3 out of 5

Created by: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen

Yes, had you asked me mid-season, I wouldn’t have had much positive to say.  However, as many have noted, Marvel has put itself in a unique position with its ‘cinematic universe,’ earning enough credit where we’ll give shows like S.H.I.E.L.D. a much longer chance than the majority of shows on major networks get.  And it pays off: at about episode 15 or 16, the show turns a corner and finally finds the right balance of elements to be the fun, espionage-tinged heroics for which we could’ve hoped.  But it was a battle.  It was always going to be.  Take a fan favorite film character – Coulson, played by Clark Gregg – and now drum him up to lead status without an eye-catching Iron Man or Thor to carry us.  Furthermore, paste ‘Marvel’ all over this, but besides Nick Fury and some nods, it’s not quite going to be Avengers at any point in time.  We knew all of this, of course, but the ghost of those heroes loomed regardless, and S.H.I.E.L.D. stumbled at first by throwing money it didn’t have at some pretty sloppy effects and jumping to saving the world without first trying to develop its agents.  Now let’s tack on the Whedon element.  A Whedon production promises a bunch of cynical, snappy characters who all initially annoy and whom we all later love; there will be a whole mess of seemingly sloppy, predictable plot poops that eventually blossom into a solid design structured on all that came before.  We love Whedon, but we often forget the watching-curve his shows can take, and S.H.I.E.L.D. followed it to a T.  But it barrels ahead, and the best moments are those that aren’t trying to tie into Thor or Cap.  Coulson is miraculously fleshed out, Bill Paxton gets an amusingly hammy role, Ruth Negga is slinky evil, Chloe Bennet’s Skye successfully transitions into a likeable character for whom to root, and the team feels like a team instead of just some ideas snapped together for a TV show.  So I’m glad the Marvel name gave the show the clout it needed to stick around.  It’s far from perfect, but it grows on you (as the show itself grows), and ends up occupying its own unique, cheeky corner in the MCU.