The Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Escape The Framework: "Farewell, Cruel World!"

The Good: Good tension, Decent performances, Moments of character
The Bad: Very simple plot
The Basics: "Farewell, Cruel World!" gives the characters the motivation in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and allows for the plot to move toward a decent resolution for the Framework.


As Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. rushes towards its fourth season finale, it is hard not to get the impression that Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is looking to uphold the Marvel Cinematic Universe conceit that no one stays truly dead. When Madame Hydra's grand plan was revealed in "All The Madame's Men," Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. created a credible way to return Brett Dalton to the cast. If that happens, Dalton might well be the performer on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. who has had the most diverse roles to play - as goody two-shoes S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, a HYDRA sleeper agent, Hive and now the good guy who actually loves Daisy and wants to save his world. But, even if that is the direction the fourth season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is going in, the season still has a few episodes to get through before it gets there. "Farewell, Cruel World!" is the latest step in the rising action of the season.

Building on the widespread resistance begun in the climax of "All The Madame's Men" (reviewed here!), "Farewell, Cruel World!" continues the struggle for Simmons and Daisy to rescue Coulson, Mack, Fitz and May from The Framework before they are killed inside. "Farewell, Cruel World!" has Madame Hydra and Fitz against the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. inside the Framework, while the world outside the Framework is shown again.

Ten days after Daisy and Simmons enter the Framework aboard Zephyr One, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team aboard the plane is forced to turn off the cloaking field to conserve what little fuel is left. Inside the Framework, Madame Hydra's forces crack down on the citizenry. Fitz tries to seduce Radcliffe into helping him with the promise of an organic body in the real world that can accept his consciousness. Coulson and Simmons work on softening May up to the reality of the real world. Simmons is alarmed to learn from May that Alistair Fitz is in the Framework, manipulating Fitz. Simmons hunts down Alistair and takes him hostage to try to get to Fitz.

When Simmons accidentally kills Alistair, Fitz becomes especially bloodthirsty, putting a price on Simmons's head. Mack, May, Simmons, Daisy, and Coulson head to the backdoor out of the Framework that Radcliffe built, but they discover that the park he had the backdoor in is now a steel mill and the escape point is a molten metal pit! The S.H.I.E.L.D. team is disheartened and that allows Madame Hydra to activate Project Looking Glass. When Daisy finds a way back to the real world, the people within the Framework have a chance to escape. But Fitz's murderous rage and Mack learning the truth about the real world cause complications that even Ophelia could not foresee!

"Farewell, Cruel World!" does an excellent job of refocusing the plot on the characters. The principle characters motivate all of the major movements in the episode, instead of spending a lot of time belaboring explaining the plot through the characters. Simmons, Fitz and Radcliffe move major elements of the story through their actions. Coulson and May start to move in the direction of accepting being the public face of the Resistance and motivating him to accept that direction, but the plot moves them to simply approach the back door.

At the key moment, though, it is Daisy's creativity that changes everything for the team and that is refreshing to see. Similarly, May and Coulson's relationship is finally revealed to be as deep as all fans might hope.

"Farewell, Cruel World!" has a simple escape plot, much like a prison break. But the episode manages not to feel simple because the characters in it act and react with a sense of realism that is compelling and well-performed.

For other works with Briana Venskus, please visit my reviews of:
"Self Control" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The Walking Dead - Season 7
"The Martian Chronicles" - Supergirl
"Meet The New Boss" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"The Ghost" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Failed Experiments" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Grace And Frankie - Season 2

[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 Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the fourth season here!
Thanks!]

8.5/10

For other television episode or season reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for a comprehensive listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Ghost Story For Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.: "Meet The New Boss" Fizzles!

The Good: Special effects, Final act
The Bad: Outside the final act, there is nothing remarkable for performances, no character development, Mediocre plot
The Basics: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. stumbles completely through "Meet The New Boss," which continues to poorly redefine the show.


When it comes to season premieres, the essential goal of any television series is to get the viewer to tune in to the next week and the subsequent weeks of the show. With serialized television, the goal is also to establish a framework for the new season that is compelling and complex enough to inspire viewers to stick with the whole new season's arc. In Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., season premieres have had a tendency to herald the directions for the blockbuster films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That is certainly true of the fourth season premiere of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., "The Ghost," which is setting viewers of the Marvel Cinematic Universes's up for Doctor Strange in November. Unfortunately, "The Ghost" was such a scattered work that so heavily redefined Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., it is hard for loyal viewers of the series to watch the fourth season premiere and feel like the executive producers just gave up on where the show was and completely redefined the entire series. The subsequent episode, "Meet The New Boss," continues in the direction "The Ghost" began.

"Meet The New Boss" follows on the events of "The Ghost" (reviewed here!) and it is tough to discuss the new episode without some revelations as to what happened in the prior episode. After all, "The Ghost" introduced Ghost Rider to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Agent May was, apparently, possessed by a ghost at the climax of the episode. This placed the burden on "Meet The New Boss" to not only explore the new S.H.I.E.L.D., but start defining some of the supernatural elements that "The Ghost" introduced. "Meet The New Boss" is essentially a S.H.I.E.L.D. take on a ghost story and it is one of the more graphic episodes the series has yet produced.

Opening with a young boy whose home appears to be possessed by a ghost, the boy's father comes out, sees the spectral woman and is affected by it. At the S.H.I.E.L.D. lab, Fitz designs a box that will see something beyond the visual spectrum and he discovers that S.H.I.E.L.D. has recovered some vastly advanced technology. Daisy begins to investigate Robbie Reyes, the Ghost Rider, and confronts him at his work. While Daisy interrogates Reyes, Coulson and May meet with Director Mace, who is prepared to publicly rebrand S.H.I.E.L.D. May continues to see horrifying, mutated versions of people she sees.

The disembodied Lucy rescues the similarly disapperated Hugo from a box, much like the Chinese mob had in the prior episode. Reyes claims that he gained his ability to rip out people's souls and take on the form of the Ghost Rider by selling his soul to the devil, which Daisy does not readily believe. The two fight in the garage at which Reyes works, while May freaks out about what she is seeing. While Lucy and her comrades begin the hunt for a book which should contain the information needed to undo what was done to them, May becomes unhinged. While Mace gives members of Congress a tour of the facility, Mack and Fitz investigate one of the facilities that might have created the "ghosts."

