The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. find themselves in the unfamiliar position of being persona non grata. The recent subversion of their organisation by the terrorist group Hydra has made the US government deeply suspicious of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s personnel and resources. Even though the team helped thwart Hydra's plan, the continued independence and secrecy exhibited by their leader, Phil Coulson, is not something the authorities are willing to condone.
Operating from a secret base, the team seeks to continue their efforts to find and assist powered humans, and to thwart threats to world security - even as they themselves are seen as one of those threats. They'll certainly have a busy time, what with seemingly immortal Nazi scientists, brainwashed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and an entire secret civilisation of super-powered "Inhumans" emerging from the shadows.
Plus of course there's still the lurking threat of former team member Grant Ward, who previously betrayed the others to his secret masters in Hydra, but who is now pursuing his own independent (but no doubt sinister) agenda.
I enjoyed the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and went into this second year with hopes it would build on that solid foundation. Alas, by the time the credits rolled on the final episode of this series, I was well and truly done with the show.
So what was the problem? The writing, basically. It's got a lot of issues.
The first issue is the villains, who are almost entirely dull. The initial Nazi scientist antagonist is a one-dimensional cardboard cut-out knock-off of the Red Skull. He was thankfully disposed of earlier than I expected, but only to give way to a boring and unconvincing "alternative S.H.I.E.L.D." scenario that appears to exist purely to delay pulling the trigger on the Inhumans storyline, and which progresses almost entirely on the basis of everyone involved making bad decisions at every turn.
And then there are the Inhumans themselves. This was the introduction of this group into the MCU, in preparation for a planned film that never eventuated - instead in 2017 we got the 8-episode TV series that proved a critical and ratings disaster. Things aren't much better here, to be honest: the same problem of "why is everyone in this show so committed to doing counter-productive, self-destructive things?" recurs. It's a problem that even ultimately undermines the season's only fun villains: Grant Ward and his new ally Agent 33. They're quite engaging for much of the series, perhaps because they are mostly in secondary / supporting roles that don't require them to do too many stupid things to make the plot "work".
Alas, as stupid as the villains often act in this series, they are no match for S.H.I.E.L.D. themselves. Coulson and his team are grossly, absurdly, comically incompetent, continually making egregious errors for what seems to be no better reason than "the writers couldn't be bothered to come up with a better explanation". It frequently feels like the villains are only a threat at all because the heroes are just so bad at this.
The terrible plotting is a real shame, because for my tastes it ruins the good work being done in other parts of the show. The on-screen cast remain likeable and work hard to make the show watchable. There's some good work in particular from the folks
playing Fitz and Simmons, who are given more to do here than just spout
the technobabble that defined their season one roles. Both performers make good use of the opportunity.
The show also expands its cast in this season, with three new arrivals to the
team. The newcomers are all quite fun, but to a significant extent the writing isolates them: they
have their own little deal that makes them a separate little triangle to
the 'original' group's pentagon. This is a shame, as when they do interact with the original group they introduce some good new dynamics such as the Mack-Fitz friendship.
Sadly, the solid work of the main cast - and also a number of fun guest stars - simply can't compensate for the constant urge to shout "Why are you people all so bad at your jobs?" every time the writers have the characters shoot themselves in the foot.
A deeply disappointing and frustrating season to watch. I will not be returning for season three.
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