The Bridge

Last night's episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the "fall finale" that will have to hold us over for a month or so, was in my eyes a backslide for a show that had been gradually moving in the right direction. Of course, it's hard to judge not having full context, since we were left on a cliffhanger ending. But it did feel as though the series was reaching for its own "The Best of Both Worlds" moment, while missing key elements that made that classic cliffhanger so amazing.

Sure, you had Coulson in the Picard role, the leader being abducted by the bad guys for the big finish. You had Skye in the Riker role, questioning whether or not being part of the team was really the best thing for her. But the problem was that you had the guest star, played by Angel's J. August Richards, absolutely taking over the entire story. The episode was all about his powers, all about his redemption (which, notably, he did not achieve, regardless of whether his betrayal was understandable). To continue my comparison, the Shelby character of "The Best of Both Worlds" was not the star of the show; her role in the episode was purely to fuel the Riker storyline. I really don't care much about Mike Peterson; I always want to know more about our still developing main characters.

I found all the vague mustache twirling about Centipede and The Clairvoyant and The Girl in the Flower Dress to be very off-putting. It reminded me of the worse excesses of The X-Files conspiracy episodes, with a convoluted and impenetrable plot populated by nameless evil characters. Only in this case, I couldn't shake the feeling that comic readers might well know more about all this, which as I've said in the past is my top complaint about poorly executed comic book movies -- they're written too much for the people already in the tent.

In all, it made for a disappointing hour that in no way left me eager for the conclusion in January. An unfortunate C-grade misstep to cap a run of otherwise improving episodes.