Agents of Shied is back and the hunt for the Inhumans is on!
After what can be considered at best a rough season one (honestly I stopped watching during the first season). A very much improved season two and now contending with the amazing Daredevil and Agent Carter, Agents of Shield is back. And season three’s season premiere episode does a lot of what I was hoping to see from a Marvel show featuring S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents. Espionage, world travel, super powers, and cyborg hands!
The show opens with a bang, literally. An Inhuman by the name of Joey is running through the streets, unaware that his power causes the metal around him to disintegrate, which, as you can imagine, is really not good in a city, lots of metal. Anyway, explosions, people running away, black ops in black vehicles telling him to get down and put his hands up! It’s a hell of an start.
In these ominous vehicles we meet Rosalind Price, played by the fantastic Constance Zimmer. Is Rosalind this season’s villain? Not sure yet. The opening would certainly lead you to think so. Also the fact that as the show goes on, we learn she has had different alias in different organizations, and is mostly untraceable, and can even control the president (A wonderful cameo from William Sadler, reprising his role of the President from Iron Man 3). But what certainly grabbed me is the qualities of Price are qualities that can also be contributed to one Nicolas Fury! Boom! She’s female Nick Fury and that’s awesome. (I’m running with this narrative… until next week when she ends up killing a character we love or something).
Get outta my dreams! And…you know the rest
During the attempted arrest, Daisy/Skye and the Agents of Shield come in for the rescue. Daisy using her powers as Quake to save Joey. This is great, and a version of Daisy I can get behind. In season one, she was the audience surrogate, asking tons of questions and meant to be the wide-eyed newbie into this world of Marvel spies. Season two consisted of her asking more questions, mainly about herself and own past trying to discover her true origin. Here we see a much more confident, dive into the action version of Daisy. And frankly that’s more enjoyable to watch. There’s a David Mamet quote about us, the viewers. We like seeing people good at their job, doing their jobs well. That’s Daisy now. She’s kicking ass and taking names, while still being the character she’s been. If she’s the action side of this ‘Hunt for the Inhumans’ story, were in for a ride.
From here, the plot kicks off, and we begin the main thrust of the episode. What is this black ops group? Who is Price? And how are they able to get to these Inhumans before Shield? This is the crux of the episode. But there are other fun elements as well.
We find Fitz in Morocco, on the search to discover if Simmons has become a Star Child or something else after being sucked into the monolith from last season. This felt very Bond like with the exotic local. Also nice to see Shield shoot in a location that wasn’t an industrial building or clearly a back lot subbing for New York. This was actually a fun scene and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Fitz journeying around the world.
Bobbi and Lance Hunter continuing their “will they/won’t they/of course they will” from last season. These two were supposed to get a spin-off (which is back on the table I believe, I could Google it but…eh!). These characters were a breath of fresh air last season and remain so.
We are introduced to the mysterious character Lash. Who looks like a Lord of the Rings Uruk-Hai going through a long hair and dreadlocks college phase. We see him use his powers to burn a whole into an innocent security guards chest. Not nearly as bad a death as the security guard in Terminator 2: Judgment Day in the mental hospital, but still, not a way I’d want to go, that’s for sure.
And what of Agent Coulson? After last seasons mysterious alien writing, we’re now back to Coluson just being a leader, now with cyborg hand! His interplay with Price on the train is very enjoyable and I look forward to more scenes involving these two verbally sparing. Coulson also does the father thing he would do as the leader, which involves telling people the hard truths. Like telling Fitz that his journey for Simmons may all be for naught. Or is it!?!
Any negatives? Well we’re still dealing with the show not having the biggest budget ever, which is fine, it’s TV. But that hospital was pretty empty of extras. Almost Halloween II styles of hospital empty, know what I’m saying? Also Lash’s make up was okay, but also rang a bit of Buffy the Vampire Slayer monster of the week. Now I love Buffy, but this is supposed to be the same universe with Drax, who’s got great make up. I can also see the absents of May annoying some, but I’m sure she’ll be back!
Overall a very strong episode, setting up enough interesting threads to keep the season worth watching. Strong action, good humor and banter that doesn’t distract from the overall plot. If you left Shield, this may be the time to jump back on. You don’t need to have followed every episode. In fact I’d say this is a fine jumping on point. Sure the characters are reacting to past events. But like comics, just jump on in, you’ll pick everything up well enough. Or catch up on Netflix.
See you next week!
