S.H.I.E.L.D., Inside Man - March 15

And so, the adventure continues in "The Inside Man". AoS continues in the same vein as it did with the previous episode, but-

But the episode 'Bouncing Back' was something of a portmanteau, dealing with a 'regular day' in the life of S.H.I.E.L.D. on one hand, and introducing Yolanda Rodriguez on the other. Since she's also Slingshot of the Secret Warriors, she deserves another mention, this time because she may be Mack's love interest, now that May seems to be back with Coulson, sort of. However, one of the last scenes back in 'Bouncing Back' seemed to be pairing Yolanda with Joey instead, on one hand, and on the other, NCB is still largely a guest star, who seems to come and go as a recurring character...and they tend to vanish on AoS leaving plot holes behind: Ian Quinn, the (remaining) Koenig brothers, agent Weaver, etc. There's no indication as to what has happened to them...and in this episode, agent Mackenzie is noticeably absent, as is Joey...but Joey was a recurring character with a spotty appearance record from the start; Mack is different: he is a part of the regular cast, so what gives?

It all probably comes down to the budget and the fact that the show seems to have peculiar relations with its cast - it tends to re-use them, as it did with Creel; in this particular episode, not only he had returned, but he had been redeemed by the military, in the character of general Talbot. When the latter starts to talk about redemption, there's some stabbing and unwitting criticism of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s tactics, I suspect. Hive is a man-eating monster, but Grant...well, he should've been either shot from the start, or offered something along the lines of Creel - also from the start, not when it was too little too late.

Talbot himself is not so much redeemed as developed further, depicted as a more well-rounded and likable character rather than the sherrif of Nottingham type of character he appeared in S2. Of course, his previous informal alliance with Coulson didn't go so well, so one cannot blame him for not trusting or liking Coulson, especially at first, and to putting his faith in Creel too.


Creel is going to be important as himself as well, since apparently his blood can counter the effects of the Terrigen, which - a minor or not so minor plot point - is the part of an argument between Daisy and Lincoln about him settling into S.H.I.E.L.D. Meh, he cannot go anywhere, he's still something of a wanted man, so he'll stay there, alongside Daisy, May and Coulson, and the FitzSimmons (who barely got any screen time at all during this episode - ouch!).

This, of course, brings us to the potential spinoff of Hunter and Morse - the 'Most Wanted'. It still hasn't gone through, and it just may never do, because by now, AoS doesn't have a very big fan base as it did in S1, and let's be honest - there are some people who are watching the show primarily for Hunter and Morse, as opposed for the FitzSimmons, for example, so if they're off the AoS and onto MW, then this part of AoS viewers will most likely go with them, which means another drop in the audience numbers. Yes, AoS has been passed on for S4 in the future, but things happen. In fall of 2015, for example, a series called 'Blood & Oil' was aired. It was supposed to consist of 13 episodes (and possibly passed on for S2), but S2 doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon, and the number of episodes was cut down to 10. So yeah, things happen, even in TV land, and AoS seems to have problems as a franchise too - there were several comic runs of 'Agents' (none of which have anything to do with the show, unlike some 'Agent Carter' comics), plus Daisy/Quake comics, Howling Commandos comics, InHuman and Mockingbird comics, all of which diversify attention and make it very hard to figure out where the 'Agents' stay in the greater Marvel world. Go AoS. Not.

But the TV series have seemed to gotten it together at last, one way or another. The only question is whether or not this will be enough to enable the show's - and the franchise's - audience to flourish and grow once more.

S.H.I.E.L.D., Bouncing Back - March 8

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).