Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 4, Episode 19 Review

This week on Agents of SHIELD, the team band together in an effort to fight back against Hydra in the Framework, in an episode dealing with surprisingly strong themes of propaganda and fake news - promoted by a surprise cameo return from Season 2 Hydra villain Bakshi.
One particular inclusion in this 'Agents of Hydra' pod I wasn't so keen on was the return of Grant Ward - a character the show had managed to bring back time and time again to little avail, even going as far as to have an alien with a squid head possess his dead body - and bringing him into a third part of this fourth season in a Hydra-dominated world seemed a little predictable almost. However, what's surprised me is that even though Brett Dalton is technically reprising his early Season 1 role of good Ward, he's actually a much stronger character here than he was then. Sure, evil Ward is much more fun to watch, but if the series does wrangle its way into making him a regular into Season 5, I actually wouldn't mind. Dalton has much more to work with here, and is all the better for it.
It's also awesome to see Skye / Daisy back with her Quake powers, pushing Madame Hydra / Aida straight of the window of the Triskellion! However, despite this Daisy seemed to use her powers very little in the episode, with the focus much more on her physical combat and gun violence for the action sequences. Getting to see a reformed Hydra May work with Daisy works well as a sub-plot for the episode, with the alternate May being given an interesting arc of redemption started with her giving SHIELD her body-cam footage of the Patriot's death. Once rescued by Coulson and Mack though, the team put together a short news broadcast to enlighten the world about Hydra's evil-doings, and encourage the people to rise up against them. This was a much more positive note to end the episode on, with Ward realizing that the people of the Framework world are all ready to stand up to Hydra and their tyrannical rule. Whether Fitz will re-join the team though is a little up in the air at the moment...
Overall, "All the Madame's Men" was a cracking episode of the series, continuing plot threads from the previous weeks and intertwining them in a larger story-line, which looks like it'll be coming to a big climax in the next few weeks. With three episodes left, lets hope the fourth season of Agents of SHIELD can end on a high, and not a Hydra.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) - Movie Review

Image
The Mission: Impossible franchise has experienced a mixed reception across its four prior installments, with the most popular being 2011's Ghost Protocol. I'm not entirely with the series, only that its pretty much Tom Cruise and co pulling off dangerous missions with some cool action and a catchy theme music, although I did end up watching Ghost Protocol one random night. Despite this, I have very little recollection of the actual film, and it obviously didn't leave much of an impression on me. Suffice it to say though that Rogue Nation is the first Mission: Impossible film I saw the trailer for, liked the look of and went to the cinema to see it, and my expectations were pretty reasonable - cool action, good stunts and an entertaining watch. I guess I got what I expected. The story follows the disassembling of the IMF, while Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is pursuing The Syndicate - a rogue nation that causes havoc across the world. Hunt teams up once again with Benjamin Dun
Read more

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor (2022) - Review

Image
And with that, the Thirteenth Doctor's era has come to a close. It's easy for regeneration stories to be overshadowed by the programme's future - understandable given the show's constant change and renewal - but suffice it to say that The Power of the Doctor makes for a fitting conclusion to this era of the programme. Kicking things off with a heist on a space train, we're reintroduced to the Cybermasters, returning from The Timeless Children back in Series 12. It's good to see them return, even if their ultimate roles in the narrative serve mainly as cannon fodder more than anything else. Their Cyber-converted planet, which I'd speculated to Gallifrey, was a nice idea even if it served as a backdrop to the events unfolding rather than playing a significant role. Quite why Ashad and his Cyber Warriors were brought back, other than fan popularity, I'm not sure. An off-hand comment about the Master cloning Ashad doesn't quite resolve the character'
Read more

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) - Review

Image
The phrase "I'm shook" springs to mind. Ten years after Marvel Studios released their first independent motion picture ' Iron Man ', the studio brings together (almost) all of their superhero characters into one enormous event film - ' Avengers: Infinity War '. Bursting at the seams with characters, ongoing arcs and a narrative sprawling across space, can the team behind ' Captain America: The Winter Soldier ' and ' Captain America: Civil War ' pull it off? Short answer: no, of course they can't. But they do a pretty great job trying. ' Avengers: Infinity War ' is a film perhaps lacking in character development all round, so much so that many characters feel like special guest stars in a film focused on bringing everything together. If there is a main character here, it's Thanos - played via motion-capture by Josh Brolin - on his journey to find all of the Infinity stones. The Russo brothers have compared this to a h
Read more