Remember Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol? Remember how Ethan Hunt and his team were framed for the bombing of the Kremlin by a Russian nuclear extremist codenamed Cobalt? Remember how they were forced to go underground to stop him after the President had invoked Ghost Protocol and disavowed the entirety of the IMF (Impossible Mission Force)? Remember how much fun the whole thing was despite the severity of the mission and how they would all be branded terrorists if they were caught or killed? The Season 2 premiere of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is kind of like the 2011 action-thriller, minus much of the fun and the humor that film had with its action pieces (like Tom Cruise climbing the sides of the tallest building known to man in Abu Dhabi) and the witty banter between the characters. It’s as if showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen forgot that one of the defining traits of the show was the great banter between the different members of Coulson’s team, but I’m certain that was intentional. After all, the last act of season 1 ended with Coulson himself being promoted to “Director of the now-defunct Strategic Homeland Intervention and Espionage – Logistics Division” and tasked with rebuilding the agency from the ground up, all while trying to stop Hydra from spreading further across the globe.
Season 2 begins where you’d expect if you’ve been following the show since the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The team is still defunct, has with very limited resources, and many active members are in hiding (like Romanoff, Rodgers, Fury and probably Hawkeye for all I know) and/or double agents working for Hydra. They’re also considered rogue extremists no better than Hydra to everyone all the way up to the President.
Director Coulson is monitoring one of the agencies first missions under his tenure: monitoring and taking back an 0-8-4 (codename for an object of unknown origin) that was shown in the show’s opening minutes being captured by Agent Peggy Carter and the Barbershop Quartet in the last days of WWII. Why this object is important and what use Hydra could possibly have for it is never really explained. Basically, it’s a MacGuffin to move the action and the plot forward. I’ve always had a problem with this kind of writing in films. I understand why getting the object from the antagonists is important, but what’s the endgame for the good guys? Are you going to put it back in storage? Will you use it as a weapon or study it to see where it came from for the benefit of scientific inquiry?
That lack of explanation is just one of the problems I have with the Season 2 opener. The other is the tonal shift the series seems to be taking. Things got heavy during the last handful of episodes of Season 1, but the writers were still able to make room for clever banter between the characters and retain the show’s sense of self-awareness. Last season, it was refreshing to see that kind of equilibrium on TV, especially in an age of shows that have more mature and dark storylines like AMC’s Breaking Bad and HBO’s Game of Thrones. I hope the writers don’t forget that aspect completely.
All these negatives seem to say that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has taken a major step back, but actually the show has taken several steps forward. The action scenes are tighter and more focused than before. The visual effects look better than before, especially the getaway scene when agents Skye and Antoine Tripett (B.J. Britt) take off in the quinjet using a cloaking device that makes their ride invisible. Best of all is the character development that carried over from Season 1. The closing lines spoken by Clark Gregg about how they have to fight the same way Hydra does by operating in the shadows signal that he’ll have to make tough decisions that will put his crew at risk, perhaps even sacrifice what they have to prevent Hydra from resurfacing again. Meanwhile, Chloe Bennett’s Skye isn’t the same bubbly, sarcastic computer hacker we saw in the first season either. She’s more focused and moodier about Agent Ward’s Season 1 betrayal of the team which included almost killing Leo Fitz, the team’s weapons/engineering expert. Speaking of, Ian de Caestecker’s Fitz is struggling to return to the person he once was after his near-death experience in the middle of the ocean, especially now his partner/confidant Jemma Simmons has left the team. Watching these characters go through the ringer, physically and emotionally is probably what will keep audiences coming back from one episode to the next.
In addition to the better look of the show, the improved handling of action and continued character development, there is also a sense of urgency to this new season as the team must fight Hydra while avoiding capture by every military and law enforcement agency in the United States and around the world. Still, I hope this new season doesn’t lose the sense of fun, the excitement and the great dialogue that drew me to it in the first place while it grows darker and more mature.