"Meet The New Boss" continues the arc that finds Coulson reacting to no longer being the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and May lamenting the idea that he did not fight for the leadership of S.H.I.E.L.D. In "The Ghost," the leap to all of the character shifts was jarring, in "Meet The New Boss" seems no more refined. Coulson and Mace have a verbal sparring match that is unimpressive and subtle, but continues to make the viewer disbelieve that Coulson would ever let S.H.I.E.L.D. be taken over and taken away the way it has. Moreover, "Meet The New Boss" undermines the character of Coulson by exploring a S.H.I.E.L.D. that is vastly less powerful than Nick Fury's S.H.I.E.L.D. . . . or even Gonzales's splinter cell!

Continuing to illustrate and develop Daisy as a rogue, Chloe Bennet reverts to playing Daisy much like she did at the outset of the series. Daisy is resourceful, educated and tries to extort information from others by using information she has already gathered. Now, of course, Daisy has her super powers and she uses them as part of her arsenal of interrogation techniques. While Daisy is able to almost fly and seems surprisingly resistant to both fire and falling off a moving, speeding car, most of her time in "Meet The New Boss" is spent talking and insinuating that she has an authority she no longer (not being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent) possesses.

Mack suddenly believing in ghosts is perhaps the most jarring character shift in "Meet The New Boss." Given that in the prior season, it was Yo-Yo who talked to him about faith and he wasn't much buying what she was selling, his abrupt belief that the disapparated person who is visible on the S.H.I.E.L.D. video is an actual ghost does not seem at all organic.

The ghost characters in "Meet The New Boss" suffer almost as much as the new Director. The new Director seems like a parody of a S.H.I.E.L.D. director and Jason O'Mara lacks the onscreen gravitas in the role as Director Mace that both Samuel L. Jackson and Edward James Olmos possessed. Even Clark Gregg has had moments when he has portrayed Coulson with a depth that is not at all even hinted at in O'Mara's performance. The "ghost" characters are hunting a book and were trapped in futuristic boxes, but their condition is revealed in an unsatisfying way to the viewers; they are non-corporeal in the boxes, but then are suddenly solid enough to manipulate matter. The mechanism for the change of form is not made clear and why some remain non-corporeal long enough to pass through people while others are able to become solid in (essentially) a vacuum is unsatisfying.

The science in "Meet The New Boss" is wonky both in general and from a storytelling perspective. Fitz is absent from the drama going down at the S.H.I.E.L.D. base, yet he advises Mack not to get touched by the "ghost" they encounter because Mack will go crazy if touched. Fitz has no metric by which to make that statement as he and Mack were in the air when May and Simmons encountered the prisoner who reacted violently to May's visit. Similarly, Director Mace using a quinjet as a distraction for Congresspeople is utterly ridiculous; in order to have security clearance to be part of an intelligence subcommittee to tour a black site, at least one of them would have probably travelled on Air Force One before and a quinjet would be a dramatic step down from that.

Ultimately, "Meet The New Boss" adds a few new details to the new pseudo-supernatural elements of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. while satisfyingly progressing May suffering the effects of being in contact with one of the "ghosts." Ghost Rider looks cool in the episode and the last-act twist with Mace is interesting-enough, but the pay-offs for the episode are nowhere near enough to justify the time spent getting to them.

For other works with Henry Simmons, please check out my reviews of:
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 3
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 2
World's Greatest Dad
Something New
NYPD Blue - Season 7

[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 Fourth Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the fourth season here!
Thanks!]

2/10

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!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Average Agents: "Emancipation" Sets Up The Finale.

The Good: Decent performances, Good plot, Special effects
The Bad: Plot heavy, Light on character development
The Basics: "Emancipation" prepares Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. for the two-part season finale by integrating the show with the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe.


When it comes to Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., it is always exciting to see how the show will try to mesh with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Following Captain America: Civil War (reviewed here!), Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. had to integrate with the rest of the MCU. Before "Emancipation," Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. worked to get there, by once again "utterly destroying" HYDRA. After all, for Captain America: Civil War's ultimate adversary to work, HYDRA had to actually be destroyed (lest HYDRA's surviving members actually retaining control over the plot macguffin ledger). Lacking HYDRA, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. now is fighting Hive in Ward's corpse as he works to change the world for Inhumans.

"Emancipation" continues after the climax of "Failed Experiments" (reviewed here!) and is also after the events of Captain America: Civil War. As a result, there are aspects to "Emancipation" that assume viewers have seen the prior episode and the new film. After all, the Sokovia Accords have been signed in "Emancipation" and the "feud" between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark are referenced in the teaser, as is the death of Agent Carter.

Opening with General Talbot visiting Coulson and insisting that Coulson bring S.H.I.E.L.D. into the Sokovia Accords and disclose his Inhuman assets, Coulson brings Talbot into his base. In Hive's base, as Daisy is exsanguinated for Hive's experiments, she hacks S.H.I.E.L.D.'s security system. With Mack out of commission thanks to Daisy, Fitz has to continually reprogram the system while May assigns Fitz and Simmons to figure out what Hive wants. Talbot is introduced to Elena Rodriguez, right before Campbell is able to get in touch with Daisy through her surveillance.

While the Watchdogs make a plan to abduct an Inhuman, Daisy makes a plan to reunite with Campbell. The Watchdogs, though, are part of Hive's plan to get "volunteers" for Dr. Radcliffe's experiments and the parasite uses James to capture several of the hate group members. Fitz and Simmons realize what Hive's goal is: to create an army of Inhumans already under Hive's sway from mundane humans. Talbot argues that Hive should be taken out by the military while Daisy breaks Campbell out of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters. After Radcliffe's experiment on the Watchdogs creates a horrific slave race of lesser Inhumans, Hive asks him to create more and he asks Daisy to make the ultimate sacrifice for his science. But Coulson's plan to stop Hive may change everything!

The science of "Emancipation" is utterly ridiculous. Dr. Radcliffe is using Daisy's blood in order to get Kree blood out of her. After two years, there is no reason Daisy would have any Kree blood in her; she would have metabolized it a long, long, time ago. Just because Kree blood was used to resurrect Coulson and heal Daisy does not mean the blood would remain in either of their systems years later.

