Paul Brian McCoy">
Psycho Drive-In logo
Search
  • PDI Press
    Featured
    • Q Clearance

      Paul Brian McCoy
      March 4, 2021
      Fiction, PDI Press Writers
    Recent
    • Q Clearance

      Mike Burr
      March 4, 2021
    • ON SALE NOW! NOIRLATHOTEP 2: MORE TALES OF LOVECRAFTIAN CRIME!!

      psychodr
      December 31, 2018
    • VOICES FROM THE NIGHT: The Living Dead Tell Their Stories

      John E. Meredith
      October 31, 2018
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    Featured
    • Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

      Paul Brian McCoy
      April 2, 2021
      Movies, Reviews
    Recent
    • Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

      Paul Brian McCoy
      April 2, 2021
    • Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A Review, Comparison, and Breakdown

      Paul Brian McCoy
      March 24, 2021
    • Psycho Goreman (2021)

      Nate Zoebl
      February 12, 2021
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
    Featured
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      Paul Brian McCoy
      July 13, 2018
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      The Final Girl
      July 13, 2018
    • David Black: Carnies, Carnage, and the Creative Chaos of Darkness Visible

      Dan Lee
      March 7, 2017
    • Jaiden Kaine joins the Marvel Universe as new Luke Cage baddie, Zip

      Andre Lamar
      September 29, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Batman: The Killing Joke

      Jason Sacks
      July 28, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Syfy’s Van Helsing

      Dave Hearn, Paul Brian McCoy
      July 27, 2016
    • Wondercon Interview: The Cast of Damien

      Gary Richardson, Laura Akers
      April 16, 2016
  • News
    Featured
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum arrives on Digital 8/23 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand 9/10

      Paul Brian McCoy
      July 30, 2019
      DVD/Blu-ray, News
    Recent
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum arrives on Digital 8/23 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand 9/10

      psychodr
      July 30, 2019
    • X-Men: Dark Phoenix arrives on Digital 9/3 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD 9/17

      Paul Brian McCoy
      July 16, 2019
    • Avengers: Endgame arrives on Digital 7/30 and Blu-ray 8/13

      psychodr
      July 16, 2019
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Breaking
  • Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
  • Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A Review, Comparison, and Breakdown
  • Psycho Goreman (2021)
  • Advance Review: Bad Girls (2021)
  • Shadow in the Cloud (2020)
  • Promising Young Woman (2020)
  • RSS
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Who We Be
  • Contact
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Home
Reviews

Agents of SHIELD 2.13 “One of Us”

Paul Brian McCoy
March 24, 2015
Reviews, TV

Easing back a little bit from the doom and gloom that our Agents have been dealing with lately, “One of Us” introduces us to Cal’s (Kyle MacLachlan) supervillain recruits as well as May’s (Ming-Na Wen) ex-husband, Dr. Andrew Garner (Blair Underwood) as he is brought in to do a psych-evaluation of Skye (Chloe Bennet). The episode title applies to both of these storylines, as well as the surprise twist we get at the end – but more on that later.

There’s no doubt that this episode upped the fun-quotient, and in the context of the rest of the series, it stands up as a pretty entertaining one. Entertaining, but not all that good.

AoS-213-01

And while I appreciate Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s pacing — particularly this season, where storylines are introduced and wrapped up in record time without losing any of the drama or tension — I really think we could have used an episode or two of Cal recruiting his team, if only to get to know them better. As it is, we’ve got tech guy, muscle guy, and knife-fingers, along with Angar the Screamer (fanboy squee!).

The fact that it’s Angar the Screamer that gets a squee there is kind of sad in itself, given that this is Angar from the comics:

Angar

Yeah, he was a screaming hippie. Now don’t get me wrong, he’s a Steve Gerber creation, so there’s more going on with him than that. But it’s hard to move past the fashion choices of the man.

Luckily, TV’s Angar the Screamer (Jeff Daniel Phillips) looks nothing like that. Well, he looks like he hasn’t had a bath in ages, so I guess that’s our stylistic touchpoint. In fact, none of the villains this week look like they were very interested in personal hygiene, and that’s part of the problem I had with this episode. There’s a lot of cognitive dissonance going on with regards to the visual style and the narrative choices.

I appreciate the realism that we got when Knife-fingers had her gloves removed, or when Angar had his mask removed. Both scenes were disgusting, bordering on body horror, with their skin being seriously damaged from being contained under restrains for so long. And did you not grimace when Angar screamed and his jaw became distended and freakish? Ugh!

AoS-213-03

But is there a reason that Tech Guy and Muscle Guy couldn’t take a shower? Is there a reason that there was no color or personality in any of their clothes? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I really started to miss The Flash‘s approach to super villains. They’re over the top, but stylized. These guys (and gal) were just gross.

And was Cal’s plan really just to lure Coulson (Clark Gregg) to his home town to kill him on the high school football field (at a school he didn’t even attend)? And was he really broadcasting it over the radio to the town? Who the hell would be listening to that? And where were the police when the entire football team and the cheerleading squad never came home from practice?

It was all just monumentally stupid. Goofy fun, sure. But stupid.

AoS-213-04

Sure we got to see Agent May and Bobbi (Adrianne Palicki) kick some ass again, but against these losers? Who cares?

And then, having the Inhuman Gordon (Jamie Harris) pop up and steal Cal away, leaving his useless henchmen to be mopped up and returned to prison, was an interesting choice. I found myself asking the same question Cal did: Why did they grab him and not Skye? The whole “You’re making too much noise” or whatever reasoning was not really satisfying and played more as a way to just shift the pieces around on the board without providing a lot of real narrative movement.

