REVIEW: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Fun & Games"
The whole team is back in the same decade which means something big is bound to happen. Or at least something with a little thing called hope. After all, there’s no sense in putting them all in one ship and inching our way to the climax now. Right? Well, for this one, we might have to wait a half-hour to get that far.
Fun fact for you boys and girls, this episode was directed by Phil Coulson himself, Clark Gregg. I can’t say whether or not that would give me an idea of what this episode would have been, but he does seem to be a fan of fight scenes and FitzSimmons. That could work for me for the hour, and the guy has been around this show for nearly five years now.
Sadly, the episode, aside from an entertaining last ten minutes, remains rather forgettable. When we cut from Melinda May fighting a mindreader to a boring conversation between bad guys, you start wondering where priorities are lying. By the time we actually reach the ending, it becomes worse. Who the heck cares about the personalities of alien slaveholders? Just laugh insidiously and let us move on before we forget who our main characters are.
In the meantime, we also get more acquainted with Flint, because with our cast of seven we need even more people to remember apparently. Fortunately, in terms of personality, he proves to be more of a Tess than a Deke (who is thankfully absent in this episode). Plus the implication of someone else with powers gives our heroes a good two percent bigger chance of realistic survival. Yes, our heroes will obviously survive, but it helps when I can believe it. Otherwise you get a mix of an eyeroll or seeing a secondary character being killed off-screen (sorry Tess).
Surprisingly, death is a pretty popular occurrence in this episode. Tess, Ben, and few alien creeps are all dead within a half-hour. It should be a shocking occurrence, but here it only highlights to me how meaningless all these plots are becoming. Why do we need to learn the intricacies of people who were destined to die? I can usually figure out whether an episode is useful after a few weeks on my own. I don’t need the show to spell it out for me.
One interesting thing I will give to this episode is the fact we can hopefully put FitzSimmons drama to rest for this season at the least. The world is gone and they could die, so it’s great to just skip the pretense. I fear what could happen when we finish this space plot, but thank goodness we know there’s a time and place for this nonsense. Granted, the best place for this nonsense is not on screen at all, but that’s an entirely different problem. We just had an episode where they both got to propose to each other. I’m not focusing on the negatives.
Another fun thing is the fight scene we actually get to see between Daisy and Sinara. Despite this being a promoted fight to the death, it doesn’t really push past the top five fights she’s ever faced. Still, Daisy hasn’t punched something in at least three weeks. I’m mad on her behalf. Heck, I’m almost mad she didn’t get to murder the slaveholders like FitzSimmons did.
I think that’s why I keep promoting the team being together again. Point blank, they’re just more interesting together than apart. It was one of the few things getting me through the dull and confusing first episode of this season. Whether they’re fighting alien creeps or just talking, I’d prefer to see them do it with each other than separately. We have an ensemble. You might as well use it.
So where does the leave us now? We might reach the point of the team working together again as soon as next episode. However, I shouldn’t be thinking all this time about what I could be seeing, no matter how fun the final minutes can be. Perhaps you can watch clips for these scenes. All the fun of the scenes without the baggage of red shirts.
