Agents of SHIELD: 0-8-4 Review

After a staggering ratings boom in its premiere, can Marvel's first live-action TV show keep up its pace in Round Two?
Learning to ride a bike can be a challenge, to say the least. At first, the dual-wheel vehicle seems sturdy and easily balanced, posing no great difficulty or inaccessibility to any rider- and then the training wheels come off. Every new television drama this year will undergo much the same process, particularly if their premiere proves to be as much of a success as was the case with Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. Once Episode Two comes around, the training wheels are cast aside, the true test commencing without delay.

There's little to be envied in the case of 0-8-4's task, following up Joss Whedon's impressive season opener Pilot (4/5) without the Avengers Assemble writer on board to lend a helping hand in the screenplay. The team aren't left Whedon-less, of course, with Joss' sibling Jed assisting in script duties for the second week running. Nevertheless, facing up to the prospect of creating a new Marvel Cinematic Universe narrative without its finest scribe can't have been welcome in the episode's initial stages, although for the most part it seems viewers needn't have worried.

If nothing else, it's reassuring to witness Agents reaffirming its premise of international investigative exploits here. The 'Bus' (aka the slimline version of the Helicarrier adapted for budgetary reasons) takes our intrepid team to Peru in order to uncover an artefact with powers akin to a certain God who stopped by planet Earth not so long ago. For a programme which arguably needs to define itself as its own separate and unique entity, an unexpected amount of references continue to persist, Thor, The Incredible Hulk and Avengers each receiving namechecks in one form or another this week. This is neither a matter of criticism nor applause, rather a question of just whether such frequent bouts of nostalgic recollection will eventually become detrimental.

The primary reason for such a question becoming prominent at this stage? To be blunt, when 0-8-4's action wasn't concerned with what has come before in this multi-million dollar film (and now television) franchise, moments arose where proceedings threatened to drag or at worst come off as downright mediocre. Pilot wasn't a perfect premiere by any stretch of the imagination, yet Whedon's screenplay at least ensured a constant engagement with action-based, dramatic and comedic sequences alike, a trait which can't be said to have transferred seamlessly one week on. Just as Coulson clearly longs for a dose of historical iconography from time to time, so too do the production team now appear to desire a successful replication of the MCU's big-screen action here, something which they need to register as simply not being possible every week.

That's not to say that the show's second episode is fundamentally lacking in charm or innovation, though. Slowly but surely, a solid and likeable team dynamic is developing, Chloe Bennet's Skye a notably effective 'asset' in the cast's arsenal who needs to be put to more extensive use in future instalments. Clark Gregg remains a brilliantly enigmatic and unnervingly steely presence at the helm, in spite of the mystery of Coulson's resurrection seemingly set to remain on the back-burner for a number of weeks. If Fitz and Simmons can actually attempt to "speak English"- Grant's suggestion became irritatingly apt as the episode progressed- then there's a strong chance that they could greatly further the ensemble's potential, so we'll need to keep a watch on the level of tech-jargon from here on out.

The training wheels are well and truly off, then, and it's safe to say that Agents of SHIELD is currently stumbling in its attempts to balance itself. All the same, such teething troubles as have been outlined here are hardly unique to Marvel's debut live-action TV show, quite the contrary. 0-8-4 remains compelling viewing for fans and newcomers alike, but there's a mountain to climb yet before it comes close to matching Game of Thrones and the USA's other top dramas. Once the team look downwards, recognise the absence of stabilisers, and try to subsequently innovate rather than fall back on what's come before (although honestly, who can complain about a cameo from Nick Fury every once in a while?), the race to the top can begin in style...
3.5/5