Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD “Shadows” Review

Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD “Shadows” Review

September 25, 2014 0 By EVA

WARNING: SPOILERS (for season one)! My personal hope at the end of the last season of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD was that the show could build off of the end to the first season, take that into the second and sustain the marked improvement that they found after the incredible Winter Soldier tie-in. This really set the stage for the series moving forward with HYDRA coming out of the shadows as the true big bad behind everything going on in the series and also turned characters that we had thought of as heroes in Ward and Garrett, and turned them into villains. It was the end of the season that really solidified the Marvel brand as having a great base for television and a lot of promise for life on the small screen. The fear that I had was that the writers and producers would hold back early on in the second season, and that it would be back to mission of the week episodes staged around heroes that were less than interesting as compared to their big screen contemporaries.

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Fortunately, season two gets off to a very promising start with “Shadows”. There’s a lot of exposition about what has happened since the finale of the first season and the new status quo that exists within the rebuilding SHIELD, which has been rebooted with Agent Coulson at the helm. There are a bunch of new characters to introduce, including Lucy Lawless as Isabelle Hartley and her ragtag group of mercenaries working under Coulson’s orders, and of course there is the new villain for the team to deal with in Carl Creel (Brian Patrick Wade) or for comic-savvy viewers, Absorbing Man, who is very cleverly done for television so as not to overpower him too much.

The episode opens on a nice point of brand extension, giving us a glimpse of what we might see on the upcoming Agent Carter with Peggy Carter, Dum Dum Dugan and Jim Morita leading a team against HYDRA to obtain the very first 084 object that becomes the focus of the larger episode and what will likely be a point of interest over the course of at least the first few episodes as well. Watching Peggy and her team will certainly create excitement for her series which will take over Agents of SHIELD’s timeslot for their midseason break.

The original team has been broken up nicely into new molds this season; instead of just being one note characters, they all have their own mysteries and issues they are dealing with, most notably Fitz who is dealing with the repercussions of the the fallout from the end of last season. I am by no means going to spoil what he’s going through but let me just say it takes his character to a whole new level and has him taking viewers for a M. Night Shyamalan type twist. It’s a sight to see Iain de Caestecker flexing his acting chops rather than just playing for laughs off of Elizabeth Henstridge’s Agent Simmons.

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The one thing that could have been done better was Agent Ward’s arc; it seems like the writers have a soft spot for him as a character — instead of taking him into the depths of being a menacing villain, it seems that *minor spoiler* they are going down redemption road with him. I loved the Hannibal Lecter-style interrogation they worked in with Skye, whom he backstabbed in season one. I’m very happy to see B.J Britt firmly installed in the main team as Agent Triplett who was a welcome addition at the end of last season, who can fall in and exudes that cool and capable attitude.

Agents of SHIELD picked up well from where the last season left off and propels the series forward, moving beyond episodes where the team is forced to deal with an object or something minor and instead can work effectively within a world where superpowers are becoming more common and the problems that will arise from them.

With the comic book TV series crowd growing significantly this year with newcomers Flash, Constantine, Gotham and more, Agents of SHIELD is certainly going to have its hands full with competition so hopefully they’ll keep it up.

Agents of SHIELD airs Tuesdays at 9PM on ABC.

What did you think of the first episode of the season? Let us know in the comments.