Recap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “End of the Beginning”

Agents of SHIELD is back once more, this time with the promise of no more funky scheduling until the end of the season.  Last time we saw our heroes facing an Asgardian visitor and ended with the revelation that May has been spying on Coulson and company for some unknown authority.  Tonight our team decided to intensify the search for the Clairvoyant along with pretty much every agent who isn’t Nick Fury or Maria Hill, giving us an exciting episode that upped the mystery level even higher.  All of this happened while simultaneously setting us up for the premiere of Captain America: The Winter Soldier this weekend, which will lead directly into next week’s episode.  So let’s jump right into “End of the Beginning” written by Paul Zbyszewski and directed by Bobby Roth.

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Agents of SHIELD: Lorelei, Ward, and the issue of sexual consent

Trigger Warning: This post discusses rape and issues of consent.

In my recap of last night’s Agents of SHIELD I made an inexcusable mistake Continue reading

Recap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “Yes Men”

Coulson and crew are back again, in an action packed, exciting episode that also shook up our show’s characters all while giving us a healthy dose of humor to go along with it.  Also, we got the show’s biggest tie-in to the larger film world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet, with two visitors to Earth from Asgard.  Last week’s episode gave us some answers to some of the show’s biggest mysteries, including what actually happened in Tahiti, but raised even more questions in the process.  And while we didn’t get any real new revelations, the show still has some major momentum going into the rest of the season and I can’t wait to see what comes next.  So without further ado, let’s jump into “Yes Men,” written by Shalisha Francis and directed by John Terlesky.

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Recap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “T.A.H.I.T.I.”

The Olympics are over, the hiatus is done, and SHIELD is finally back!  When we last left our crew, things weren’t looking good.  Sure, they’d finally captured Ian Quinn, but before they did he shot Skye twice in the stomach, and Simmons was forced to cryogenically freeze Skye just to keep her alive long enough to reach help.  Tonight’s episode picked up right where that one left off, and gave us some interesting new information to chew on, all while introducing us to some new characters and giving us an interesting tease for next week.  So let’s head to T.A.H.I.T.I., written by Jeffrey Bell and directed by Bobby Roth.

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Recap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “T.R.A.C.K.S.”

SHIELD is back with one of its most shocking and creative episodes yet!  After last episode’s journey to the Academy, where we uncovered some big revelations about Skye’s background and saw Ian Quinn take a bigger role with Centipede and the Clairvoyant, tonight’s episode gave us a direct followup to that while delivering some big punches, some clever storytelling, a juicy tease for Marvel comic fans and a cliffhanger that will have to tide us over until after the Olympics.  So without further ado let’s jump into “T.R.A.C.K.S.”, written by Lauren LeFranc and Rafe Judkins and directed by Paul Edwards.

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Recap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “Seeds”

Hello again, Level 7 Agents!  SHIELD is back after last week’s big episode, which explored the mysteries behind Coulson’s resurrection and the secret of the “Magical Place” from his memory.  Tonight’s episode continued the trend of revelations, this time giving us a partial explanation of Skye’s mysterious past which raises more questions than it answers while simultaneously driving the character forward (as all good mystery answers should).  It also brought back a character from earlier in the season, introduced us to a classic character from the comics as well as giving us a look at the oft-discussed SHIELD Academy.  In all, another solid episode from the show, as things keep building and growing.  So let’s go ahead and jump right into “Seeds”, written by Monica Owusu-Breen and showrunner Jed Whedon and directed by Ken Fink.

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Recap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “The Magical Place”

I hope everybody enjoyed their holidays, because it’s time to ring in 2014 with a new episode of Agents of SHIELD.  Things were looking pretty dim when we last left our heroes; Coulson had been captured, everyone’s favorite guest star Mike Peterson had been blown up and our team had been left to fend for themselves.  Tonight’s episode picked up right where “The Bridge” left off, with Coulson’s Crew searching for him, while we learned some shocking new information about the show’s biggest mystery: Coulson’s resurrection.  Coulson’s absence allowed us to see how the team’s relationships have grown over the course of the show, now that he is not there to smooth things over.  Plus we got some action and a good helping of humor, plus some new information about Centipede.  But enough about all that, let’s jump to “The Magical Place”, written by Paul Zbyszewski and Brent Fletcher and directed by Kevin Hooks. Continue reading

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns tonight!

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back tonight following its winter hiatus with an episode titled “The Magical Place”.  It promises some big revelations, particularly about Coulson’s resurrection, and will have major consequences for the rest of the season.  SHIELD really hit its stride with the last half of the episodes we got in the fall, and the cast of characters had started to gel, so I’m excited to see what tonight’s episode holds.  It looks like our patience is starting to pay off.

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Recap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “The Bridge”

After a week off Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back, with the final episode of 2013.  That’s right, SHIELD won’t be back until January 7th, so we’ll have to wait until then to see how tonight’s shocking ending is resolved.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  Last time we got a fun standalone story that gave us an interesting explanation for ghosts and a good helping of insight into Melinda May.  Last night’s episode went the other direction, with less in the way of character development (at least for our regulars) but our biggest “mythology” episode yet.  That’s right, Centipede is back, and they keep getting more threatening with each appearance.  So without further ado, let’s jump right in to “The Bridge”, written by Shalisha Francis and directed by Holly Dale.

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Recap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “Repairs”

Sorry this is a bit late, loyal readers, but being off this week for Thanksgiving is messing with my routine.  Last week’s SHIELD episode gave us the much anticipated tie in to Thor: The Dark World that ended up only being tangentially related to the film.  It was still a fun and interesting episode, even if the connection between show and movie was fairly inconsequential.  Last night’s episode gave us a new unexplained phenomenon for our crew to investigate, while also finally exploring Melinda May’s background and character to an extent beyond what we’d seen thus far on the show.  And we even got a little bit of theological discussion thrown into the mix.  So let’s jump right in to “Repairs”, written by showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen and directed by Billy Gierhart.

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