Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 1 (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Creators: Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly)
	Actors: Clark Gregg (Iron Man 1-3, The Avengers), Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: June 2016, VOD, 32" TV
Synopsis: Agent Coulson (Gregg) of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division is at the head of a team monitoring the activities of potential super-villains on Earth.
Review: What I liked most about this series is how close it is to the full-length feature films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I got the feeling that the series was an extension of those movie much more than I did with Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Like those two it takes place soon after the events of The Avengers but in addition it includes as main character one seen in the movies, the sympathetic Agent Coulson, and as well as more cameos from the movies, I am thinking about Cobie Smulders (How I met your mother TV-series) in the Pilot, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in the Episode 2 0-8-4 and Episode 22 Beginning of the End, or Jaimie Alexander (Thor) in the Episode 15 Yes Men for example. This series also makes more reference to the events and characters in past movies like Thor and Iron Man 3, and of movies that were released in the course of the series like Thor: The Dark World in Episode 8 The Well and Captain America: The Winter Soldier in Episode 17 Turn, turn, turn and the following ones. In the latter case it does more than referencing the movie as it actually takes place in parallel, giving an additional depth to the story. If you are starting to get lost, you can find a full timeline of this Universe under this link. Enough about references, another strength of the series is its visual quality which is pretty good. Even if not at the level of a 500 million dollars movie, the special effects are numerous and well done: planes, weapons, special powers... But the strongest point of the series is that it was created by Joss Whedon, director of The Avengers but more importantly revered creator of the much-loved TV-series Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the 90's and the cursed Firefly in the 2000s. I could recognize his touch in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: 50% of female cast, playing characters as strong and interesting as the male ones, deep backstories that are revealed at a slow pace to keep the series always interesting, radical changes in some characters to also keep you surprised, and a general feeling of a well-thought story. Really not much to complain about this first season. I don't rate it higher because well, it is still only an Action TV-series about super-heroes...
Rating: 7 /10