EDITORIAL: 5 Things That Worked In AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1... And 5 That Didn't

EDITORIAL: 5 Things That Worked In AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1... And 5 That Didn't

It’s been almost a year since Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. first hit TV screens around the world. With Season 2 just on the horizon, let's take a look back at the show's eventful first season. Here's a quick review of some of the best (and worst) moments of the MCU's debut TV series.

Editorial Opinion
By Minty - Sep 09, 2014 10:09 AM EST
Filed Under: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.



There was a host of expectations on the shoulders of Agents Of SHIELD going into its freshman season this time last year, and while it may struggled under the weight of them at times, it’s safe to say the show had its fair share of highs as well. But before we have a look at the best bits, here's what I thought didn't quite work...

Five Things That Didn’t Work 

May/Ward
 


 

“You taking a punch for me... I don’t need your protection” – Melinda May

 
Don’t get me wrong, I like May. Over the course of the season, I thought she was one of the more consistent characters. What let her down was how the writers tried so hard to show she’s a badass, including a casual hook-up with Ward that didn’t add much. It was clichéd and set-up some peculiar May/Ward/Skye love triangle drama that nobody asked for.

‘The Clairvoyant’ Mystery
 


 

“The Clairvoyant doesn’t like to be touched” – Edison Po

 
Every genre show has a big-bad storyline, but SHIELD’s was incredibly underwhelming. ‘The Clairvoyant’ promised a change in style for the show, hinting at a powerful super-villain (maybe even MODOK), but instead he ended up being an arbitrary SHIELD agent. Garrett made a much better villain on his own as a HYDRA traitor, without all the tiresome Clairvoyant build-up.

The (Other) Villains
 


 

“No. I shot Skye because that’s what The Clairvoyant told me to do” – Ian Quinn

 
Ian Quinn, Centipede, Edison Po, Camilla Reyes… Most of the supporting villains on this show were either generic or forgettable. The writers’ reluctance to use the comics really made these one-note, Clairvoyant lackeys like Quinn hard to like. Next season looks far more promising, with the Absorbing Man, Kraken and Mockingbird all on the way.
 
Visuals & Costumes
 


 

“Don’t touch Lola” – Phil Coulson

 
A big part of the show’s failings last season was how it was visually presented. A large portion of the show’s VFX budget was channelled into CGI for the (rather unnecessary) plane and flying car sequences, when more should have been reserved for making characters like Blackout look great. Elsewhere, Deathlok was let down by a completely half-assed looking costume.
 
Tahiti – Coulson’s ‘Death’
 


 

“Please… Let me die” – Phil Coulson

 
The big mystery going into the show’s early episodes was the truth behind Coulson’s resurrection. Like many other plotlines set-up in the show’s first half, the answer was pretty underwhelming. I’ was overjoyed to see the Son Of Coul return to our screens, and it led to some powerful acting from Clark Gregg, but, like many, I was hoping for a better explanation.

Five Things That Did Work

FitzSimmons
 


 

“Fitz, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but…” – Jemma Simmons
“I’m doing what we always do. We’re gonna fix this. Together” – Leo Fitz

 
Easily my favourite two characters on the show, Fitz and Simmons never fail to make me laugh at least once or twice each episode. But what’s far more impressive are their dramatic scenes together, most notably in FZZT and then again in the season finale. Both Henstridge and DeCaestecker have shown a huge amount of potential, and here’s hoping they get even more focus in Season 2.
 
Ward Is Hydra
 


 

“We’ve had a wolf in the herd the whole time” – Phil Coulson

 
In what has to be the turnaround of the century (so far…) the SHIELD writers turned Ward from bland, clichéd super-agent into a great conflicted villain. It was a shock twist that surprised most viewers, especially after the Garrett reveal, and changed the show for the better. Hail Hydra indeed.
 
