Originally written May 23, 2015

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a perfect example of a show that simply needed to find its footing, as a lot of the beginning of the series was nothing above average, and unfortunately it caused a lot of viewers to stop watching. Still, I noted in my review of season 1 that it had finally seemed to find its footing by the end of the season, with the last 7 episodes or so of it being fantastic. I was hoping that the show could continue that strong momentum in season 2, and I was very happy that it managed to. Season 2, from beginning to end, is a fantastic season of television, and shows just how far the series has come from its lackluster beginnings.

I can’t really discuss too many plot points without spoiling the season, because where the story is at the beginning of the show compared to where it is by the end of the season are two completely different places. The season starts off with Phil Coulson having rebuilt S.H.I.E.L.D. after being torn apart by Hydra in season 1. While it’s much smaller in nature, S.H.I.E.L.D. is now an organization again, being led by Coulson and a small team of people. These include all of the team from the first season, but also introduces quite a few new faces, all of which are welcome additions to the team. One newcomer in particular, Agent Bobbi, is one of my favorite characters now.

But anyway, the threat in the beginning of the season is the continuing battle of S.H.I.E.L.D. against Hydra, which was pretty compelling in itself. However, as the season goes on, characters like Skye’s father are introduced, who is a commanding villain presence himself. So, as the story progresses along, it starts to become obvious that the leaders of Hydra won’t be the “big bad” of the season, and so the season has us kind of guessing who the main threat will be by the end. The show takes some very interesting twists and turns as it goes along, with some very cool plot developments, and so by the end of it I was very surprised who the big bad was.

As good as the season was, I don’t have a lot of interesting things to say about it though, without going into full detail on every individual character. Overall I just really liked where everyone’s characters were at in this season, and everyone was handled really well. Even a character like Ward, whose sole purpose of being a good-guy-turned-evil, was in a situation where his continuing presence on the show could be problematic for creating new, interesting things for him to do…but the show even delivered with him. I’m not going to give the season a perfect score just because I think that in comparison with other shows that deserve a perfect 10, this still isn’t quite in the same league. Plus, there were a few moments throughout the season that could have been improved, but these things are just minor nitpicks compared to the glaring problems that season 1 originally faced, which have all been improved. Still, all that aside, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. seems to have finally established itself as an amazing series, and I hope viewers that gave up on it last season come back around to watch it again, because it’s well worth it at this point.

4.5/5