Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D - Pilot Review

COULSON LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I heard that ABC was creating a television show about S.H.I.E.L.D, I was excited. When I found out that it would star Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson and would be produced by Joss Whedon, I was ecstatic. And to top it all off, the series would be taking place after the events of The Avengers meaning that Coulson survived! This combination of announcements led me to believe that this new series would be the best comic based television show of all time.

I was not disappointed... too much.

I loved the pilot episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (which I shall now be referring to as AoS so that I don’t have to type out all of those full stops). The episode had just the right balance of action, suspense and humour to keep me invested in the characters and both curious and excited about what would happen next.

One of the things that I was most worried about going in was whether or not the production levels would be high enough to make a series set in the Marvel Universe work. Thankfully, everything was sleek and high-tech enough to make everything seem as realistic as possible without forgetting that this is series is being incorporated into the Marvel cinematic universe and needs to still feel like a superhero film to some extent.

There were a couple of disappointments though. Firstly, Coulson was about the only character that I cared about during the episode. He is the same guy we remember from The Avengers and that is why we like him. The other characters were pretty forgettable, and the likelihood is, that I won’t remember their names or faces from one week to the next. The other thing that bugged me was that the villain of the episode was so boring. His story was unoriginal and predictable to the point of disbelief.

The action sequences however, were well thought out and very entertaining, yet they weren’t thrown in your face to fill up screen time (I’m looking at you Man of Steel). The script was great - par the conversations including the two scientists on the team – and the parts that were meant to be funny, were in most cases. I particularly enjoyed as certain ‘poop joke’ made by Clark Gregg early on in the episode.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D is an interesting spinoff from the cinematic universe and certainly shows potential in becoming a great series. All it needs to do is throw in some character development.

7/10