Defending Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Clark Gregg and John Campea, via the AMC Theatres Pinterest.

The following is my open letter to John Campea, senior editor of A.M.C. Movie News and host of A.M.C. Movie Talk and Mail Bag. In a recent Mail Bag video, John criticized Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and he is not the only person who is doing so. I have three arguments as to why AoS still needs to be given a chance.

John,

On today's "Mail Bag" episode, you criticized "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" and said to not even try to defend it. Since AoS is my current TV obsession, I am going to defend the show, and the first argument I am going to use I got from you.

You say that some people who don't like the first "Hobbit" movie do so because they expected it to be a continuation of the momentum from "Return of the King", but "The Hobbit" was the beginning of a new story so it needed to find its own tone. The same is true of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D". I think that many people who say that they don't like AoS is because they expected it to have the same feel as "The Avengers". "The Avengers" itself started off slow and had to build up to the excitement. The same is true with AoS. It has only had five episodes. It needs to start slow to begin the new story, and then it will start gaining momentum.

That leads me to my second point. I have not seen many of Joss Whedon's shows, but I have heard from fans that his shows (like "Buffy") needed to take a couple seasons before it found its groove. As mentioned above, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" is just beginning. It needs time to establish the story, characters, and setting. I have a theory about something big that is about to happen on the show, and if I am correct, it will give AoS a big kick in a new direction. Since AoS is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I am sure that Whedon and Jeph Loeb have multi-season plans for the series the way that Kevin Feige has plans for the next few years of the MCU.

Finally, because "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" is my new TV obsession, I watch each episode four times. I am not saying that everybody needs to be as obsessed with the show as I am, but I always catch something I missed the first time around. I think each episode needs to be watched more than once, the way you and I watched "The Avengers" more than one time in the theaters.

In the end, though, TV is subjective the same way movies are. If you have different opinions then I do, that does not mean you are wrong and I am right. But "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" really is a great show, and I have a feeling that it is going to get even better real soon.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings,
Brian