SHIELD: 0-8-4

 It's hard to talk about a show this new. Things aren't quite where I want them to be yet, but they're moving in the right direction. You need to be patient with new shows, especially new Whedon shows, while they find their footing. You also need to be patient while everyone else gains confidence and backs off so the people in charge of the show have some room to try new things.

So what we have is a second pilot, with a touch more character development, a ton of action scenes, and a reference to nearly every movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Did you know that Stark is officially a S.H.I.E.L.D. consultant, not an agent? Or that the last 0-8-4 was Thor's Hammer? Or that Hydra used Tesseract technology and Gamma Radiation to make weapons of mass destruction? Fury even made an appearance in this episode!

Eventually we'll movie away from the movies as SHIELD learns to stand on its own legs. For now they're doing their best to remind everyone why they started watching this show in the first place.

But on to the characters, because that's what I'm here for. At least, it's what I should be here for.

I know it isn't the popular opinion, but Simmons continues to grow on me. I like that she and Fitz are starting to get some definition. They're beginning to become individuals instead of a single character split in two. So far, Simmons is far more gung-ho about being in the field. She's the one who dragged Fitz out of his comfort zone so they could go in the field. And she's the one teasing him about snakes and Dengue fever.

Ward remains my least favorite of the group. The actor can't quite pull off some of the dialogue, but I hope he gets better with time. For now he's basically Riley 2.0, the new and not-improved version. (Or maybe he's Riley 2.5, since Ballard was Riley 2.0? I don't know.) If he was just a little less serious, he'd work so much better. There are hints of it, like in his scene with May at the end. Actually, both of his scenes with May. I really like the two of them on screen together, so here's hoping they build on that relationship.

Ward and Skye on the other hand. I don't really know what to make of them, because their conflict did not go where I thought it would go. Instead of an argument about the good S.H.I.E.L.D. does versus the people it steps on, we got an individual vs team conflict. Maybe the other conflict is just being saved for later, though, when Skye's double-agent status is revealed.

Speaking of which, Coulson knows, right? He has to know. He's not that stupid. I can't figure out if he genuinely wants her on his team or if he's just using her to find Rising Tide, but there's no way he thinks it's this easy to get her on their side.