And so, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." are back. Yay?
It's tricky to say. In many ways, tonight's episode - 'Bouncing Back' had all the better qualities of an AoS episode - it was simple, straightforward, had the team acting as a team (mostly) and it did a great job of introducing Yo-Yo 'Slingshot' Rodriguez as a proper, heroic character, (more similar to Daredevil or Jessica Jones, though, than the Avengers), while setting the stage for Coulson's eventual confrontation with Malick - the opening scene of 'Bouncing Back' had purposefully given us a time frame: 3 months, after which there's an explosion in space. Probably, it will be the end of Hive, and/or Malick, because-
Wait, first this episode has also did a wonderful job of integrating AoS into MCU - president Elios was the same president that appeared in the 'Iron Man 3' film, for example. Moreover, it seems to have done with its earlier, fractured approach to plot lines, as it did in S2 (and it carried, slightly, into S3) - now everything is settled: Fitz and Simmons have finally come together, Coulson seems to have patched things up with May (she seems to have gotten over Garner for the moment), and Daisy is with Lincoln. Fair enough, and there's none of the cliched, forced feeling that was back in 'Laws of Nature' (3x01). Mack, who had been sort of paired up with May in the closing episodes of S3, may've been shuffled over to Yo-Yo, or perhaps Joey had - for the moment it is hard to tell. AoS is trying to remove its former unpredictability and reliance on plot twists: even this episode's plot twists - the local cops were corrupt and had a gifted enforcer working with them - were kind of obvious and easily understood/foreseen by the viewers since the beginning of the ep.
Is this good? It's one of these things that have to be decided on an individual basis. 'Agent Carter', whose S2 had just ended last week, never had any plot twists from the start, hadn't suffered any from their lack: in fact, it was a different show from AoS, though they're supposed to be connected (S.H.I.E.L.D. picked up where SSR will leave off, eventually), for it had humor (and not tasteless either, BTW); it had real-life issues, such as racial and gender inequality, and in person of Dot Underwood we may be dealing with gender minorities too. It had everything - and there wasn't a lot of killing involved either, unlike AoS, which, since the S2 finale, became very fond of killing various characters off. Nowadays they do seem to be treating them differently - Yo-Yo is going to be something of a guest star, appearing only on a necessary basis, (thus saving AoS the cost of paying her actress all the time), as will Werner, apparently, and Thomas Ward...seems to have vanished.
More precisely, 'Bouncing Back' is the episode where Aos has cut-off (at least in canon) all ties to the previous episodes and their messed-up plotline. Fitz and Simmons are together, as they should be. Daisy and Lincoln are together, as it was hinted at since they've met in Li Shi (not that the fans care - Daisy has been paired off in fan works with anyone and everyone and their aunt, cough), and Coulson and May may be finally getting together: in other words, things are back to how they been in S1, save that Grant is dead and Lincoln's in his place.
Fair enough, and the way how the show's staff have made Ward into a simple, designated villain has probably cost them some viewers/fans: right now, the ratings of AoS are under 4 million, while 'Blindspot', by comparison, has about 6.5: this is a telling number - no matter how well the characters do their job, they're still characters in a show, and the real life isn't affected by them. For example, 'Fuller House', which is a modernized, updated version of 'Full House' sitcom of the 90s, isn't doing so well, but it seems to have gotten a S2 of its own all the same. Whoever pays the piper gets the tune and the show, it seems, and AoS has gotten its S4 (and Grant/Hive appears to be a part of the promo pic here, so yeah?).
Anyways, as a show AoS has shown that has gotten its bearings together by now, which is good, for Morse and Hunter appear to be about to acquire their own show at last...but since the talk has been going about this since the start of S2 and nothing seems to have come out of it, it's anyone's guess. The spin-off's synopsis, however, indicates that S.H.I.E.L.D. will have its own problems by the end of S3, and Hunter and Morse will be on their own (alongside Dominic Fortune) in the spinoff. Again, this makes AoS a very different, darker show from 'Carter' (Malick owns Gothic Industries - seriously?) and suggests that when in three months' time some sort of a S.H.I.E.L.D. space shuttle explodes in space Coulson and his team won't get the clean win they got in the mid-S3 finale, but for now it's a fairly straightforward road: both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra are assembling forces of gifted/InHuman people to fight 'some sort' of a future battle for them, cough, which will probably occur at the end of S3 (causing Hunter and Morse to strike out on their own in the process?). Until then we will follow the show and generally enjoy watching it (or not - it depends on the person, after all).
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