Beyond that, "Emancipation" is insular in a way that will please fans of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. The return of the Watchdogs, Yo-Yo, Lash and the references to the past relationships and interactions various characters had are only fully understood by those who have been keeping up with the series. The season's hype has been building toward a death that Daisy foresaw in a prior episode and belaboring relationships like Mack and Elena (and Mack and Daisy) and Daisy and Lincoln Campbell seems to be building toward that death. Fans of Joss Whedon's works (and Whedon remains an executive producer on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.) would say the smart money for the death would be Fitz or Simmons (though the cross seen in the flashes forward diminishes the probability of either of them and increases the likelihood that the death will be a minor character, like Elena Rodriguez).

"Emancipation" is light on character, as it builds the plot threads needed to organically bring the season to the finale (the two-part finale is next week). Rather pleasantly, characters generally work within their established parameters in "Emancipation." Fitz is geekishly focused on the base, so he overlooks the quinjet. Mack is of more use to Fitz on the tech end than Simmons is and Mack also remains seriously wounded (he does not have superhuman healing!). Campbell's obsession with leaving the base is momentarily engaging, but from a character perspective, it makes much more sense that he would just want to flee everyone and everything as opposed to rejoining Daisy.

"Emancipation" entirely hinges on a last-act reversal to justify itself and it mortgages a lot of its assets. The Watchdog mutants are creepy and that Hive's plan involves creating more is an interesting set-up, but at some point, viewers have to get a pay-off and "Emancipation" only starts the pay-off in the last ten minutes of the episode. Unfortunately, while the last act is good, it sets up a season finale that is - from a plot perspective - virtually identical to the second season finale, down to agents being wounded and in a diminished capacity for the final battle. Jai-Ying and Hive have, essentially, the same goals and Daisy being exhausted from exsanguination is instantly reminiscent of Bobbi Morse being tortured by Ward to sit out most of the second season finale.

The performances in "Emancipation" are fine, but no one gets an exceptional part to play.

The special effects in "Emancipation" are good, though most of the effects are make-up related, save the visual effects surrounding James and his pyrotechnics. The final act uses a decent chunk of the budget, but it looks amazing, so it is money well-spent.

The result is that "Emancipation" is just a very average episode of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D..

[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!]

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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Aliens And HYDRA And Inhumans (Oh My!): "Maveth" Progesses, Not Resolves.

The Good: Good pacing, Decent plot development, Most of the performances are good
The Bad: Plot heavy over developing the characters, Few big moments for the actors to play.
The Basics: Another Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. ensemble piece, "Maveth" brings the Ward and space boyfriend plots to a head as HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. duke it out in a castle and on a distant planet!


This is a big week for Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. As the television season hits its third season's mid-season finale with "Maveth" and prepares to go on hiatus for a few months, the trading card manufactures are releasing their Season Two Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. trading cards (reviewed here!) to capitalize on the enthusiasm with the series. "Maveth" sends off Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. with a lot of energy and intensity; so much so that the second season of Agent Carter which will occupy Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s timeslot can only seem like a letdown to the audience.

"Maveth" follows up on the events of "Closure" (reviewed here!), which hit a climax with Fitz sacrificing himself to go with the HYDRA team to the distant planet upon which Simmons was stranded in "4,722 Hours" (reviewed here!) . . . and Coulson leapt through the portal HYDRA opened. That left half of the original cast of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. in a harrowing position where they might become stranded across the universe.

Opening on the distant world, Fitz begins his search for Will, while Grant Ward tries to lead the HYDRA team to find the creature Simmons saw and HYDRA covets. Fitz challenges Ward, before the HYDRA team finds what appears to be a HYDRA temple. While Gideon Malick brings Inhumans to the castle in Scotland in order to give an army to the creature when it comes through, Mack creates a strategy to rescue Simmons (or Fitz) and secure the portal. On the planet, Fitz finds Will's bunker, while Agent Coulson awakens after having a hallucination of ATCU Director Price. Will was attacked by the creature and Ward wants to use the NASA astronaut to find the creature. When the S.H.I.E.L.D. team knocks out the power for the castle, Simmons is able to escape the HYDRA leaders and find Andrew Garner's prison capsule.

Fitz and Will team up to take out members of the HYDRA team, while Coulson makes his move on Ward. Back at the castle, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team reunites and tries to figure out what to do about the portal and the creature on the alien planet. May returns, having discovered that Lash has killed all of the Inhumans Malick brought with him. With fifteen minutes before the portal opens again, Lincoln pitches destroying the portal, regardless of the rest the team's status, while Mack orders the agents back to Zephyr One as a failsafe. With HYDRA advancing and the portal closing, Coulson must choose between safety and vengeance.

The strategy scene in "Maveth" serves to remind casual television viewers just how loaded television is with good looking people. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has a good-looking cast, but when one puts most of them - main cast and guest stars - in a room together and have them just talking at one another, it's hard not to feel like the scenes are not mirrored by any sense of reality. Any collection of brilliant super spies or, say, the White House Situation Room is not going to be populated by people with such flawless skin, hair, and outfits as we see in "Maveth." For a moment, this draws the attentive viewer out of the narrative even more than the alien world! This is starkly contrasted by the faces of Constance Zimmer and Clark Gregg, who are both good looking, but are older and whose faces have realistic amounts of character for their characters' positions in the world.

"Maveth" suffers from the characters failing to ask a key question. Back when "4,722 Hours" aired, armed only with the information presented in the episode, I suggested that there was something off about Will. In fact, back then, I suspected that if Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. followed its usual pattern, it would turn out that Will was a member of HYDRA. Since then, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have learned that the NASA mission Will was on was organized by HYDRA and even that the symbol for the mission was related to HYDRA. So, why none of the characters - especially the usually super-smart Fitz - ask the question of "How do we know Will was not a member of HYDRA when he enlisted in the mission to the planet?" seems like pure idiocy. Fortunately, when Will raises red flags with Fitz, he is smart enough to recognize it.

