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

I don’t know if you’re like me, but I love me some Marvel. Be it their comics or movies, I am in. Hell I’ll even put up with a shitty game or two just to get some of that sweet, sweet 616 action. And so far, when it comes to the movies, Marvel Studios has been quite the sure thing. Delivering movies that (at times) are a little dumb and over the top, but always feel like the character I love to read about, never wavering on what it is that makes (and has made for years) these characters so special. *cough* Amazing Spider-Man 2 *cough*

So when this kid hears that they are making a marvel TV show, set in the same universe as the movies!…….awesome. But like many nerds alive today, this feeling of awesomeness comes with some anxiety. What if it sucks? What if people tell me it’s great, but I hate it? (that option is worse than the first)…..just what if? I’ve been burned before.

Nevertheless I commit.

In Agents of Shield we follow Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his band of misfits as they try and keep the human race safe…..but only from trivial stuff. Maybe that’s a little unfair, but 15 episodes in you’ll be thinking the same. And then something wonderful happens. No spoilers here, but the events that trickle down from Captain America: The Winter Soldier impact the show in such an amazing way. Up to that point, the show felt very ‘monster of the week’, just: monster, rinse, repeat. but since that shift the show has been anything but. Pulling on my expectations of these bland and predictable characters and making them shine. Especially with Skye (Chloe Bennet), going from meh to badass in the space of a dinner scene.

There are of course somethings that I find the show lacking in, slow start aside. The dialogue isn’t always the greatest and sometimes you have to cringe a little, although their are moments of dialogue so on the nose it just sort of works. The special effects are what they are, not a negative per say, I never found them to pull me out of the show (if anything they sometimes complemented the shows cheesier moments.) And some of the performances aren’t always the greatest, although that may be more a function of the routine the show slips into (for the first two thirds), but each character is given a moment after the big upheaval and all the actors stepped up when it was their time.

Season 1 is wrapped up quite nicely, with some satisfying plot conclusions and a great cameo performance, it was a solid piece of entertainment. However, the finale did give me pause. I was really digging on the change the show had brought on after Cap 2, but it looks like that aspect of instability may be on it’s way out. Could be a good thing, could be bad, but I was really enjoying that. They leave you with many reasons and questions to come back for Season 2 and couple that with Agent Carter, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Defenders, it’s definitely a good time to be a Marvel Zombie.