Return To Somewhere We Haven't Been: "Orientation, Part 1" Brings Back The Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Good: Performances are fine, Moments of character, Good direction
The Bad: Pacing, Plot plods to a problematic reveal, Light on character development.
The Basics: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. picks up its fifth season with "Orientation, Part 1," which belabors setting over character . . . or sensibility.


As the fifth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. begins, the show has a pretty big burden to explain itself. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, which was once a comparatively grounded place with a few extraordinary elements in it, has become increasingly more absurd. And the fantastic elements in the MCU have, generally, been seeded slowly and sensibly enough to make the change in the nature of the franchise seem gradual and almost logical. But as "Orientation, Part 1" begins, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is struggling to keep itself relevant in a franchise that is now spanning alternate realities, outer space adventures and an onslaught of alien invaders. To remain relevant in that type of universe, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has transitioned from a spy show to a series focused on relations between mundane humans and humans given amazing powers through the activation of alien DNA in their bodies to a paranoid fight against android replicants and an alternate Matrix-like reality. Attempting to top that and remain relevant in a universe that is gearing up for The Infinity War is requiring Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. to raise the stakes once again.

"Orientation, Part 1" follows on the final events of "World's End" (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss the fifth season premiere without some references to where the fourth season ended. After all, following the Darkhold being secured in another dimension by Ghost Rider, the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. knew they were going to be held accountable for the assassination attempt on Talbot and their part in the Framework debacle. The final scene of "World's End" featured Coulson waking up on a facility in an asteroid field and preparing to go to work. With such a place to start, "Orientation, Part 1" had a ton of explaining to do to make that final scene make sense.

A person - who appears to be wearing the skin of a man - abducts the Agents and puts them in a room with a monolith, much like the one that opened a portal to Maveth. Coulson and his team are teleported to a mining rig in space, in asteroid field. There, a breach has occurred and the humans who are working there are freaked out by apparent invaders in the facility. Coulson is not equipped with one of his technologically advanced hands and Agent May is impaled. One of the natives of the facility, Virgil, is a fan of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and he starts to familiarize the team with their new surroundings. Daisy manages to reunite with the team while they flee an alien invader and May encounters one of the workers who is equipped with technology that allows him to travel around the breach.

The Agents find an area that gives them information that the facility is close enough to Earth to potentially get a message to Fitz (who was not transported with them), but moments later they encounter Kree soldiers who capture the entire team. When Deke brings May to the cell, he bribes the guard to spring Coulson's team. Deke informs the humans that there is a ship on the facility, but Virgil was the only pilot he knew. While Daisy goes off to rescue Mack and Rodriguez, Coulson interrogates Deke.

For an almost complete reboot of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., "Orientation, Part 1" does a fairly decent job of incorporating the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe while reminding viewers of the flavor of the series. The idea that the team is still within the Framework is quickly discounted, as is the possibility that the teleport is part of Ghost Rider's fee. Rodriguez makes a sly reference to the Inhumans. The moment the Kree appear on screen, it reinforces the idea (implied by Deke's helmet) that Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is moving more into the Guardians Of The Galaxy corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Much of "Orientation, Part 1" is spent establishing the setting. The base appears to be a Kree base that is in striking distance of Earth where humans are periodically abducted from Earth to give the Kree current information and act as slave labor. "Orientation, Part 1" shows off the technology on the base, as well as the dark setting of the base. Throughout the episode, Virgil and Deke make dark implications about humanity and the state of Earth. The setting sets up the episode's big reversal, which all of the Agents reach right around the same time.

Agents May and Mackenzie are given the most opportunities to show off their character in "Orientation, Part 1." The season premiere reminds viewers that May is a crack pilot as she quickly figures out how to fly the trawler. May is clever and more than just a fighter; from day one, she has been an ace pilot and her ability to fly the trawler reminds viewers of that.

In a similar fashion, Mack shows off his multiple talents, not the least of which is his ability to wisecrack through the crisis in which he finds himself. Mack makes some potent observations - Coulson went to the diner woefully unprepared, when he finds himself in a physical fight of course he hit the person he was up against as hard as he possibly could - and he illustrates his attachment for Rodriguez and his ability to figure out the station's systems using his extensive engineering knowledge. Mack is tortured, this time mostly by watching Yo-Yo get tortured and he illustrates a resilience to his recent ordeal in the Framework and the transport by being able to pick up and fight almost immediately.

Ultimately, "Orientation, Part 1" acts as a hook, little more. The episode is a build-up to make the teleport to an (apparent) alien facility make sense within the confines of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the macguffin of the monolith is one of the few consistent elements with the familiar Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. It is, however, a long way to go for the revelation and it is hardly a satisfying one; the episode moves toward a climax geared more toward getting the viewer to watch the next episode than it is to actually providing good answers or a sense of decent continuity. In fact, only neophytes to Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. will not leave the first part of "Orientation" without the feeling that the series is going into territory that will absolutely require the show to deny much of what has been previously established in the show.

For other Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. season premieres, please visit my reviews of:
"Pilot"
"Shadows"
"Laws Of Nature"
"The Ghost"

3.5/10

For other television or movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for a comprehensive listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Generic Justice League: How Warner Bros. Limped Across The Finish Line.

The Good: Moments of characterization, The acting is fine, Some of the humor works well
The Bad: Incredibly basic plot, Utterly generic villain, Painfully derivative plot development, Troublesome continuity, Familiar final battle sequence
The Basics: Justice League arrives and it is hard not to feel like it is a missed opportunity on almost every front.


It's tough to sit down to a film that has been built to in an inefficient way when there is such a good example of building a franchise the right way. The DC Comics Cinematic Universe, sadly, lives in the shadow of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For all of the problems with the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 1 (reviewed here!), the franchise was built well over several years. The Marvel Cinematic Universe took a bunch of mediocre super hero films that were focused on (generally) a single character, loosely tied them together and when they were put together in The Avengers (reviewed here!), that movie succeeded largely because the scale was appropriate to the threat. As well, the essential characterization was already done in the foundation films, so The Avengers was able to illustrate just what those heroes could do, as opposed to giving out basic information about who was fighting.

Justice League has no such grace.

Justice League is the DC Comics Cinematic Universe answer to The Avengers and the immediate tragedy of it is that it comes so late to an already-saturated market (doing anything fresh in superhero films is tough these days!), the foundation work was not actually finished, and there were huge issues with the foundation films that go unanswered going into Justice League. Three major characters in Justice League were virtually unexplored going into the film: Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg. Cyborg, especially, suffers in Justice League because his backstory is done more or less on the fly and he ends up seeming like a generic super hero who is intended to fill the same functional niche in Justice League as Iron Man did in The Avengers. Indeed, it is hard for comic book and super hero film fans to not wince when Cyborg appears and to show off his evolving abilities, he levitates much like Iron Man.

