Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3A Overview
Agents of SHIELD has begun its third season and with that comes several new characters, about a dozen plot lines, and its fiftieth episode. It’s at this point of the show that you’re surprised at how long it’s gone for and how many plot twists it has done to make it almost unrecognizable from the beginning. Agents of SHIELD already had a big leap from its second season finale, so this third season had some level of expectations to follow. So how is the first half of season three? Full warning, this will have spoilers through the winter finale.
You already know my opinions on the episodes, but now’s the time to look at them as a whole. As a whole, they’re probably better as preparation for whatever’s going to happen in 3B, especially with full-blown villain Not-Ward and the start of the Secret Warriors. That’s not to say that the things that happened in the season so far weren’t good like the alien world Simmons is transported to, the reintroduction of May and Bobbi back into the field, or the concept of Lash. The only issue is the fact that many of these are addressed and quickly sidelined for the next plotline. The ATCU barely has a time to be a threat before the team tries to work with them and then discover that they are a part of Hydra. This is the same show that took them even longer to describe how Coulson was brought back to life or who Skye really was.
Then again, something that can be reassured from this new season is the fact that the only thing constant is change and other clichés like that. What used to be a secret organization show turned into a spy show which turned into a superhero show which is back to a secret organization/spy show with a little superhero stuff in it. This is also the season with the most retcons ranging from Hydra’s history with an evil Inhuman thing to Andrew’s transforming into an Inhuman to the fact that, oh yeah, she’s Daisy now. Not all of those are bad, but it certainly puts a damper on everything we’ve ever known for the past two years in a what-was-the-point kind of way.
Then again, there were always things that the show can never really seem to get me to like. Ward having a bigger role, albeit finally embracing him as a villain, was never going to sway me. The cult half of Hydra, though not a stretch, was an odd addition. Also, does anyone really have a reason for Lincoln to be there? Besides the times he’s not there, he makes awful decisions like blasting Lash or avoiding the team. The fact that these are supposed to be important things this half of the season is not a good sign.
I’m not a total downer, so I will mention some good things from this half. For the first time in a while, we went through episodes that didn’t have the team needlessly keeping secrets from each other. For once, all of the drama came from outside of SHIELD. Sure the whole Lash thing, Will thing, and Ward thing involve SHIELD, but it’s nice to be reminded, hey, maybe these aren’t such bad people to root for every week. Besides, secrets for secrets’ sake make for lousy drama for drama’s sake later. If it’s barely fine working for someone with superpowers, it can’t really work for anything else. But once everyone was in on the whole FitzSimmons trying to open the portal again thing, I could tell they were in the right direction.
Maybe something that will help with some of the lesser parts is the fact that they weren’t all that memorable in the first place. If people like me were so prepared to believe that Rosalind was a part of Hydra and then find out that she wasn’t, that’s not a plot twist. That’s more of a guilt trip. Since she dies, it doesn’t even matter. See how easy it is? Same thing with Will, though I’m sure it’s a coincidence that they both slept with main characters. As the season goes on, we’re destined to meet a bunch of other characters who will probably hit and miss too, so this will unfortunately not go away.
Still, there are some things that always work. Beating the crap out of bad guys always works. Showing people with superpowers always works. The first five minutes of season three with that above shot always works for me too. Pretty much anything involving May or Mack with semi-regular performances by Bobbi and Daisy work out for the best. Granted, we can’t have a show just about them, no matter how interesting it would be. Either way, they’re proof that there can still be a reason to come back every week. Everyone’s on their own trying to convince themselves to wait three months.
In the long run, it’s probably in the middle of the series in terms of quality. It’s miles more exciting than the first season half but has about half of the interesting parts of the second season half (except maybe the Secret Warriors thing but we’re only about halfway through that so it barely counts). Like both of them, I’m going to assume that the second half will help all of it make sense and perhaps not make it feel useless. I can’t promise that, but I can hope that. If anything, it’s worth a shot.
