TV Review: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Aftershocks"

Series has superheroes now but same old problems.

Review by Brandon Wolfe

I thought it was getting better. Granted it’s been three long months since the last episode, but I had the faintest recollection of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. closing out its fall run on a minor upswing of quality. But checking back into Marvel’s flagship TV series finds the same collection of problems and shortcomings that have plagued this misbegotten show from the beginning still very much in place. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying some new things, sure, but it’s all built upon the same rickety foundation that’s always existed just beneath its floorboards.

Yes, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has superheroes (and villains) now. That’s terrific. So did Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. All the eyeless, teleporting “gifteds” in the world can’t shore up the difference when your show is still populated by the same collection of drips spouting the same inartfully overdramatic, hopelessly clichéd dialogue in the same visually drab surroundings. It remains so peculiar that this series is the one branch of the Marvel Universe that just can’t seem to get into its head that character and personality need to be the driving forces behind these stories. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. may reference the Avengers in dialogue, but its actual reference points still seem to be bad syndicated television or worse Saturday morning cartoons from decades past.

For those who understandably have forgotten, we left off in December with Skye and Raina going through Terragenesis and emerging as genetically altered superhumans. Skye is in quarantine as a precaution, but her newfound state is otherwise unknown to her colleagues, though a DNA test being conducted by Fitz threatens to spill the beans before long. All that we know of Skye’s powers thus far is that she has the ability to make things vibrate, as when she inadvertently shatters a light fixture within her quarantine vestibule. Raina, on the other hand, drew the shorter straw, transformation-wise. She does not possess any special powers, unless a thorny, reptilian exterior counts. Abandoned by her former ally Cal, Skye’s father (Kyle MacLachlan, still the only actor on this show trying to at least have some fun with the dross he’s given), Raina is left despondent by her hideous appearance and attempts to kill herself using the somewhat mundane method of walking into traffic, until she is rescued by the eyeless teleporter glimpsed in the episode’s opening flashback, another product of Terragenesis. Meanwhile, Fitz learns Skye’s secret, but decides to help her conceal it from the others, because that’s just the kind of nonsensical stalling tactic in which this show would see dramatic value. In addition, to hammer home the episode’s eventual connection to the (way) upcoming Inhumans movie, Fitz comments to Skye that her heart rate levels are “inhuman,” because this show can’t help but bold and underline everything before dragging a highlighter over it for good measure.

The undying problem on this show is that nobody is interesting, nor says anything interesting. The characters spend much of “Aftershocks” mourning and trading tales of the fallen Trip, but the show fails to realize that we barely knew anything about Trip, so forcing such import on his loss cannot possibly work. This is a series that always operates under the presumption that the audience loves these characters without ever doing anything to endear them to us to earn that presumption. Consider the show’s continued mythologizing of Agent May, whom is perpetually presented as the “badass” audience favorite despite doing nothing to warrant such a position beyond being steely and occasionally kicking people. May’s action sequences are always presented as though they expect that they will be punctuated with applause from the home audience, but that takes some measure of personality and charisma, neither of which May possesses an ounce.

Coulson is another big problem. Remember when he used to be such an enjoyable part of the Marvel films? Watching this show makes it very easy to forget that he was ever an audience favorite. It’s reinvented him as this monotonous, exposition-blathering bore. Where Coulson once had a breezy Everyman quality, he now is deathly dull. There’s a reason why Clark Gregg has never been a leading man. He’s a fine utility player, but placing him center stage and forcing him to spout constant jargon and overcooked nonsense is not something he does well. I can barely think of another lead character on any show less effective than him. Even worse is Skye, since Chloe Bennet’s acting limitations are far more restrictive than Gregg’s. Bennet has one move, which is to look wounded, and that’s not nearly enough to sustain a character granted the level of importance that this show has awarded Skye. I was no fan of the plodding Agent Carter, but in Hayley Atwell and James D’Arcy, it at least had two leads with enough charm and agreeability to carry us through the series’ numerous shortcomings. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. just has more shortcomings.

There is always so much happening on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and essentially none of it ever amounts to a thing, locking us into this endlessly repetitive hamster loop. There is always some powerful relic to be sought. There is always a steady stream of evil Mr. Bigs (like Reed Diamond’s Whitehall and Fred “Hunter” Dryer’s Whatshisname) propped up as temporary threats to be knocked down and replaced by someone exactly the same. Hydra is mentioned ad infinitum. The show is resolute in its commitment to toiling in the familiar. Every aspect of the show is awash in things that were tired and trite decades ago. When Coulson’s team orchestrates an extraction designed to fool the mark, their scheme is painfully obvious long before the “twist” is revealed to us because we’ve seen movies and TV shows before. Even when the show tries to startle the audience, as when May’s car is abruptly T-boned by a truck, it’s in that passenger-side POV that has been in every movie released in the past ten years. And the dialogue! Every line spoken on this show is eardrum-mutilating in its pure banality.

But Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has superheroes now. To many, that will be enough to declare it officially worthwhile now, but it shouldn’t be. Ideally, this should be a weekly Marvel movie, in spirit if obviously not in budget. It should capture the playful essence that has made that franchise the center of the known universe. Barring that, it should be competently watchable. That it continues to fail to reach even the low bar of being an agreeable time-passer is simply unacceptable in a way that having a man BAMF around like Nightcrawler cannot correct on its own.

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