REVIEW: 'Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D' Overcomes Slow Start, But Still Needs 'Winter Soldier'
Pilots aren't easy.
It's difficult to establish a new world with new people and introduce the intricacies of how it all interacts.
I recently watched part of "Parks & Recreation's" first season. That was a show that struggled greatly in an abbreviated season to find its voice. A great deal was shed from that first season and it was able to hit its stride to the point those first six episodes are borderline skippable.
"Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." had a similar beginning. I actually watched the first 10 episodes or so as they came out last fall, but something felt off.
The show features Clark Gregg in the lead role of Agent Phil Coulson—you may remember him from his appearances throughout the Marvel universe of movies, culminating with his death in "The Avengers."
Oh, right, spoilers.
But that point illustrates one of the difficulties with this show: You have to have some degree of familiarity with the Marvel cinematic universe to enjoy the show. Since everyone and their aunt and cousin has seen "The Avengers" following its blockbuster success at the box office, and subsequent prominence on Netflix, Coulson's death really isn't a massive spoiler.
But halfway through the season, the show takes a significant turn for the better. The air date of those better episodes coincided with the release of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." Big events happen in that movie that change the world the intelligence agency S.H.I.E.L.D. works in completely.
You can argue that it's possible to watch "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." (really getting tired of all these periods, Marvel) without watching "The Winter Soldier," but there are two things working against that:
- There is a lot of "is it or isn't it" revolving around a central mystery to "The Winter Soldier." Who holds the cards where tends to bounce around where some foreknowledge of those events would be handy.
- The first half of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." is a slog. Don't get me wrong, I love character development, but without seeing what's coming, audiences may not wait around for the twists.
I suppose what's frustrating is looking back at those first few episodes and how the writers played with "Who can you trust?" in a very cliche way, then seeing how much better they executed later on in the season. But, speaking of cliches, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.
There's a reason why "The Winter Soldier" and season 1 of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." dropped on the same day. They are two halves of one full story. After watching both, I'm really surprised there wasn't a box set offering the movie and the show.
While you don't get "The Winter Soldier," the DVD set does offer a solid selection of extras. While not every episode features commentary, you're getting 22 episodes of a 43-minute show. It's definitely more than a weekend's worth.
The commentary tracks that are available feature the right mix of cast and writers to provide insight on the episodes up to that point. There's no Venture Bros-style spoilers where a character's death in the finale is revealed in the first episode's commentary. Of note is Gregg's work on the commentary tracks, which is top notch and keeps the energy flowing.
The DVD also features a slightly over-produced gag reel—we don't need feel-good with bloopers—and a slightly under-produced set of deleted scenes—brief commentary providing the context of the scenes would have really helped.
While the special features are strong, I don't feel they justify the $55 list price for the Blu-Ray edition, especially considering that if you're shopping on iTunes, you can currently get the entire season in HD for less than $30.
That's not to say I don't recommend the show. It's the start of something strong, and I'm ready for season 2 to get started in the next few weeks. I'm just saying keep an eye out for it on sale, since it shouldn't be hard to find it for around $40 on Blu-Ray.
