Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Agents of Shield Season 2 Premiere "Shadows" Review

"What Will I Become.."






The Hype


The first season of AOS was underwhelming to say the least, it was redeemed only by its strong pilot and the huge momentum it picked up after the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the Hydra twist was a huge save for the series, and brought some needed excitement and drama. After further thought this may have been the reason the show existing in the first place, because they knew they had a great place to go and want to solidify the effects of the big Hydra reveal. Shield had quite a hard time coming into its own and finding its groove, the end of the first season gave me a lot more confidence in this aspect but i still don't think they're fully there. That all being said i watched every episode, bought the Blu ray, and watched them again. I can complain all I want but its still Marvel and im always going to find something redeeming. I'm unbelievable exited for season 2 and hope they can learn from their mistakes and really find what kind of show they want to be.





The Review

The series opens in 1945, which is in no way a surprise since Agent Carter, an even further stretch for a series, starts in January, the scene was well done and it was actually nice to see the howling commandos again since they never really got to have a big impact on the MCU (Bucky excluded of course) we get some awesome Easter eggs this episode, biggest of wich is a familar blue corpse in one of the SSR crate. Widely speculated to be a Kree, the 0-8-4 found along with him looks suspiciasly like Ronan's Kree warship.




A winter has passed since the end of season one, and the characters have obviously evolved, Skye has been training with May and has a much more professional demeanor along with a better grip of whats really going on, Coulson is now more of an overseer than a hands on part of the team, very reminiscent of Nick Fury which makes sense since he is now director of "Shield".  I absolutely love how they handled agent ward, i was worried he was going to be redeemed, or worse redeemed to soon, but it its perfectly logical that he would be held prisoner on sight, since shield has no other associates and they would need him for intelligence. There are also a lot of new characters, all pretty interchangeable at this point but otherwise they are utilized well and don't take any shine away from the main cast.





AOS is embracing a much more serious and darker tone that is more fitting for what the series actually is. They are no longer part of a glossy above the law secret organization, they are mercenaries  and vigilantes, working underground as fugitives. I'm very happy with the direction they are taking, and the character dynamics seem to working  a lot better than in the first season. It was obvious from the beginning  that the Fitz/Simmons role would be significantly toned down, i was going to make a sly comment about how they're making the problem worse with the new brain damage angle, but boy did they shut me up by the end of the episode.  The performances were standard for the series, nothing bad, but not amazing Glen Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) was the stand out of the episode, and I hope to see him used more throughout the season


Absorbing man was handled beautifully, especially compared to previous "Gifteds".  He was mysterious, bad ass, and had some great call backs to the source material. not to mention the special effects were amazing (for a TV show). I would say AOS may have been awarded a bigger budget this time around. Although the whole "Ancient artifact to powerful for our own good" is starting to get stale the episode has an overall a solid story. I'm Glad the villain wasn't a one-off and will have a bigger part of the overarching conflict. If this episode is any indicator of what were in for this season, i think we all have a good reason to be exited,



The Verdict

With a great new tone, new characters and a new team dynamic (along with one great twist) Agent of Shield is of to a great start in the second season




8.5/10