At some level throughout its seven-season run on ABC, the producers of Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. bought so bored with seeing the phrase “After a rocky begin…” in in any other case largely optimistic critiques that they had T-shirts made up with the phrases printed on the entrance and wore them to press interviews. It’s proof of the previous adage that should you repeat one thing typically sufficient, individuals will consider it. Other than the drained argument over whether or not Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is formally a part of MCU canon or not (which we received’t relitigate right here), the concept that the present stumbled out of the gate could be its most enduring legacy. But wanting again on these early episodes as we method the tenth anniversary of the collection premiere (September 24, 2013), it’s time to rethink that standard knowledge.
To be truthful, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t emerge in its first season completely fashioned like Athena from the pinnacle of Zeus. As the primary MCU collection, it was an ongoing experiment that wanted some recalibrating. Coming off the excessive of The Avengers, the present was imagined to be a small-scale procedural about unusual S.H.I.E.L.D. brokers on the bottom coping with extraordinary threats. Meanwhile, Marvel and ABC had been selling the collection with the tagline “It’s all related.” The inventive group behind the present knew that followers would expect MCU tie-ins and perhaps an Avenger or two to drop by; additionally they knew they weren’t going to have the ability to give them that (this was the pre-Disney+ period when tv nonetheless had the stigma, and the finances, of a lesser medium). At this level within the MCU timeline many of the world was nonetheless processing the sudden emergence of sky gods and an alien invasion of New York City, so Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. took that concept and expanded right into a premise.
The collection premiere kicks all the things off with massive motion sequences (together with a gap chase scene filmed on location in Paris) and loads of Whedonesque humor. Which is smart, since Joss Whedon himself directed it and co-wrote the pilot along with his brother Jed Whedon and Jed’s companion Maurissa Tancharoen. It introduces the group below the management of Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), by some means resurrected after being killed by Loki in The Avengers (how and why that occurred is an ongoing thriller in season one). We meet particular agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), British scientists Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), legendary kick-ass Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), and rogue hacker Skye (Chloe Bennet), who embark on their first mission to save lots of a determined, wannabe hero (visitor star J. August Richards) below the affect of an unstable serum that offers him superpowers. The episode was an exhilarating and assured mission assertion, although its scale might have arrange unrealistic expectations for the way forward for the collection.
Finding a components that labored
Though he would maintain his co-creator credit score, Joss Whedon largely stepped again from the collection after that, whereas Jed Whedon and Tancharoen stayed on as government producers and showrunners for all seven seasons, alongside Angel and Alias alum Jeffrey Bell. Throughout the primary season you’ll be able to really feel the writers taking part in with completely different tones, rhythms, and constructions in actual time as they discovered what labored throughout the present’s format. Though it initially tried to be a hybrid present within the mildew of The X-Files (or Buffy The Vampire Slayer, should you want), the instances of the week had been typically thematically linked to B-plots furthering a number of ongoing serialized storylines, together with Coulson’s miraculous return from the useless, Skye’s seek for her dad and mom, and the identification of the sinister mastermind identified solely as The Clairvoyant. Episodes like “The Girl In The Flower Dress,” “The Hub,” “Seeds,” and “T.R.A.C.Ok.S.” (which featured an MCU-requisite Stan Lee cameo) deftly stability standalone tales with world-building arcs in a method that might change into more and more uncommon in later seasons because the present turned extra serialized.
Other case episodes gave us perception into the characters we had been nonetheless attending to know. “FZZT” demonstrated the sturdy bond between FitzSimmons and gave De Caestecker and Henstridge an opportunity to indicate off their appearing chops. “The Well” was loosely tied into Thor: The Dark World and crammed us in on Ward’s tragic backstory, which might repay properly within the runup to the finale. Not all the present’s first 22 episodes had been profitable, however even the clunkers had some enjoyable moments, just like the witty banter in “The Asset,” or May’s prank on Fitz in “Repairs,” or each time Ruth Negga popped up as Raina. Though they had been nonetheless tied to the continuity of the MCU at this level, the writers did their finest to construct out their nook of the sandbox, the place they may independently play with their very own characters and concepts with out coping with something happening within the films. Until they needed to.
Absorbing shockwaves from the MCU
The fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a minor disruption within the MCU, however for Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. the revelation that their group had been infiltrated by Hydra for many years was nothing wanting catastrophic. It additionally led to a number of the finest episodes within the present’s total run. Beginning with the appropriately titled “End Of The Beginning” it’s an intense, seven-episode dash to the finale. Once the octopus is out of the bag, the paranoia actually units in. Is May as much as one thing sinister? Is high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Victoria Hand (Saffron Burrows) a Hydra spy? Is Coulson? Nope, the precise wolf within the herd seems to be Grant Ward (below orders from his mentor John Garret, performed with scrumptious gravitas by the late, nice Bill Paxton).
Ward’s good heel flip (does it nonetheless depend should you’ve been secretly taking part in for the opposite group the entire time?) is available in episode 17, “Turn, Turn, Turn,” and builds the momentum as all the things the present had arrange within the season to this point is torn away. It was a breakthrough for the present and the character of Ward, who went from a stiff motion hero to chilly, calculating villain with the pull of a set off. The suspense of ready for the group to search out out the reality and questioning what he’ll do subsequent drives the momentum throughout a number of episodes. Ward’s post-revelation transgressions embody: killing Eric Koenic (Patton Oswalt), the affable custodian of the key base the place the brokers take refuge, kidnapping Skye (for whom he appears to have real emotions, twisted as that’s), and jettisoning Fitz and Simmons to the underside of the ocean in a med pod. It was as private because it was diabolical. After making an attempt to arrange a collection of largely ineffectual unhealthy guys, the present lastly had an adversary value our consideration.
A bit nostalgia goes a good distance
The writers went into the second season with a a lot clearer concept of what the present was, and regardless of finances cuts and solid modifications Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. would go on to change into the longest working Marvel TV collection, with a complete of 136 episodes produced (a file that’s not prone to be surpassed anytime quickly). While the present did get objectively higher with time, dipping again into any of these early episodes on the Bus (the nickname for the flowery aircraft the place they lived and labored) is like reliving a fond reminiscence from an easier time. The characters had been nonetheless comparatively harmless and lighthearted, with no concept of the traumas in retailer for them. There are additionally extra exterior areas and fewer of these grey hallways that might characterize the present in later seasons, too. (As government producer Jeffrey Bell put it in an interview with The A.V. Club, “It’s cheaper to go to a different planet than to go to Van Nuys.”) Was it an ideal first season? No. But perhaps we should always substitute the phrase “rocky” with one thing just a little extra hopeful. “After a promising begin…” has a pleasant ring to it.