Like most of the episode of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. so far in the third season, "Maveth" is plot-focused and has to service a pretty large number of characters. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is not like a Marvel Cinematic Universe film like Iron Man or Thor; it's like one of the ensemble movies like Guardians Of The Galaxy and The Avengers. "Maveth" reminds viewers of that by having less character development and more plot progression. A good example of this is in how Mack's tenure as temporary director of S.H.I.E.L.D. does not afford the character much in the way of breathing room, story development or even significant character moments.

"Maveth" is very entertaining, which makes it easy to overlook some of the episode's small problems. I swear Simmons tells May that "Will" took Fitz through the portal when they meet up outside the castle in England. As well, there is something painfully predictable about Coulson making Ward bleed the moment Ward tells the Director that the creature smells blood and Fitz is bleeding. It is somewhat disappointing, from a character perspective, that Coulson does not take Ward out at that moment. Coulson is still pretty raw from Ward murdering Price and he's not all that passionate in "Maveth" when faced with the man who killed only the second woman we've seen Coulson in a relationship with. Similarly, why May doesn't bomb part of the castle to keep out HYDRA in advance makes less sense than it ought to.

Henry Simmons gives the standout performance of "Maveth" when Mack steps up to the role of leader of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team. While his talents are somewhat wasted in the early big exposition scene, when Mack formulates a plan to save Earth from the creature, Simmons gives a commanding performance that makes Mack entirely credible. Simmons is a great actor and Mack is a cool choice for a leader; it's nice to see both step out of the supporting role, however briefly.

Director Vincent Misiano unfortunately succumbs to the typical Marvel movie conceits with his direction at the climax of "Maveth." He holds on a significant look between two characters at the episode's end (well, final act five moment, before the pre-post-credits scene) that suggests an irksome direction for Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. when it returns from its hiatus. That look might seem to be undone by the episode's final scene, but the conflict that is implied by the look (at the very least) is melodramatic from a group of superspies and does not bode well for the future of the show.

The purpose of a midseason finale - which is still a pretty new phenomenon - is to wrap up some of the building plotlines and leave viewers excited about the show while the series takes a break for a few months. That almost always means a cliffhanger or significant event of some sort that has a strong sense of dramatic tension going into the episode's final moments. "Maveth" certainly has that, even if there is one really forced kiss at the climax and it's hard to believe that any characters are going to stay truly dead, even in this corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

For midseason finales, please visit my reviews of:
"What They Become" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"The Man In The Yellow Suit" - The Flash
"The Bridge" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[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!]

7/10

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!

© 2015 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!
Thanks!]

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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With "S.O.S. Part 1," Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Prepares For A Big Finale!

The Good: Moments of performance, Serves the large cast of characters fairly well, A couple of the villains are well executed
The Bad: Poor villain motivations, More plot-focused than character-centered
The Basics: "S.O.S. Part 1" propels Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. into another big season finale in a watchable way.


While fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe react to The Avengers: Age Of Ultron (reviewed here!), Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. works to keep viewers engaged through a big second season finale event. "S.O.S. Part 1" continues the set up for The Inhumans which is Marvel's next big superhero team franchise. Unlike The Avengers, The Inhumans is being test-marketed on the small screen before the big screen debut and this finally gives Skye a part that is significant on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D..

It is impossible to discuss "S.O.S. Part 1" without some allusions to how "Scars" (reviewed here!) ended. After all, "Scars" concluded with Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. stealing a page from the second season of Lost (reviewed here!) where Jiaying shot herself to advance her agenda. "S.O.S" Part 1 is very much a set-up episode and it is no surprise that Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. cleared the night to air Parts 1 and 2 back to back.

Jiaying claims Gonzales shot her and Coulson orders the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to retreat. Gordon teleports with another Inhuman into a quinjet to attack Afterlife and implicate S.H.I.E.L.D. Trying to ascertain the truth, May and Skye end up fighting when May tries to locate Gonzales. Skye uses her powers to incapacitate May. As May and Simmons retreat with Calvin as their willing prisoner, Coulson orders Agent Weaver to retreat with the helicarrier until he determines who is actually at fault in the assault on Afterlife. Hunter and Fitz try to track down Agent Morse, while Skye uses Raina to try to divine the future about what S.H.I.E.L.D. will do next. Raina tries to poison Skye against her mother, while she maneuvers to take control of Afterlife.

Morse wakes up in Kara's custody, where Ward tries to get her to confess to turning Agent 33 over to H.Y.D.R.A. on purpose. While Jaiying manipulates Skye, Simmons and May determine that Jiaying manipulated the evidence to make it appear S.H.I.E.L.D. attacked Afterlife and destroy any evidence of how Gonzales died. Ward tortures Morse, while Simmons determines that Calvin Zabo is trying to become a super soldier and she is baffled how he is still alive. But as Skye makes a decision about which side she is on, she is exposed to Jiaying's true nature . . . and it horrifies her.

Agent Phil Coulson continues his heroic ascent on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. throughout "S.O.S. Part 1." Coulson's leadership has been questioned and undermined for the entire second season, but as the other high-level Assistant Directors of S.H.I.E.L.D. are cleared out, he becomes the more obvious and powerful leader of the splintered intelligence organization. In "S.O.S. Part 1," he does a good job of both asserting leadership and relying upon his team, like May. As a delightful benefit, Coulson is given some awesome banter in "S.O.S. Part 1."

Jiaying is established in "S.O.S. Part 1" as a legitimate adversary. She is calculating and is trying to manipulate Skye into joining the Inhumans in a war with S.H.I.E.L.D. Part of the problem with "S.O.S. Part 1" is the way it fits into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. First, Jiaying is hardly a compelling adversary. She seems to have the interest of her people in mind, but has been willing to avoid most of the world. In "S.O.S. Part 1" she is exposed as a live energy vampire and despite Skye claiming S.H.I.E.L.D. can find the Inhumans anywhere on Earth, that does not appear to actually be true (based on the entire rest of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.). So, why Jiaying simply does not relocate the Inhumans is almost as baffling as why Coulson does not call in some of the big guns (i.e. Avengers) to stop the comparatively mediocre adversary.

"S.O.S. Part 1" utilizes a number of the secondary performers and their characters better than most of the rest of the time they have been on in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Christine Adams is finally utilized as Agent Weaver in a way that makes her seem like a truly worthwhile and legitimate leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. In the absence of Gonzales, Weaver steps up to lead the Helicarrier and Adams plays it with an authority and posture that makes her entirely credible.

