How Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Won Me Over

Written by John Edward Betancourt

I have to admit that the first time I heard that Marvel was bringing forward a show strictly about S.H.I.E.L.D. and its agents, I was skeptical. After all, this is an organization that from my experience was always second fiddle to the big boys and girls of the Marvel Universe. They would never outshine the likes of Thor and Tony Stark, so how on earth would this work?

Well naturally, I gave the show a chance because Marvel has yet to do me wrong, yet while I enjoyed seeing the return of Phil Coulson, it was hard for me to make the show a priority week in and week out. Sure there were elements of danger, the awesome tie in to Thor: The Dark World but it felt like something was missing. 

After all, S.H.I.E.L.D. was everywhere, they always had the organization to fall back upon so my first impression of the show was that we would be spending week after week hunting crazy alien artifacts and dealing with a "freak of the week", so...pretty standard fare.  But then it happened, after watching and waiting...Captain America: The Winter Solider arrived and the show suddenly had my attention, since Winter Solider rocked the Marvel Cinematic Universe...and the fallout from that directly tied into the show at the same time.

Quite frankly HYDRA was the best thing to happen to the show, for as we learned, they were everywhere and in a matter of minutes, we watched our beloved S.H.I.E.L.D. be dismantled before our eyes and I could no longer look away. The characters were always likeable, but now they were in legitimate danger week in and week out.  Throw in Ward's betrayal, Coulson's mysterious desire to draw what would later be the map to the Kree city and the show was no longer standard fare.  This was a show about heroes and villains, spies and betrayal and I was completely and utterly hooked. 

Now it is a show that I cannot miss and they continued to up their game. Season two has been gritty and powerful so far, pushing the characters to their limits and occasionally their breaking points as the show continues to break new ground and present new challenges to the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. and now with the introduction of the Inhumans element, the show continues to break new ground.  This show completely won me over simply by taking chances, by not giving us a run of the mill show anymore, and quite frankly I'm wondering if the slow start to surprise us was always part of the plan.  Either way, I'm impressed and I can't wait to see where Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. takes us next. 

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