Review: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D 1x01: Pilot

Original Air Date: Sept. 24, 2013

So first let me put a disclaimer here: I thoroughly enjoy all the Marvel movies (some more the others), but I have not read ANY of the comics.  Therefore I only know movie verse and now TV verse I guess you could say.  Which I don’t think affects my feelings on this new series but I figured I’d make that short disclaimer. I know a lot of y'all do read the comics.

Anyway, moving on.  The tone of the show, especially in the beginning wasn’t what I was expecting.  Did anyone else not realize it was going to be so superhero campy?  It really caught me off guard in the beginning and it just seemed like a revamp of Heroes (which, okay only watched s1 and bits of s2&3 out of the corner of my eye).  After finishing the episode I’m not completely convinced that it’s not.  Which is not a problem considering I always thought Heroes had so much potential that was squandered.  I guess I had not expected the big sweeping heroic music right off the bat.  That said, I laughed like an idiot when Coulson walked around that dark corner and acknowledged how dramatic that entrance was.

“Sorry. The corner was really dark and I couldn’t help myself. I think there’s a bulb out.” 

Which actually brings me to my next point.  This seems like an early draft of a Joss Whedon script.  I could plainly see Whedon’s humor and influence but it all just seemed so… big. I mean the “little poop with knives” it was funny but also felt a little forced.  Which just means that I think in their attempts to get this show on television as quickly as possible in order to capitalize on the novelty of the Avengers’ movie is really apparent.



Now saying all of that. I think all the elements of this being a favorite show is there. It’s got the humor, I enjoy all the characters (well, some of them felt a little big but I figure their personalities will settle further into the series), and I’m looking forward to seeing how they flesh out the storylines. I mean there was a lot of heart in this episode.  I loved that the introduction of the show with Mike Peterson, as played by J. August Richards, and his son starring at the Avenges’ action figures and asking him who was his favorite.  It helped that a show that is about such big concepts as superheroes and a clandestine super spy organization started with a father and son and instantly learning who they are.  Then ending the show with that speech on his inability to provide for his son and how he just wanted to be a hero for him.  Personally, if we step away from the big superhero music and focus on all these people now living in this post-Avengers world than I think the show has something there.

So favorite character of the episode?

FitzSimmons. Yeah, that’s two people but they were introduced that way and therefore that is how I will continue to address them.  Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) as the dueling/bickering scientists = my favorite!  It’s perfect because while they bicker you can tell they actually respect each other and it’s that mutual team work which saves the day! Lol. I mean their forensic flying drone thingys (and I’m sure that’s the technical name. I mean they do have a night night gun after all) are named after the Seven Dwarfs. Team work makes the dream work! (sorry couldn’t help myself)

The rest of my notes are just a bunch of different one-liners I jotted down because they made me chuckle.  A few of them being:

*muttering* “and by luck I mean unappreciated genius”
“She’s no better than the sweaty cosplay girls crowding around Stark Tower”
“I would… *under breath* that was one time.”
“[…] she’s an asset.”
“She is SUCH an - wait asset?”

(which by the way if there are not many a scene with Skye & Grant in the future where he’s strict by the book and she’s roll with the punches see what I can do with my badass computer skills than I will be severely disappointed. They hit my overactive shipper button).

So. Yeah. That’s all I have to say about the Pilot.  All the elements are there, I just hope all the kinks get worked out (and by kinks I don’t mean kinks… well not yet anyway though I’m sure some have already gone there).

In conclusion: Recommend for those who enjoy the Marvel verse and or Whedon.  I enjoy both so this is being added to my weekly schedule.  With a so-so pilot (in my opinion) I can only see improvement on the horizon (well that’s what I hope for otherwise I’m kicking it off my to-watch show list but that’ll be after like at the end of the season tbh).

Oh and PS. I completely forgot the underlining mystery of “he must never know about Tahiti” kind of thing.  Which means that shit with Coulson gonna go down and yeah I think that’s a great way to added future mystery.