John Garrett
 


 

“Hail Hydra” – John Garrett

 
Okay, this may confuse a few of you. Yes, while I did hate ‘The Clairvoyant’ build-up, once Bill Paxton was on-screen, and going nuts as John Garrett, I was instantly entertained. Paxton’s a man with a strange talent for enjoyable overacting, and he does it here again to great effect. Additionally, his involvement in Ward’s corruption was very interesting to watch.
 
Tahiti – The Blue Alien
 


 

“Fury went to dangerous lengths to keep this under wraps, lied to me, lied to S.H.I.E.L.D. This is a powerful secret – a secret men died for” – Phil Coulson

 
Now we’re talking. The initially disappointing ‘Tahiti’ plotline took a turn for the better when Coulson discovered a blue-skinned humanoid alien was the source of the GH325 drug. With many people suspecting this was a Kree, this opened a whole new area of the Marvel universe for the show for Season 2, and ties in nicely with Guardians Of The Galaxy
 
Skye’s Parentage
 


 

“The baby? The girl was the 0-8-4?” – Phil Coulson

 
Like many viewers, I didn’t care for Skye much at the beginning. While she still isn’t my favourite character, she looks more and more like a Whedon heroine every episode, while her back-story is one of the most interesting things for fans to debate. The finale’s bloody-handed reveal that Skye’s father is alive raises a host of new questions that have me excited for answers in Season 2.
 



Well there you have it, my five favourite and least favourite things about Season 1 of Agents Of SHIELD. On the whole I think it was a decent enough season that did extremely well to rectify its early mistakes. With Season 2 just on the horizon (23rd September), I personally can’t wait to see what the show has in store.
 
Anyway, enough of me, what did you guys think? Do you agree with my choices, or did you love/hate everything about it. Let me know in the comments. And if you liked this, give it a thumbs up. Thanks for reading guys!
 
Also, if you liked what you saw here, why don’t you give my blog, The Tiny Screen, a look? I’m currently reviewing shows like Arrow, The Blacklist and Agents Of SHIELD.
   
You can also find me on Twitter, and I’ll follow you back too – in the totally non-creepy/Gusto way…

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Peel
Peel - 9/9/2014, 10:44 AM
Good picks, but for me the show was personally underwhelming. I can't emphasise enough how much I hated Skye; she's pretentious and self centred. This is supposed to be a show about SHIELD and how Coulson will make a better one, not about a mysterious big headed ordinary chick simplifying everything for us.

Ward/Hydra was pretty well done, and I loved Garrett as a villain, but the finale ruined him. Once he went crazy, his character just died. The rest of the show was just 'A new dawn is coming/ We will have everything we need/I've seen the future' nonsense with little actual story was just a waste of time to actually watch.

FitzSimmons was done well, but I just never liked Fitz in the beginning. All the nonsense with Coulson's death was poorly done, the blue alien was interesting but never properly explained, and I doubt it ever will. Personally the show should have killed off some of the non necessary characters to keep things going and introduce comic ones. Good article though, I gave it a thumbs up.
supes123
supes123 - 9/9/2014, 10:50 AM
i tried liking this show, and only a few things made me watch the whole first season, but idk if im going to watch the second season, the finale was disappointing to me, it didn't even feel like a finale
SauronsBANE
SauronsBANE - 9/9/2014, 11:16 AM
Thumbs up, Minty! Had to skip a lot of your points because I only saw part of the 1st season before losing interest in the show, but great stuff yet again!

I think "FZZT" was one of the last episodes I saw, and I was genuinely surprised at how emotional I got in the dramatic Fitz-Simmons scenes...especially since I couldn't stand either character right from the get-go.

I keep hearing that the show got much better as it went along, but I never was able to get over the fact that instead of creating some new, entertaining stories that would hold us over until the big HYDRA reveal, the showrunners were content with spinning their wheels and killing time until the REALLY exciting stuff happened. I just might have to give this show another chance.
Wallymelon
Wallymelon - 9/9/2014, 11:22 AM
Dont get the love for fitzsimmons. Don't get the hate for Skye.
EhMaybeSays
EhMaybeSays - 9/9/2014, 11:30 AM
FitzSimmons=Groan
MercwithMouth
MercwithMouth - 9/9/2014, 11:44 AM
Good article, thumbs up.

