Gamersledge Reviews – Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “Pilot”

Agent Coulson’s Car – Lola

Welcome to our inaugural Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. review, AoS – Debriefed! NeoSapian here to guide you through the twists and turns of this most ambitious of shows. Similar to the Doctor Who reviews we did, these will be posted sometime between episodes, after I have had a chance to watch it a couple times and think on the events. Unlike the Doctor Who reviews though, thanks to our new site format, I WILL actually give review scores….to the best of my ability. Without further ado, the review!

The Avengers

Agents is a very ambitious project led by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon (Joss’ brother) and Mo Tancharoen (Jed’s wife); three names that are fairly familiar to the geekverse. While TV adaptations or tie ins to movies aren’t exactly uncommon, to the best of my knowledge there hasn’t been one that was completely integrated and concurrently running with a series of movies. For those that don’t know, the Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Thor and Avengers movie series all take place in the same world, and Agents also take place there.

Ace Looks at Avengers toys in Pilot

This was driven home by the Rising Tide’s videos featuring snippets from the movies, returning characters (Coulson and Maria Hill) and many in dialog and background tie-ins. These include references to the Battle of New York (Avengers), all of the Avengers (except Hawkeye….poor Hawkeye), a bus with a Stark Industries logo on the side and Stark Tower in one of the shots of New York. There are also many little ties to the larger comic universe for the die-hards (Journey into Mystery, with great power and others).

Phil Coulson portrayed by Clark Gregg

So I suppose I should actually get on with the review here. AoS tells the story of an independent team of S.H.I.E.L.D. , assembled by Agent Phil Coulson, to investigate the unexplained and unregistered gifted of the world. Things that normal people aren’t ready for or equipped to handle, but don’t require an actual super-person to handle. What will this include? Things like events involving an “unregistered gifted”.

Grant Ward portrayed by Brett Dalton

To take on this first mission, Coulson first has to build his team. The first member we see is Agent Grant Ward. He’s on a mission in Paris, the main point of which is to let the audience know he is REALLY good at violence. Personally the only problem I have with Grant is I keep thinking he should have been played by Sam Witwer (Crashdown in BSG, Doomsday in Smallville, Starkiller in The Force Unleashed, Aiden in Being Human). I don’t know why, but I have had that feeling since the first trailer. Hopefully it will fade over time.

Agent Melinda May portrayed by Ming-Na Wen

Next we have the enigmatic Melinda May played by the wonderful Ming-Na Wen. We know very little about this character, except that Coulson used to manage missions for her similar to Black Widow and Hawkeye. She is a pilot, and brought on to “drive the bus” which is actually a modified C-17. This format allows for a Knight Rider/Stargate setup allowing you to have a story anywhere built into the story.

Agent Leo Fitz portrayed by Iain De Caestecker

I find it intriguing that the next two characters are generally referred to as a singular, Fitz-Simmons. Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons are the science team. They come up with bio-tech solutions to problems and also look like they will be the forensics team for on-site investigations. While not being “cleared for combat”, they will be invaluable to the non-powered team for their analysis and equalizing ability.

Agent Jenna Simmons portrayed by Elizabeth Henstridge

The last (probable) member of the team is Skye, the mysterious, talented and more than slightly quirky hacker, that may or may not be the entirety of the “rouge group” The Rising Tide. While Fitz will be building tech toys, Skye will be “computer geek” who likely gathers info, opens locked doors and does tons of other techno-magic. She is also likely to be the audiences grounding point as the “most” normal character of the bunch.

Skye portrayed by Chloe Bennet

This episode focuses on two things, getting the band together and teasing what the team is in for this season. The first is accomplished largely by Coulson just going around and taking whoever he wants. The second is told through the story of a down on his luck everyman, who happens to have extraordinary circumstances thrown his way. Mix in some pointers at the inevitable Big Bad, and bake at 350 until done. The story is intelligently told with some patented Whedon lines, but the pacing was kinda off and the story seemed a bit rushed.

Caulson and Ward – Don’t always see eye-to-eye

Visually the show was stunning. While the visuals were not as epic as the show’s big budget cinematic cousins, there wasn’t a lot of skimping. Some very impressive CG work with some small robots and a holographic environment, to the exemplary settings especially the mobile command center. The shots and framing were typical of a Whedon show, that is to say exemplary. This is one aspect of the show I had absolutely no negatives on. Nothing of the Bear McCreary score got me all excited, but it blended in perfectly, and that is what really counts.

A really nice bus

Coulson and Hill

As for the cast, they were spot on. One surprise guest made a very welcome appearance, Cobie Smulders easily stepped back into Agent Maria Hill’s shoes, J. August Richards gave a powerful performance and then the core cast all performed superbly. As with all Whedon characters, none of them are simple and we have hints of deeper story-lines and flaws on almost everyone. And half the adventure is waiting to find out what they are (or guessing if you are Level 7 bound).

Someone set up us the bomb

So all in all, this episode was an excellent launch for the series. The tight MCU integration, strong storytelling and overall effort earns this episode an 8.8 smashed comm badges out of 10.

J. August Richards guest stars as….

For those with Level 7 clearance, and a strong desire to discus, hypothesize and generally get into gooey details click the SPOILERS button below.
BUT BE WARNED: THIS IS FOR LEVEL 7 AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!!

[spoiler]

Unfortunately it is getting late and I have tarried in this task too long. There are tons of stuff we could go over here, but the spoiler free section got to be quite a bit larger than I anticipated.

PROJECT Centipede – An AIM initiative?

Centipede – Almost certainly our friends at AIM. AIM was introduced in Iron Man 3, but I would be very surprised if we have heard the last of them. It COULD be Hydra. I mean Hydra is like the anti-S.H.I.E.L.D., but the tech seems more AIM’s speed to me. Unless Joss went out of his way to create a whole other tech bad guy, my money is on AIM.

What is up with Agent Coulson? – Well you didn’t think a Whedon Character would get resurrected without consequences did you? So the two big choices here seem to be LMD (Life Model Decoy)/some kind of android or clone. Currently my money is on LMD/Android, with the harebrained hypothesis that he will either go insane and become Ultron or self-aware and become Vision. Or he will just die again to throw the team into chaos.

Which one is going to bite it…..Fitz or Simmons? (And are they REALLY there as team members or to keep an eye on Coulson?

Special appearance by Ron Glass

Van Trap(p) – Who is he? German may mean Hydra. Why did he have Chitari Tech? Who was he going to sell it to? And WHO WAS THE BLONDE? There is a blonde, Black Widow counterpart out there if I recall. Was that her?

And then Skye – When talking to Mike in the diner she grabbed three packet of sweetener and then arranged them on the table in a row. A nervous habit or a clue? The camera focused on it a bit too much to be random. Who is she and why did she erase her past? Was she formerly AIM? There are several articles and things inside of her van….clues to future episodes? And finally, before being “liberated” by Mike, she placed what appeared to be a SIM card in her bra….what could this little device be for? Certainly we haven’t seen the last of it.