Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 6 is the Series’ Most Ambitious (and Confusing) Season Yet
Last Friday, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. finished its sixth season and set the stage for its seventh (and final) season that will air in 2020. While I’ve been a fan of the show since Day 1, I feel that the series has outlived its welcome, especially with the introduction of Sarge (Clark Gregg), a hybrid-alien being or some sorts who shares the same DNA with the late (yes, he dies for real at the end of Season 5) S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson. Sarge is hunting creatures named “The Shrike” and its leader, Izel (Karolina Wydra), as she plans to unleash her army of Shrike to destroy Earth once and for all.
The biggest problem with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s sixth season is the fact that Marvel (or Ike Perlmutter, or Jeph Loeb, or Kevin Feige, who knows?) decided to ignore the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. While Season 5’s climax took place exactly during the events of Infinity War, as Thanos (Josh Brolin) was collecting the Infinity Stones, Season 6 completely ignores both films and says “fuck it” and does its own thing. While I thought they should’ve done their own thing since the beginning, it makes zero sense to ignore the biggest films of the franchise yet when your previous season acknowledges them. That bugged me for a while, until they introduce Alternate Timeline Fitz (Iain De Castecker) as the “original” one died last season. The “alternate timeline” and “multiverse” theory is expanded a bit in this season just to say “hey, since Feige is doing his own thing now with TV on Disney+, we can do whatever we want!”, and they do.
Sometimes, the show has glimmers of fantastic moments. For the entirety of the show, I kept wandering who or what Sarge is, let’s just say it’s complicated. Clark Gregg is, as always, excellent, but I feel his character was tonally all over the place. He starts out as a bad guy, ends up being a somewhat good guy, until he turns bad again, to good, and then bad, because he’s actually a creature called “Pachakutiq”, possessing the body of Phil Coulson for some unknown reason. The “flashbacks” in which Sarge has glimpses of memories that Izel took, that would showcase his past life, are completely ignored after one or two episodes and viewers are left to go along for the ride and say “ok chief”. When Sarge calls Daisy (Chloe Bennet) Skye, viewers might think that “oh shit, this is Phil Coulson”. Ultimately, no. The best moment of the entire season is on Episode 12, where Sarge stabs Agent Melinda May (Ming Na-Wen) when he tells her that Love is what’s killing him on the inside, and the only way to remedy the pain is by killing her. It’s a shocking moment, one that I did(and I’m sure a lot of people thought the same way) not expect. It was the most shocking moment of the show, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D at its most exciting — with A+ character development from Ming Na-Wen’s Melinda May as we see her falling in love with Coulson, and then realizing that “Sarge” or “Pachakutiq” is not the man she loved.
The character drama of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. still shines — with the introduction of Dr. Benson (Barry Shabaka Henley), who is the most interesting side character of the season by far — yes more interesting than Sarge, May, Daisy, Deke, Yo-Yo or “Director Mack” combined, especially during one scene when Izel shows a dark moment of his past, as he blames his drinking for the death of his boyfriend. It’s a powerfully emotional moment, and you feel immensly for Benson — the guilt he has suffered all of those years, the pain he feels on the inside as he still continues to drink to numb the pain, but you can tell how broken of an individual he is when he sees his boyfriend. It’s a powerful scene, the 2nd best sequence of the show. Shabaka Henley pours his heart and soul into the role and is used correctly as a side-character.
However, there are new side characters that feel completely pointless, like Malachi (Christopher James Baker), a Chronicom who wants to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. and use their resources to build Chronyca-3 on Earth. His arc is absolutely terrible and frustratingly unresolved. Maybe they’re keeping it for the seventh season, but I’m not holding out any form of hope whatsoever. Fun cameos like Anthony Michael Hall playing Mister Kitson is fun — but completely unnecessary and drags the show down. The Chronyca arc is completely pointless, especially when we have “an Avengers level threat”, destroying planets and menacing Earth as we know it, but alas. Izel is an incredibly predictable villain — with a laughable wig. It’s not only her wig that’s laughable, but her entire performance. Sarge (or Pachakutiq) is miles more menacing, even if we don’t know anything about it and his arc is boldly underdeveloped in 13 episodes. Less episode equal tighter pacing, and not giving a shit about the fluff, yet Season 6 is all about the fluff. Many “premonition”-esque sequences and character arcs are unresolved, and major character deaths are gloated over, especially Agent Davis (Maximilian Osinski) who falls off a ledge after being controlled by Izel and then gets completely ignored with the exception of Piper (Brianna Venskus). All of those are incredibly frustrating, as the showrunners feel like they haven’t planned the show properly, and improvise as they go along.
Still, Season 6 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. contains a compelling enough story, competently shot action sequences and wonderful visual effects for TV, with great performances all-around (except for Wydra) that made me compelled and invested for more. I’m looking forward to see how all the seeds that this season planted will affect the “time travel” arc of Season 7 — but I’m pissed that Coulson is basically immortal (as he’s now an LMD…can’t he just stay officially dead? Guess not.)
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