The failures in the foundation work make Justice League a tougher sell than it ought to be. Wonder Woman (reviewed here!) left the lingering question: If the God Of War was defeated, how the hell do all subsequent wars on Earth actually occur? (Justice League might have been a conceptual smash if the history of the DC Cinematic Universe included a retcon that showed no wars in that universe followed World War I and Earth was left defenseless against the villains in the new chapter.) If the final shot of Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice (reviewed here!) insinuated that Superman was still alive or there was still some form of power in his Kryptonian corpse, how did he let the Motherbox problem escalate to this point? [That question, at least, is satisfactorily answered in Justice League.] And if the parademon threat is growing so fast, would this not be the very definition of an "all hands on deck" situation? Where, then, is the Suicide Squad to help out with basic combat/demolition? It seems like they would have been ideal for the Russian front, at the nuclear reactor. And if Bruce Wayne had the vision of Superman being used by the same entities using the parademons, why would someone so smart attempt to resurrect the dead Kryptonian?

So, Justice League begins from a disadvantageous position where the universe of the DC Cinematic Universe is not fleshed out well-enough on screen (comic book fans have a distinct advantage going into the film, obviously) to absolutely invest in the film's threat. The best analogy I have is that it took until the commentary track for Return Of The Jedi (reviewed here!) when it was explicitly stated that the point of much of the dialogue in the final throne room scene was to sell the audience on the idea that Luke Skywalker could actually go over to the Dark Side and join the Emperor. I must have seen Return Of The Jedi thirty-five (or more) times before listening to that commentary track and the moment never once landed where that occurred to me. It was so ineffectively done that the suspension of disbelief did not happen. With Justice League, there is a similar sense of lack of suspension of disbelief to the threat: of course the one character not put into the promotions will show up in the film, of course the team will manage to come together, and there is never a doubt that the invading threat will be repelled. Warner Bros. is building a franchise: of course that reality would not be undone and remade in the first big team-up film.

But, there's Justice League arrived at without all the essential prep work and perhaps the real problem with arriving so late to the marketplace is that the parallels in narrative structure and character beg comparisons to The Avengers. No doubt, someone will soon do a comparative analysis that lines the two films up, side by side, and it would be unsurprising if the rampage in Justice League came about right around the same time in the film as the Hulk smashing through the helecarrier in The Avengers.

So, what is Justice League?

Following the death of Superman, the world has more or less fallen in to chaos. While Wonder Woman deals with street level crimes - terrorists attempting to blow up a bank - Batman is active again in Gotham City, combating a random parademon that arrived in the city. Encountering the alien invader, and having vague information about the Motherboxes on Earth, Bruce Wayne reasons that it is Superman's absence that is drawing the interstellar threats and that it is time to assemble his team. While Arthur Curry rejects Wayne's offer, a Motherbox on Themyscira becomes active. Steppenwolf arrives through a Boom Tube on Themyscira and attempts to wipe out Hippolyta and the Amazons, but the force of numbers causes Steppenwolf to beat a hasty retreat . . . with a Motherbox. Hippolyta lights a warning fire, which informs Diana that the invasion has begun and Diana meets with Bruce Wayne to tell him exactly what they are up against.

While Bruce Wayne easily recruits Barry Allen to his team, Victor Stone (a cyborg altered through a Motherbox and other technology in a scientific accident) reaches out to Diana. When Steppenwolf attacks Atlantis for the Motherbox hidden there, Arthur Curry joins Batman's team. Bruce Wayne believes that the only way to save Earth from Steppenwolf and protect the final Motherbox is to resurrect Superman using the Motherbox Victor Stone brought him. While Diana advises him against it, Wayne and Cyborg agree on the course of action and Barry Allen goes along with them. But when Superman is resurrected, he comes back wrong and triggers Cyborg's technology against Stone's directives. In the ensuing conflict, Steppenwolf is able to get control of the final Motherbox and he takes it to Russia where he begins rewriting reality in order to attempt to make Earth into a primordial wasteland that he can rule.

Within the narrative, Justice League suffers from being That Kind Of Movie. This is a big-budget super hero film and to make a threat worth assembling the biggest DC Universe characters, it requires something incredible. But the name is a misnomer. Justice League is not about justice; there is no higher principle in play in the film. Justice League is entirely preoccupied with survival as all of reality is threatened by Steppenwolf and the power of the Motherboxes. Like its predecessors, Justice League suffers mightily from leaving huge gaps in the narrative for a reasonable sense of continuity: the moment Steppenwolf stole the Motherbox from Themyscira, why didn't Hippolyta reach out to the Atlanteans? There is an allusion that a war occurred between the Amazons and the Atlanteans at least one generation prior to Aquaman's ascendance, but to stop Steppenwolf from getting his hands on the Motherbox in Atlantis, is seems like someone in the know like Hippolyta would have volunteered her forces instead of simply obliquely alerting Diana . . .

The lack of an underlying principle or theme in Justice League becomes painfully clear during the Motherboxes backstory. Justice League manages not to simply copy from The Lord Of The Rings (reviewed here!) with how the backstory is related, but the parallels in the stories are pretty obvious. Sauron, having created the One Ring, plans to cast Middle Earth into darkness, but he is repelled by the combined forces of Elves, Dwarves and Men . . . er, strike that, Steppenwolf brought the Motherboxes to Earth where he planned to rewrite reality, but the combined forces of Themyscirans, Atlantians, Gods, humans and Green Lanterns managed to repel him. The Motherboxes were then hidden, not destroyed, and apparently the governments became idiotic (the moment the Motherbox backstory was related in Justice League, my first thought was "the moment the space program began or Superman started exhibiting his powers, why wasn't one of the Motherboxes taken to the Moon?" and "Why didn't the Green Lantern for Earth get one of the Motherboxes off planet . . . the Corps must have known the three Motherboxes were there after they defeated Steppenwolf?").

So, there's no real thematic strength in Justice League and instead of any rhetorical argument, much of the film comes down to, sigh, yet another fist fight. Steppenwolf is an unfortunately generic villain for Justice League. He is characterized as the Destroyer Of Worlds, so what is his preoccupation with Earth? Earth was the site of his first defeat; what has he been doing since he was repelled the last time? If he's been out destroying worlds without his Motherboxes since he was first defeated, why does he rely upon their power again for his second stab at Earth?! And if he has been out destroying worlds, what the hell happened to the Green Lantern Corps? And if he hasn't been out wreaking havoc in the galaxy for thousands of years since his botched attempt to take Earth, doesn't that just make him the biggest poseur villain in cinematic history? The fact that these questions come up after only a moment's consideration of the adversary illustrates how flimsy his construction is within the movie.

And for a DC Cinematic Universe work, the final battle once again feels familiar. Night and darkness are used in Zack Snyder's films to hide details, which makes the special effects easier to execute, but make for far less complicated or compelling battle sequences. It's a pretty sad world where the attention to fine details is greater in video games than in major blockbuster films.

So, what works in Justice League? The snippets of character for the new protagonists all work. Barry Allen is characterized well and the fact that the defining characteristic for him outside his speed is his insatiable hunger is something that instantly sets him apart from the current television incarnation of the character. In a similar way, Cyborg is characterized intriguingly as a young man who is tormented by his own body and is not at all entirely in control of his powers, abilities, and technology. Aquaman delivers a decent assessment of the team before reducing Diana to a sex object (grumble. And, seriously - and I write this as a lifelong Wonder Woman fan! - Curry starts ogling Diana after leaving Mera under the sea; what does Diana have to offer Aquaman that Mera doesn't?!).

