by Kristen B.

In a fit of boredom or maybe nostalgia this fall, I decided to rewatch the entirety of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on Disney+. Baseball was done for the year; I needed something to do. Lucky for you, you don’t need a subscription service to do the same thing, because you can borrow them on DVD for free from the library.

The show is a wild ride of storytelling and subverting expectations. Of all the Marvel properties, this one seems closest to its comic book roots, maybe due to the inherent serialization of the format, and the fact that death never seems to keep a character down for long. (side note: I wish the MCU movies would consider rebooting some favorite – particularly female – characters.)

Over the course of seven seasons, the show progresses from being tied closely to the MCU timeline to becoming more of an independent property. The main characters are Agent Phil Coulson, introduced in the Iron Man and The Avengers movies, and his team of special agents whose mission is to track and contain enhanced humans – people with special powers who are not always good guys like Captain America or Thor. The mission is continually threatened and thwarted by SHIELD’s nemesis, Hydra. The core team of five characters makes it through all seven seasons, more or less: including Melinda May, all around warrior with some deep real world experiences; science boffins Fitz and Simmons, who make as good a team as their names suggest; and Skye, whose growth and transformation carries the first three seasons of the show. Other characters stick around for a season or two, and sometimes return at unexpected moments. It keeps the series both comfortable and fresh.

The series’ creators (Whedon, et. al.) took all kinds of risks with the show, to greater and lesser successes. I would argue that the first and last seasons are the best, with a few in the middle becoming unnecessarily complicated and dark. All in all, though, it’s a terrifically fun show. You honestly don’t know what’s coming next, from the inclusion of Ghost Rider to AI robots that control an immersive virtual reality. You can always count on decent fight choreography and the good guys achieving their goals – eventually, despite the odds. The last two seasons took on the big ideas of time travel and alternate timelines, which actually comes back into concordance with what’s happening in the MCU’s Multi-verse stories.

Baseball’s Opening Day is coming soon, but you may need something to do in the meantime.

Kristen B. is a devoted bookworm lucky enough to work as the graphic designer for HCLS. She likes to read, stitch, dance, and watch baseball in season (but not all at the same time).