Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV Series) Shadows (2014) User Reviews

That's how we have to live now...in the shadows

[jhudson-11704 · 8/10 · 7 August 2017]

Agents of Shield returns and it comes back with a new tone, some new cast, familiar faces and a new threat. And for the most part, it works.

Let's start with the new tone in the show. Shield basically doesn't exist anymore so they operate in the shadows and its even more intriguing because they don't have the money and manpower available to them in the first season. I also love how Skye is an actual field agent rather than a hacker.

With a new season, comes some new cast members. We have Agent Mack, an engineer who's built like a tank, Hunter, a merc with a mouth yet not Deadpool, Hartley, played by Lucy fricking Lawless, and Idaho, who is there. Half of these don't make it through the first episode, and while I'm not surprised or sad that Idaho is gone, I am sad that Hartley is because Lawless brings something great to anything she is in like Xena, Spartacus or Parks and Rec.

We also get familiar faces from a Marvel movie, The First Avenger, as Agent Carter, Dumb Dumb Dugan and Jim Morita make a cameo that is very welcome and reveals something cool about a villain in this season. A head of Hydra has been around since the 1940s and not only that, but he hasn't aged, which is a great twist and mystery to be explored.

This episode's villain was Carl "Crusher" Creel. While this is a great nod to Daredevil, where Creel was involved in one of Daredevil's pivotal moments, this is where we actually see him. While his personality wasn't anything new or interesting, his powers sure were. And it was really well done for a TV show to show him change his body into any substance.

The humor and writing were also on pace with the last third of the first season, which I enjoy as it is already starting to feel different and better than the first season.

+ Carter and the Commandos + Tone, writing and humor +/- Creel + New Cast - Some gone though

Final Score: 8.7/10

If Only the First Season Had Started This Strongly

[dramafreak42 · 8/10 · 29 September 2014]

I make no bones about the fact that the first season of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." did not do much for me. It under-delivered on the promise of integration with the Marvel Cinematic Universe for too long, and made viewers slog through a "weird occurrence of the week" style show that didn't have a clearly outlined villain. Thankfully all of that turned around when Hydra reared its head, but part of me really worried that it was too late to turn this boat around.

I'm happy to report that the second season hits the ground running and feels like what the show should have been in the first place. Most of my major issues with season one have already been addressed: the big one being that S.H.I.E.L.D. was always too darn powerful. Focusing on the small team didn't dilute the fact that this was a massive state of the art organization, and it felt like they were bullies when they were taking down "fire guy" or some college student who made the weather dominator. With S.H.I.E.L.D. as we knew it now dismantled, this puts the team in the underdog situation that makes them instantly easier to root for. They don't have unlimited resources anymore, plus they have to actually operate in the shadows (something they talked about but never seemed to do in the first season.) One an individual basis, the team works better as well. Coulson is being much better utilized. It never felt right that he was in this weird sort of middle management role of running a team but usually not being the on the ground leader. Now he's the director of what is left of the organization, and it just feels right. His inscrutable line delivery is perfectly suited for being the guy with more information than anybody else. May is still awesome and kicks plenty of butt, while Tripp is an infinitely more fun point man than Ward ever was. The show even pulls off the seemingly impossible task of making Fitz and Simmons interesting and dynamic. Sky is still just kind of there, but as before she's not dragging anybody down and she gets the job done.

Newcomers are doing great work as well. Lucy Lawless is in top form, as she always is. And the retention of Patton Oswalt was such a relief, his appearance in season one was one of the highlights and to have him back is a ceaseless joy. By the end of the episode we're also given a clear, distinct and understandable villain, which is something the first season lacked for way too long. We don't know much about him yet, but we already know his connections and the mystery about him generates interest instead of yawns (the first season really overplayed the mystery of the "clairvoyant," and this time they seem to understand that if nothing else we need a face.) While it's a great start, and it maintains the momentum that the last few episodes of the previous season built up, there are a few points that have me worried. The big one is Ward. Just on principle is drives me nuts that they didn't kill him off last season. Firstly, he was never that interesting. Probably in an attempt to have his betrayal be believable, we never really got close enough to him to really care much about the guy. And then his betrayal was so fundamental, paired with the fact that he attempted to kill Fitz and Simmons, that really he should have been killed. I don't buy the "he's not ALL that bad" angle they seemed to be trying to give him at the end of last season. He's beyond redemption and I have no interest in his return to the team in any capacity. That said, if he's going to be around, locked up in a cage is a good place to put him. Except you know that sooner or later they're going to need his help and he'll be let out and then it'll just bog down everything. They're also continuing to tease out the mystery of Sky, which I never really got very invested in last time around. I'm morbidly curious, but it doesn't really matter much to me.

These however are fairly minor stumbling points, especially when compared to how rough the first season was. I just hope that the show can maintain its current quality and not dip back into the traps that made the first season such a slog for so long.

Definite improvement

[harmonyb-84038 · 9/10 · 29 July 2021]

This season premiere is definitely a huge improvement over Season 1's, wish the executives had just let the show do its own thing from the very beginning.

Rewatch thoughts

[noorea-85147 · 9 February 2019]

An absolutely stellar star for the season, this episode establish a grim tone that will haunt the show for the rest of days, but it works! Shield is in the crossfire, held together by the willpower of few agents, those who come back from season one are changed by the months that passed, some have left? new faces arrive and some old faces return,some come and leave right away, which sucks because I liked them a lot just in that one episode! The heartbreaking stuff with Fitz is not easier on rewatch, particularly for anyone who watched past certain episodes in later seasons, because Fitz's arch and growth is a pillar of this show, it's almost uncanny watching it unfold! I also really loved the music in this episode, as well as the production design, Creel's powers are dope and Coulson's speach game was on point! so many good quotes!

A question about the obelisk

[ecolon-45716 · 10/10 · 30 October 2022]

I have really enjoyed and rewatched this show (all 7 seasons) many times. I like it so much. All the actors are excellent in my opinion. All seasons had their great episodes and villains ( except season 5, didn't like the kree in space story) But I have a question about this episode. Why did the obelisk glow - then attack Hartley anyway ? Sky said she saw the obelisk glow. But the obelisk turned Hartleys hand to stone ! If Hartley made it glow , then she has the alien DNA marker , and would NOT have been attacked. One or the other , it can't be both , why did that happen ? Can someone tell me ?

Good, but with little changes this episode could be almost perfect.

[patrick-raphael · 8/10 · 29 October 2018]

The dialogues, I think, was the worst thing in the ep 1. The Coulson's speach about Fitz in the last five minutes, for exemple. And why the Nazis, in Austria, was speaking in english?