Justice League might not be a slam dunk of a film, but it puts its emphasis on far too many of the wrong things. The moment I enjoyed most was a simple exchange between Bruce Wayne and Diana. Wayne explains that he is getting too old for this kind of fight and he implores Diana to make her super hero alter-ego more available to the fights for which she is needed. It's a quiet moment, but a compelling one.

But, that's not what Justice League is about. It's about getting the team together, resurrecting a guy who can punch harder than the others (shouldn't Cyborg's technology have been able to evaluate Steppenwolf's vulnerability to freezing and given him an ice cannon?!), and making a giant effects-driven fight sequence to save the world from someone who never really had a chance to destroy it. The net result is a fast-paced popcorn movie that lacks resonance once it is over.

For other DC Comics Cinematic Universe works, please check out my reviews of:
Suicide Squad
Green Lantern
Man Of Steel

3.5/10

For other film reviews, please visit my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Fractured Storytelling Of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4!

The Good: Good climax, Moments of witty dialogue, Performance moments from Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge
The Bad: Unremarkable new characters, Plot is very inconsistent, May is absent most of the season, Some predictable reversals.
The Basics: The fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. introduces Ghost Rider, LMDs and The Matrix to the Marvel Cinematic Universe . . . with mixed results.


There are few shows that have a season that begins with such a forced sense of reinvention as Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4. The fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. opened after an extended denouement from the season three finale "Ascension" (reviewed here!). In what was, essentially, a series of post-credits scenes, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. took a six month leap forward in time. The information viewers were given at the end of "Ascension" was that Daisy Johnson had gone rogue as an Inhuman bank robber who was being called Quake by the media, Coulson and Mack were now partnered up as field agents under a new Director, and Holden Radcliffe had build the first life-model decoy, Aida, whose proper revelation was being held until the part was actually cast.

The grand irony of the fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is that the major stories of the season are all tied together by Aida, who was a post-credits addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Aida is the savior and villain throughout the fourth season and while that is not inherently problematic, it is executed in a way that makes the fourth season seem like a sloppy conglomeration of ideas that have been lingering from the Marvel Comics universe waiting to make their Marvel Cinematic Universe debut. The third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (reviewed here!) used important heroes, villains and themes enough to knock The Inhumans off the Marvel Cinematic Universe release schedule and the fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has the vague, unifying feeling that its purpose is to satisfy Marvel Comics readers with elements they want to see that cannot entirely be expressed satisfactorily in the Marvel Universe films.

The fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. goes through three plot phases and only interacts with the major Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster film that was released during the season - Doctor Strange (reviewed here!) - in the most peripheral way. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season Four is fractured into stories that involve Ghost Rider, the menace of the L.M.D.s, and then The Framework.

S.H.I.E.L.D. is preparing for a public rebranding as it moves to return to up-front public service, under the leadership of Jeffery Mace. Coulson and Mack have been using the Zephyr to avoid Mace and try to find Daisy, who is publicly being hunted as a rogue Inhuman. Daisy, for her part, is hunting down threats to Inhumans, most of whom are part of the Watchdogs. In attempting to bring down a Watchdog cell, Daisy encounters a vigilante who appears much like an Inhuman. The vigilante is Ghost Rider and he claims to have made a deal with the devil in order to right past wrongs, including the events that led to his younger brother being wounded. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s hunt and Daisy's attempt to understand Robbie Reyes (Ghost Rider) intersect when May is critically wounded while on a mission near Ghost Rider. Learning about Ghost Rider and his family puts the S.H.I.E.L.D. team and Daisy in a conflict with people who appear to be ghosts. Out of phase with the world, S.H.I.E.L.D. tries to save citizens and themselves by recovering the book that made them incorporeal. In the process, S.H.I.E.L.D. has to turn to Aida to rescue them using the power of the book the Dark Hold.

Corrupted by the Dark Hold, Dr. Radcliffe and Aida become determined to recover the Dark Hold for their own purposes. Now aware of the life model decoy project, S.H.I.E.L.D. struggles with Aida's obsessive attempts to get the Dark Hold, the Watchdog menace to the Inhumans and the general populace, and an LMD replacing one of their own!

When Aida, Radcliffe, and the Watchdog leader retreat to a secure location with the Dark Hold, Aida is able to fully develop The Framework, a virtual world that allows human consciousness to be fully transferred to an alternate reality. When most of the S.H.I.E.L.D. leadership is captured and ensnared in the Framework, it falls to Daisy and Simmons to enter the Framework and rescue their team.

The fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. goes in an unfortunate direction by belaboring the appearance and return of Ghost Rider to the narrative. Ghost Rider adds almost nothing to the story and, in fact, relying upon him to save the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. from the Dark Hold undermines both the series' protagonists and the villainy of Aida and Radcliffe. The second phase of the season features an unfortunate number of reversals that are entirely predictable to genre fans, from May being trapped in The Framework when she believes she has made it out to various characters being replaced with Life-Model Decoys when other characters are implicated.

The final phase of the season is essentially The Matrix (reviewed here!) and arguably the most problematic aspect of the Framework plotline is that the character who is most literate in science fiction filmmaking completely falls prey to the character arc of one of the characters in that film. Moreover, Daisy's single approach to appeal to that character falls flat when there are several other tactics - even in the compressed time she has - she could take.

But the fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. actually manages to have some of the best episodes of the series in it. While rewatching the complete series, my wife and I frequently commented that May is the real reason to watch Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Melinda May is, sadly, dramatically underused in the fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. as she is captured early by Aida and Radcliffe and replaced with an LMD. Instead of refocusing the season on Coulson and Daisy, the strongest episodes of the fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. all focus on Fitz and Simmons and the fracture in their relationship that comes when the threat of Aida is revealed.

Simmons finally has the chance to rise to heroic levels, while Fitz is nearly destroyed by Aida when he develops an emotional attachment that the virtual woman is able to exploit. Aida messes with Fitz's head and the result leads to some of the season's biggest character moments.

To better understand the fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. it helps to know the arcs of the major characters. In the fourth season, the essential characters are:

Phil Coulson – Now a field agent again, partnered with Mack under the new Director, he works on the Zephyr as much as possible. He and Mack hunt for Daisy, who has gone rogue and when they learn of the threat of Dr. Morrow and his work, he is at the front lines of stopping him. He begins to explore his feelings for May, but their budding romance is put on hold when the LMD version of May is exposed. Beginning the hunt for where May is being kept, he leads his fellow Agents into a trap laid by an old enemy,

Agent Melinda May – Exposed to one of the incorporeal scientists affected by the boxes created using the Dark Hold, she faces madness and death. That causes Simmons and Coulson to turn to Radcliffe to save her. During her recovery, Aida's true nature is exposed and she becomes a liability to Radcliffe's work. When that happens, he captures and replaces may with an LMD, keeping May trapped using the Framework. It is May's resistance to the initial programming of the Framework that leads Aida to make the changes needed to make the enslaving version of the Framework that works,

Fitz – Having helped Radcliffe develop the technology behind Aida, he advises the scientist not to reveal Aida to S.H.I.E.L.D. until her technology is perfected. Keeping the truth of Aida's nature from Simmons causes tension in their relationship. He recognizes the potential of the technologies created using the Dark Hold, but does not trust Radcliffe's obsession with the book or his friends in the anti-Inhuman movement. After exposing some of Radcliffe's plans, he joins the team that tries to rescue May and Mace and becomes someone else entirely within the Framework,

