I grew up loving all kinds of superhero movies. My dad raised me to watch every single Marvel movie that came to theaters. When I go to theme parks, my main goal is to bring back some kind of Marvel souvenir. I drink my morning tea out of a cup that has the Black Widow on it. I have a Captain America sweatshirt. And most recently, I’ve begun to draw out plans to paint my Jeep Wrangler to look like a standard issue Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicle. I plan to quite literally paint the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on both doors of my Jeep. To put it quite simply, I love all things that have to do with Marvel. And I am certainly not alone.
In 2012, Marvel’s The Avengers killed the cinematic universe as the biggest box office release of the year, and is the third highest grossing film of all time, cashing in a total of over 1.5 billion dollars. The Avengers is considered one of the best superhero movies ever (which I agree with since I saw it six times in theaters, judge me). It’s now 2015 and by the looks of the last three years, The Avengers: Age of Ultron will probably rock the boat even more than the superhero mash up that came before it. In the last three years we’ve had installments of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Guardians of the Galaxy and the new and very entertaining ABC show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the special 8 episode mini-series titled Agent Carter.
If you’re big into The Avengers, like me, then you’re probably dying in the three month wait between the winter finale and the spring premiere of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and are subsequently trying to fill the void in your soul with Agent Carter, starring Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter, Captain America’s main love interest. If you have no idea what I am talking about, then you need to stop everything and get your life on the Marvel Universe track. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was created by The Avengers director, and popular creative genius, Joss Whedon and his brother Jed Whedon. The first episode premiered in 2013 and from there, millions tune in every Tuesdays to watch as the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents go on various missions to ‘be the shield for humanity’ at the direction of Senior Director Nick Fury.
Taking place directly after The Avengers, the show follows a mash up of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that include the veteran agent, Phil Coulson played by Clark Gregg; two awkward scientists nicknamed FitzSimmons, played by Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge respectively; the quietly powerful Melinda May, played by actress Ming-Na Wen; the smoldering, sexy Grant Ward, played by Brett Dalton, and the computer savvy newbie, Skye, played by Chloe Bennet. There’s action, romance, laughter, science and a plot to save the world from aliens and the weirdest part of weird. Is there anything else a person could want a TV show?
It’s fun, it’s campy, and it’s got everything a Marvel buff is looking for in a TV show. The show ties into the Marvel Universe perfectly, following all of the recent Marvel move releases and tying them into the plot expertly. Both of the newest Captain America and Thor movies play deeply into the plot of the show, so you can rest assured that the show is about as authentic as it gets. And the best part? The whole first season is on Netflix, and the first ten episodes of the second season (airing now) are available to watch for free on ABC’s website. Even better? The second season returns in a new timeslot on Tuesday, March 3rd at 9PM which means that there’s plenty of time to binge watch 30 episodes of amazingness.