Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Needs to S.T.O.P.
There’s this perpetual struggle faced by fans still tuning in for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. For three seasons now, skeptics have derided the (admittedly) often-mediocre show for riding the coattails of Marvel’s successful film franchises and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn’t done a great job of defending itself. Whether you look at the campy acting, overly-convoluted plotting and unsatisfying tie-ins to the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe, the show just doesn’t work. And it says a lot about the unique relationship that Marvel have cultivated with fans that many of them will stick with it regardless. The dynamic here isn’t all that different to sports fans sticking with their favorite team in spite of a bad season. However, if the ups and downs of this most recent season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have revealed anything it’s that the people behind the show have little to no interest in addressing the fundamental issues that hold the series back from its potential.
When Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was first announced, the involvement of Joss, Jed and Maurissa Whedon almost felt like cause for celebration. With Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Doctor Horrible’s Sing Along Blog attached to their names, the trio are veterans of more than a few of TV’s fan-favorites. At the time, the first Avengers movie had just released to enormous financial success and the confidence attached to the Whedon name was at an all-time high. It felt like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. this would be the show to let the trio break out of their streak of crafting quality-television series only to have them cancelled before their time. Unfortunately, the results of this freedom aren’t a whole lot different from what’s come before — and accepting that casts the narrative around Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. into a different light.
This narrative started off simply enough. The show was announced, hyped and then debuted to a record 12.12 million viewers in the US. This number sharply dropped however, once critical disappointment and widespread disinterest in the show set in. The series then underwent an arc of redemption as a tie-in event with Captain America: The Winter Soldier gave it the chance to reconfigure itself. It then returned for a more confident second season — broken into two halves by the Agent Carter miniseries. One exceptionally innovative episode aside, Season 3 has seen the show backslide into a pattern of stagnation. It’s stopped breaking new ground and, as a result, the weaknesses in the Whedon formula are beginning to show.
However, we can actually trace these cracks all the way back to the series beginnings. From as early as the oddly pro-surveillance-state subtext of the first season, the show has always been a little quaint and old-fashioned. And this quality is reflected in both the show’s structure and style. It’s familial character dynamics, snappy dialogue and suite of relatively self-contained adventures fit right in with the rest of the Whedon catalog — perhaps too much so. Certain scenes in the cargo bay feel right out of Firefly and some episodes feel wholesale borrowed from Buffy. It’s become clear that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has become a slave to the Whedon-mould of what good TV should be — and this mould looks startlingly dated in light of massive leap in quality that television has undergone over the last five or six years.
While the showrunners behind Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are free to make the show they want to make, their relationship with their audience should ultimately compel them to make it as engaging as they possibly can. If breaking free of the established Whedon formula is what it takes, then they should investigate that route. It’d allow the show to expand and develop in really exciting and organic ways, and grow a new audience that approaches it with genuine excitement.
Sadly, however, it’s become clear that this isn’t going to happen. Whether it’s not something they’re willing to do, or something they can even see the necessity of is irrelevant at this point — a radical retooling of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is outside the realm of possibility. Whedon and company have shown they are willing to shuffle the deck but what they need is to throw it out entirely. If it was going to happen, it would have happened by now.
The Marvel hype machine relies so much on it’s own momentum that it can’t bring itself to cancel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It’d be the first Marvel project since The Incredible Hulk to not merit continuation and an admission that not everything they make is gold. So in the face of that symbolic defeat, they’ve chosen to keep up the facade that the show is big, better-than-ever and an irreplaceable part of Marvel’s roster. After all, they know they can trust fans to follow the company line and keep the show afloat.
However, cutting it loose is exactly the move Marvel needs to make.
The most compelling aspect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has always been in watching personalities collide. The biggest Marvel release of 2016 — Captain America: Civil War — is built around this idea. However, for various legal reasons, the characters of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. can’t be part of this dynamic — and that’s a significant handicap for the show. The characters of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have always been markedly more compelling than the show itself — So much so that Marvel went to the trouble of working them into the comic canon. In fact, the notion of seeing Bobbi, Skye, Ward, Fitz and Simmons migrate to other corners of the Marvel universe is something that outshines any potential future seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Marvel and ABC need to accept that the Whedon model isn’t what fans want in 2016 — and with each successful Netflix series Marvel launches this becomes more and more clear.
Marvel, give the die-hard fans something to be happy with and end the show gracefully. Set the solid cast you’ve assembled free to continue their roles in other projects.
It is a big universe, after all.
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