Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD

Series one, episode nine
It can’t be right for an action drama like ‘Agents of SHIELD’ that ennui is already setting in. Expectations were understandably – and probably unrealistically – high for a series that has come to resemble an underpowered ‘Buffy’. The crossover episodes and characters haven’t really worked. The central cast, Clark Gregg’s consistently engaging Agent Coulson aside, haven’t made much impression. And the preference of minor and/or misunderstood villain of the week over series-long narrative arc is getting repetitive.

Witness tonight’s ninth episode, in which ‘the team is threatened by a mysterious force that threatens to destroy them all’. What, another one? Again? The brothers Whedon might do well to look to ‘Heroes’ as an example of a cautionary tale: another show with bags of goodwill and potential, carelessly frittered away.