Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S01E11 – Review

By: Paul Zbyszewski & Brent Fletcher (story)

The Story: To be a spy requires a sweet black jacket, tight jeans, sunglasses, and lots of lying.

The Review: This probably reveals how little I know about television production schedules, but I sincerely hope that during the holiday break, the people in charge took the time to seriously re-evaluate the direction of this show, because what they had before was not good.  It wasn’t terrible, either, but that’s probably the least encouraging recommendation a show can get, especially a show that’s meant to be a vanguard for future Marvel live-action TV projects.

There are a few specific problems this show needs to address in particular, first and foremost being the stubborn lifelessness of the characters, who still feel trapped in their archetypical roles: May, the chilly professional; Fitz and Williams, the wide-eyed prodigies; Ward, handsome right-hand man; and Skye, the sassy, lovable rebel.  Despite gasping efforts from past episodes to inject each one of them with back-story, none of it seems to stick.

This episode does little to reverse that trend, but there are positive steps, largely centered on Skye, who remains besides Coulson the character most likely to be accepted into our hearts.  If nothing else, her spunky attitude is easy to watch, and her frustration with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s constant roadblocks gives us an ongoing conflict we can invest in.  But whereas past episodes kept her leashed—almost literally, once she got strapped with a tech-dampening bracelet—to the direction of others, this one allows her free rein with her ingenuity to problem-solve, rendering the most entertaining bit of spy-work this show has offered yet.*  S.H.I.E.L.D. gets most interesting, apparently, when the plot works outside the trappings of S.H.I.E.L.D.

While Skye advances her position on the show, Coulson remains staunchly in the lead as its heart and soul, although the show seems to be doing everything in its power to make him less dimensional each time the question of his death and resurrection pops up again.  For what’s meant to be a driving mystery for S.H.I.E.L.D., this storyline has proven to be rather limited in its power to thrill.  It was fairly apparent to anyone by the third, fourth, umpteenth time someone questioned Coulson’s nature that this isn’t exactly the same agent who got stabbed in The Avengers, and all of Centipede’s troubles merely confirm this fact, with little elaboration but a lot of melodrama.  If the goal was to deepen our sympathy for Coulson above all other characters, this episode succeeds spectacularly, throwing in not all three T’s: a torturous death, a traumatic childhood, and a tragic love life.

But it’s not Coulson who needs this additional development; it’s Melinda, Ward, Fitz, and Simmons, who more often than not come across as tangential, rather than integral, parts of the S.H.I.E.L.D. machine.  Somehow, the show needs to find a way to break them out of thoroughly predictable behavior patterns, like May’s fairly obvious con on Victoria Hand.  Most of us know, from the moment May responds to Hand’s pointedly specific question of, “Will [Skye] be of any use to us on this plane?” with a chilly “No,” that May’s goal is to get Skye off the plane so that she can be of use.  This kind of rhetorical trickery seems way below the pay grade of such supposedly sophisticated agents, but that’s par for the course for S.H.I.E.L.D.

You know what’s also par for the course for this show?  Getting rid of antagonists before they become sufficiently interesting for you to care.  Edison Po was only just starting to get his creepily sullen thing going on before this episode removes him, leaving Raina to sustain the tension with her Mona Lisa demeanor before she, too, gets taken out—temporarily, obviously, but still removing one of the most engaging figures in the series.**

Conclusion: Harmlessly enjoyable in parts, though the bulk of the episode is firmly entrenched in the ruts it has carved out for itself.

Grade: C+

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: * Albeit with some fairly noticeable plot holes, as astutely observed by A.V. Club’s Oliver Sava.  The thing about OnStar failing to verify Skye’s identity stuck out to me, too.

** Admittedly, most of this has to do with her fashion sense, which even Coulson seems preoccupied with, despite being tortured.  “What is it with the flowers?”

“Who doesn’t like flowers?”

– And the award for Line Most Likely to Make You Simultaneously Laugh and Groan in Sympathy Embarrassment goes to some lady black-market dealer, for asking “Is that a Roomba” when what is clearly a weaponized disk slides into the room.