At the other end of the spectrum, Maya Stojan is entirely creepy as Kara (the former Agent 33). Stojan has a powerful monologue that makes Kara suddenly interesting. Ruth Negga is once more given a decent range to play as Raina (who has been stuck more as a factor of make-up than performance ability since her transformation). Negga makes Raina interesting again and in a franchise where virtually no characters die and stay dead, she is given a very cool (potential) final scene. Even Adrianne Palicki makes the torture scenes for Bobbi Morse intense to watch, even though visually they do not have a lot going on (other than Morse having needles stuck under her fingernails) for most of the time she is on screen.

"S.O.S. Part 1" is a set-up episode. Zabo is interrogated by Coulson and his nature is more or less revealed in the episode. The continual allusions to the alien artifact that Gonzales had in "Scars" and how the tracking device on the telepath has been lost make for a somewhat inevitable climax. The journey in "S.O.S. Part 1" is engaging enough, even if it devotes a lot of time to Skye,though her arc is somewhat obvious.

For other big penultimate episodes, be sure to visit my reviews of:
"The Ones We Leave Behind" - Daredevil
"Graduation Day, Part 1" - Buffy The Vampire Slayer
"The Dogs Of War" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

[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 Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season here!
Thanks!]

7/10

For other reviews of television shows, seasons and episodes, please check out my Television Review Index Page for a listing of reviews!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Penultimate Agent Carter Is Not A “SNAFU” Of The Series!

The Good: Decent direction, Good performances, Plot moves forward
The Bad: Faux-character development, Predictability
The Basics: “SNAFU” brings Agent Carter close to its climax and leaves the SSR perilously close to destruction from Leviathan!


I came to Agent Carter, the series, initially excited. Despite having serious critiques of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (mostly how repetitive and unsurprising it is), I have generally enjoyed it on a gut level. But it doesn’t say anything good about Agent Carter that as “SNAFU” began, all I could say is “man, I hope this episode doesn’t suck.” By this point, Agent Carter has become a droll, period piece that is a cheap retread of Alias where the family tension is replaced with blanket sexism. “SNAFU” had some potential, though, as the prior episode put Agent Carter in the worst position of her career.

Picking up where “A Sin To Err” (reviewed here!) left off, with Carter in the hands of the SSR and Dr. Ivchenko manipulating the SSR agents (and keeping Dottie in the loop), “SNAFU” makes a number of references to the prior episode and for those who have not seen it, it is impossible to discuss “SNAFU” without some references. Dottie’s role in “SNAFU” makes little sense until characters get around to it. Dottie is a spy for Leviathan and Ivchenko has been working with her; Dottie appears in “SNAFU” without being named, so unless one has seen the prior two episodes, there is no significance to who Ivchenko is communicating with in early scenes.

Opening in 1943 Russia, Russian doctors utilize Dr. ‘s technique at mind control to redirect soldiers’ pain as doctors amputate limbs. Three years later, Peggy Carter is interrogated by Sousa, who accuses Carter directly of killing agents and protecting Howard Stark. Carter is interrogated by Sousa, Thompson and Dooley, who want to know what is in the ball Carter recovered. Dooley asks about the battle of Finnaw and she denies any knowledge of it. Before Thompson can violently question Carter, Jarvis arrives with a signed confession from Howard Stark. When Jarvis reveals to Carter that he lied about the confession and the pair witnesses Ivchenko making hand signals to an agent across the street, Carter decides to come clean.

Implicating Ivchenko and revealing she has Steve Rogers’s blood, Carter regains the faith of her former co-workers . . . at least enough for them to investigate across the street. Dooley remains behind with Ivchenko who re-hypnotizes him. As Sousa encounters Dottie, Dooley unwittingly aids Ivchenko in giving the Leviathan doctor Howard Stark’s recovered technology! While Leviathan’s agents escape, Carter and the SSR team discover that Dooley has been turned into a human bomb!

What is immediately notable about “SNAFU” is its predictability. Dottie goes shopping for a bassinet and anyone who has seen The Untouchables (reviewed here!) can guess that she’s going to use it as a bomb delivery method . . . because no one checks out bassinets and they overlook women. Similarly, the moment Dooley is left behind with Ivchenko, it’s pretty obvious that the doctor is going to brainwash him. Because this is a cliffhanger leading up to the season (potentially series) finale, there is much left unresolved in “SNAFU,” but things get to their lowest point for Agent Carter.

Fortunately, most of “SNAFU” is not terrible. Despite the ridiculous anachronism of Dottie doing parkour and the lack of an elevator attendant at the SSR Building (elevator operators were definitely in use in big buildings in the 1940s), the episode moves along fairly well. Writer Chris Dingess makes a pass at delving into the characters; Sousa’s willingness to believe Carter is discounted because of his crush on her and Ivchenko is able to manipulate Dooley because he has a family. Dooley’s family life makes him seem more realistic, but fleshing out a supporting character when Agent Carter herself has not been clearly or interestingly defined is a bit of a harder sell than a show driven by a powerful or interesting character.

The only real advantage Agent Carter seems to be offering fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at this point is a real sense of consequence. Characters who die in Agent Carter are not endowed with super powers, so the dead will stay dead. “SNAFU” has a casualty and while it is not surprising, director Vincent Misiano makes the moment feel significant and big.

The performances in “SNAFU” are generally good. Hayley Atwell and James D’Arcy are given schtick to perform and they have a sense of comic timing that they play wonderfully. The extras in the final scene are convincing in a horrific sequence that sets up the next episode well. Shea Whigham rules “SNAFU” as Dooley. Dooley has been the source of a lot of plot exposition, especially as he has gone off on his own investigating the Battle Of Finnaw. In “SNAFU,” Whigham has the chance to actually make his character feel real and deeper than the simple “boss character.”

Between Whigham’s performance, the banter between Carter and Jarvis and the direction that moves the episode forward, “SNAFU” might not be exceptional television, but it certainly does not suck.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Agent Carter - The Complete First Season, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season of Agent Carter here!
Thanks!]

