Television review: 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' on the case

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Clark Gregg as agent Phil Coulson during a scene. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Joe Genna vacuums a set for ABC’s “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” at Culver City Studios. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Joe Genna cleans the windows of the command center on the set of “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Chloe Bennet, left, as computer hacker Skye and Ming-Na Wen as agent Melinda May get last-minute touch-ups before shooting a scene. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Before a scene is shot, Clark Gregg’s mic is adjusted as he talks to Chloe Bennet. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Clark Gregg, as agent Phil Coulson, films a scene inside the command center of the Bus. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet and Clark Gregg joke between scenes. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Inside the command center are Brett Dalton, left, Chloe Bennet, Ming-Na Wen and Clark Gregg. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Director Roxann Dawson, second from left, talks with Clark Gregg, while script supervisor Dawn Gilliam, right, shows them the script. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Prop binders on the set. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Chloe Bennet, Clark Gregg and Ming-Na Wen shoot a scene. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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A camera operator focuses on Clark Gregg and Ming-Na Wen during filming. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Ming-Na Wen, who plays agent Melinda May, watches a monitor on the set. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Between scenes, Clark Gregg shows Ming-Na Wen a recent press clipping on his phone. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton and Chloe Bennet between scenes. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Prop books on the set. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Cast chairs for Clark Gregg, left, and Lain De Caestecker. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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Tape covers a piece of glass with the “S.H.I.E.L.D.” emblem. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

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An emergency exit door with the “S.H.I.E.L.D.” label. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

By Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times Television Critic

Sept. 24, 2013 6:30 AM PT

Could there be a more awkward and irritating title for a television show than ABC’s new “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”? Why couldn’t they just call it what it is: “That Avengers Spinoff”?

Oh right, because there are no Avengers in it.

Which is precisely the point. Joss Whedon has constructed not so much a sequel to the “Avengers” movie as a parallel track to it by using some of the film’s superheroes as support staff. Just as J.R.R. Tolkien eventually split his fellowship into various adventures in “The Lord of the Rings,” Whedon and Marvel are attempting to broaden the story’s already multi-platform universe by giving it concurrent plotlines.

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“This is the new world,” says “Avengers” alum Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), referring to the post-Battle of New York clean-up and generally bolstering continuity.

Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), who has been miraculously resurrected, is back to keep things running in this gods-and-monsters age, with the help of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. The name, which was a running gag in “Iron Man,” continues as joke fodder. But seriously, ABC, if you can bring Coulson back from the dead, it is not too late to rethink the punctuation.

Though unaltered by radiation, chemical injection, nuclear hardware, Norse divinity or just old-fashioned abusive assassin-training, it is a crack team whose members take their jobs seriously. As recruit Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) quickly discovers when he is shipped home from Paris to aid Coulson in an investigation into “unregistered gifted.”

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As Whedon walks us through his version of the Bat Cave, we meet FitzSimmons, i.e., engineer Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and biochemist Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), an adorably British-accented couple who, in between performing miracles with computer screens, get to say things like “I’m not Hermione, I can’t create instant paralysis with that.”

But then, this being Whedon, everyone gets their fair share of witty asides. That includes cantankerous ace pilot Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) and pesky S.H.I.E.L.D hacker eventually turned brilliant new team member Skye (Chloe Bennet). Who is, it will surprise no one to learn, also beautiful.

Fringe Division having been shut down earlier this year, it falls to S.H.I.E.L.D. to investigate those out-of-the-ordinary crimes and occurrences that so often indicate an angry alien, supervillain or government conspiracy. In the pilot, these events include ordinary people suddenly displaying super powers.

Not, as it turns out, good, Captain America-like super powers, but bad kill-you-and-those-around-you super powers. The action peaks with what seems like a standard bit of monologuing, but which really sets up the whole series — how do ordinary people cope with a world run amok?

Hit films have spawned many television adaptations, some of which are successful (“MASH”), some less so (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”). But there’s never been a live-action series running not just concurrently with its franchise, but also in narrative sync. S.H.I.E.L.D. exists to keep things from getting to the point that the Avengers must be called in. A brand-expanding gambit, yes, but also a very clever concept.

Especially in the hands of someone who really understands TV. Though there’s CG aplenty, the pilot is nowhere near as in-your-face as one might expect. Whedon understands that though television can do many things, it cannot out-blockbuster a blockbuster.

Instead, he is choosing a lower-key but still intriguing way. Which is why he resurrected Coulson. Not only is Gregg a beloved actor playing a beloved character, Coulson is the perfect guide for Whedon’s vision.

He’s a super-power-adjacent Everyman who may be able to make the television series just as good, in its own way, as the film franchise.

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‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’

Where: ABC

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday

Rating: TV-PG-V (may be unsuitable for young children with an advisory for violence)