Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 6 Premiere Plot Summary:
Daisy (Chloe Bennet) and Jemma (Elizabeth Henstridge) search for Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) in deep space while Mack (Henry Simmons) and the agents on Earth deal with a new crisis.
This season premiere marks a first during my time reviewing Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which is I don’t have to wonder whether ABC will renew the show for another season. It’s certainly a strange experience, considering the series has long lived in danger of cancellation, particularly when ABC first moved it to Friday nights. But Season 4 was so good that Disney reportedly wouldn’t let ABC cancel the show.
Holding Season 4 (particularly the latter half) as a benchmark of quality, it’s been my hope ever since that the series could once again reach and sustain that level of excellence. But while Season 5 started strong, it simply stretched its story out too long. There were undoubtedly moments of greatness, but overall I’m conflicted about the season and its ending, looking back. Time travel narratives are tough to pull off.
With Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. having been away longer than usual, I feel disconnected from these characters that I once felt attached to. However, that’s not to say I don’t care. One thing I was interested to see was how the show would handle Infinity War and Endgame. Last season made a conscious effort to address the looming threat of Thanos in its final few episodes.
This season disregards Thanos. It’s disappointing that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ignores the elephant in the room altogether, though the last two Avengers films hadn’t made things easy for them. The movies and the show have now diverged in a way they never have. It wouldn’t be a reach to say the series now takes place in an alternate timeline.
Despite my gripes, I have to applaud the show for how ambitious it has become. Last season’s focus on space opened up so many possibilities, allowing Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to reinvent itself yet again. It’s come such a long way from its comic book procedural roots. And the visuals in space are just if not more impressive than before.
While the mission in space seems relatively straightforward for now, the plotline on Earth is a complete mystery. It’s admittedly a little weird with Mack in charge, but not necessarily bad. Fortunately, May’s (Ming-Na Wen) presence brings a sense of familiarity. Even just seeing Clark Gregg brings a level of normalcy, despite not knowing who or what this Coulson doppelgänger is. Maybe he isn’t a doppelgänger at all. Maybe he’s the real Coulson.
So, while I’m not as invested in the show as I’ve been in the past, the show’s scope is big, the characters maintain a strong back-and-forth, and the mysteries are so far intriguing. Hopefully with a shorter season of 13 episodes, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. can provide consistent entertainment for the next few months.
