Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Overview
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D is an american television series created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen. It is based on the organisation, S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division) from Marvel Comics. It set in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and ties into the films and other television series. The series is produced by ABC Studios, Marvel Television, and Mutant Enemy Productions, with Jed Whedon, Tancharoen and Jeffrey Bell serving as showrunners.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents deal with various unusual cases and enemies, including Hydra, the Inhumans, and various alien species. Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) was resurrected for the series after his death in the MCU film The Avengers. The series premiered on September 24, 2013 and is currently on its sixth season with a seventh season ordered in November 2018 and set to premier in 2020. Several characters created for the series have since been introduced to the comic universe and other media.

Ratings
In terms of ratings, the premiere episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. earned a 4.7/14 rating in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic, with 12.12 million total viewers, making it the biggest network drama debut in four years in the United States. Though the series debuted to strong ratings, it declined considerably, though it remained Tuesday's top show. It also enjoyed DVR recordings that, according to TV Guide, were "through the roof".

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. saw the season five episode "All Roads Lead..." earn a series low rating of 0.4/2, as well as the lowest initial viewers with 1.67 million. In November 2018, Parrot Analytics, which measures "how viewers interact with a TV show's brand online, assessing everything from global file-sharing and peer-to-peer traffic to social media activity", ranked Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the top 0.03 percent of in-demand television series worldwide, classifying it as "Amazing". Series with similar demand included  Better Call Saul, Criminal Minds, and Vikings, while Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had higher demand than series such as The Originals, Supergirl, Arrow, and Fear The Walking Dead.

Critical Response
Critical response for the show has always been extremely favorable. For the first season, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 88% approval rating, with an average rating of 7.83/10 based on 72 reviews, while  Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a "generally favorable" score of 74 based on 33 reviews. The critical response has always improved with each season.The second season has a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 7.66/10 based on 32 reviews. The third season has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 8.19/10 based on 22 reviews. The fourth season has a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 7.65/10 based on 22 reviews, evolving with a much darker storyline in the form of three "pods" or "arcs". The fifth season has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 7.89/10 based on 21 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.swings for the fences with large-scale storytelling and wild twists that elevate season 5 from the saturated MCU and into its own space".The sixth season has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 7.79/10 based on 9 reviews.

Additional Commentary
The series was also deemed extremely influencial in many ways. The way that it was affected by the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier has been called "miraculous",with Terri Schwartz at Zap2it writing; "the fact that the movie so influenced the show is game-changing in terms of how the mediums of film and television can be interwoven". Barr wrote that the series "does a most excellent job of standing on its own two feet in a way we've never seen it do before. Come the final frame [of the second season finale], all anyone—Marvel fan or otherwise—will be asking is when season three begins."

The third season's paralleling of themes from Captain America: Civil War was called "topical and relevant" and "downright eerie" by The A.V. Club's Alex McCown and Screen Crush's Kevin Fitzpatrick. McCown compared the series' approach to setting up "a world distrustful of superpowers" to the real life events surrounding Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and said that "S.H.I.E.L.D. is taking full advantage of its medium in order to tell the story the upcoming Captain America film can't: A full and fraught exploration of the need to protect freedom and privacy, even for those with extraordinary abilities."

Ahead of the fourth season, Collider's Kayti Burt opined that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is "the X-Men TV show you should be watching". Burt felt that the similarities between S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Inhumans and the X-Men became "particularly pointed" in the third season with the Hive storyline, which had a lot in common with the film X-Men: Apocalypse that was released around the same time; Burt was of the opinion that S.H.I.E.L.D.executed the storyline "much better" than the film did. Other similarities Burt discussed were the series' diverse and ensemble cast, its take on the mutant cure storyline, the parallels between Daisy Johnson's second season arc and the introduction of Rogue in the first X-Men film, and its social and political commentary. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. attempts to comment on the current socio-political state of the country in a way that many of the other superhero TV shows don't even attempt to do.

