Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Review – “Shadows”

The series returns for its second season, with more than its share of guest stars

and new characters.

Cast and Crew Information

Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson
Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May
Brett Dalton as Grant Ward
Chloe Bennet as Skye
Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz
Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons
BJ Britt as Agent Triplett
Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter
Nick Blood as Lance Hunter
Wilmer Calderon as Idaho
Kenneth Choi as Jim Morita
Reed Diamond as Daniel Whitehall
Adrian Pasdar as Brigadier General Glenn Talbot
Lucy Lawless as Isabelle Hartley
Neal McDonough as Timothy Alloyisius Cadwallader “Dum Dum” Dugan
Henry Simmons as Alphonso ‘Mac’ Mackenzie
Patton Oswalt as Billy Koenig
Brian Patrick Wade as Carl Creel

Written by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen
Directed by Vincent Misiano

Premise

The team is trying to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D. with limited resources, despite the

continued existence of Hydra and a witch hunt from their own government trying to

bring them down.

High Point

The “whammy” that we got hit with near the end.

Low Point

It feels like Coulson’s story shifted gears a bit since the end of the previous

season to me.

The Review

This is an original direction for the series and a few of its characters.

It’ll be very interesting to see the way the season plays out. I give it 5 out of 6.

The effects were primarily convincing, with the exception of the diamond

shot. That one was out of perspective in a distracting fashion. I give it 5 out of

6.

The story is serving a lot of purposes. The episode has a clear beginning,

middle and end, but it certainly doesn’t stand alone. The episode was also carefully

shot and scripted to accomodate the final twist. I give it 5 out of 6.

The acting is very well done, particularly for some of the returning cast

members who can’t be named for fear of spoilers. I give it 5 out of 6.

The production is tightly packed once again. This is one of the episodes

that’s hard to pin down in terms of length while watching it, because the normal act

structure is somewhat subverted by the number of running storylines, yet it still

works well. I give it 5 out of 6.

The emotional response would have scored a 5 until those last few minutes.

6 out of 6.

Overall, it’s a strong season opener to a season that seems to have a clear

plan in place. I give it 5 out of 6.

In total, Shadows receives 36 out of 42.

6 replies on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Review – “Shadows””

      • There were a couple different things that happened by surprise by the end of the episode, but the one that was the biggest was probably this one:


        Fitz was talking to Simmons the entire episode while having various brain-injury-related difficulties. At the end, we find out she left a while back and the Simmons he was talking to the entire time was in his head, imagined.

  1. Having been punched in the gut by the Bones premiere, I hadn’t had much brain power remaining to process what all happened in this episode very deeply. If nothing else, it has setup quite a few things to hopefully be resolved in later episodes, though hopefully the big one is resolved sooner rather than later (the one that the big twist was about).

    I really hope they didn’t waste that guest star in the first episode, hopefully that mystery item did more than the apparent damage we saw before they died.

    For me, the high point was the various ways they played with Talbot, much to his displeasure.

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