Originally written May 29, 2018

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has had an interesting trajectory at this point. After a very rocky first season, the show really found itself by its second season, and since then it’s just been a really enjoyable ride. While I think it’s definitely debatable what seasons have been the best, I think it’s fair to say that seasons 2-5 have now all been pretty close in quality. I’ve really grown to love this show over time, and while most people only pay attention to Marvel’s Netflix shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, I genuinely think that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been just as good as them, even if it’s just for different reasons.

I’ve been thinking about why I love Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I think I found it when I was thinking about DC’s shows. I was watching Arrow and The Flash recently, and I thought about how I liked both of those shows for different reasons. Arrow does really well with creating serious superhero drama with a dark and gritty tone, but The Flash deals with its drama in a much more lighthearted fashion, creating an atmosphere that’s fun and zany. It’s not that one style is better than the other, since they’re both good for their own reasons. In fact, I like having the diversity between styles. Anyway though, what’s the point of all of this? Basically, I think the Marvel Netflix shows are amazing, but they’re all pretty serious in tone, so they’re more of the Arrow type for Marvel. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is The Flash show of the Marvel universe, and so even though it’s a very different show than its Netflix counterparts, it’s just as good in my eyes.

So anyway, I’ve talked a lot about the show as a whole so far, but what about season 5 specifically? Well, after the huge ordeal the agents went through in season 4 with the virtual reality and artificial intelligence issues, they find themselves back in the real world, but don’t get even a moment’s break before they’re thrown back into a new problem. They find themselves taken by a government agency and wake up on a spaceship. After seeing that they’re trapped out in space, they also quickly figure out that they’re also in the future, at the end of the 21st century. In the future, Earth has been destroyed, and everyone that’s still left alive find themselves enslaved by the Kree on a spaceship.

So, not only does the crew need to find a way to get back to their own time, they also need to find a way to prevent the Earth from being destroyed. The season, while divided into two halves, really has one continuous storyline going throughout all of its 22 episodes. I really liked this season because it plays a lot with time, debating whether or not it can be changed or instead if it’s permanently fixed. While the first half was really interesting, I feel like the second half is where it really shines. That’s when all of the really interesting time aspects of the show happen, and things get really emotional towards the end.

I don’t really have much else to say about the season aside from that, though. It’s one of those things where I want to talk it up more because of how much I enjoyed it, but in the end all I can really say is that it was another worthy addition to this show. This season keeps the momentum going that previous seasons have had, and we get to see another interesting adventure that the agents are involved in. If you’ve been watching the show, then you’ll still enjoy season 5, but if you’re not then I truly do think you’re missing out. I’ve become more and more invested in these characters in the last 5 years, and usually by this point in a series’ run I’d be starting to get fatigued, but with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I just want it to keep going for years to come. It’s such a fun show, and I want to see what cool new directions the show goes in next.

4.5/5