Can't wait for season 2, 2 weeks!
cipher
cipher - 9/9/2014, 12:21 PM
Chloe Bennett is absurdly attractive.

Therefore, thumbs up.
GinjaNinja
GinjaNinja - 9/9/2014, 12:43 PM
I really feel like all of the issues in the show were fixed throughout. Which I really liked, they went damage control the second half of the season and found out what works/doesn't work. So I think second season they will be able to channel toward the stuff that worked. Good article,even though I disagree with 1 or 2 of them.
Chewtoy
Chewtoy - 9/9/2014, 5:13 PM
All of the main characters grew on me over the course of the season, although I honestly wish that Ward was a bit less conflicted...he could be.a great unrepentant villain instead.

Villain wise, my main problem was that there wasn't really a big plan to stop, so the season-long Big Bad arc didn't really seem to build and go anywhere. The girl in the flower dresses wasn't all that interesting of a character for the main, recurring bench person either,

The show could use a new look... It's not nearly as polished and modern looking as other prime time dramas. And yes, they need to do far better on the costuming of characters like Deathlok.

Really, though, I have good reason to look forward to season 2... The whole new set-up starts them off in a much more interesting place than they were in last season. I'm eager to see what they do with it.
sikwon
sikwon - 9/9/2014, 5:41 PM
Centipede was a Hydra program to create super soldiers, that was the underlining plot of the entire season. Skye was a self centered bitch until she realized the true value of SHIELD and took a bullet for her troubles, her character is developing. She's gone from annoying civilian hacker anarchist to fledgling badass in one season. She's NOT done yet. Deathlocks suite could have been better. No one saw Ward turning, stop that. The whole GH/Blue Man... that's still unresolved. It's an open plot point. We can guess that it was Kree or Inhuman but we don't know. The show is purposely cheesy, corny, in the beginning. But as the stakes get higher the show changes with the stakes. With the plot and with what is going on in the larger MCU. Watch FitzSimmons wide eyed corniness in the first 6-8 episodes but as they become more involved in the real world they get less corny, less cheesy. They matter. Hell there was a whole episode illustrating the difference between Shield science branch and Shield Field Op's branch just so that you would realize how far out of their depths those two really were. The show was very well done and looking back you can see that it was consistent in its direction and ware it was going. There were definitely some episodes that just killed time till Winter Soldier and on occasion it did have weak VFX but in terms of the story and character development the show was consistently building towards specific points and developing characters. None of them are finished products yet.
LaserKing
LaserKing - 9/9/2014, 5:57 PM
Got better...Remember I watch it cause I wanna see super hero / villain stuff not shield agents. Good story helps.
UltimateTypeface
UltimateTypeface - 9/9/2014, 6:26 PM
Good job on this..

I agree with most of this except I like Skye (on many levels)

Saying that I am amazed that Marvel let some of the d-grade costumes and scenes get past them as it drags the whole MCU down.

I guess that is the downside of a shared universe - its all got to be at the same high standard.
Minty
Minty - 9/10/2014, 4:34 AM
Cheers for all the comments guys! I get that this is a mixed topic with fans on both sides of the fence.

@TheGoddamnPeel @GliderMan @WesleyGibson @GinjaNinja @UltimateTypeface - Thanks for the support and/or thumbs, I really appreciate it guys :)

@SauronsBANE - Thanks as always man! That's cool, I just hope I didn't spoil anything for you. That's true, FZZT is still one of my favourite episodes, it carries a lot of emotional weight. And yeah, while the show did get progressively better leading up to the HYDRA episodes, there's no excuse for churning out such poor episodes beforehand. In that way, it's their own fault that they lost so many potential viewers early on, who would actually appreciate the show now its got better.

