Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 1 (Pilot)

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Just finished watching Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; here are a few of my thoughts:

Bad acting? Check.

Cheesy dialogue? Check.

Weak story? Check.

Obvious product placement? Check.

Rolls-eye-moment at the end? Check.

Marvel Studios debuted their new TV series that connects to the greater cinematic universe with Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The episode starts off by plugging some merchandise with a googly-eyed kid checking out a display full of Avengers action figures. Cue an explosion, and the down-on-his-luck dad makes the save with a techie blogger on hand to record what went down.

We are then introduced to tough-guy Agent Ward who is being brought in to be a part of Agent Coulson’s new team. Maria Hill from The Avengers movie is there to give him the low down when Coulson himself steps out of the shadows and into the light. Coulson lives! Well, at least partially as we learn all is not as it seems, perhaps leading credence to those Vision rumors. Coulson explains that he survived Loki’s attack in The Avengers movie, and that Fury sent him to Tahiti to recover. Coulson keeps referring to Tahiti as a “magical place” over and over, perhaps another clue to what really happened (throughout the episode “weird” is also stated about a half dozen times, which sounded odd). Maria Hill and a S.H.I.E.L.D. doctor (played by Ron Glass) than say something about it’s best if Coulson doesn’t know the truth.

The techie blogger, Skye, then tracks down the hooded superhero and attempts to convince him to reveal himself to the public. He can’t get a job, is being evicted, so coming out might do him some benefit. He says no, but we see later on that his powers come about as a result of some alien Chitauri technology where he talks to the Doctor (that he actually saved in the explosion) who tells him to be quiet because the powerful people behind it don’t want to be made known. Things then start to heat up.

Coulson tracks down Skye, who happens to know more about a project named Centipede than S.H.I.E.L.D. does, and recruits her for the team (Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. gets mentioned). She’s really good at tech and helps out the other two S.H.I.E.L.D. tech agents, Fitz and Simmons, put together what happened with the explosion. Turns out it was a secret lab that was giving normal humans powers through the Chitauri tech, which was some sort of device embedded into their forearm (looks like a centipede or something from Falling Skies). They play back the footage where it’s revealed the cause of the explosion was the man himself. It’s Iron Man 3 Extremis tech; however, that is not all it is as it’s learned gamma radiation and Captain America’s Super Soldier formula are involved as well, so it seems it’s a blend of everything that went down at the Battle of New York.

Well, the hooded hero starts to change to a hooded villain as a result of the centipede. S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to track him down to stop him from exploding. Coulson tells Fitz and Simmons to get on a fix. They end up tracking the hooded hero to a train station where he is cornered. Agent Coulson talks him down with a speech about being a hero etc. Then BLAM! The hero is shot in the head by Agent Ward, but it’s not a kill shot, it’s a cure shot.

Finally, Agent Coulson and Skye are shown with the hooded hero getting a brand new house etc. As they climb into Lola (Coulson’s Corvette) to leave, Coulson gets a call about a possible “0-8-4” that they need to investigate. Problem is their headquarters is too far away, and they won’t make it there in ten minutes. Not true as Coulson presses a few buttons and Lola turns into hovercraft mode exactly like Back To The Future.

The premiere for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was unimpressive and did little to wow the senses. It was a corny attempt to connect to the Avengers, offering little to hook the viewer in other than a cameo here or a mention of a thunder god there.  The episode didn’t offer a lot of set up and doesn’t hold much promise; nothing new was learned and it didn’t go out of its way to make the characters very relatable or interesting. So far this isn’t a spectacular debut for Marvel Studios, basically just an average TV show.

What did you think of the episode? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.