Spoiler warning: This column discusses recent plot details for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Proceed with caution.
In this day and age, a slow build can mean death for a television show. Consumers and viewers expect immediate gratification. New technology gives audiences access to all kinds of products and information, right at their fingertips, and they’ve developed the same expectations for their television shows.
As a result, most shows need to be smash hits right out of the gate. Others tantalize us as they seem to be building up to speed, only to never quite get there. I myself tend to have a hard time giving up on TV shows I believe could still improve. (Two years in and I’m still hoping Revolution will live up to its potential, though the likelihood of it seeing a third season is very slim.) Occasionally though, my patience pays off in a big way. There is a third type of show that takes time to build a back story or corrects early mistakes before it hits its stride. This is the case with two of my current favorite shows on television.
I know I’ve mentioned previously in this column my love for all things related to superheroes. That’s one of the reasons why I didn’t even think twice about watching Arrow
While I had little in the way of expectations for Arrow, which I will discuss next week, I was very excited for the premiere of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. However, the show started out much slower than I had expected. For as much as I love the MCU, I was a little taken aback when I didn’t immediately love S.H.I.E.L.D. Sure, I liked it well enough, but it wasn’t as amazing as I was expecting right off the bat.
Judging from a lot of fan reactions I read the first couple of weeks, I wasn’t the only one. I had to remind myself that, although this was a Marvel show, it was also a Joss Whedon show, which meant I just needed to have a little patience. One thing fans of Whedon have learned by now is that, quite often, you have to give the man room to stretch his legs and find his footing when it comes to a television series.
For example, I enjoyed the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the show didn’t really start hitting its stride until season 2, when Angel‘s transformation into the evil Angelus really raised the stakes (no pun intended) for the series. Suddenly, actions had very real — and sometimes devastating — consequences. Similarly, I believe season 2 of Dollhouse was much more cohesive than the first, though a large part of the problem with season 1 was Fox’s meddling with Whedon’s vision of the series.
Given this track record, it’s no surprise that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t necessarily hit the ground running. There’s also the fact that the show had to build nearly every character and their relationships from the ground up. Yes, the series was taking place in the MCU, which Marvel fans are all familiar with — and it was bringing back fan favorite, Agent Phil Coulson — but the rest of the cast was entirely new. It took time to develop the characters and for them all to trust each other.
While each episode had its moments — Coulson is the king of the one-liners — it wasn’t until the sixth episode, “FZZT,” that the characters really felt like they were starting to gel with each other. This episode saw the team coming together to try to save Simmons from the Chitauri virus. This was also the first time any of the characters really demonstrated any growth or change, as Fitz, originally one of the most timid members of the team, was prepared to jump out of a plane to save his partner. Instead, Ward took the leap for him and cemented the team’s trust — which, as it turns out, wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
From then on, each character seemed to grow individually and as a part of the team. Fitz and Ward spent some time bonding on their own mission, and Simmons and Skye got closer as they worked together in the Hub. Even May slowly started warming up to the rest of the team. Each episode seemed to raise the stakes a little higher, as we learned more about Skye’s background, the T.A.H.I.T.I. project, and the Clairvoyant. Then the show really kicked into overdrive just before Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The last episode before Winter Soldier was appropriately titled “The End of the Beginning” — and little did we know how true that title would be: this episode marked the end of S.H.I.E.L.D. as we knew it. The episode led directly into Winter Soldier, as Agent Sitwell left Coulson’s team and ended up being held hostage before being rescued by Captain America early in the movie. We had been told there would be a tie-in between Winter Soldier and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but I think most fans were probably expecting a nearly inconsequential one, similar to when the agents had to help clean up London after the events of Thor: The Dark World. However, Marvel had something else entirely in mind. Winter Soldier saw the destruction of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the “death” of Nick Fury — both events that naturally had a huge impact on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
This is where all those fans who gave up on S.H.I.E.L.D. after just a few episodes are now missing out on one of the best comic books shows you could possibly ask for. S.H.I.E.L.D. followed Winter Soldier with “Turn, Turn, Turn,” one of the best episodes of the season. The events took place nearly simultaneously with the end of Winter Soldier, as Hydra emerged and revealed its corruption of S.H.I.E.L.D. The entire episode was perfectly constructed — and then the unthinkable happened. One of the last people we expected to be a double agent — in fact the very character who was our entry point into the world of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — showed his true colors as a Hydra agent.
Every episode since then has lived up to every expectation I would have for a show taking place in the MCU. It’s been a roller coaster ride in which we’ve learned the hard way you can’t trust anyone. And the hits just keep on coming. Coulson’s unshakable calm has slowly been chipping away ever since he learned the truth about T.A.H.I.T.I. (hint: it’s not a magical place), and that culminated in a near-breakdown while searching for one of Fury’s secret bunkers — one of Clark Gregg’s best performances to date. In this week’s episode, we finally learned the identity of the agent who was heading up the T.A.H.I.T.I. project, and once again, minds were blown.
I really feel sorry for all those so-called Marvel fans who gave up on S.H.I.E.L.D. because they are now missing some truly great television. The last five episodes in a row have been one-hour films; it’s been intense in the best possible way, and there are still two episodes left this season. This is the show I expected to see when I tuned into the first episode back in the fall, and I’m so relieved I never gave up on it, because these last few episodes were definitely worth the wait.
Next week, I’ll Fan Out over another show that has improved since its first episodes, Arrow. If you’ve already given up on S.H.I.E.L.D. or Arrow — or have never even seen an episode — then you might want to give them a chance over the summer. Whether it’s a second chance or your first time viewing, you may be pleasantly surprised.