Review 590: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 7)

 

Coulson and the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are thrust backwards in time and stranded in 1931 New York City.   With a modified Zephyr set to time-jump at any moment, the team must hurry to find out exactly what happened. If they fail, it would mean disaster for the past, present and future of the world.

The season got off to a roaring start with the premire episode: The New Deal which saw Team Coulson in the 1930's  From then on, Season 7 was one, wild time hoping, action packed, retrospective ride spanning five decades.

 

One particular standout episode is Ep. 9: As I Have Always Been which was also the directional debut of Simmons herself, Elizabeth Henstridge.   Beginning each new loop with a close up on Chloe Bennet’s beautiful face. 

Given that S.H.I.E.L.D. at this point has all but left the MCU behind at this point, that clearly gave showrunners the freedom to go full Avengers: Endgame and they ran with it. This opened up a whole new sandbox for the   

Ep. 4: Out of the Past was another highlight. That episode took on a film noir tone and was shot almost entirety in black and white episode. Using a malfunctioning LMD Coulson as a framing device for the noir tone, with Coulson seeing everything in black and white and having an internal monologue, thus serving as the episode’s narrator is just inspired. The episode was also an excellent showcase for Sousa

The following episode: Ep. 5: A Trout in the Milk was basically an alternate history 70’s retelling of Captain America: The Winter Soldier with Coulson and his team attempting to stop Project Insight in the mid-70’s which was a great callback to the movies and an organic one. Given that Captain America: The Winter Soldier was inspired by conspiracy thrillers like The Parallax View and Three Days of Condor, it was fitting to see its story happening in that particular time period. As Coulson put it “Sounds like Hydra’s  40 years ahead of schedule.

The only odd episode of the season was Ep. 7; The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and The D. This was a frankly bizarre episode

The following episode After, Before was welcome quieter, more thoughtful and intimate affair It’s a wonderful character portrait of Yo-Yo 

After playing a radically different character in Season 6, it was a joy to see Clark Gregg return playing a similar but not the same version of Coulson. Whereas Sarge from last season was cold, ruthless and willing to throw his comrades under the bus to get what he wanted, this is a Chronicom enhanced LMD with Coulson’s consciousness  While being a replica of the real Coulson, there’s no realistic way they would let a newly created LMD assume the role of Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. from Mack. So while he’s a vital member of the team, he’s not the leader but more of Mack’s right hand. This new advanced synthetic Coulson is the closest thing to a superhero that Coulson’s ever been; this raises a bunch of intriguing, meaty existential questions about wether it’s really him that’s alive or if he just thinks he’s alive. But he definitely gets a kick out of being able to super protect his team. 

 

Once again, where Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 7) suffers most is in the main antagonists; the running threat throughout the season is the Chronicoms who by themselves are a formidble force for Coulson's team, but the problem lies with the face of the invasion, Nathanial Malick (Thomas E. Sullivan) and the Inhuman Kora (Diane Doan). These guys were extraordinarily lame and aside from some cool powers those two were just nothing compared to Big Bad’s of past seasons. Given that he shows up in Episode 5, I would’ve prepared to have Cameron Palatas as the young Gideon Malick take over from the elder Wilfred, that would’ve fitted right into the seasons celebratory nature and would’ve and could’ve served as a nice homage to the late Powers Boothe.

 

It's a shame that Wilfred Malick was canned so abruptly early on. He served the first quarter of the season well and it would’ve been nice to see him fill that role throughout the rest of the season as a recurring adversary through the season’s use of time travel. As with villains like Hive, Adia and Talbot/Graviton, Wilfred Malick is an example of how you don’t need to write off a villain just because the season is ending. 

One of the most appealing prospects of Season 7 was seeing the return of Enver Gjokaj as Daniel Sousa from Agent Carter, it reminds us, even though we never truly got over its cancellation, that it ended too soon. In this season, we're introduced to a version of Sousa who's gone on to have a really awesome and interesting career and has become the Agent Coulson of his generation. As being one of the higher-ups at the SSR which has now been absorbed into S.H.I.E.L.D. and all of the experience that he's seen a bunch of stuff even though it's crazy for him but his job is really dealing with crazy stuff. After being tricked out of time by "future S.H.I.E.L.D." to save him from Hydra, he becomes an invaluable member of their time travelling crew. Seeing him interact with Team Coulson and adjusting to different time periods was a joy to watch. His relationship with Daisy was also a highlight

Seeing prior recurring and guests stars of the show such as Patton Oswalt, Patrick Warburton, Dichen Lackman,  Among these stars is James Paxton (son of the late Bill Paxton) playing a young John Garrett when he's recruited by Nathanial Malick. James expertly replicated his father's mannerims and speech patterns, He also captured that smarmy charm that his father brought to the role