Tag Archives: Grant Ward

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

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Agents of SHIELD Cast, season 2

Ladies and gentlemen, Agents of SHIELD is back!  It’s got a new timeslot, a bunch of new faces, a new enemy, and a new group dynamic, but SHIELD’s mission hasn’t changed.  The events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier may have changed everything for Coulson and his team last season, but they’re still out to protect people, even if they may not have the seemingly endless resources of last year.  Coulson’s trying to rebuild SHIELD from the ground up as its new director, which means making deals with some shady characters and making harder decisions than he ever has before.  Tonight’s episode gave us our first look at how this new version of SHIELD will play out, setting the stage for some season-long arcs while delivering some solid action, new superpowers and connections to the Marvel universe, and hints to larger mysteries, a tease for Agent Carter, and a good helping of drama.  So let’s jump right into “Shadows,” written by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen and directed by Vincent Misiano.

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Instant Reaction: Agents of SHIELD – “Shadows”

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*Update: My full recap of “Shadows” is now live.  Read it here!

Agents of SHIELD is back!  I don’t know about you but I was an energizing mix of excited and nervous for the premiere, full of questions but eager to finally get back into my favorite show.  Would the new season live up to the first?  What’s the status of all of the mysteries left over from last season?  What’s going to happen to Ward?  What happened to Fitz?  How will Skye’s new hairdo look?  We got some glimpses at the answers to these questions along with a whole host of new mysteries for season 2 in tonight’s episode, “Shadows.”

I’m going to be trying something new this season as a result of SHIELD‘s later timeslot and in an effort to maintain a more human sleep schedule.  After a new episode airs I’ll post an “instant reaction” like this one, and in the following day or two I’ll put up my full recap as usual, going into more depth than this quick reaction and covering the entire episode, with my customary S.H.I.E.L.D. thoughts to cap it off.  Please be patient with me, as it will probably take me a little while to find the right balance between the two (and please offer any suggestions you might have on how to improve things).  These quick reactions will be in the form of bullet points, not necessarily in order, and will hit some of the big moments from the episode along with anything that catches my eye.  Some of them will pop up again in my full recap while others will only live here.  Once my full recap is posted, I’ll update this post to include a link to it.  So without further ado, here are my thoughts about “Shadows.”
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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Looking back at season 1 and forward at season 2

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We’re just one week away from the season 2 premiere of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I can’t wait to see what this season has in store.  SHIELD quickly became my favorite show on TV last year, and despite some early struggles the final stretch of episodes were fantastic.  I had fully intended to write an in-depth recap of the first season, going through the major plot points and character progressions, looking at where the show succeeded and where it could use some work, but some unexpected illnesses and a fair amount of travel kept me from doing that.  (I also wanted to rewatch the first season before this one started, but the DVDs were released too late for me to fit it into my schedule.)  But I still wanted to post something before the next season starts, so here’s what you’ll find below: links to all of my recaps of season one, my top moments from the first season, some general thoughts on what I liked about season one and what I’d like to see from season two, and, most importantly, a request for feedback on what you’d like to see from my weekly episode recaps this season.

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

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I’m just going to go ahead and say it: I’ve never seen a more exciting, emotional, badass, hilarious, sweet and special finale to a show’s first season.  Not only that, but tonight’s episode of Agents of SHIELD is already up there on my list of top season finales of any show ever.  I have to give full credit not only to the writers and showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, but the cast, crew and everyone involved in the show for doing a truly spectacular job.  In an hour they managed to wrap up the dangling storylines left from last week and the entire season, not only as far as plot but also with the characters, set things in motion for next season by completely changing the direction of the show, work in the show’s best guest appearance thus far, while managing to surprise and send a fist straight into the chest of my emotions, pulling out one of my ribs in the process.  I could go on and on (and I will), but I might as well just jump right into tonight’s season finale, “Beginning of the End,” written by Jed and Maurissa and directed by David Straiton.

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

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It’s the penultimate episode of Agents of SHIELD, and things are shaping up for a thrilling finish to the season.  After last week’s exciting showdown between Ward and Skye, as well as the rest of the team discovering Ward’s treachery and a great appearance from Maria Hill, tonight’s episode saw our crew digging for more information on HYDRA’s plans while we also got to see a bit of how Ward became the traitor he is today.  We also got some new revelations on a variety of fronts, and a killer cliffhanger leading into next week’s finale.  So let’s jump into tonight’s episode, “Ragtag,” written by Jeffrey Bell and directed by Roxann Dawson.

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Recap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “Nothing Personal”

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Apologies, my fellow Agents of SHIELD/HYDRA/Nothing, for this week’s recap being late.  I’m at home sick with pneumonia, so my schedule is a little off.  We’re only a few episodes from the end of the season, and things have really gotten intense.  Last week we saw Ward kill Agent Koenig and head off with Skye, who had secretly discovered his ties to HYDRA, May left the base for complex reasons, while Coulson and the rest of the team rescued Coulson’s former girlfriend from a creepy, superpowered stalker.  This week’s episode was one of the most exciting, suspenseful, dramatic and emotional hours of the show yet, all while featuring the return of Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill.  So let’s jump right into “Nothing Personal,” written by Paul Zbyszewski & DJ Doyle and directed by Billy Gierhart.

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Recap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “The Only Light in the Darkness”

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Happy Earth Day, readers!  SHIELD is back with another dynamite episode!  Last week we watched as Ward and Garrett emptied the Fridge, while Coulson and company chased some mysterious coordinates to Fury’s secret bunker, Providence.  Tonight’s episode introduced us to a couple new characters, all while taking another big step along the “who can we trust?” boardgame.  Things are really starting to build towards the season finale in a few weeks, so let’s jump right into “The Only Light in the Darkness,” written by Monica Owusu-Breen and directed by Vincent Misiano.

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

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After last week’s game-changing episode of Agents of SHIELD, we were left with just as many questions as were our heroes.  This week both we viewers and the characters we watch got some answers, along with some clues about where the show goes from here.  There’s no way that this episode could live up to the huge moments of last week, and the show was wise not to try.  In many ways, it felt like the first episode of a mini series, heading into the finale of season one, setting up both the type of conflicts our heroes will face as well as the internal strife they must confront to find their place in a changed world.  So without further ado, let’s dive into tonight’s episode, “Providence,” written by Brent Fletcher and directed by Milan Cheylov.

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

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A lot has happened since we last left Coulson’s crew just one week ago.  In the real world, Captain America: The Winter Soldier was released this past weekend, setting box office records and generally getting rave reviews.  In the process it changed almost everything about the Marvel Cinematic Universe and by extension our beloved Agents of SHIELD.  (Needless to say, there will be spoilers ahead for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.)  Never before has a film had this level of impact on a TV show, and tonight’s episode resolved several mysteries, altered the lives of our heroes for good, and set the show on its path going forward.  So without further ado, let’s jump into “Turn, Turn, Turn,” written by our married showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen and directed by Vincent Misiano.

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

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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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