Episode 2 – is it getting any better?
I’d like to say a qualified yes. The Bus is growing on me as a piece of tech and the team are starting to gel – I can name most of them now. The show still depends squarely on Clark Gregg’s unassuming charm, but when you have a quality like that, why the hell not?
Sure, some of the other characters are going to have to shoulder some of the load before long, but I still think it has time to allow them to grow into this.
The story was sufficiently broad to suggest SHIELD’s global reach – all the way down to Peru [1], there was action stuff for May and Ward to do and to highlight the problems dragging scientists along with them. I’m not convinced the whole ‘work it out as a team’ thing worked, I think the writers could and should have made it clearer what each individual was contributing before or during the operation. But it’s nice to have them at least talking to each other, Ward is less objectionable the more he tries to engage with the others and if May could stop looking so bored they may yet become a fun team.
The last minute reveal that Skye may not be what she seems was nicely sinister in a Wheedony kind of way, although even this is less effective than similar tricks he’s pulled in the past[2].
And then there’s the pre-credits appearance of Nick Fury – take a bow Mr L. Jackson. I loved the scene and I agree that just having him speak the names of the show’s stars gave them that bit of extra credibility, there’s just one thing…
With Fury this week and Hill last week, and with another MacGuffin[3] straight out of the movies, you are left with that nagging worry – what is this show going to be when they’re finally forced to carry it on their own?
Still, a bit of Nick Fury can only ever be a good thing, right?
Oh yeah. Sorry.
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[1] or the closest thing you can get within 10 minutes walk of the California studios
[2] Like Billy Fordham in Lie to Me, the Hands of Blue from Firefly or pretty much any time Carlos Jacott turns up
[3] Didn’t manage to avoid it this time.
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