Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Spoiler Free Bit

I really enjoyed this. It's not perfect, but for an introductory episode it shows great potential. The leads are likeable and sufficiently complex to catch my interest, the support is likeable. Clark Gregg's Agent Phil Coulson is of course the centrepiece and for my money dispels any fears as to whether he can headline a show. The weakest links are Agents Ward and May, the abrasive operator and the Black Widow with the serial numbers filed off, neither of whom is given a great deal to do besides being abrasive.

The opening episode introduces the characters, and sets up the arc plots while still having a self-contained story, which is what you hope for. It's no Buffy the Vampire Slayer but, at its pilot episode, neither was Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Specifics follow in the spoilerific section.

.
.
.
.
.
.

The Spoilerific Bit Where I Ramble Rather

At the centre of everything here is the supposedly deceased Phil Coulson. His return is quickly explained as the result of a deception by Nick Fury, but soon after it is hinted that there is far more to it than a near death experience and a nine month convalescence in Tahiti. I would not be surprised if the repeated phrase 'it's a magical place' turned out to be meaningful, nor if there was a link to Extremis, given its appearance here. I like his placement as the people person; the one who, after all of his encounters with the superhuman, most views them as equals. The love of the past shown in his reverence for Captain America is retained, embodied here in his classic S.H.I.E.L.D. car, Lola, and his affection for the aircraft-based mobile command over the Helicarrier.

Agent Ward (Brett Dalton) is done a bit of a disservice. Introduced as a highly capable agent, he is placed in Coulson's mobile command, quite specifically an oddball outifit, against his wishes, and then from about halfway through the episode gets sidelined as Chloe Bennett's Skye comes in and replaces him as the PoV new bug. Thereafter, he is mostly there to be a counterpoint to Coulson's gentle approach. similarly, Agent May (Ming-Na Wen) gets to stand around while the techs chatter, then kick some guy a few times; hopefully we'll get more from both of them later.

Those techs are the adorkable, Atlantically displaced pairing of Fitz and Simmons, (Ian De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge), who provide hard and soft (respectively) technical wizardry and nerdy banter with a slight Britannic slant. If this was a pilot, rather than an opening episode, I would expect to see them gone by the series start, and I would miss them. Again, I hope that they get more focus in some episodes.

Skye is a cliche waiting to implode, but hints of vulnerability beneath the confident exterior (an uncertainty when she recalls that she has previously wiped an identity, presumably her own; the admission that she once dressed up to cosplay outside Stark Towers) give the character some depth which I hope to see play out.

J. August Richards, guest starring as plot of the week and arc introduction, gets to do his tortured man of principle act again; it's still pretty good.

In terms of continuity to the main Marvel movieverse, there was plenty, from Centipede's mix of superpower causes - supersoldier serum, gamma radiation, Extremis and alien metal; and I may be missing the obvious, but I'm assuming the last is a forward link of some sort - to Lola's flight tech, which owes more than a nod or two to Howard Stark's World's Fair exhibit.