@cipher - Well that seems as good a reason as any bud. I'll even drink to that ;)

@MercwithMouth - Cheers for the support as usual man. I can't believe Season 2 is so close!
MercwithMouth
MercwithMouth - 9/10/2014, 7:04 AM
@Minty

My pleasure man. I always enjoy your articles, even if, as in this case, I disagree with some...
Hatsas01
Hatsas01 - 9/10/2014, 7:47 AM
I actually disliked Fitz & Simmons more than Skye from the get go, but they all started growing on me halfway through the season. I was hoping Skye was a Hydra plant from the 1st episode too, but the longer the show went on, the less it seemed to fit her character. I think the biggest flaws in the show have been the easy wrap-ups and the deus ex machina solutions they come up with. Until Winter Soldier shook things up, it never felt like there were real world stakes. The Blackout episode could have been a very interesting and meaningful character piece for both Coulson and Blackout, but they quickly brushed over everything interesting and took out the villain with a flashlight they just happened to find. I think the clairvoyant reveal didn't pay off because they waited so long to introduce Garret. He should have been in the first episode, and at least a 3rd of the episodes, making his reveal a bit bigger. I did like most of the last episodes, although disintegrating Garret seemed wasteful just when things were getting interesting. Now that the show has become more episodic, I think it will find its feet like Arrow did (which had a rough first season too)
SauronsBANE
SauronsBANE - 9/10/2014, 8:00 AM
@Minty, No worries man! I already knew the overarching things like Coulson and "Tahiti", Ward being a HYDRA agent, etc etc. It's just the finer details that I'm trying to stay away from, so no big deal at all.

I think part of the reason why episodes like FZZT worked so well is because the focus was less on the actual plot and more on the characters. SHIELD has the advantage of being able to constantly split their team up and pair unlikely characters together and see how they play off each other to keep things fresh. Most great shows use this to awesome effect (Game of Thrones, Lost, and to some extent, The Walking Dead), so hopefully SHIELD takes a page from that book.

But yeah, totally agree that they cost themselves tons of viewers, including me, because of their very slow start. Hopefully good word of mouth causes them to catch up on Season 1 and watch Season 2 as well.
Minty
Minty - 9/10/2014, 8:50 AM
@MercwithMouth - Cheers man, I appreciate that a lot

@SauronsBANE - Ah fair play bud. Yeah I agree, I like it when different characters are paired together - Lost was particularly good at that. Yeah I really think the show's had its slump and now has a chance to really push on towards becoming something great. Hopefully, haha!

@Hastas01 - Agreed man, I'm hoping for the same kinda improvement we saw between the first two seasons of Arrow
newmutantsRETURNS
newmutantsRETURNS - 9/10/2014, 8:51 AM
Sorry....this show is shyt.....be interesting how the show progresses without the movie tie-ins.....that gimmick cant last forever..
JayTopStix
JayTopStix - 9/10/2014, 11:55 AM
I would give this show a 7. Enough to watch it but not enough to be "hooked" I strongly believe it needs more super heroes in it and less "pop" action and dialogues. I guess my favorites are indeed Fitz and Simmons
Minty
Minty - 9/10/2014, 4:25 PM
@JayTopStix - Pretty much agree with 100% of what you just said there man

@Solitario - Nice man, seems like we had a similar idea to compare the good and bad of the show. If my Spanish wasn't so poor I'd give it a read!
MileHighRonin
MileHighRonin - 9/11/2014, 5:58 PM
Good article, glad you stuck it out and watched the entire season.

At first fitz and simmons got on my nerves but simmons grew on me. Fitz is very annoying but brings natural comedy with his reactions to situations.

I want to know who created Deathlok, Hydra or Garret himself? Was it his idea and kept it hidden from Hydra?, or did they put him on the project?

Also we need Deathlok Peterson should be involved with Ultron, only makes sense. And you are so correct about Deathlok Peterson look, lazy and weak.
spiderman620
spiderman620 - 9/12/2014, 6:17 AM
I think when the show premiered people were expecting to see "superheros/villians", but thats not what the show is about(its definitely mentioned, but not the main focus of the show). the show is about SHIELD AGENTS navigating the mysterious/superpowered elements that make up this shared universe. so people really need to relax and just enjoy the ride.
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