The pilot begins some time after the Battle of New York from the Avengers movie where Earth's Mightiest Heroes successfully repel an alien invasion, making the existence of superheroes known to a once oblivious public. Agent Phil Coulson is back from the dead (somehow) to put together an A squad that can monitor the general populace for superheroes or supervillain situations and deal with them before fast and quiet. Presumably, these will be threats that don't require the attention of Captain America and Thor since they'll need to rest up to fight genocidal robots and alien despots (other than One Direction). Recruited for the task is a pilot (Ming-Na Wen) who swears she doesn't do field work, an Archer-like field agent who allegedly doesn't work well with others despite being immensely charming and a hacker who is basically what happens when Anna Kendrick joins Anonymous. The team doesn't start off seeming like the "best of the best" but perhaps, they're not supposed to. Despite witty banter and fun introductions, the pilot doesn't do the best job of making that clear right away. And don't spend too much time worrying about how or why Phil Coulson is alive. He does a pretty good job carrying the show, so you'll be happy to see him.
In many ways, it seems like the general idea is for this to be Law and Order for superheroes like Fringe was for science fiction. Considering the sandbox the series potentially plays in, it feels like relatively small potatoes. I mean, in a universe with million (and sometimes billion) dollar budgets, a project like this that has primetime drama dollars to work with obviously isn't going to seem terribly state of the art. The show makes no effort to pretend that it is, either. However, this doesn't necessarily work completely against Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as we see in a scene where Whedon-verse alumnus J. August Richards, playing a disenfranchised factory worker given superpowers, goes into a monologue contemplating where the everyday man fits in a world now populated by titans and super soldiers fighting for the fate of civilization. And here we have an aspect of the genre that could stand some highlighting.
Superhero tv/movies haven't done as much to capture the heroic age from a ground level perspective. In fact, the majority don't treat average joes as little more than collateral damage much like in a video game (although you're justified, I'm looking at YOU, Man of Steel). After all, the thought of the ubermensche looking out for us a really nice thought, but what long term ramifications would superpowered battle, vaporized buildings and alien invasions every week have on a populace after a while? Is this really that hard to imagine at a time of frequent mass shootings in a war weary country such as America? I mean, most people have enough trouble avoiding rush hour traffic, much less gods airing out their sibling rivalry in the middle of the goddamned street. This is an interesting theme that deserves further exploration in a venue such as this and Whedon would certainly be perfect to do so. However, this could also be a lofty goal for a show like this that's meant to be fun and ham-fisted. At this point, it's hard to say whether Whedon will be able to stay as involved with a show like this at a juncture in his career when he's become a nerd messiah, but the pilot was decent enough that it's worth sticking with a while longer.
Bottom Line: Not the hype worthy start some were expecting, but definitely enough strong groundwork to build off of. Oh, and...you know...Phil Coulson. 7.5 out of 10
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