Review 490: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 3)

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. hits its stride in its third season, uping the amount of Superheroes and doubling down on the thrills and emotional stakes.

The survival of mankind hangs in the balance as Director Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his Agents battle an otherworldly evil. Devastated by the apparent loss of Agent Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), Agent Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) risks everything to rescue her.
Agent Melinda May (Ming Na-Wen) rejoins the team - only to discover a terrible truth about her ex-husband, Dr. Andrew Garner (Blair Underwood). Meanwhile, after the release of Terrigen, the U.S. government creates the ATCU (Advanced Threat Containment Unit) to monitor emerging Inhumans.
But the program is actually a smoke screen the sinister machinations of Hydra leader Gideon Malick (Powers Boothe), who joins forces with treacherous ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton). The resulting carnage spurs Coulson to exact a revenge that will ultimately backfire, unleashing apocalyptic consequences in the form of the Dark Inhuman known as Hive.
To help combat this threat, Agent Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet) organises a special team of Inhumans known as the "Secret Warriors", not knowing that she will soon meet her match and once again be forced to make a heartbreaking sacrifice.

By Season 3, its pretty clear that the show has hit its stride and has a stronger sense of identity and what it wants to be. Much like Season 2, it takes a status quo and runs with it.

At the centre of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 3) are the questions of, if you could choose to become Inhuman, would you want to? Would you choose to have this happen to you? Is it even a choice? People who change, how do we treat them? Do they immediately have freedom to be who they want to be? Or is it a very dangerous weapon that we have to control or at least understand?
Both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the ATCU see Inhumans as something that needs to be contained and
Inhumans introduced over the course of this season such as Joey Gutierrez (Juan Pablo Raba) and Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) show up as promising cadidates for the Secret Warriors whereas other Inhumans such as Lash (Matthew Willig) show the other side of the change that bad things can happen.

The planet Maveth storyline was a standout  culminating in the very uncoventional, ambitious and all around phenomenal episode 4,722 Hours which functions as a bottle episode which takes place entirely on the alien planet Simmons was trapped on for 6 months and Elizabeth Henstridge delivers an Emmy worth performance as she navigates and struggles to survive there and eventaully comes back a changed woman.

The showrunners also have fun in creating new character dynamics by putting them into different pairs: There's Mack and Daisy, Hunter and May, Bobbi and Fitz etc. Suddenly they set up all these different dynamics, all these different stories and possibilities that weren't before.

Where Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 3) falls short this season is in its pacing. There are so many storylines and subplots this season that some episodes feel a tad jumbled and not having enough time to breath or get the proper build up they might have had with more character-focused episodes.

The way that the show ties Hydra's origins into something Inhuman related, also feels wholly unnecessary. It would have been so easy for Malick to have wanted to use Hive for his own purposes without the added reveal that Hydra had been worshiping the creature and trying to bring him back since the beginning of time. It just felt like a jarring fit with the organisation as we had come to know up until this point. The origin that we got in Captain America: The First Avenger was a nice simple explanation that just didn't need expanding upon.
Hydra itself feels pretty much played out after the last two seasons.
In contrast, the Inhumans feel like a breath of fresh air to the shows status quo.

Ward's campaign to rebuild Hydra ultimately amounts to little more than an afterthought in the larger scheme of things.

Also, the Secret Warriors storyline never really amounts to more than a tease. While the concept is certainly cool, there's a lot of teasing and set up with not enough payoff. Once the team is finally put together in Ep. 17: The Team, it's followed by the members turning on one another with no real time dedicated to developing the dynamic making it feel like a wasted opportunity.

Directors Vincent Misiano, Kevin Tancharoen, Garry A. Brown, Ron Underwood, Jesse Bochco, David Solomon, Kate Woods, Michael Zinberg, Wendey Stanzler, John Terlesky, Elodie Keene and Billy Gierhart's direction is
the score by Bear McCreary is   as he continues to expand the sound of the series in "big ways" as he put it.