Jemma Simmons – Wary of the new Director, she works with Mace and has a surprisingly high clearance level within the new S.H.I.E.L.D. She is tasked with examining a new Inhuman who has spent months undergoing terrigenesis. Alarmed at how Daisy's powers might be harming her Inhuman friend, she develops medicines and new gauntlets to protect her. Simmons struggles with how Fitz has a crush on Aida, but is alarmed when it appears some of her friends have been replaced with LMDs. She leads the effort to stop Aida within the Framework,

Daisy Johnson (Quake when she is rogue) – Having abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D. after losing Lincoln, she robs banks and gets restitution for victims of crimes perpetrated by the Watchdogs. In her hunt for anti-Inhuman forces, she ends up in Los Angeles where she encounters Ghost Rider. Teaming with Ghost Rider to fight Inhumans, she is re-integrated with S.H.I.E.L.D. by Mace during a public relations stunt. Guided by a desire to protect the Inhumans, she is alarmed when the Watchdog leader teams up with Aida. She joins Simmons on the rescue effort in the Framework and is shocked by who she is paired up with in the virtual world,

Mack - Partnered with Coulson, he is more unnerved than his partner by living on the Zephyr. He has an on-again, off-again relationship with Elena Rodriguez. In the course of opening up to Yo-Yo, he reveals that he once had a daughter, who died after only ten days. He fights against the "ghosts" and is given the chance to take up the mantle of Ghost Rider. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of science fiction movies where machines rise against humans and he has an instant distrust for Radcliffe and his LMDs. He continues the search for Daisy when Mace does not want him to,

Director Jeffrey Mace - Following the climax of Hive's threat to transform and control the world, Coulson cedes power to an Inhuman, in the form of Jeffrey Mace. The hero of a bombing, Mace has great credentials and wants desperately to rebrand S.H.I.E.L.D. He color-codes S.H.I.E.L.D. and subjects his employees to weekly lie detector tests. Simmons, however, quickly recognizes that Mace has a secret and to maintain his secrets and keep his S.H.I.E.L.D. agents (and Daisy) safe, he makes a deal with an unsavory Senator,

Dr. Holden Radcliffe - Having been cleared of the charges surrounding his work for Hive, Radcliffe has developed the Life Model Decoy project. He advances the work as far as he can and tests Aida on May, fooling the diligent Agent. When he learns about the Dark Hold, he becomes obsessed with it. But soon, his quest for the Dark Hold puts him at odds with S.H.I.E.L.D. and he is forced to ally himself with the leader of the Watchdogs to get what he wants. But that deal with the devil quickly puts him at the mercy of an enemy he never expected,

and Aida - Radcliffe's virtual secretary-turned-android, she represents the peak of robotics Radcliffe has developed. To save S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who have been lost to Morrow's technology, she utilizes the Dark Hold. Able to create portals using the power of the Dark Hold, she begins to experiment with keeping Melinda May in the Framework. Ultimately, she uses the power of the Framework to rule the virtual world and create what every artificial life form seems to want . . . a human body of her own!

Out of the main cast, Elizabeth Henstridge and Iain De Caestecker absolutely dominate the fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. De Caestecker was pretty much neglected in the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (am I the only one who noticed that Fitz's brain damage completely disappeared in the third season?!) and Henstridge underplayed Simmons in the third season outside the key moments where she completely carried "4,722 Hours" and had a powerful moment where Simmons attempted to kill Ward. In the fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Henstridge plays Simmons as isolated from her friends in very different ways. De Caestecker shows off his range by playing Fitz as nervous, loving, murderous, shocked, and desperate at various points in the season. He is amazing and in the fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., he once again is able to show off his extreme range.

The real shock of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season Four on the performance front is Mallory Jansen. The joke of the final scene of the third season of the show was that the whole reason Aida was not shown was because the part had not been cast yet. Mallory Jansen proves in no uncertain terms that the executive producers of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. knew what they were doing when they took the time to properly cast the role of Aida. Jansen plays four distinctly different roles in the fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Aida, Agnes, Madame Hydra and Ophelia. And Jansen nails each part she plays. She is mechanical and just not-quite human in playing Aida. Agnes is played as physically weak and psychologically desperate, while Madame Hydra is powerful, forceful and utterly manipulative. When Mallory Jansen plays Ophelia, she blows out of the water the conflicted nature of the artificial woman turned organic life form. Mallory Jansen embodies the argument that science fiction television gets overlooked entirely by the mainstream awards shows; there is no good reason for Jansen to not be nominated (and win!) Best Supporting Actress for her roles in the fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. save that genre works get no respect from the Academy. Jansen is that good in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D..

In fact, despite the erratic nature of the storytelling in the fourth season, it is the performances and the big character moments for the main characters, Aida and Radcliffe that makes Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season Four worth watching.

For a better understanding of the components of the fourth season, please visit my reviews of each of the episodes in the fourth season episodes of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. at:
“The Ghost”
“Meet The New Boss”
“Uprising”
"Let Me Stand Next To Your Fire"
“Lockup”
“The Good Samaritan”
“Deals With Our Devils”
“The Laws Of Inferno Dynamics”
“Broken Promises”
“The Patriot”
“Wake Up”
“Hot Potato Soup”
“BOOM”
“The Man Behind The Shield”
“Self Control”
“What If. . .”
"Identity And Change"
“No Regrets”
“All The Madame's Men”
“Farewell, Cruel World!”
“The Return”
“World's End”

6/10

For other works from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, please check out my Marvel Cinematic Universe Review Index Page for a comparative listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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R.I.P. Ron Glass: Tonight We Listen To The Firefly Original Television Soundtrack For You!

The Good: Musically interesting, Decent duration
The Bad: Incomplete, Short pieces, Poor album flow
The Basics: Greg Edmonson's Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack is an accurate collection, but not one that allows Edmonson to show off his musical prowess for more than three at a time.


Today, news broke that acclaimed actor Ron Glass died and it only continues to reinforce just how terrible 2016 has been. Ron Glass had a long career, which had new life breathed into it when he appeared on Joss Whedon's sleeper hit Firefly (reviewed here!) as Shepherd Book. Glass guest starred on a couple of episodes of Whedon's Marvel Cinematic Universe spin-out Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., but rose to prominence on television with Barney Miller. Like innumerable fans of his work and Firefly, the only personal stories I have of Ron Glass involve encountering him at science fiction conventions. Still, he was one of the most gracious, kind, and articulate (I write that because one might be surprised how many actors have absolutely no opinions on their character or the work they are performing on - but Ron Glass did!) celebrities I ever met.

Tonight, as I contemplate the life of Ron Glass and fondly recall my brief meeting with him, I found that he was one of the casualties of 2016 who I wanted to write about and commemorate in my blog. The problem I quickly discovered, however, was that everything I have directly encountered with Ron Glass in it has already been the subject of a review! So, I thought I would sit and listen to the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack as I thought about Mr. Glass and his career and it occurred to me that I had never reviewed the album!

The Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack is an interesting musical work that is intriguing to me as a fan of both Firefly and classical/modern classical music. It is also one that made me almost instantly regret using it as a way to commemorate Ron Glass. The Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack is almost entirely the work of Greg Edmonson and the album is more than enough to make me want to track down an album of his original works. Sadly, Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack is not a compelling work on its own.

It is not long into the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack that I was forced to recognize two things: 1. composer Greg Edmonson is hampered by his subject and 2. Firefly's soundtrack and themes might have been integral to the work, but they hold up very poorly out of context. The first point is a classic argument for television soundtracks, especially for works that have a lot of action in them. Composers like Edmonson create musical works to match scenes on a monitor and they work to heighten mood and convey a new emotional depth to subtly influence the viewer in other key scenes.

What Edmonson is not doing on the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack is creating well-rounded musical works. Unlike something like The Red Violin Soundtrack (reviewed here!), where the pieces are of significant duration that they can musically develop as their own works to stand up outside the context of the film, the pieces on Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack are largely short and fractured. Within the twenty-five tracks on the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack, there are 44 titles and almost as many musical themes. Outside the Main Title theme, "River's Dance," "Inara's Theme," and "River Understands Simon," none of the tracks seem truly long enough to develop on their own into fully-realized musical pieces with their own development, themes and complexity. The song starts and before it can truly go somewhere transformational in the moment it was developing . . . we cut to commercial or worse, the song abruptly transitions from a soft, contemplative musical composition into a frenetic noisy piece that aurally shocks the listener.

With 25 tracks clocking out at 60:15, Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack accurately translates the music of Firefly to the listener. The music of Firefly is almost all present - Jayne's Cobb's bar tribute song is very noticeably absent from the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack. The average musical piece is in the two minute range and contains a blend of guitar, violins and mellow percussion. There are more noisy, cacophonic sequences that amp up the percussion and feature more aggressive guitars, but most of the more aggressive music is on the album's first half.

Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack fails to create a coherent musical expression and rather than beat that dead horse, it is germane to explore the second epiphany I had while listening to the album. There is very little music on the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack that is evocative of the show. I've listened to a lot of television soundtracks and usually I run into the opposite problem; I hear the musical composition and all I do is react to how it was in the television show. The Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack is a suite of musical clips that evokes shockingly little in the way of recall to the moments they were paired with on the television series.

In other words, the compositions on the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack successfully enhanced the moods of the scenes they were present in, but in no way became so integrally linked with those scenes as to allow them to evoke them in the listener's mind. Perhaps the Firefly - Original Television Soundtrack is a good tribute to Ron Glass by contrast; his subtle deliveries and his mere presence enhanced every scene he was in, but his absence is keenly felt when he is absent.

For other soundtrack albums, please check out my reviews of:
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Soundtrack
An Inconvenient Truth Soundtrack
Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack - The Bee Gees

4/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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This Is Why We Won't Get Inhumans! Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3!

The Good: Some decent character moments, Good overall plot, Good performances
The Bad: Weak middle
The Basics: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. undermined an film version of The Inhumans in its third season.


Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. might well be the most inconsistent element of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and, honestly, that might be the best thing for the franchise. Objectively viewed, most of the works in the Marvel Cinematic Universe follow a painfully formulaic format; the movies have become very repetitive. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. might follow a similar pattern, but extending that basic plot over the course of a season has allowed the show to feel fresher and has forced the series to develop the characters more than the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have. In fact, by the outset of the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., the television series and its characters are actually the most prolific of the franchise. Since the middle of the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., the executives at Disney and Marvel announced that a cinematic version of The Inhumans was on the docket, but the third season of the show ultimately filled that niche.

In the Marvel Comic books, The Inhumans were, essentially, mutants and in the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (reviewed here!), they were properly introduced. The Inhumans preoccupy the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the season makes sweeping changes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And because the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. only had to interface with one blockbuster film - Captain America: Civil War (reviewed here!), the season had a chance to breathe and grow almost completely on its own - without just trying to fit in between the big films.

The irony for the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is so independent and powerful on its own that it overwrote the characters and plots that would have been the basis for The Inhumans. Apparently, in the books, one of the most significant villains in the Inhuman corner of the Marvel franchise is Lash and, like most seasons of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - and movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe - there is a Big Bad. In the third season, the Big Bads are Lash for the Inhuman plotline, Gideon Malick for the HYDRA plotline and Hive, the evil alien who bridges the two Big Bads. As such, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season Three pretty much shot the wad on big bads for The Inhumans and by the season finale, The Inhumans was off the slate for the cinematic works being planned by Disney. Fortunately, the result of the executive producers' work on the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. paid off. The third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the best of the series so far.

Opening with a man (Joey Gutierrez) who took contaminated fish oil pills and successfully underwent terrigenesis, the new Inhuman accidentally melts all sorts of metal around him an is freaking out. He is hunted by people who freak him out and rescued by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. The first group hunting him is a new, Presidentially-sanctioned organization called the Advanced Threat Containment Unit. While Fitz hunts for a way to find Simmons, Daisy tries to recruit Lincoln Campbell to help acclimate Inhumans to their new lives when they are attacked by a powerful Inhuman who blasts holes in people and escapes through a portal. Fitz discovers that the monolith is a portal and with the help of the last Asgardian on Earth, he manages to rescue Simmons.

While Ward recreates HYDRA, Coulson and Rosalind from the ATCU hunt for a vicious new Inhuman, Lash, who is killing Inhumans. But Lash's identity (he is the only known Inhuman who can shape-shift between his mundane human and Inhuman forms!) quickly creates a personal problem with one of the Agents and that causes a rift between Coulson and Rosalind Price of the ATCU. But when the ATCU's agenda is made explicit - they are putting Inhumans in suspended animation - Coulson begins an investigation into the ATCU and discovers that HYDRA is running the organization. Ward, in the meantime, finds the last major surviving head of HYDRA, Gideon Malick, and he learns that HYDRA's purpose was related to the monolith and the alien world Simmons was teleported to.

After capturing Fitz and Simmons to try to launch a HYDRA mission to the alien world, Ward takes a team to the distant planet. But while the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. are able to rescue their hostage friends, HYDRA is successful in bringing through a creature, Hive, from the alien world. Hive and Malick set off a plan to transform the Earth by transforming its populace into Inhumans. As Hive takes over the Inhumans he finds to build an army, S.H.I.E.L.D. tries to save humans from falling under Hive's sway and humans from being transformed by Hive's captured mad scientist. Coulson and his team have to stop HYDRA and Hive to save the world!

The third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. develops in a surprisingly linear narrative, but the delight of the season is when it shakes up the familiar format (which bodes well for Doctor Strange). The season peaks early with the episode "4,722 Hours," which is the story of Simmons's time on the distant world and the intense character study is very different from every other episode. While the average episode features a number of fights and spycraft riddled with twists, "4,722 Hours" is straightforward and emotional.

That is not to say that some of the action-oriented episodes of the season are not good. "Maveth," "Spacetime," and "Failed Experiments" all use action sequences remarkably well and find a good balance between character and action elements.

