Agents of SHIELD jumps the shark in Season 2 - Agent Carter to blame?

By Mike Valdez | March 19, 2015

Heading into its season two winter break, Agents of SHIELD had done seemingly the impossible: after spending most of its first season being consistently mediocre, the show shifted gears into something more ambitious and suddenly became compelling television. But since returning from break, the show has become something almost unrecognizable – and not in a good way. Now the question must be asked: is Agent Carter to blame?

Agents of SHIELD took an extended hiatus over the holidays so the Agent Carter miniseries could carry out its full run. The show left on several cliffhangers. Just what had Skye transformed into? Was Triplett really dead? And what was that ancient city really all about? But upon returning to air for the second half of Season 2, the answers have been a series of duds. Trip really was killed off, for no apparent reason, in a manner which added nothing to to the plot. Skye’s magical power is that she can make things shake a little. And everyone is just angry at each other. Really angry.

The typical Agents of SHIELD episode thus far in 2015 has consisted primarily of the “good guys” arguing angrily with each other. That might be expected for one tense episode after the loss of a team member, but at this point the monotone arguing appears to have become the theme of the show. Phil Coulson has gone from being a deceptively sharp leader to now being outwitted by pretty much everyone, including members of his own team.

The two newest members are engaged in a secret plot of some kind which has dragged on for several episodes without a single detail of that plot being revealed. For all we know at this point, they could be plotting Coulson’s surprise birthday party. And now the two of them have secretly taken a third agent hostage and have him chained in a bathroom because he knows there’s a secret plan, even though they know that he doesn’t know what the plan is.

But even with the three newcomers being reduced to generic pawns in an uninteresting mystery scheme, the longtime cast members have been hit hardest by the sudden brain drain, with Coulson and May and Skye and the geek twins now being too erratic and angry to have any chemistry or make for compelling scenes. The dialog is stiffer, the drama has given way to melodrama, and even the witty one-liners aren’t witty anymore.

You have to ask whether the show’s best writers were pulled aside to work on Agent Carter, and these latest Agents of SHIELD episodes have been written by substitute hacks instead. If that’s the case, then perhaps the show has a chance to get back on track before long. Then again, Triplett’s death was the trigger that has caused the entire show to become unraveled, and that decision was made back in 2014, presumably by the top show runners.

The most surreal aspect may be just how little screen time our beloved SHIELD agents have been getting of late. The 2015 episodes seem to be all about guest stars, even though it’s not sweeps month, and they’ve been largely wasted. Blair Underwood was an inspired choice as a psychologist, but it turns out his main job is to argue angrily with May. Drea De Matteo was brought in as a villain, but she was given nothing to do other than get beaten up.

Half the screen time lately is being given to Kyle MacLachlan, a great actor putting on a cartoonishly hammy but not very funny performance as Skye’s deranged father, whose revenge plot against SHIELD makes little sense. At one point MacLachlan is seen driving a bunch of mutant freaks around in an old Winnebago, the ultimate “jump the shark” moment – and yet it may have been the best scene of any Agents of SHIELD episode so far in 2015.

It’s difficult to figure out where Agents of SHIELD is going with any of its 2015 plotlines. At some point Skye’s father will be sent packing, and where does that leave the show going forward? Coulson is now a dupe who is being written too inconsistently to be trusted as a leader. May’s always-angry shtick is no longer compelling now that everyone on the show is always angry. Fitz and Simmons have zero chemistry left with each other. The newest characters can’t possibly remain a trusted part of the team once their mystery scheme comes to light, particularly now that we’ve finally been told they work for “the real SHIELD” – whatever that may be.

Skye is now a mutant quasi-alien with powers she can’t control, and you get the feeling that at some point the show writers will simply decide none of it ever happened when they’re ready to move onto the show’s next chapter. And last we checked, Tripp, the most lighthearted character on the show, is still dead at a time when Agents of SHIELD is desperate for anything resembling lightness. At this point, if the writers want to turn things around from the mess they’ve made, they’ll need to show they’re smarter than they’ve shown us so far in 2015.