Hot Off The Press - Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode 2

After a pleasantly surprising first episode to the Marvel show, the second features the newly assembled team working together in South America where they find something both strange and deadly.

Sometimes second episodes can often disappoint because what we enjoyed so much about the first was the setup and introduction to the characters and events. The second episode now has the difficult task of spending its entire time with characters we already know and we want to see what will happen next. While it is safe to say that the second episode is far from amazing, it manages to keep things light and interesting throughout.

From the opening shootout between the agents, allied soldiers and rebels, the whole thing comes across as Saturday morning entertainment, combining the action adventure yarn of Indiana Jones with the sci-fi elements of Doctor Who. What follows is entertaining but lacks any real bite to it which seems strange at first but can be deduced to the quick-witted, yet shallows characters who aren't all that interesting.

Besides the increasingly creepy moments about Coulson referring to his time in Tahiti as 'a magical place', the rest of the cast feel bland. Besides the MacGuffin, this episode manily focused on the team putting aside their differences and learning to work together. It's been done many times before and it works here but with the endless techno babble from Fitz and Simmons, it does start to grate a little. And it really is a MacGuffin as the episode is quick to gloss over the mysterious artefact, which again can work but here it felt lazy, particularly when a series about superheroes is absent of any.

Production value wise, the show continues to look good with some particularly nice (for TV) special effects. Clark Gregg is good in the lead role, and the episode does manage to reveal a little more about his past, however minor it may be.

While episode two is not as good as the previous one, it still manages to entertain and features a surprising cameo at the end which adds a nice touch. Hopefully episode three will improve and will get the show moving a little faster, beyond the MacGuffin-of-the-week formula.