Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. cosplays as Agent Carter
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Wednesday, June 17. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC, 10 p.m.): The final season of Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is taking some big swings—in tone, in genre, in its connections to the rest of the Marvel universe, the list goes on. Here’s Alex McLevy on last week’s enjoyable “Alien Commies From The Future!”:
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is starting to give off strong Legends Of Tomorrow vibes in its last season. (Which, coming from this site, is pretty high praise.) The rollicking nature of its time-travel adventures, fused with a slightly more absurdist sensibility than past seasons, is giving these episodes the feel of a victory lap, the show loosening up and enjoying its high-concept potential without the worry of delivering the goods to ensure another year. Whereas last season’s experiments with a more freewheeling comic tone stood awkwardly alongside the darkly personal nature of the Sarge storyline (not to mention some gruesome body horror), season seven is taking pains to hold potentially painful plots at arm’s length. (Where the hell are you, Fitz?) Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is here for a good time, and this episode’s title makes that clear.
Part of that good time involves connecting the series directly with the late lamented Agent Carter, primarily through Daniel Sousa (Enver Gjokaj). This week promises more of the same.
Let’s hope for an Edwin Jarvis (James D’Ary) sighting. McLevy will recap.
Can you binge it? Seasons one through six can be found on Netflix, while the first three episodes of this final season await you on Hulu. As for Marvel’s Agent Carter, the complete (too short) series lives over on Disney+.
Regular coverage
Wild card
Love, Victor (Hulu, 3:01 a.m., complete first season): “Love, Simon was an undeniable milestone for queer representation in film, albeit one that also came with a lot of concessions attached. It was the first major studio rom-com that centered on a gay teen and his love story, but Simon’s journey was also largely devoid of any mess—a neatly packaged rom-com about a wealthy white boy, which the genre is hardly short on. While seeing such a widely released gay love story have its big moment did feel special, it was also difficult to overlook the ways Love, Simon catered to straight viewers.
Love, Victor, Hulu’s spinoff series that’s also set in the halls of Creekwood High where Simon went through his coming-out journey, seeks to challenge the notion that Simon’s story is universal. ‘My story is nothing like yours,’ protagonist Victor (Michael Cimino) declares in the first episode, and over the course of the series, his own process for understanding himself and his desires looks different than it did for Simon. But Love, Victor still holds a lot back, playing it largely safe when it comes to its depictions of queerness and coming out.” Click here to read the rest of Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya’s pre-air review.