Another week, another SHIELD show, and hey, they’re on a two-week streak! That’s right: two episodes that are in fact enjoyable and not something I feel like overly deriding! WOW!
Why? Let’s discuss.
That Opening Was Straight Out of Joss Whedon’s The Avengers Playbook
I’m not imagining things, right? That whole cold-open was just like Natasha’s opening scene in the Avengers, where she’s faking being held hostage by an interrogation and then proceeds to kick ass. They just replicated that, right? Ok. Cool. We’re all in agreement, then.
Not that I ostensibly mind, of course. Natasha’s interrogation scene wasn’t exactly groundbreaking never-been-done-before storytelling; it was entertaining for sure and it established her character in about two seconds for use in the movie, and that’s pretty great. Same goes here; we’re finally seeing Agents of SHIELD be Agents of SHIELD in actual Agent-y SHIELD-y way.
I approve, I just know I’ve seen it before.
Ok. We’ve Done It. We’ve Hit The Halfway Point of Expectations.
Alright, it’s time to officially confirm it: this is pretty much what I expect from a Joss Whedon TV show. Episode’s like this: aspects of the team highlighted in different ways, appropriate banter at inappropriate times, dire stakes and melodrama wrapped up in an attractive package where characters actually have some kind of chemistry. That’s what I’ve been waiting for.
That this show is finally figuring out how to mesh in its greater Marvel connection is even better. We’ve got The Hub that’s not the comic The Hub but still a good enough The Hub none the less, we’ve got the return of Sitwell, references to Barton and Romanoff and the debut of a certain character we’ll talk about a bit later.
So in terms of what I went into SHIELD expecting, we’re half-way there.
Why half-way?
We Still Need a Legitimate Threat
Who is the villain of this show? Honestly, who is the Big Bad? Because I’m not entirely sure. Literally every episode is something different, whether it be fallout from previous events (next week is the Thor: the Dark World fallout episode!), a menacing and unseen organization (Centipede) or their women in pretty dresses. It’s just always something else, and I can’t figure out how they connect in any discernible way.
In most average procedural programs, I don’t think that would be an issue. But with Marvel, they made such a point by having all of their films connected that to me it still seems shortsighted to have the show essentially play it by ear.
It took about seven episodes of SHIELD to figure out what it wanted to be for real this time, which isn’t great but whatever, we’re all watching anyway. But as far as I can tell, there’s no “point.” Should there be one? I think so; or rather, I assume so. But what the show needs is someone in the background pulling it all together, and I think it is about time for us to be told what or who that is.
Victoria Hand!
In what is easily the most exciting-for-nerds aspect of this week’s episode, Victoria Hand makes her television debut as a high-ranking officer of SHIELD in charge of this week’s special op. She’s not the Victoria Hand from the comics necessarily, as that Hand started off as a much more nervous character who had to fight her way into a position of authority (that was in turn bogged down by excess distrust and disdain), but I for one really liked what they did in this instance.
There were flashes of the comic Hand, particularly in the latter half of the episode, but for the most part I generally like the idea that there is a character that is not Fury and that is not Maria Hill who can knock Coulson down. That it’s a character from the comics is even better, because it shows that SHIELD really is trying. Like I said, we’re about halfway there to what this show should be, and Victoria Hand’s role in this episode — and, hopefully, continued role in the show — is a big part of that.
BCY307604
In the episode stinger, Coulson takes some time to attempt an investigation into his time in Tahiti, spurred in a moment of selfishness after helping out Skye with her own identity problems.
….whiiiiiiich brings me right back to the comment I made in last week’s episode that they’re not handling this story arc very well. Maybe it’s because we get only one episode at a time and maybe I’d feel differently if I was watching this all in a row on Netflix or whatever, but boy, they are pushing the limit on this one. After what I want to deem a very solid episode, the stinger was just a bit eye-rolling.
It just doesn’t feel natural anymore. Sure, in Coulson’s shoes, I’d probably also be wondering what the heck was so magical about Tahiti that everyone felt the need to say it, and hey, Skye calls him a robot early in the episode so there’s that, but with Coulson easily being everyone’s favorite character they certainly aren’t doing him any favors by having his only storyline be so effectively self-loathing.
