Written by Tyler Lamb. Media by Austin Stephens.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the latest addition to the Marvel cinematic universe, except it takes place on television. On Tuesday night the pilot of the show aired for the first time and was welcomed by millions of viewers, breaking records for ABC and TV across the board. The real question on most peoples mind before, during, and even after the show’s airing is whether or not it will work out and be a good addition to the universe already built by Paramount and Disney. It really seemed as though fan reaction ranged from very mixed about it being a show to being upset (or just unaware) that they would be bringing back Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson to life. It was hard to come by a positive outlook on the idea as a whole, given that some of the trailers and TV spots seemed not only cheesy but horribly written and acted. Alas, there was a glimmer of hope that was Joss Wheadon who, now pretty much being the godfather of all things Avengers, directed and helped write the pilot. Was he enough to save the show from anything? Well, kind of.
The beginning of the show started out kind of cheesy already, with one of the female actors doing a voice over about how things have changed since the emergence of heroes and the events of the Avengers movie (not the Sean Connery one about weather machines). After this, events unfold to show the main “villain” of the episode in a vanilla fashion. The next 40 minutes or so of the show weren’t bad at all. They were nothing amazing, of course, but it was an enjoyable watch and the cast seemed to play well off one another. There were, however, a handful of really cringe-worthy lines and cliche happenings. One line that really made me groan out of distaste was when the bad guy, who believed he was being good, told someone what was happening was his origin story. The deliver and structure of the specific line was just poor in every conceivable way. Of course, you can’t forget that awful line about Agent Coulson’s car that he calls “Lola.” Other than that, the bulk of the show was fun. Then the last 5 minutes or so hit.
Oh boy, this is where the show took a complete u-turn and became an 80’s teen movie or something. After they took down the bad dude, slow motion induced close ups of every team member went around, and one reacting with a thumbs up and a wink, reminiscent of something that could have belonged at the end of The Breakfast Club. Then some pretty bad acting from Clark Gregg (which isn’t much of a surprise by now) convincing one of the lead girls to join him on his adventure to apparently live Back to the Future part 2. I mean, seriously, he might as well have said to her, “Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”
However, this part didn’t ruin the whole experience for me. I feel like it can only get better from this episode. Thankfully, they didn’t rely on the movies too much and only really referenced them to set up the plot and reveal how Agent Coulson is still alive. I have hope for the show, and if you consider yourself an MCU(Marvel cinematic universe) fan you should check it out. I hope they continue to bring in cool made-up tech and maybe bring in a cameo from the films every now and then. Maybe, if we’re lucky, it will help set up events that are going to happen in Avengers: Age of Ultron, which thankfully Clark Gregg will not be in. There was a pseudo-reference to the comic event Civil War, when an agent comments on how there was an unregistered superhero, but that is something that most likely won’t happen considering Marvel doesn’t own movie rights to the X-Men or Spiderman. I have my fingers crossed for this show that maybe, just maybe, it will be as awesome as DC’s Arrow.
7.5 Lolas out of 10.
