Review: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ‘The Asset’

This week’s episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., ‘The Asset’ begins with some high-tech S.H.I.E.L.D. truckers moving something important and getting attacked by some military dudes that want that something pretty bad.  And as it turns out, the cargo happens to be a very smart physics guy, Dr. Hall.  So the team must come together and find Dr. Hall before his kidnappers make him do something nefarious.

Luckily for them, Skye is a hacker and manages to get herself an invite to where the Doctor is being held.  As it turns out, his old science-making partner, Quinn, kidnapped (or “rescued”) him so that they could come together and perfect some gravity technology.  But Dr. Hall doesn’t like the idea of human beings having the ability to play with gravity, so he has a secret agenda to sabotage the project.

Even as S.H.I.E.L.D. breaks in and tries to make the rescue attempt, Skye has to deal with being discovered as a spy and then they all have to deal with the fact that Dr. Hall isn’t completely sane.  In the end, our heroes win but something even stranger may be the result of their victory.

I enjoyed the mad scientist/evil genius scenario, but it does seem to be the only thing that the show works with thus far.  This time we at least get to see the face of the enemy, but I suspect they’ll need to switch it up a bit in the near future to keep people interested.  With the way that this episode ended, however, we may see something very interesting indeed.

What stood out to me, however, was more that the show is beginning to take on a slightly darker cast.  The goofiness that permeated the first two episodes has slowed down just a bit and time is being taken to develop the characters so that we can have at least a little understanding of who they are and where they come from.  This time they focused mainly on Skye and Grant, though I suspect they’ll be exploring the whole range of characters within the next few episodes.

All-in-all, I’m still having a lot of fun with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  It almost reminds me of Warehouse 13 if they had a bigger budget and a few more talented writers on staff.  The acting is still a bit awkward with some of the characters as the actors get to understanding what the show is all about, but that should pass over soon enough.  As long as the show can survive and impress during this first season, the next season should begin to demonstrate the heart of what Joss Whedon is trying to create.

For a look at next week’s episode, ‘Eye-Spy’, check this link out.

Photo Credits -

The Asset courtesy of comicbook.com