Additionally, Marc N. Kleinheinz at Screen Rant discussed how the series "continues to resist a status quo", from the destruction and rebuilding of S.H.I.E.L.D., to the fallout from the Sokovia Accords. During the Agents of Hydra pod in the fourth season, Collider.com's Evan Valentine noted how "[o]ne of the prevalent themes of this latter half of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s fourth season has been its jabs at the current Trump administration... "When all's said and done, whether you support or disavow the current administration and what it's done with its time in office, does this commentary work here? Sure it does... We need to be able to laugh at what's going on in the world, regardless of whether we agree or disagree, but S.H.I.E.L.D. has managed to throw in some biting commentary this season."

Starring Cast

 * Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson † (Seasons 1-6) and Sarge (Season 6) and Phil Coulson LMD (Season 4 and 7)


 * Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May (Seasons 1-7) and Melinda May LMD † (Season 4)
 * Brett Dalton as Grant Ward † (Seasons 1-3), Hive † (Season 3) and Grant Ward (Framework) † (Recurring Season 4)
 * Chloe Bennet as Skye/Daisy Johnson/Quake (Seasons 1-7)
 * Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz (Seasons 1-7)
 * Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons (Seasons 1-7)
 * Nick Blood as Lance Hunter (Seasons 2-3; Guest Star Season 5)
 * Adrianne Palicki as Bobbi Morse (Seasons 2-3)
 * Henry Simmons as Alphonso Mackenzie (Seasons 3-7; Recurring Season 2)
 * Luke Mitchell as Lincoln Campbell † (Season 3; Recurring Season 2)
 * John Hannah as Holden Radcliffe † (Season 4; Recurring Season 3)
 * Natalia Cordova-Buckley as Yo-Yo Rodriguez (Seasons 5-7; Recurring Seasons 3-4)
 * Jeff Ward as Deke Shaw  (Seasons 6-7; Recurring Season 5)

