Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC 2013, Clark Gregg, Luke Massy)

Scifi action drama series Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (which stands for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division) is an off-shoot of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Team leader is Agent Phil Coulson and he and his team investigate various strange goings on – most of which seems connected to the dreaded bad guys Hydra.

Each season has so far had a distinct thread running through it, season one focused on the investigation of the sinister Project Centipede and the fact that it was really a cover for Hydra who had also inveigled their way into S.H.I.E.L.D. Season two saw Coulson having to work to prove that S.H.I.E.L.D was a viable concern as well as dealing with a new trouble in the shape of powerful Inhumans.

Season three also involves Inhumans and a covert operation by Coulson to make some of them part of a team called The Secret Warriors. Meanwhile Hydra are also growing more powerful with the arrival of ancient leader Hive (S.H.I.E.L.D agent Grant Ward is revealed to be a traitor and after being killed by Coulson his body is taken over by Hive.)

The series does well to tie-in with the Marvel movies with episodes taking place inbetween the action of the various movies especially Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. There are also flashbacks in a couple of episodes that involve Peggy Carter and tying in with ABC’s Agent Carter series. Meanwhile the episodes The Frenemy of my Enemy and The Dirty Half Dozen are set directly prior to the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron and the episode Scars dealing with how that movie ended.

There is also a major tie-in with Guardians of the Galaxy with the arrival of the Kree aliens – these are major players in that movie and serve to also introduce Inhumans to the series.

production details
USA | ABC | x43 | Broadcast from 24 September 2013

Creators: Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, Joss Whedon
Based on S.H.I.E.L.D. created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Music: Bear McCreary
Executive Producers: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Stan Lee, Alan Fine, Joe Quesada, Jeffrey Bell, Jeph Loeb, Paul Zbyszewski, Jim Chory

cast
Luke Massy as Hek-Sel
Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson
Drea de Matteo as Karla Faye Gideon
Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter
Jaimie Alexander as Lady Sif
Adrian Pasdar as Glenn Talbot/Graviton
Ruth Negga as Raina
Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill
Andrew Howard as Banks
Bill Paxton as John Garrett / The Clairvoyant
Patton Oswalt as Eric Koenig, Billy Koenig, Sam Koenig
Eddie McClintock as Vin-Tak
Brad Dourif as Thomas Nash
Maximiliano Hernández as Jasper Sitwell
Kyle MacLachlan as Cal
William Sadler as President Ellis
Lucy Lawless as Isabelle ‘Izzy’ Hartley
Adam Kulbersh as Kenneth Turgeon
Parminder Nagra as Senator Ellen Nadeer
Patrick Warburton as General Rick Stoner
Assaf Cohen as Qasim’s Translator
Edward James Olmos as Robert Gonzales
Tim DeKay as Senator Christian Ward
John Hannah as Holden Radcliffe
Tzi Ma as Agent Kwan
Lorenzo James Henrie as Gabriel Reyes
Dylan Minnette as Donnie Gill
Chloe Bennet as Daisy “Skye”Johnson / Quake
Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz
Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May / The Cavalry
Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons
Henry Simmons as Alphonso “Mack” Mackenzie
Natalia Córdova-Buckley as Elena “Yo-Yo” Rodriguez/Slingshot
Catherine Dent as General Hale
Steve DeCastro as Ador
James Babson as Holt
Wilmer Calderon as Idaho
Zach McGowan as Anton Ivanov
Sarayu Rao as Dr. Jazuat
Rob Huebel as Lloyd Rathman
Daz Crawford as Kebo
Kenneth Choi as Jim Morita
Nick Blood as Lance Hunter
Pruitt Taylor Vince as Grill
Peter Mensah as Qovas
Saffron Burrows as Victoria Hand
Amir Talai as Schneider
Monique Gabriela Curnen as Janice Robbins / Agent Stevens
Michael McGrady as Samuel Voss
Juan Pablo Raba as Joey Gutierrez
Artemis Pebdani as L.T. Koenig
Ava Acres as Katya Belyakov
Dichen Lachman as Jiaying
Jeff Ward as Deke Shaw
Dove Cameron as Ruby Hale