5/10

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

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Redefining The Marvel Cinematic Universe: "Shadows" Returns Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Smartly!

The Good: Decent performances, Cool special effects, Interesting villains and good continuity, One or two moments of character
The Bad: Very formulaic plot
The Basics: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s second season premiere might open as a launching point for the spin-off, but it becomes a compelling piece in its own right by enhancing the villainy of H.Y.D.R.A.


For those who love the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is it for the rest of the year. While the franchise might have hit it big with Guardians Of The Galaxy (reviewed here!) this summer, until The Avengers: Age Of Ultron hits theaters next summer, Marvel-philes will have to get their fix from the television. With the second season premiere of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., the executives behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe seem intent on promoting the next series, Agent Carter in addition to making the Marvel Cinematic Universe much more fantastic.

Picking up months after “The Beginning Of The End” (reviewed here!), “Shadows” puts into play more supernatural elements than most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been comfortable with in the past. For all of their plot issues – the Marvel Cinematic Universe films are remarkably similar and formulaic in their plots – the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have largely attempted to keep the world grounded and realistic, with pretty much one new fantastic element per film. The result is that most of the movies Marvel has produced in the last few years, including most of the first season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (reviewed here!), have been more of a realist action adventure/science fiction series than it has been a series of comic book-like movies. And for a series that I was actually less wowed by, the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. opens well with “Shadows,” even if it skews away from the realism that the franchise has (mostly) clung to, especially in the wake of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (reviewed here!).

Opening in Austria in 1945, following the loss of Captain America and the death of Red Skull, Agents Peggy Carter, Jim Morita and Dum Dum Dugan recover one of H.Y.D.R.A.’s powerful artifacts. Back in the present day, Melinda May and Skye are keeping watch on an arm’s deal. Suddenly, the deal – wherein an ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is trying to sell the artifact Carter recovered – goes south when a man breaks in. Shot several times and exhibiting an impervious quality, the interloper – Carl Creel – escapes and May and Skye return with the mercenaries to their home base. May meets with Coulson, who has been out recruiting in Europe in an effort to rebuild assets for his fledgling version of S.H.I.E.L.D. While Coulson waits for Simmons and Fitz to develop cloaking technology , Fitz struggles with brain damage from nearly drowning.

Identifying Creel when a metal discovered in Austria turns into flesh and blood, Skye is given permission to interrogate Ward in the basement of the S.H.I.E.L.D. location. When Ward’s intel about the hidden communications network H.Y.D.R.A. is using proves true, Creel makes a move on Brigadier General Glenn Talbot’s family. Rescued by Skye and May, Talbot is captured by Coulson, who reveals that Talbot has captured a man who can absorb any material he comes in contact with. Trying to negotiate with Talbot proves futile, so Coulson sends Triplett, May, Skye and mercenaries led by Isabelle Hartly to infiltrate the facility where Talbot is keeping everything he has captured from raids on S.H.I.E.L.D. facility raids. But Creel is on the loose and when Hartly finds the original 084, the consequences are more dramatic than anyone could have predicted!

First off, the second season premiere of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. actually delivers some of the surprises that the first season promised, but did not actualize. For the first time in memory while watching Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., I had a true, “Oh, Wow!” moment. “Shadows” delivers one truly incredible reversal in its final moments and it follows it up with a pretty decent cool moment with Creel. The coolness of Creel – who seems more like a mutant than any prior Marvel Cinematic Universe villain – is not flawlessly executed (absorbing concrete to blend with the concrete looks cool, but it is ridiculous; the angle at which he was approached when he is concrete colored would make him look like a statue, not a piece of the wall), but he is still pretty wild to watch in action. Fortunately, the real “wow!” moment is used to enhance one of the principle characters from Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D..

“Shadows” is hampered with the burden of coming back from a pretty plot-heavy finale that was part of redefining the title organization of the series. Agent Coulson is now the leader of what little remains of S.H.I.E.L.D. and his team is kept at a distance more than before. There is a clever build-up in “Shadows” as more and more characters are exposed to the now-reclusive Coulson. The result is that “Shadows” has to introduce a number of new characters – Billy Koenig (who was seen very briefly in the prior season’s finale), Hartly, Mac, Creel, Hunter, Idaho, Bakshi and Whitehall – and is not a strong character piece at all. “Shadows” does an adequate job of creating the feeling that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been struggling to gain any sense of legitimacy in protecting the world from the fantastic while it is hunted by the U.S. military. The power of H.Y.D.R.A. is well-illustrated in “Shadows:” the death of Garrett and capture of Ward did little more than slow down the nefarious organization.

What “Shadows” has in the way of character comes mostly from Fitz and (in the episode’s final moments) Simmons. Fitz is suffering brain damage from the asphyxiation he suffered in the prior season’s finale and the fact that such heroic acts have consequences is a refreshing one in a cinematic universe where the most ordinary agent was resurrected after one of the few big on-screen deaths of the franchise. Fitz is tasked with building the cloaking device needed to get the S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft mobile once again without drawing Talbot’s attention and in an uncommon twist for a world that contains the likes of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, the young genius is not up to the task.

“Shadows” gives Iain De Caestecker the chance to give a knockout performance and he is up to the task as the snapping and frustrated Fitz. De Caestecker might have few scenes, but he has greater presence in “Shadows” than Clark Gregg’s Coulson, Ming-Na Wen’s ass-kicking May, or even the cool and mysterious Billy Koenig, played by Patton Oswalt. Hayley Atwell opens the season well as Carter and teases viewers with what we might expect from Agent Carter and she sets the stage for Lucy Lawless’s role of Hartly. Brett Dalton’s brief appearance as Ward completely redefines the character again and Dalton is virtually unrecognizable, which enhances the character’s lost nature. Chloe Bennet seems bulked up as Skye, but she is not given a significant-enough role in “Shadows” to truly critique her performance; she is fine as Skye here.

Ultimately, “Shadows” does what Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has struggled for too long to accomplish: it makes us want to watch the next episode and see where the new mix of characters, the organization and (at this point) the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe is going!

For other works with Lucy Lawless, please visit my reviews of:
The L Word - Season 6
Spider-Man
The X-Files - Season 9

[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 Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season here!
Thanks!]