Recurring Cast

 * J. August Richards as Michael Peterson/Deathlok (Seasons 1-2, 5)
 * David Conrad as Ian Quinn † (Seasons 1, 5)
 * Ruth Negga as Raina † (Seasons 1-2, 5)
 * Saffron Burrows as Agent Victoria Hand † (Season 1)
 * Max Osinski as Agent Davis  (Seasons 1, 4-6)
 * Christine Adams as Agent Anne Weaver (Seasons 1-2)
 * Bill Paxton as John Garrett † (Season 1)
 * B.J. Britt as Agent Antoine Triplett † (Seasons 1-2) and Antoine Triplett (Framework) † (Season 4)
 * Adrian Pasdar as Brigadier General Glenn Talbot † (Seasons 1-5)
 * Patton Oswalt as Eric Koenig † / Billy Koenig / Sam Koenig / Thurston Koenig (Seasons 1-2, 4)
 * Brian Patrick Wade as Carl Creel/Absorbing Man † (Seasons 2-3, 5)
 * Reed Diamond as Daniel Whitehall † (Seasons 2-3, 5)
 * Simon Kassianides as Sunil Bakshi † (Season 2) and Sunil Bakshi (Framework) † (Season 4)
 * Raquel Gardner as Carla Talbot (Seasons 2-3, 5)
 * Jack Fisher as George Talbot (Seasons 2-3, 5)
 * Kyle MacLachlan as Calvin Zabo (Season 2)
 * Maya Stojan as Kara Palamas/Agent 33 † (Season 2)
 * Dichen Lachman as Jiaying † (Season 2)
 * Jamie Harris as Gordon † (Season 2)
 * Blair Underwood as Doctor Andrew Garner † (Seasons 2-3)
 * Mark Allan Stewart as Agent Oliver † (Season 2)
 * Edward James Olmos as Agent Robert Gonzales † (Season 2)
 * Brendan Wayne as Jiaying's Assistant (Season 2)
 * Alicia Vela-Bailey as Alisha Whitley † (Seasons 2-3)
 * Daz Crawford as Kebo † (Seasons 2-3)
 * Juan Pablo Raba as Joey Gutierrez (Season 3)
 * Constance Zimmer as Rosalind Price † (Season 3)
 * Andrew Howard as Luther Banks † (Season 3)
 * Matthew Willig as Lash † (Seasons 3, 5)
 * Spencer Treat Clark as Werner von Strucker † (Seasons 3, 5)
 * Mark Dacascos as Giyera † (Season 3)
 * Alexander Wraith as Agent Anderson (Seasons 3-4)
 * Lola Glaudini as Polly Hinton (Seasons 3, 5)
 * Axle Whitehead as JT James/Hellfire (Seasons 3-4)
 * Briana Venskus as Agent Piper (Seasons 3-6)
 * Lexy Kolker, Ava Kolker and Willow Hale as Robin Hinton/The Seer (Seasons 3, 5)
 * Gabriel Luna as Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider (Season 4)
 * Ricardo Walker as Agent Prince †  (Season 4)
 * Blaise Miller as Agent Nathanson † (Season 4)
 * Mallory Jansen as Aida/Madame Hydra † (Season 4) and Agnes Kitsworth † (Season 4)
 * Lilli Birdsell as Lucy Bauer † (Season 4)
 * Lorenzo James Henrie as Gabe Reyes (Season 4)
 * Jason O'Mara as Jeffrey Mace/Patriot † (Season 4)
 * Patrick Cavanaugh as Agent Burrows † (Season 4) and Burrows (Framework) † (Season 4)
 * Parminder Nagra as Senator Ellen Nadeer † (Season 4)
 * José Zúñiga as Eli Morrow † (Season 4)
 * Zach McGowan as Anton Ivanov/Superior † (Seasons 4-5)
 * Jordan Rivera as Hope Mackenzie † (Season 4)
 * Joel Stoffer as Enoch (Seasons 4-6)
 * Eve Harlow as Tess (Season 5)
 * Pruitt Taylor Vince as Grill †  (Season 5)
 * Florence Faivre as Sinara † (Season 5)
 * Tunisha Hubbard as Ava (Season 5)
 * Dominic Rains as Kasius † (Season 5)
 * Jay Hunter as Kree Watch Commander † (Season 5)
 * Coy Stewart as Flint (Season 5)
 * Catherine Dent as General Hale † (Season 5)
 * Dove Cameron as Ruby Hale † (Season 5)
 * Shontae Saldana as Candice Lee (Season 5)
 * Peter Mensah as Qovas † (Season 5)
 * Barry Shabaka Henley as Doctor Marcus Benson (Season 6)
 * Brooke Williams as Snowflake (Season 6)
 * Winston James Francis as Jaco (Season 6)
 * Matt O'Leary as Pax (Season 6)
 * Lucas Bryant as Agent Keller † (Season 6)
 * Christopher James Baker as Malachi (Season 6)
 * Sherri Saum as Altarah (Season 6)
 * Karolina Wydra as Izel (Season 6)

Marvel Cinematic Universe Guest Stars

 * Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury (Season 1)
 * Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill (Seasons 1-2)
 * Titus Welliver as Felix Blake (Seasons 1, 3)
 * Maximiliano Hernández and Adam Faison as Agent Jasper Sitwell † (Seasons 1, 5)
 * Jaimie Alexander as Sif (Seasons 1-2)
 * Josh Cowdery as Agent Tyler (Season 1)
 * Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter † (Season 2)
 * Neal McDonough as Dum Dum Dugan † (Season 2)
 * Kenneth Choi as Jim Morita † (Season 2)
 * Henry Goodman as Doctor List † (Season 2)
 * Powers Boothe and Cameron Palatas as Gideon Malick † (Season 3)
 * William Sadler as President Matthew Ellis (Season 3)
 * Joey Defore as Wolfgang von Strucker † (Season 5)