I already know I’m going to get a bit of flack from this since hating on AoS is still in vogue. There are very few TV series I watch as they premiere or at least within a day of it premiering. Most TV get’s regulated to binge watching and even then, I binge watch once the series is complete.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is one of those few shows. Not because it’s particularly any good, far from it, but it has one thing that no other TV show has: The Avengers… or to be a bit more precise, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Problems with AoS

Make no mistake, if this was the late 90’s, this show would be off the hook! Sadly, that was a decade and a half ago and shows like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and even Joss Whedon’s own Firefly have radically changed television.

The biggest problem isn’t the lack of superheroes in the show (what most people have a problem with), it’s that the team gets along well. Too well. There isn’t enough drama between the characters. Honestly, one change you could have made to the series would be that these characters were the best and the brightest but were forced into a being a team by S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. Agent Coulson is in charge because if he can’t do it, no one can, and he’s not happy about it.

Which brings me to the biggest problem I have with the series, the neutering of Agent Coulson. In the films, he was a soft spoken badass who threatened to taze Stark and watch “Supernanny” while he drools into the carpet, held a norse god at gunpoint and stared down the destroyer in Thor with a megaphone. Now he’s a big cuddly daddy figure.

Um, so Why is this Must See TV?

Because you’ll never watch this on Bluray. Seriously, that’s the only reason. (NOTE: there is a spoiler for yesterday’s episode in the following section.)

The series is starting to be the framework the MCU sits on. What happens between Thor the Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier? So far, not much, but if the trailers are to be believed, the ramifications of the latter film are going to have a significant impact on this series and what happens in between Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: The Age of Ultron will be filled in since the only MCU material we’re going to get is from AoS. And possibly the Defenders Netflix serieses.

Seriesi? Series’? What the hell is the plural of series?

GotG comes out in August 2014 and Avengers: AoU comes out April 2015 so there wont be any movies between those two films.

Even yesterday’s [SPOILER ALERT FOR THE REST OF THIS SENTENCE!] episode with the blue alien cadaver brings up questions of whether it was a Kree and ties in with GotG. If it is, that means that the end of season 1 might tie into Guardians! How cool is that?

As a geek, that’s the stuff I love to see– the effects one story has on another, it makes for a much more interesting and detailed universe. But you only get that if you stick with it as it plays out in real-time, not watching it on Bluray after the fact.

AoS is definitely getting better and with the FIVE(!) Netflix Marvel series on the horizon, it won’t be the only story we can rely on to fill in the gaps. I really wish that the series was jaw droppingly awesome instead of mildly entertaining and I’m curious to see if the events of Captain America will propel the series to be much tighter and raise the stakes higher.

Now, if only ABC will allow the series to be darker and less family friendly (and it’s starting to go that way) I’ll be much happier. Also, kill Skye and Ward.