7/10

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

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Amy Acker Is Not “The Only Light In The Darkness” For Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. At The Turning Point!

The Good: Good banter, Decent acting, Pretty tight plot
The Bad: Lighter on character, No thematic resonance.
The Basics: “The Only Light In The Darkness” advances the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. plotline by bringing back Coulson’s girlfriend while putting Skye in the sensible danger she needs to be on her own with Ward!


It takes a pretty cool show to take a throwaway line in a movie to make an entire episode for the season from it. Back when Iron Man 2 (reviewed here!) appeared on the big screen, Agent Coulson was very much a background character. So, when Pepper Potts mentions that Coulson has a girlfriend and he mentions that she is a cellist, it was pretty much a throwaway at the time. With S.H.I.E.L.D. in shambles, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. decided to bring that cellist to the forefront. Picking up where “Providence” (reviewed here!) left off with a previously unknown supervillain being released from The Fridge and Agent Coulson determined to find him, “The Only Light In The Darkness” continues the Marvel Cinematic Universe storyline with mixed results.

“The Only Light In The Darkness” is yet another episode of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. that feels like a bridge episode that might be working toward something, but viewers have to take on faith will pay off. Given how Joss Whedon productions have a pretty long history of turning things around, the faith viewers have in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. might well be justified, but “The Only Light In The Darkness” is not a tremendous episode on its own. That said, it’s not bad and, in fact, at its worst “The Only Light In The Darkness” is struggling because it is treading where Alias went about a decade ago. In fact, if I had more time, I’d hunt down the episode of Alias that had a similar plot wherein one of the main characters barely evades the new double agent they’ve discovered. I bet I’d find at least three.

With Marcus Daniels out in the world, killing again (despite not having been seen in the series before now), Agent Coulson’s team is finally reunited and safe at Eric Koenig’s safehouse. With Ward patched up – and telling the team how he killed Garrett - Coulson is eager to go out and recover Daniels. Koenig, however, is not an idiot and he is determined to make sure that Coulson’s team is safe to be in Providence. Ward manages to pass Koenig’s foolproof lie detector test by skewing his answers and inflicting pain upon himself. Coulson becomes obsessed with recovering Daniels and he knows how to find her: apparently Daniels was obsessed with Audrey Nathans . . . who is the cellist that Coulson dated years prior.

At Providence, Skye figures out how to find Daniels using NSA satellites. Koenig is suspicious of Ward and tasks Skye with hacking the satellites. Simmons and Triplett debrief Audrey as she tells them about her prior contact with Daniels. May tells Ward she is leaving, with the Bus fixed and Coulson ostracizing her. With Ward making a move on Koenig to protect himself, Audrey practices at a public venue as a trap for Coulson and the rest of the team to capture Daniels. While Coulson’s team works to take out Blackout without Audrey seeing Coulson alive, Skye uncovers the truth about Ward (literally seconds after I told my wife “They can’t kill off Koenig; he’s an old friend of Nick Fury who’s in the comic books for years!”) and works to stay alive.

“The Only Light In The Darkness” does some things very right. On the character front, Simmons continues to develop her relationship with Triplett and Fitz is jealous of their budding relationship. The realism of that plays out well. Coulson is appropriately tormented by Audrey’s return to a point adjacent to his life. He is unwilling to have contact with her given how she is healing from his, apparent, death in New York City. She obviously did not know about his resurrection.

The continued character development of Koenig actually makes the episode watchable. Koenig is suspicious of Ward and he does not lose that suspicion. He clearly has an agenda and director Vincent Misiano smartly captures Patton Oswalt’s subtle eye motions that emote Koenig’s continued suspicion of the operative that plays out well.

Interestingly enough, “The Only Light In The Darkness” is the episode where I finally actually liked Skye. All along, Skye has been annoying and viewers have had to take it on faith that the character has something going for her that Coulson alone has seen up until this point. Actress Chloe Bennet has not brought a lot to the role, but in “The Only Light In The Darkness,” the character is finally smart enough to justify her presence on the show and on the S.H.I.E.L.D. team. Near the end of the episode, a penny has an important and prominent role; I know what Ward was doing with it the moment it first appeared. For the first time on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., it turns out Skye was up to speed with me. In fact, with May fleeing to an unlikely source, May is set up to be the next major character betrayed, but in “The Only Light In The Darkness” Skye is betrayed but is smart and professional enough to adapt to her dangerous circumstances. And Bennet lands it!

“The Only Light In The Darkness” is entertaining and it is clearly setting up the first season finale of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. for a big event (right now, we’re moving toward an episode where Skye is clearly about to be tortured for the location where the hard drive can be decrypted and an inevitable rescue attempt from the rest of the Agents), but on its own, it is not stellar television. It’s good entertainment, but it is hard to imagine having forty-five minutes to spare and picking out “The Only Light In The Darkness” as an episode to watch to fill that time.

For other works with Amy Acker, please visit my reviews of:
The Cabin In The Woods
Alias - Season 5
Angel

[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 First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season here!
Thanks!]

6.5/10

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

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Haven’t Seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier? Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Says “Screw You!” With “Turn, Turn, Turn.”

The Good: Good reversal, Good character retcon for May, Good acting
The Bad: Truly requires seeing Captain America: The Winter Soldier to buy the premise, Systemic issues within S.H.I.E.L.D. that make the episode’s resolution more ridiculous than revealing.
The Basics: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. picks up the Marvel Cinematic Universe developments from Captain America: The Winter Soldier with “Turn, Turn, Turn.”


Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has a unique position in television right now (perhaps in history). The television series is compelled to interact with a series of guaranteed blockbuster films and none has threatened to change the nature of the television series as dramatically as Captain America: The Winter Soldier (reviewed here!). The latest episode, “Turn, Turn, Turn,” hinges largely on the gamechanging aspects of the new film and it is impossible to discuss without revealing the conceptual spoiler behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Despite all of the hype and packaging, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is essentially about how the villainous organization from the first film, which was assumed to be destroyed by the end of that film, is truly in control of S.H.I.E.L.D. H.Y.D.R.A. was revealed to be in control of S.H.I.E.L.D. and “Turn, Turn, Turn” is all about how S.H.I.E.L.D. is collapsing in the wake of the H.Y.D.R.A. takeover.

