatched the whole series up to this point. It’s way better than people give it credit for. The action and FX are top notch for a tv series; as a procedural it breaks stereotypes and keeps momentum; and the overall arcs for each character are developing nicely. Some argue it’s not happening fast enough, but when you compare it to NCIS, Bones, or any other procedural, things are actually happening very quickly. It’s all perspective.