The show got off to a shaky start, to say the least, with a somewhat underwhelming premier, and a totally forgettable second episode. The third episode did see some improvement, to be fair, with the introduction of supervillain Graviton (though to be fair he's hardly Loki or Red Skull...), but that hasn't stopped the ratings from falling steadily each week.
With all the Disney money behind it, and "Phase Two" picking up with Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier both due during this frst season run, this show was pretty much un-cancellable, let's be honest.
But the rest of this now-22 episode season really needs to pick up soon, or else I can see a reduced second season wrapping things up and leading in to 2015's Age Of Ultron (complete, of course, with face-saving comments about this "always being the plan"). That means less references to the cinematic universe, which only serve to remind us that we're not watching Tony Stark and co. (it's no coincidence that the strongest of the three episodes thus far is the only one to not have a movie cameo shoehorned in), less of characters saying their character traits instead of showing their character traits (let's see Ward actually being bad with people, rather than just saying he's bad with people, or better yet, let's see total non-event Melinda May actually be a badass rather than just everyone being in awe of her while she scowls and says nothing), and more warmth and camaradrie between the cast. Oh, and if they could actually have a good storyline, that'd be great.
Start being interesting, you bast!
In short, right now Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. can - and has - potter along on the coat-tails of its cinematic brothers.
But it won't for long at this rate.
Although, to be fair, no Joss Whedon show outside of Firefly has ever started off particularly strongly, so let's keep the faith for now, eh?
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. continues on Tuesdays on ABC in the US, and on Fridays on C4 in the UK.
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