Picking up immediately where “End Of The Beginning” (reviewed here!) ended, Agent Garret is hunted by S.H.I.E.L.D. drone planes. With the standoff on the Bus between Coulson, Skye, Fitz and May, the Bus is on remote control lockdown headed toward the Hub. Rescuing Garret, Coulson imprisons May and reveals to Garret that he believes that Hand is the Clairvoyant. Skye cracks the encrypted signal that H.Y.D.R.A. sent out, awakening their sleeper agents and essentially cracking S.H.I.E.L.D. from within. With May trying to contact Nick Fury and learning that he is dead, the Bus finds itself locked down at the Hub. Ward becomes committed to keeping Skye safe.

When Simmons and Triplett are captured by Hand, she insists that she is not H.Y.D.R.A., but Coulson is. Simmons resists accepting that Coulson is corrupt while Skye, Ward, and Coulson infiltrate the Hub. At the Hub, the Clairvoyant is finally revealed as an agent of H.Y.D.R.A. and as S.H.I.E.L.D. collapses, Coulson and his team have a chance to stop the Clairvoyant and stunt the H.Y.D.R.A. takeover.

“Turn, Turn, Turn” was advertised as a “game-changing” episode of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and genre fans are likely to be excited by the notion of the episode, if not its originality. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is forced to take a risk, but the risk is not the most original one seen in recent spy thriller television: the collapse of S.H.I.E.L.D. is essentially a plot point that occurred in the second season of Alias (reviewed here!) with the destruction of SD-6, the agency Sydney Bristow was tasked to infiltrate. While Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. seems audacious by having one of the Agents actually working for H.Y.D.R.A., even that was done as part of SD-6’s collapse (as a sleeper agent was revealed to be working for the remnants of SD-6 and one of Bristow’s allies was framed as an agent of the enemy). So, at the turning point, “Turn, Turn, Turn” necessarily pushes Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. in a different direction for the series and it is exciting to watch, but those who like spy thillers are likely to see a lot of the reversals coming.

In fact, the final act of “Turn, Turn, Turn” is tragically bad . . . in a way Alias managed not to be at the same plot point. At a time when no one can be trusted, Coulson and Hand continue to trust all of their own people (plus Agent Triplett). While some H.Y.D.R.A. agents are marched out of the Hub, we do not see intense interrogations of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who claim to be loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. There’s a pretty dimwitted sensibility to Hand and Coulson when they can implicitly acknowledge that H.Y.D.R.A. has been working under the noses of S.H.I.E.L.D. since its inception, completely undetected, but then simply trust any S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who claim to still be loyal to the organization. There have to be smart H.Y.D.R.A. agents at facilities – like the Hub – who see which way the wind is blowing and simply do not stand up with the other H.Y.D.R.A. agents. So, that Coulson immediately trusts Hand after the Clairvoyant is revealed seems ridiculous. That carting the Clairvoyant off to another location is not treated like the most obvious escape attempt H.Y.D.R.A. could ever come up with seriously diminishes Coulson’s character.

Fortunately, the final reversal of the episode is not so obvious as leading to everyone on the plane to take the Clairvoyant away simply smiling at one another to reveal themselves to be Agents Of H.Y.D.R.A. Instead, despite the many red herrings, “Turn, Turn, Turn” manages to play off enough important character moments to make viewers believe they are watching something motivated by smart internal motivations of the characters they have been watching. The explanation that Agent May gives at the outset of the episode is actually a smart and powerful bit of exposition that completely redefines her position in Coulson’s team. More important than that, her reveal reinforces the idea that she is pretty much the archetype of an intelligence agent who is principled, loyal, and brutally efficient.

Coulson and Skye are given decent build-ups in “Turn, Turn, Turn” to make the episode’s last-act reversals have real consequences for the main characters of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Sadly, whether or not the series has a powerful follow-up is left for subsequent episodes. Within “Turn, Turn, Turn,” much of the character elements play off trust and fear; the main characters wrestle with believing their friends who have recently done questionable things and they sift through a lot of information to make judgments about who is worthy of their loyalty.

What binds the episode together is a surprisingly good number of decent performances. Saffron Burrows, as Agent Hand, plays the role with such efficiency and coldness that her true allegiances were constantly in question. That makes Hand interesting to watch because she could credibly go any possible way; Burrows defines the role in such a way that she is able to make potentially mundane reversals fantastic. Bill Paxton and Clark Gregg play off one another in “Turn, Turn, Turn” well-enough to make their alluded-to friendship entirely believable.

The rest of the cast – Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet (who would have guessed?! Skye has a decent moment that Bennet pulls off well!), Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, and B.J. Britt (Triplett) – each have moments in “Turn, Turn, Turn” that director Vincent Misiano gives them focus and a chance to rise to the occasion of showing viewers something they have not yet seen on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Each one meets the challenge, from the simplicity of De Caestecker crying while keeping a rigid posture to Ming-Na Wen emoting through otherwise dry exposition, “Turn, Turn, Turn” is better acted than it is a character piece.

Ultimately, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is at a pivotal moment with “Turn, Turn, Turn.” Will the series progress with the H.Y.D.R.A. agent in their midst like a dim recasting of Alias that forces viewers to accept just how dumb intelligence agents who have all been betrayed can be? Or will the series progress by exploring important questions that realistically rise out of the collapse of major intelligence agencies (where the hell can S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles like the Bus go to refuel when they no longer have facilities of their own and H.Y.D.R.A. agents are all around the world?!)? Will the H.Y.D.R.A. agent’s betrayal turn the show into a manhunt and how will Coulson start to trust May again? Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is at the cusp of failure or finally breaking out of the stagnant shell that plagued the build-up of the first half of its first season: “Turn, Turn, Turn” lays the framework, but it is up to the subsequent episodes to truly sell the premise.

For other works with Kylie Furneaux, please visit my reviews of:
The Avengers
Pirates Of The Carribbean: On Stranger Tides
Thor
Tron: Legacy
2012
The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus
Push
Passengers
Hancock
Catch And Release
X-Men III: The Last Stand
Fantastic Four
Elektra
Catwoman
Dead Like Me

[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 First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season here!
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8/10

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© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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