Sequel Saturday: S.H.I.E.L.D. Sequel Spoilers, by Mat Bradley-Tschirgi
Last summer, I was catching up on Season 1 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and was surprised to run across major plot points and spoilers from two Phase Two Marvel movies I hadn’t seen yet – Thor: The Dark World or Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I was a bit appalled. The beginning of the first season barely referenced the movies at all except for a brief cameo and some throwaway lines referencing what happened in The Avengers.
I understand what ABC Studios is doing here. By watching all the Marvel films at soon as they come out, viewers will get a payoff on next week’s episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. One medium feeds into the other. The season finale of Season 2 allegedly ties into one of the Marvel films we won’t even see for another three years.
Yet as a viewer of the show, I felt a bit betrayed. A warning would have been nice. Had I seen one, I could have ran off to see the movie first before continuing onto the series. Instead, I felt robbed of a major plot twist in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and confused by arcane references to Thor: The Dark World.
Am I going to stop watching the show? No. The episodes have increased in quality bit by bit and have enough interesting cult actors onboard to keep me going. I’ll just have to pay a little less attention to the dialogue next time.