S.H.I.E.L.D., Oct 15 - Eye-Spy

In this week’s episode of “Agents”, the agents have to deal with a rogue agent, who has apparently defaulted and joined the dark side, robbing banks, and armored cars, and safes in order to get to some bizarre formula that not even S.H.I.E.L.D. can figure out. 

However, because this is Marvel™, and Whedon, things are not as they seem – the ex-agent, Akeela, has a cyborgnetic eye that will kill her if she tries to go back to the light side. It is up to the show’s heroes to make things right again, and they deliver!

Agent May livens up somewhat and becomes more human in this episode and less of an emotionless “cyborg” that she was in “0-8-4”, for comparison. She does not kill Akeela and actually appears to be warming up to Coulson even though their personalities still clash as they did in the previous episodes.

The FitzSimmons duo are still comically reliving despite themselves, or their intentions, perhaps. Yes, they successfully operate on Akeela, but somehow their babbling... it is still funny, perhaps intentionally so.

This brings me to my first two comments. Firstly, the dendrotoxins used on Akeela are neurotoxins made from the venom of mamba snakes, a group of 4 species of highly venomous – and agile – cousins of cobras. Secondly, the comic relief bit – it is not so much annoying as over-the-top and established: practically from the pilot episode the FitzSimmons duo have been alleviating the tension, the audience knows much less about their back story than about anyone else’s: they are seemingly secondary characters without much personality behind them. I say personality, because their characters are largely the same without much difference between them. Considering that the “Agents” are built around teamwork...see below.

There is chemistry between Grant and Skye, which is not surprising. “Agents” may be about teamwork, but it is also about couples – the FitzSimmons duo, May and Coulson, Grant and Skye. Coulson, true, tries to bond with everyone...but the FitzSimmons duo is on the bottom: they are important to the plot, they provide the scientific knowhow, but to the scriptwriters, at least, they are the least important characters, period. “Agents”, or rather the main cast of the show, is fieldwork oriented, and the FitzSimmons duo is situated mostly in the background. Possibly, they will have an episode or two to themselves, but that is anyone’s bet, really.

As for Grant and Skye their relationship continues to evolve even as they work together to imitate Akeela infiltrate a Belorussian scientific facility to acquire the formula, as mentioned previously. When Grant had to seduce, cough, a security guard - that was quite funny. Then again, so were the glasses – Clark Kent references probably abounded. That is sweet, but also...predictable.

Let us be fair. There is nothing wrong with being predictable; it is just that in Whedon’s earlier works – BtVS, Firefly™ - there was nothing particularly predictable about them. It is as if Whedon is taking the easy way out: they want a show about the States being great? (Never mind that the shutdown is still going on, ha-ha.) I will do that and nothing more. The passion, the raw energy that was so noticeable in the pilot episode is gone, and what we have is a solid, but rather stogy, Cold-War-reminiscent, spy thriller, down to the Victory Square. While there are several Victory Squares in the world, my money is on it being the Belorussian one, as opposed to one in British Columbia, Canada. Belarus seems to have become a stand-in for Russia and yes, why not, it is just that the Cold War is done and gone; there is no need to revive on both sides.

Of course it may be that JW is just tired, just as Jon Taffer from “Bar Rescue” is. In the episode “Crappy Cantina” you can see that he had enough with bar rescuing and as a result the cantina in question had to close even though he had supposedly rescued it. Maybe JW is suffering from the same fatigue, who knows?

In any case, the “Eye-Spy” episode was good, solid, impressive, but – uninspiring. It was a typical action flick without any of the charisma that BtVS was famous for, and for many people that would be fine, but for a screenwriter, author, producer, etc, of Whedon’s caliber that is disappointing. I just hope that the next episodes will show the “Agents” – and the agents – get out of this funk, because even with the lack of inspiration it is a good show and has the potential of being a great one.