Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. _HOT_
Parents need to know that Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a primetime follow-up to the popular movie The Avengers, so it's bound to be a draw for anyone who enjoyed the film. That said, none of the movie's highest-profile cast members return for this series, so it's not difficult to jump into the action without having seen the film. Violence is indicative of the cop dramas it's modeled after, so you'll see explosions, fires, beatings, and the use of guns and other weapons, and some people are injured in the crossfire. Strong language is a minor concern ("frickin'" and "bitch" are repeat offenders), and there's some playful sexual banter between male and female characters. On the upside, teamwork and social responsibility are recurring themes, and there are three strong, competent female agents in the mix. In later seasons, some heroic figures prove themselves to be fallible and duplicitous; others start out as heroes and become villains.
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. opens with the promotion of black ops expert Agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) to the highest level within a secretive government agency, S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division). Originally headed by Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) (and later, overseen by complicated/ambitous S.H.I.E.L.D. director Jeffrey Mace, played by Jason O'Hara), whose fate hung in the balance at the conclusion of The Avengers, the agency is tasked with protecting the public from otherworldly threats of all shapes and sizes. Ward joins the brilliant scientific team of agents Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), expert pilot Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), and computer hacker extraordinaire Skye (Chloe Bennett) to form the S.H.I.E.L.D. team. The world may be under threat from villainous groups like Hydra, but S.H.I.E.L.D. and its new team of supernatural-power-enhanced Secret Warriors are ready to take on that threat -- by any means necessary.
This series is a thrilling ride that won't disappoint. It's no easy task to follow on the heels of a blockbuster like The Avengers, much less to do so in small-screen format and without all of your headliners. Even with Joss Whedon again in the director's chair, this isn't going to be an Avengers 2. Gregg's return as Agent Coulson bridges the gap to some degree, but for the most part, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is an entirely new story based on a new set of characters. Though this might disappoint some fans, it does help distinguish between a movie-length format and this cop drama-style series encompassing the team of agents rather than their individual standouts.
The actor made his debut as Freddy Malick on the season seven premiere of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D," which aired on Wednesday night on ABC. The agents meet Freddy when they travel to New York City in 1931 in an effort to stop semi-robots known as Chronicoms from changing history, destroying S.H.I.E.L.D., and taking over Earth.
The plot twist comes near the end of the episode, when Freddy's identity is revealed and the agents realize that the Chronicoms are targeting him because he's the father of the future head of Hydra in America, Gideon Malick. S.H.I.E.L.D was formed in response to Hydra, so the agents have to prevent Freddy from being killed and therefore allow Hydra to come to fruition.
"Freddy is kind of seen as a threat or a key to changing the past of the future of the world," he said. "Without him, Hydra would not form and Hydra is the reason S.H.I.E.L.D. forms. At this point, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are doing everything they can to protect me from the Chronicoms, because if they kill me, Hydra doesn't form, S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't form, and the whole course of history is changed.
For those who have not followed the convoluted comic book plot of the show, here's about as simple a summary as I can offer: The agents of SHIELD, a fictional intelligence service from the Marvel universe, are trapped in a computer-generated alternate reality created by an evil robot whose AI has been advanced beyond all human understanding by magic. Most of the heroes don't even have a memory of their real lives and don't realize the world they're living in is fake. To make things worse, in the fake world, the government is run by Hydra -- SHIELD's longtime nemesis -- a covert operation created by the Nazis and run by people plotting to restore fascism.
The series began with the agents investigating and containing various supernatural and high-tech objects and individuals in order to keep the public safe, a task that has become more complicated in the aftermath of the Battle of New York blowing the lid off of their previous level of secrecy. The status quo was upended midway through the first season, when S.H.I.E.L.D. was dissolved after it was revealed it was compromised by the terrorist group HYDRA since their inception. The series subsequently follows Coulson as his team struggles to rebuild the organization from its remaining loyal elements, even as they are being hunted by the U.S. Army, HYDRA, and other hostile forces of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as Terrigen Mists empower latent Inhumans and threats both supernatural and extra-terrestrial enter the fray.
The series works in tandem with other Marvel films, both past and upcoming. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents operate adjacent to other Marvel agents. The casts overlap at points, but S.H.I.E.L.D. is mostly made up of new characters.
Created by HYDRA while infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D., the Centipede Project was aimed to create an army of super-soldiers. Though the project was promptly shut down by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, it was actually a nice throwback to the MCU. An amalgamation of the super-soldier serum that created Captain America, Extremis Tech from Iron Man 3, and gamma injections that turned Banner into Hulk, the project was also aimed to inherit some Inhuman abilities too.
On the TV show, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on ABC, Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) assembles a select group of agents to form the worldwide law-enforcement organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. - Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division - which investigates strange and unknown occurrences around the globe. The team includes Agents Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) and Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), scientists Fitz (Ian De Caestrecker) and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), as well as hacker-anarchist Skye (Chloe Bennet), who adamantly works against the S.H.I.E.L.D. team until she discovers their true nature. 041b061a72