To better understand the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. it helps to know the arcs of the major characters. In the third season, the essential characters are:

Director Phil Coulson – Adapting to his new, bionic, hand, he is hunting the ATCU to try to find out who is killing Inhumans. He meets Rosalind Price, the head of the ATCU and is appalled when she reveals that the failed missions he has been on to find Inhumans have left a number of dead Inhumans for her team to find. He tries to guide Rosalind to treating Inhumans with compassion and when Daisy is threatened, he starts working with Price. He falls in love with Rosalind, despite a few rocky moments where his nature as a spy outweighs his basic human emotions. When he experiences a personal tragedy, he goes on a mission of revenge to end Grant Ward once and for all. After the President restructures the ATCU, he gets to be General Talbot's boss. He experiences more and more loss as he is forced to disavow multiple agents, his new headquarters is attacked in a terrible way, and some of his assets go over to the Dark Side,

Agent Melinda May – Having left S.H.I.E.L.D., she finds herself looking over her shoulder over suspicions that the car accident her father was in was caused by a vengeful Grant Ward. When Hunter offers her the chance to kill Ward once and for all, she goes back into the field. But her relationship with her ex-husband, Dr. Garner, becomes a severe liability when Ward attacks Gardner to keep her in check. She is inherently distrusting of Inhumans and mistrusts Campbell, though she is occasionally forced to work with him. She has moral problems with Coulson using her for her killing abilities, but remains his loyal soldier and aids him in trying to save the world,

Fitz – Obsessed with finding Simmons, he takes some serious personal risks to acquire a scroll that might give him some clue as to what happened to her with the monolith in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s possession. Getting aid from the Asgardian on Earth, he risks his life to recover Jemma. When he learns the truth of what happened to Simmons, he becomes equally determined to help her rescue Will from that planet. When he and Simmons are captured, he willingly goes with Ward to save Simmons's life. His love for Simmons puts him in a horrible position on the alien world and as a result of Coulson's actions there, he becomes unsettled by his employer, though he keeps making new hands for Coulson. He continues to upgrade S.H.I.E.L.D.'s computer systems to try to keep the headquarters safe from Hive and he finally starts a genuine romantic relationship with Simmons,

Jemma Simmons – Teleported to an alien world where she was hunted for months, she is rescued by Fitz. They finally go on a date, which leads Simmons to confess to Fitz what happened to her on the alien world. She reveals that she is obsessed with getting back to the distant world because she met someone there who helped her to survive. As the only person to ever return from the alien world, she is hunted by Malick. When she is captured by HYDRA, she turns to an unlikely ally for help, knowing that casualties will result. Riddled by guilt after unleashing a killer, she works with May to find it again and takes her shot at Hive when given the chance. She is more optimistic than many in S.H.I.E.L.D. and pushes Fitz for a real relationship,

Agent Daisy Johnson (formerly Skye) – Leading the team that is hunting Inhumans, she tries to empathize and help new Inhumans, like Joey. She is frustrated by how May's ex-husband refuses to authorize any of the found Inhumans to work with S.H.I.E.L.D. She tries to protect Campbell and starts to develop a genuine love for the Inhuman doctor. She begins training Campbell the way May trained her. When a prophecy shows her her death, she tries to train May to help avoid the future she saw. She assembles a team of her own Inhumans and that puts her at odds with Mack, who continues to distrust the Inhumans,

Grant Ward – He restaffs HYDRA and funds the effort by recruiting Von Strucker's son to his new organization. He extorts May by threatening Dr. Garner's life and becomes obsessed with finding Von Strucker's vault to refinance HYDRA. When he learns HYDRA's true mission, he remains loyal and works with Malick to fulfill HYDRA's mission. When Coulson uncovers his brother, he reveals his lone weakness,

Agent Lance Hunter - Tasked by Coulson to find and kill Ward, he turns to May for help. Still very much in love with Bobbi, he attempts to propose to her, but is shot down. To get into HYDRA to get close to Ward, he goes through a fight club and is nearly killed. He is willing to sacrifice Dr. Garner to attempt to take his shot at Ward. He and Bobbi infiltrate the ATCU and end up in a fight he did not expect. When he goes "truffle hunting" in Russia while tracking Malick, he has to make a choice about saving the S.H.I.E.L.D. team,

Mack - Now partnered with Daisy, he illustrates his weapon's expertise early on in trying to identify an ATCU firearm. He acts somewhat like a marriage counselor to Morse and Hunter. He is given command of S.H.I.E.L.D. when Coulson goes off-book to hunt Ward, which makes him uncomfortable. He starts to warm up to Inhumans, thanks to the Inhuman Yo-Yo. After his best friend is disavowed, he takes a vacation, only to discover his brother is ideologically allied with the anti-Inhuman Watchdog group. He is nearly killed while trying to rescue a friend from Hive, but turns to Yo-Yo for help,

Dr. Lincoln Campbell - Outed in a battle with Lash when Daisy and Mack visit him at the hospital at which he works, he is forced to flee his mundane life. On the run and tracked by S.H.I.E.L.D. for quite a while, he flees both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the ATCU while avoiding Lash. He and Daisy start to develop their relationship. He is put in the field by Mack when Mack decides to attack HYDRA's compound. Coulson is unsettled by how unstable he appears, but the doctor proves himself in studying Hive and following Coulson's orders while trying to bring down Felix Blake's organization,

Bobbi Morse - Filling in as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s medical doctor in the absence of Simmons, she covers for Fitz while he is on his personal quest for information about the monolith. When Hunter is tasked with killing Ward, she and May go back into the field to discover who Ward is working with. She is tough, improvises amazingly well, and is professional, outside her love for Hunter. On a mission to save a Russian politician from a dangerous Inhuman, she and Hunter are trapped and has to be disavowed to save the United States and S.H.I.E.L.D.,

Gideon Malick - Ruthless and knowledgeable, Malick is publicly known as a billionaire industrialist who is running the Distant Star Program. He has all of the answers Ward needs as to the purpose of HYDRA and he auditions Ward for his number two. He is loyal to HYDRA and wants to fulfill their mission to bring the entity from the alien world back to Earth. He is obsessed with creating an army of Inhumans and he brings them to Hive, despite being wary of the alien. Treacherous and brutal, his love for his daughter tests his faith in HYDRA and Hive,

and Hive - An alien made up of parasites from the distant world Simmons was trapped on, bringing it to Earth is the purpose of HYDRA. Once it arrives on Earth, it hunts down Malick and starts to influence Inhumans. It lives in a human corpse, unable to inhabit Inhumans, though it causes Inhumans to feel a bliss and fall under its sway. It begins a plan to transform humans into Inhumans so it can reign over the Earth.

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. starts its third season well, as it is preoccupied with the consequences of where the second season left off. Near the middle of the season - after Hive first appears - the season slows a little, save for finally deepening the relationship between Fitz and Simmons. The addition of some new Inhumans is cool, but characters like James are hardly as well-developed as May or Daisy.

The third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. gets occasionally lazy. The new, lifelike, hand for Coulson is pretty transparently an attempt to keep from having to keep a glove on Clark Gregg for the remainder of the series. While his force field shield is pretty cool, the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. hardly explores the consequences of Coulson losing his hand. In a similar fashion, the explanation of how Hive gets Kree blood after Mack and May destroy the newly imported supply is scientifically ridiculous.

