REVIEW: Marvel's Agents of SHIELD Season One

REVIEW: Marvel's Agents of SHIELD Season One

In light of my current watchalong of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD Season Seven, I thought it would befun to take a look back at my review for the show's very first season, originally published in 2016.

As season three is due to come to a close tomorrow here in the UK, I thought I'd review season one today followed by season two tomorrow. Whilst I hugely enjoyed the show's first season at the time, in hindsight it was a bit of a mixed bag and suffered from studio decisions in regards to the scheduling of the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Season One was essentially the story of how Skye (as she was called back then, played by Chloe Bennet) became a SHIELD agent. In episode one, we see that she worked with hacktivists Rising Tide on exposing SHIELD information regarding superheroes and superpowered people. In response to the Rising Tide's actions, Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Leo Fitz (Iain de Caestecker) track Skye down and manage to persuade her to help them find super-powered Michael Peterson (who she met earlier, played by J. August Richards). After successfully managing to tranquillise Michael so SHIELD can keep him contained and protected, Skye joins Coulson's team as an unofficial member. It was a strong pilot episode for the show (written by none other than Joss Whedon) and successfully established the show's characters. Skye was an extremely likeable presence and the episode was naturally paced, with episode one's storyline definitely proving to be one of season one's best.

Unfortunately the remaining episodes before the Winter Soldier tie-in weren't quite to the pilot's standards. 0-8-4 disappointingly portrayed Daisy as more of a damsel in distress despite her being shown as a strong individual in the pilot, whilst Eye Spy was rather unmemorable. The Asset was a great episode though, exploring the origin of comic book character Graviton and The Well is a nice tie-in to the MCU (although not as good as later episodes, which provide a more direct link to the Thor films via the use of Asgardian warrior Sif). I also liked Girl In The Flower Dress, which saw the introduction of one of the series' best recurring characters in Raina.

The show doesn't become the thrilling series it is today until it becomes about Hydra infiltration in the episode End of the Beginning, the first tie-in to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In this episode, Victoria Hand is revealed to be hunting our heroes on behalf of Hydra and starts the season's tendency to reveal several agents as Hydra. In fact, it vastly improves the character of Grant Ward when he is revealed to be a Hydra agent: a move that successfully puts his bland boy scout portrayal into perspective. We now know it was a persona he put on and quite a convincing one too, because it never seemed like Ward could be Hydra. As soon as Hydra's takeover of SHIELD becomes a serialised story arc, the show feels much more thrilling to watch and many times you find yourself on the edge of your seat anticipating their next move.

It is always bold to take a good character and reveal him to be bad and never is it done more effortlessly here. Brett Dalton is without a doubt one of the best actors in the show, masterfully portraying Ward the SHIELD agent and Ward the Hydra agent as though they're two different people. He is wonderfully gifted and someone who really should have a film career.

Ming Na Wen is another favourite of mine as May. May's a brilliant character; her actions often speak louder than her not-very-many words. May is a total badass. The best fight scenes involve her character; the only negative thing I have to say about this character is that May and Ward's romance feels a little forced after the show so vigorously teased Skye and Ward getting together. Ming Na Wen plays the part brilliantly though and she has some nice chemistry with Brett Dalton.

Iain de Caestecker and Elisabeth Henstridge are fun as Fitz and Simmons, offering one of the show's best pairings. The will-they won't-they (become a couple) aspect to their relationship grows a bit tired though as it is obvious they'll end up together. It takes two further seasons for them to but I would have rather have seen them become romantically linked here. It would have made a lot more sense than May and Ward.

My favourites however have to be Clark Gregg as Coulson and Chloe Bennet as Skye. I think they will always be my favourite characters from this series. Clark Gregg is fantastically dry and authoritative as Coulson whilst Chloe Bennet makes for a very likeable audience identification figure similar to the role fulfilled by companions in Doctor Who. In fact, Chloe Bennet is so great that I think she could easily hold her own alongside Robert Downey Jnr in an MCU movie. The explanation for Coulson's resurrection with project TAHITI is a very inventive one and I love how utterly bizarre Coulson's alien writing at the end of the season is.

Overall, Agents of SHIELD Season One was a bit of a mixed bag. It took a while to get going but once the Winter Soldier tie-in episodes aired it soon picked up pace. The acting is consistently strong throughout the series but it features a bizarre May/Ward romance and the will-they/won't-they get together subplot with Fitz and Simmons quickly grates. Bizarrely, they don't get together until season three. It showed promise for a first season though and it was followed a year later with a much stronger season two.

What are your thoughts on Agents of SHIELD's first season? Let me know in the comments.