Thoughts on 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Because we knew this was coming.

      Last night at 8 on ABC, Marvel premiered their new show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The big idea behind it is that it takes place in the same movie-continuity as The Avengers, including movie cast member Clark Gregg as the thought-to-be-dead Agent Coulson. It was many people's (myself include) most anticipated show of the fall season and, for now, it seems like it's living up to the hype.

      The thing that works most about Agents is actually how good it is now and the promise of what can happen in the future. The pilot itself is solid, but not the best I've ever seen. The big thing that struck me the most was the obviously stuffed nature of the pilot. With such a big concept, big world and big characters to introduce, the show's main "story", about a single dad who is revealed to have superpowers, fell to the wayside, despite some interesting takes on the "normal" superhero we'd see on an Arrow-type show. And I like Arrow. The other thing was that the pilot did play it a little safe. There was never the big reveal or the big cameo I was expecting, however that's not a bad thing. It might show that, without a huge hook for next week's episode, the show might start coasting on name-recognition, but I don't think that'll be the case.

      The rest of the pilot, however, was just what'd you expect from Marvel. The show is funny and smart about it and balances the dark undertones of the story, the surprisingly nice-looking action and effects and the characters and humor very well, as Whedon is known to do.And perhaps the best thing about the show is what it is. The show itself is a very strong show that I am really excited to watch another episode of and I really am excited to see how it can expand on the film continuity. Will it go Smallville-style introducing lesser known Marvel superheroes? Will we get an Iron Man team-up episode? Okay, probably not because it'd be ridiculously expensive, but they could probably get Hawkeye! Overall, I'm just super excited to watch the next episode and that's a very important part of being a good TV show.

      I just hope that it does step up it's game a little. I would like to see something bigger. I know how that sounds, and I don't want that to become the show, but it would be cool, seeing as how Whedon's last few TV efforts have, well, been cancelled quicker than it took me to write this post. And while the show did open to an awesome 11.9 million viewers, I didn't actually come across many people who watched it. I only talked to one other person who watched the show (If you're reading this, Hi!), and while she really liked it (Saying it felt like a movie, which it did), no one else had watched it. People wanted to watch it, but that doesn't help in the long run. But, for now, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., is a great new show and one that's definitely worth watching week to week.