AGENTS OF SHIELD

Season 5, Episode 11 – Agents of SHIELD returns with a catalog of all of their past greatness plugged into the series’ perfect blend of exposition, humor, and action.

Season 2, Episode 15 – Agents of SHIELD glides into a hiatus with an excellent conclusion to time travel travails and space apocalypse in “Past Life.”

Season 5, Episode 9 – Mack and YoYo lead a rebellion against the Kree while the rest of the crew tries to get the derelict Zephyr airborne to stage a rescue operation.

Season 5, Episode 8 – “The Last Day” mixes two timelines with plenty of action, empathy, and plot solving in an excellent example of Agents of SHIELD at its best.

Season 5, Episode 7 – Agents of SHIELD stays on track with an episode full of high stakes, big action, and small character moments.

Season 5, Episode 6 – Agents of SHIELD finally kicks itself out of its pit of despair and starts to tell a proper story for the first time this season.

Season 5, Episode 5 – Fitz and Hunter go to extreme lengths to figure out what happened to their friends in the kind of story that Agents of SHIELD excels at.

Season 5, Episode 4 – Agents of SHIELD hits a few of its usual notes but still can’t manage to find the track to get this story back on the rails.

Season 5, Episode 3 – Agents of SHIELD is completely off the rails and shows no signs of finding the track again.

Season 5, Episodes 1-2 – Post-apocalyptic space dystopia might work if this wasn’t “Agents of SHIELD,” but the best parts of this show don’t lend themselves well to this plotline.

Disney Channl alum Dove Cameron is joining Season 5 of ABC’s Marvel series Agents of SHIELD in a mysterious role.

The Marvel Television show will return to ABC on Dec. 1 with a two-hour premiere that moves to show to Friday nights.

Season 4, Episode 22 – Agents of SHIELD‘s fourth season finale is all action and no substance as it wraps up the various dangling plot threads with shock and awe. But you know what? The entire season is so good that it doesn’t really matter if the ending is a bit flat.

Season 4, Episode 21 – Agents of SHIELD achieves the seemingly impossible, landing every emotional beat in their complex season plot to perfection in “The Return.” The episode expertly ties up narrative loose ends and uses them to catapult the story into its season finale with one last super-sized, super-powered conflict.

Season 4, Episode 20 – In “Farewell, Cruel World!” Agents of SHIELD bids adieu to its warped alternate reality but brings back psychological consequences and some dangerous antagonists. The episode provides closure in most of the placing where the plot was tiring and replaces the resolved storylines with all-new tension and stakes.

Season 4, Episode 19 – Agents of SHIELD reveals motivation and takes a step toward escape in “All the Madame’s Men.” One group of our friends moves closer to freedom while another searches for the reason why they’re all trapped in a virtual prison. The episode moves the story forward just enough to set up some kind of conclusion.

Season 4, Episode 18 – “No Regrets” continues this astonishing run of Agents of SHIELD, mining every aspect of the show and current affairs for its alternate universe. Our friends remain trapped in a VR nightmare while the series knows just which wounds to press and which character traits to tweak for maximum devastation.

Season 4, Episode 17 – Agents of SHIELD continues to rewrite itself in “Identity and Change” by taking the best ideas from the whole series, reworking them, and forcing the characters to confront their demons. The episode knows exactly which spots to poke and which wounds to rip open for maximum effect, both painful and delightful.

Season 4, Episode 16 – Agents of SHIELD rewrites the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe in “What If…” mixing together painstaking attention to MCU detail with a little real-world politics. The differences between SHIELD regular world and the alternate reality provide tension while nothing is changed so much that you divest from the story entirely.

Season 4, Episode 15 – After three and a half years, Agents of SHIELD finally fulfills all of its immense potential in “Self Control.” Betrayal, uncertainty, and personal agency are at the forefront of the troubles the team must contend while also deeply examining issues of artificial intelligence, consciousness, and personhood. This is SHIELD at its best.

Season 4, Episode 14 – “The Man Behind the Shield” features everything from heartfelt science philosophies to hilarious action-packed flashbacks, the episode serves up the best that Agents of SHIELD has to offer and leaves you begging for more.

Season 4, Episode 13 – “BOOM” takes the usual Agents of SHIELD formula and gives it a spin to put Director Mace’s alienation at the center of the narrative. Balancing robots, magic, Inhumans, and scientific enhancement, the episode manages to touch every base and deliver a satisfying conclusion that moves multiple plotlines forward at the same time.

Season 4, Episode 12 – Agents of SHIELD tackles philosophy of mind, Russians, and romantic conundrums while Coulson and company race Radcliffe to the Darkhold in “Hot Potato Soup.” Drawing both from current real-life political quandaries and from the series’ expansive past, the episode balances humor and compassion in equal measure.

Season 4, Episode 11 – SHIELD continues to knock it out of the park in every respect with a beautiful mix of robots, politics, superpowers, and character-driven stories. In this week’s episode, Agent May and her copy both fight against their respective constraints, SHIELD’s three leaders clash over policy decisions, and science might not actually save us this time.

Season 4, Episode 10 – Agents of SHIELD strikes the perfect balance between action, political intrigue, and characterization in “The Patriot.” Pulling details from the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, this week’s episode mixes robot clones, Inhumans, science-y superpowers, and forgotten plot points from seasons past for a superb blend of plot, adventure, and character development.

Season 4, Episode 9 – Agents of SHIELD plays with killer robots, mad science, and corrupt politicians in its action-packed return from hiatus. It plays every sci-fi trope just straight enough to pull the rug out from under you in the precise style this show has slowly cultivated through the seasons.

Season 4, Episode 8 – Agents of SHIELD explains all those persnickety world-building questions about the science of magic in “The Laws of Inferno Dynamics.” The episode resolves the most pressing plot points while nurturing others for the future, as any good winter finale should.

Season 4, Episode 7 – Agents of SHIELD figures out exactly how to come back from a cliffhanger hiatus in “Deals With Our Devils.” Drawing together every storyline of the season, the episode hits the perfect formula for the series with a mixture of action, plot, suspense, and emotion. Just like every great SHIELD episode should.

Season 4, Episode 6 – So Agents of SHIELD is basically now on mini hiatus for a month and made “The Good Samaritan” essentially a quarter-season finale and it was amazing. It had a great plot, good backstory, fun character dynamics, and all the crazy you’d expect from a normal pre-hiatus episode—but this is episode six.

Season 4, Episode 5 – Agents of SHIELD‘s “Lockup” offers a lot of action with only a sparse amount of story as the narrative spins its wheels on filler. Action is fun but it could use some more forward momentum.