Daisy Johnson really shines this season and Chloe Bennet truly demonstrates her growth as a character and actress.
Now that she's fully aware of and embracing her Inhuman heritage and newfound powers, she's grown from a sneaky hacker to a badass capable superhero in her own right.
What makes her such a good leader for the Secret Warriors is how much she's been through, so she can relate to everyone on the team and really has a lot of empathy.
Throughout the season, she's partnered with Mack (Henry Simmons) and their scenes, chemistry and comradery are a real high point. The two of them compliment each other superbly, whereas Daisy has a lot of empathy for Inhumans and feels this is the right step to take them in, Mack is still a little skeptical and is not entirely on board with the idea unless they're completely good and on their side because every experience he's had with Inhumans has been a negative one

Brett Dalton has the big challenge this season of playing not one but two villains this season, reprising his role of Ward during the first half of the season as well as playing the Dark Inhuman, Hive during the second half and he pulls them both off extremely well.
During the first half of the season, Ward has stepped up as the new "Head" of Hydra is putting together this team not too dissimilar to Coulson and his rag tag group of agents. His new Hydra consists of a team of dented cans but Ward sees the potential in them, he believes in people and for all of his twisted logic, there is method to his madness.
After Kara's death - that was actually at his hands no less - after all the time and energy that was put into their "relationship", it cuts him deep. There's a lot of unfairness that he wants to fix, so much closure that he desperately wants to achieve. He just can't deal with all this grief he has to pin it on someone.
Ward's done some pretty horrid things to a lot of people who really didn't deserve it
As Hive during the second half of the season, he delivers this calm, mysterious, enigmatic
Originally created to lead the Inhuman army, he became to powerful that he was banished from the Earth. Now that he's escaped his hell, it becomes clear he has no interest whatsoever in rewarding Malick's cult for their loyalty to him but only exploiting them to (as he sees it) create a utopia for Inhumans.

Bobbi and Hunter continued to be a highly entertaining couple   which made their send off in Ep. 13: Parting Shot all the more heartbreaking. 

The one character I don't care for is Lincoln Campbell (Luke Mitchell). He just wasn't that interesting a character and just didn't seem to add anything to the team dynamic and his relationship with Daisy was kinda weak and bland and didn't really amount to much during the course of the season and he came across as a third wheel.

On a very basic level, by introducing Lash to the mix, they're putting a monster in the mix, because he is not human and his looks are pretty crazy and scary.
The revalation that May's husband Andrew Garner was Lash was a surprising development that helped to provide nuance to his character, gave actor Blair Underwood a proper chance to shine and was a sweet payoff for his character. 
Lash sees Inhumans as an exalted society and it's an honor to be an Inhuman. Not everyone is worthy of that moniker. He takes it upon himself to be judge, jury and executioner of who is worthy of being an Inhuman and who is not. As a parallel, if you look at Andrew's work as a psychologist…in S.H.I.E.L.D., he determines who is worthy and who is not worthy to be part of the Secret Warriors team that he's to create with Coulson. So, it makes sense that it's kind of that same kind of rationale, but on steroids: Who's worthy and who's not? And what are they worthy of? Are they worthy of life? Are they worthy of death? Are they worthy of the team? Or are they not worthy of anything?"
Despite, being featured prominatly and built up as a very monsterous threat throughout the first half, Lash ended up sidelined in the second half due to getting caught by S.H.I.E.L.D. and the execution of his character ultimatly became less than the sum of its parts.

Despite only featuring in handful of episodes during the first half, Constance Zimmer was another worthy addition to the series playing ATCU head, Rosaling Price whom Coulson also develops feelings for. Their short-lived relationship was a highlight because she's not exactly a doppelganger, but she’s definitely got a lot in common with Coulson. She represents a character who’s not someone he comes across every day, who has more in common with him than most other people do. Where in the past, Coulson frequently plays sort of a paternal role on the show, because Daisy is kind of a surrogate daughter figure—suddenly there's another adult who can banter and hold her own against him.

Powers Boothe makes for a fantastic addition to the series playing Hydra leader Gideon Malick, bringing the much neede gravitas and menace required for the role and expanding on role he originated in the The Avengers (2012). Gideon is an is incredibly menacing, ominous and powerful political figure Having been raised by his family to follow Hive's cults ancient beliefs

4/5.

The Anonymous Critic.