The standout performer in the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons, though Constance Zimmer's brief tenure in the show as Rosalind Price helps illustrate that she has decent range. Henstridge is given the opportunity to play truly badass in the third season and that plays off her delivery of technobabble and dewy-eyed looks of love exceptionally well. Henstridge and Iain De Caestecker have great on-screen chemistry and while De Caestecker's Fitz's mental repair is not satisfactorily addressed within the show, the return of their chemistry in the season is delightful.

Henry Simmons is also able to do more with his character of Mack, but after rewatching Simmons on NYPD Blue, the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. merely appears to use his ample talents, as opposed to stretching his abilities.

Ultimately, the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. does everything it needed to for the characters the audience has been invested in and makes for a very satisfying alternative to The Inhumans!

For a better understanding of the components of the third season, please visit my reviews of each of the episodes in the third season episodes of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. at:
“Laws Of Nature”
“Purpose In The Machine”
“A Wanted (Inhu)man”
"Devils You Know"
“4,722 Hours”
“Among Us Hide”
“Chaos Theory”
“Many Heads, One Tale”
“Closure”
“Maveth”
“Bouncing Back”
“The Inside Man”
“Parting Shot”
“Watchdogs”
“Spacetime”
“Pradise Lost”
"The Team"
“The Singularity”
“Failed Experiments”
“Emancipation”
“Absolution”
“Ascension”

7/10

For other television and movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Joss Whedon Reminds Viewers How Cool Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Can Be With "Ascension!"

The Good: Moments of character, Special effects!, Good performances
The Bad: Very basic plot, Ending scenes
The Basics: The third season finale of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a literal "Ascension" that pits the Agents against Hive to once again redirect the series.


Entering the third season finale of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., "Ascension," it is hard for fans to not feel a bit jaded. Since the mid-season premiere, viewers have been teased with the idea that there will be a death on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and fans are naturally wary of the promise. After all, for all of the wonderful aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are remarkably few deaths that have endured. Indeed, outside Odin and Quicksilver, no dead heroes come instantly to mind. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has actually done the best at keeping dead characters dead - despite Coulson being resurrected to make the series work. Triplett, Jai-Ying, Gonzales and John Garrett were killed and have remained dead. But, for main cast members of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., it is hard to believe "Ascension" would actually see one killed and keep them dead. So, when early in the episode, there is a death that mimics the death in the Joss Whedon written and directed The Avengers: Age Of Ultron, it is hard not to feel just a little cheated.

Coming immediately off "Absolution," "Ascension" (reviewed here!) delivers the promised and prophesied death . . . and it is a tough sell to believe that the death will hold. "Ascension" does make it pretty obvious why The Inhumans film was taken off the Disney/Marvel release slate. After all, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has used the third season to introduce (and kill off!) some of the most significant Inhumans with Lash and Hive. With "Absolution" showing a serious way that Hive could be thwarted, it makes it hard to make a film that could credibly use it as a villain. "Ascension" transitions between the action comic book genre into what seems like a "trapped in a haunted house" type story as the episode moves toward its climax and the promised casualty.

Opening with Daisy fighting Hive at the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, with twenty-eight S.H.I.E.L.D. agents compromised and transformed into Inhuman Primitives, Dr. Radcliffe struggles to figure out how to stop his own creations. Hive captures Daisy to prevent S.H.I.E.L.D. from shooting his ship out of the sky. With May and Fitz hiding out in the cargo hold of Hive's ship, most of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team struggles to save Yo-Yo's life after she is shot. Simmons figures out that the proto-Inhumans see based on infrared (heat) and she cranks up the heat to blind them. With Talbot coming to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s rescue, James begin to question Hive's plan to transform so many people into proto-Inhumans.

When Coulson docks the quinjet with the Zephyr, the Agents are united in their fight against Hive. And, of course, the vision Daisy saw comes to pass . . . but not as she thought it would.

"Ascension" has a pretty awesome fight reminiscent of The Matrix to open the episode. The fight between Hive and Daisy is stylish, violent and, in pure Joss Whedon fashion, includes some snappy dialogue and reversals. The fight is offset by scenes that have the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team splitting up and getting trapped in different parts of the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, being hunted by the proto-Inhumans. This makes a mood that is reminiscent of a horror film when "Ascension" is not acting like a James Bond film (or the villain's scenes from it!). As the episode focuses on Hive and his team, there is a very obvious sense of old-school villainy to the exposition.

Very early on in "Ascension," viewers are teased with the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. casualty. After all, the key elements in Daisy's vision were the quinjet's cockpit, Yo-Yo's cross and the black jacket with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo. Fitz is wearing that jacket with the cross in his pocket when he, May and Daisy end up on the Zephyr with Hive, James, Giyera and the proto-Inhumans. So, much of "Ascension" is a waiting game for fans to see if Fitz, Daisy or May get killed or if someone else is added to the mix. The calculus for fans of Joss Whedon's works (he wrote the episode!) is a surprisingly delightful blend of looking for aspects of Whedon's established formula and ways he might try to defy it.

"Ascension" has a genuine "fuckin' awesome!" moment and it comes long before the episode's end. Fitz is seldom the one to deliver the episode's coolest moment, but he gets it fairly early in "Ascension" and it is tough not to get pumped by the moment.

That is not to say all of Joss Whedon's reversal tricks work. When Coulson faces down with Hive, the resulting scene is fun, but entirely predictable. Sure, it's awesome to see Hive for several full face-shots, but Coulson's plan is painfully obvious. As "Ascension" reaches its peak, it transitions into something that makes it seem like it will not hold to the death that it is delivering to the viewers. After all, there are so many derivative elements in "Ascension" that are replaying what Whedon did in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. The Hulk stealing a quinjet and then being teased with crashing down somewhere on Earth was already done, so the idea that the occupant of the quinjet at the climax of "Ascension" is irrevocably dead seems like as much of a tease as giving near-mortal wounds to two other characters long before the end. The safe money, sadly, is on the main protagonist sticking while the secondary character in the scene finds a way to return for the rest of the series.

"Ascension" is a kick-ass build-up to an anti-climax that has a potential continuation in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. that hinges on what every other Marvel Cinematic Universe component has already done. The off-camera deaths set up returns (so far, only Red Skeleton has yet to resurface so!) and the final scene of "Ascension" seems designed to prevent viewers from ruminating on just how unimpressive the promised death actually was.

Ultimately, "Ascension" is saddled with an unfortunate burden that is far too common in network television shows. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a network television show and, as a result, it is subject to ratings and renewals. As a result, the executive producers squeezed in a massive arc focused on The Inhumans for the third season . . . instead of extending it out over multiple seasons. The burden of such a season finale is to resolve the action of the current season and lay a framework for the next season. In the latter aspect, "Ascension" utterly crashes. The foreshadowing for season four hinges on a massive character shift that makes remarkably little sense and may feature a known character going into villainous territory in a fairly uncompelling way. Until the final act and the pre-credit scene, "Ascension" succeeds at keeping the viewer engaged!

For other dramatic season finales, please visit my reviews of:
"Becoming, Part 2" - Buffy The Vampire Slayer
"Tears Of The Prophets" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"A Cold Day In Hell's Kitchen" - Daredevil

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the third season here!
Thanks!]

