Agents of Shield “The Inside Man” Review

<p>So&comma; here we are again&comma; back for another week of <em>Agents of Shield&comma;<&sol;em> and this one was a doozy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Adrian Pasdar rejoined the cast this week as the new head of the ATCU&comma; which Coulson and Shield now work directly with and oversee&period; While I can&&num;8217&semi;t get over Talbot&&num;8217&semi;s ridiculous haircut &lpar;and&comma; in a funny moment of self-awareness&comma; neither can Lincoln&rpar;&comma; he was a welcome addition this week as we got to see a more personal side of his character and had the pleasure of watching him turn on Coulson in an effective twist&period; The banter between Talbot and Coulson fit well and was never overwhelming&comma; but by the episode&&num;8217&semi;s end&comma; it appeared as though differences would finally be put aside between the two&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Part of what makes <em>Shield<&sol;em> unique &lpar;and all of the Marvel TV shows&comma; for that matter&rpar;&comma; is their ability to keep the rest of the MCU grounded&period; You won&&num;8217&semi;t see a symposium at the center of a Marvel film&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s always interesting to see a realistic and political approach to the effect of superpowered people on the world&period; <em>Shield<&sol;em> approaches this well&comma; offering up true discussion about the reality of Inhumans on the world&comma; both in the symposium and at the homebase with the discovery of a vaccine&comma; while not shying away from the action&period; This balance is where <em>Shield<&sol;em> should spend more of their time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;102153" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-102153" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-102153 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;03215139&sol;141849&lowbar;4681&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"667" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-102153" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">They&&num;8217&semi;re not messing around&period; &lpar;<em>Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s Agents of Shield&comma;<&sol;em> ABC&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Speaking of a vaccine&comma; Creel&comma; the material-morphing anti-Inhuman&comma; had some cool moments this week&comma; particularly when he transformed into a mable man and broke Coulson and Talbot out of their cell&period; While Creel and Talbot both ended up on the right side by the end of the hour&comma; <em>Shield<&sol;em> did a nice job of keeping us on our toes with them&comma; both with our previous experiences of them and with the team&&num;8217&semi;s consistent and believable distrust of them&period; This believability is important to the show&&num;8217&semi;s formula&comma; and it&&num;8217&semi;s not always successful&period; But when the show lets its talented cast do their job&comma; it typically works well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Daisy and Lincoln got into it this week &lpar;literally&quest;&rpar; as they argued over the choice of being Inhuman&period; After Fitz and Simmons &lpar;who have NOT had enough screen time this spring&rpar; discover a vaccine to terrigenesis with Lincoln in Creel&&num;8217&semi;s blood&comma; the discussion arrises as to whether going through terrigenesis should be a choice or if it&&num;8217&semi;s a birthright&period; While the two eventually talk through their different perspectives&comma; discussion of Inhumans as a choice or a disease pervaded the episode&period; It was the deepest <em>Shield<&sol;em> has gone with the discussion in a long time&comma; and I think it was important&period; It gave weight and real depth to what it means to be Inhuman and live in this fictional world&comma; and it makes <em>Shield<&sol;em> as a show wholly stronger&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;102154" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-102154" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-102154 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;03215122&sol;141798&lowbar;4028&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"667" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-102154" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">That hot head keeps getting Hunter into trouble&period; &lpar;<em>Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s Agents of Shield&comma;<&sol;em> ABC&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>So why then&comma; in an episode with great action sequences and the potential for real human discussion&comma; must the entire thing be undermined by Daisy&&num;8217&semi;s annoying need to get some&quest; Both Chloe Bennet and Luke Mitchell are better actors than what their scenes were degraded to&period; Don&&num;8217&semi;t get me wrong&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s nothing wrong with a good romance in a TV show&comma; and I get that it&&num;8217&semi;s been a while since Daisy got some&comma; but come on&excl; While both of their major scenes began well enough&comma; by the end the writing had deteriorated to bad flirting and aggressive raunchiness&period; It felt almost disrespectful to Daisy and the character Bennet has developed over two-and-a-half seasons&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m still on board with their relationship&comma; but I sure hope the writers are setting us up for something with it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Our other human characters May&comma; Bobbi&comma; and Hunter all had nice moments infiltrating the symposium&period; The action sequences were solid&comma; Hunter stole some scenes with his perpetually accessible grouchiness&comma; and May finally got to do what May does best&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d be more than happy to take more episodes that group those three together on missions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;102155" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-102155" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-102155 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;03215106&sol;141798&lowbar;3644&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"667" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-102155" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Adrian Pasdar should probably wear more &&num;8220&semi;dresses&&num;8221&semi;&period; &lpar;<em>Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s Agents of Shield<&sol;em>&comma; ABC&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Finally&comma; I simply can&&num;8217&semi;t get over Brett Dalton&&num;8217&semi;s approach to Hive&period; Every time we see him &lpar;and we see more and more of him each week&rpar;&comma; he gives off an overwhelming sense of evil and consistently induces fear&period; The final scene of him rising from his sacrificial ceremony with a restored body was striking and plain impressive &lpar;although I don&&num;8217&semi;t envy Dalton for filming that covered in all of that liquid&rpar;&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s little question that Hive will be an extremely serious problem for the Shield team in the weeks to come&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Join me next week for another review of<em> Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s Agents of Shield<&sol;em>&comma; and be sure to jump over to the CW and join me for weekly reviews of <em>The Flash<&sol;em> as well&excl; Have thoughts&quest; Tweet at me&colon; &commat;LoganASchultz&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lpar;Tweet at me if you got the reference in the subtitle&excl;&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;