6.5/10

For other Marvel movie, television season and episode reviews, please check out my Marvel Cinematic Universe Review Index Page for a listing of those reviews!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Rebooted And Returned: "Laws Of Nature" Moves Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. In Its New Direction!

The Good: Decent performances, Good balance of reinvention and familiarity
The Bad: Plot-heavy, Neglects some of the cast
The Basics: "Laws Of Nature" does what it needs to to keep Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. going, but it reveals that the narrative has become pretty cluttered.


The Marvel Cinematic Universe is becoming increasingly fascinating. While the DC Television Universe is about to get into territory that might make any one of its components seem ridiculous (what conflict can Green Arrow truly run into where fan reaction can't reasonably be "Why didn't you call The Flash or Supergirl and ask them to help you out for, literally, five minutes to thwart your problem?!"), the Marvel Cinematic Universe is expanding in a way that seems to be trying to balance story and marketing. By the time the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. begins with "Laws Of Nature," the television series has very quietly taken over the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Agent Phil Coulson and his team have now logged more hours in the MCU than any other character or team - it is theirs and the blockbuster films that built the Marvel Cinematic Universe are now the storytelling filler around the longer spy narrative. Unfortunately, as the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (reviewed here!) wound up, it became apparent that the television series - despite its longstanding narrative importance in fleshing out the Marvel Cinematic Universe - is being used to generate a fanbase for the planned film The Inhumans. Sadly, as "Laws Of Nature" begins, it seems like the series is being used as some form of risk mitigation to investors in the film that is one of the more conceptually risky ones (after all, when The Inhumans hits theaters, the battle against Thanos will either be in mid-swing or over and it's hard to be the act that follows that kind of villain!).

Picking up after "S.O.S. Part 2" (reviewed here!), "Laws Of Nature" is impossible to discuss without revealing some spoilers from the second season finale. When last Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D. team was seen, the Bus was destroyed, Simmons had been absorbed by the Kree artifact Gonzales had recovered, Morse was near death, Coulson had lost an arm, May had gone on leave and the oceans had been contaminated by the terrigen crystals that reveal Inhumans and murder humans.

Opening with a burnt out apartment, the effects of the contaminated fish from the oceans is realized: some people are dead and one man who is fleeing a black ops group seems to be unwittingly melting anything he touches. The man, Joey, is rescued by Daisy, Lance Hunter, and Mack. Joey is taken to the new Bus where Daisy explains his new condition. Coulson is frustrated that Inhumans that his S.H.I.E.L.D. team attempts to rescue have been intercepted by that black ops group, while their leader (a woman Coulson finally manages to photograph during the extraction of Joey) is intent of capturing and dissecting Inhumans.

Jose Gutierrez (Joey) is brought to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters where he reacts poorly to the idea that his entire life has changed and that he is now being hunted. Morse is now running S.H.I.E.L.D.'s medical division with Fitz and while she has some ideas on how the terrigen contamination might affect the world, Coulson wants Fitz back to headquarters to assist in the current effort. Fitz is in Morocco, where he is hunting Yusef, who might know something about the monolith that Simmons has been encased in. Yusef has a scroll Fitz needs and he trades it for a briefcase Fitz brought with what appears to be splinter bombs. While Fitz escapes with the tool he needs to rescue Simmons, Coulson and Hunter walk into a trap laid by the woman running the Inhuman capturing program. Coulson and Rosalind discover that the black ops group may not be the ones killing Inhumans that Coulson's team has failed to rescue. Skye and Mack, in attempting to get Lincoln Campbell to return to S.H.I.E.L.D., discover who - or what - might be responsible for murdering Inhumans!

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is fraught with deaths that don't stick. "Laws Of Nature" reveals that while Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has actual casualties (Garrett was pretty firmly killed on a second take and it would be hard to bring Bakshi back), the destruction of The Bus is not one the writers are trying to write their way back from. The original Bus is gone and "Laws Of Nature" feels very much like a reboot of the series as there is a new Bus and a more developed headquarters for S.H.I.E.L.D. While "Laws Of Nature" momentarily looks like it recast Raina with the episode's villain, it manages to go in a different direction that works.

Transformed as well is Daisy. Skye having a relationship with her father makes Skye adopt her given name and that is a minimal change compared to her mastery over her own powers. Daisy is, essentially, like a Jedi Knight in "Laws Of Nature." Daisy is played with more confidence by Chloe Bennet. Bennet is bounced between an outfit that looks like it was left behind from the set of one of the X-Men movies and a tank top designed to show off her cleavage (very subtle, director Vincent Misiano).

One of the serious issues with "Laws Of Nature" is the casting. Juan Pablo Raba may have been cast as Joey based on headshots or auditions that gave him a distinct and more ethnic look, but for much of his debut episode, he looks a lot like Brett Dalton, especially as he did at the outset of the second season. Fortunately, "Laws Of Nature" uses Joey as a way to introduce the new concept and does not dwell on him as much as it does planting the important threads of the season and reintroducing the various characters who are still standing.

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is up to a pretty hefty cast with "Laws Of Nature." While both Ming-Na Wen and Brett Dalton remain in the cast, they are unseen in the third season premiere. That leaves eight main cast members and with Constance Zimmer appearing as Rosalind and Raba steal airtime from main cast like Nick Blood (no loss) and Henry Simmons (though Mack gets a good scene with Morse). Clark Gregg and Constance Zimmer have great on-screen chemistry in their big scene together. Zimmer has a pretty extensive resume and in "Laws Of Nature," she manages to make Rosalind a smart and powerful leader. Zimmer is excellent casting, utilized well, to create a foil character to Gregg's Coulson.

The performance of the episode, though, comes from Iain De Caestecker. While Fitz seems more mentally together than he did during the second season, De Caestecker has a lot of room to play with as a distraught man who lost the love of his life. Usually stuck delivering jargon, De Caestecker is given the chance to give Fitz a more developed human side and it works out well for the episode.

The special effects in "Laws Of Nature" are astonishingly good, though the episode does not actually pick up the pace or rely on those effects extensively until the final act.

"Laws Of Nature" is not an intensely character-driven episode and it is a bit out of balance as it works to establish the new main plot direction and find its footing. While there is a late Morse/Hunter scene, most of the episode is devoted to illustrating that S.H.I.E.L.D. is now focused on hunting and rescuing Inhumans.

While the fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe might be delighted by how "Laws Of Nature" fits into the larger mythos with the return of William Sadler as the President from Iron Man 3 (reviewed here!), those who are attentive and know what is coming next might be made wary. The next Captain America film is based on the idea that super heroes (and mutants and Inhumans) are forced by the government to register. "Laws Of Nature" seems to be laying the plot bedrock for that, where that will be an organic thing for the MCU, but it is hard not to feel like it is simply being used an an advertising technique to keep people invested until the next blockbuster.

"Laws Of Nature" is good, but more average than extraordinary television.

For other big season premieres, be sure to check out my reviews of:
"The Search, Part I" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"The Magician's Apprentice" - Doctor Who
"Who Are You, Really?" - True Blood

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the third season here!
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5.5/10

For other reviews of elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, please check out my Marvel Cinematic Universe Review Index Page for a listing of all those reviews!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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