The same sort of thing happened with Dr. Garner showing up to evaluate Skye. That he was previously married to May really didn’t add a whole lot to the story, unless he’s going to be a recurring character. Dropping in for a one-and-done gave us a few chuckles but didn’t add anything of substance to anything about the characters. Blair Underwood is in the IMDB credits for the next two episodes, so hopefully this means he’ll get more interesting over the next couple of weeks.

AoS-213-header

It was nice, though, to see West Virginia represented by the beautiful college campus of Culver University (which featured in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk) with a top-of-his-field black professor in residence. Usually my home state doesn’t get this kind of positive attention in either fiction or in the news, so props to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for that, anyway.

So basically this episode didn’t really do a whole lot beside shuffle people around and display a discouraging lack of inventiveness when it came to the villains. I mean really, one guy had super muscles, but the tech guy seemed to just be a tech guy, and the surprisingly cast Drea de Matteo — she’s a name actress and this seems a bit beneath her — was just a lady who surgically attached knifes to her fingertips — no superpowers for either of them. Although her character, Karla Faye Gideon, is from the Daredevil comics, so perhaps she’ll be showing up over on Netflix?

Regardless, it would have been nice to have Cal traveling around recruiting villains we’ve already seen over the first season and a half, creating a nice Flash-esque Rogues Gallery for our heroes.

However, the final moments of the episode almost redeem the wasted previous forty minutes. I didn’t mention it, but Mack (Henry Simmons) had Hunter (Nick Blood) locked up at a safehouse for most of the episode and as the show concludes we are let in on the secret that he and Bobbi have been keeping: There’s another S.H.I.E.L.D.

And according to the previews, Edward James Olmos is the Director, Robert Gonzales.

Mic drop.

(Visited 77 times, 1 visits today)
Agents of SHIELD 2.13 “One of Us”
Paul's Rating
2.5Overall Score
Reader Rating: (0 Votes)

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Adrianne PalickiAgents of SHIELDBlair UnderwoodChloe BennetClark GreggDrea de MatteoElizabeth HenstridgeGeo CorveraHenry SimmonsIain De CaesteckerJamie HarrisJeff Daniel PhillipsKyle MacLachlanMing-Na WenNick BloodPaul Brian McCoyRic Sarabia

The Flash 1.15 “Out of Time”
Justified 6.09 “Burned”

About The Author

monsterid
Paul Brian McCoy
Co-Founder / Editor-in-Chief / Dreamweaver

Paul Brian McCoy is the Editor-in-Chief of Psycho Drive-In. His first novel, The Unraveling: Damaged Inc. Book One is available at Amazon US & UK, along with his collection of short stories, Coffee, Sex, & Creation (US & UK). He recently contributed the 1989 chapter to The American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1980s (US & UK). He also kicked off Comics Bulletin Books with Mondo Marvel Volumes One (US & UK) and Two (US & UK) and PDI Press with Marvel at the Movies: 1977-1998 (US & UK), Marvel at the Movies: Marvel Studios (US & UK), and Spoiler Warning: Hannibal Season 1 - An Unauthorized Critical Guide (US & UK). Paul is also unnaturally preoccupied with zombie films and sci-fi television. He can be found babbling on Twitter at @PBMcCoy.

FACEBOOK

FACEBOOK

Daily Top Ten

  • Sick Flix: Cannibal Holocaust (1980)Sick Flix: Cannibal Holocaust (1980) by Corin Totin
  • Uzumaki (2000)Uzumaki (2000) by Matthew Fantaci
  • The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) by Dan Lee
  • Dungeons & D-Listers: Dungeons & Dragons (2000)Dungeons & D-Listers: Dungeons & Dragons (2000) by Alex Wolfe
  • Shout at the Bipolar Devil & Bad Scorchy Gets Her Fire Put Out (A Midnight Riding Shotgun Double Feature)Shout at the Bipolar Devil & Bad Scorchy Gets… by Don McGregor
  • Anything Joes: UNBOXING: G.I. Joe Classified Flint and Lady JayeAnything Joes: UNBOXING: G.I. Joe Classified Flint… by Greg Engle
  • Gender, Transformation and Mr. Angel: A Chat with Buck Angel and His Wife Elayne AngelGender, Transformation and Mr. Angel: A Chat with… by Nate Abernethy
  • Dungeons & D-Listers: Deathstalker (1983)Dungeons & D-Listers: Deathstalker (1983) by Alex Wolfe
  • Reel Deal Short Take - Review: Robocop (2014) (NO SPOILERS)Reel Deal Short Take – Review: Robocop (2014)… by Kevin Pauley
  • Big Eyes Smart Mouth: The Boy and the BeastBig Eyes Smart Mouth: The Boy and the Beast by Serdar Yegulalp

PDI Press Bestsellers

Entertainment Earth

Weekly Top Ten

  • All Superheroes Must Die 2: The Last Superhero (2016)All Superheroes Must Die 2: The Last Superhero (2016) by Fred L. Taulbee Jr.
  • The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010) by The Final Girl
  • Advance Review: The Legend of Tarzan (2016) Blu-rayAdvance Review: The Legend of Tarzan (2016) Blu-ray by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Women in Horror: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)Women in Horror: I Spit on Your Grave (2010) by The Final Girl
  • Sick Flix: Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)Sick Flix: Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) by Corin Totin
  • Sick Flix: Cannibal Holocaust (1980)Sick Flix: Cannibal Holocaust (1980) by Corin Totin
  • Page to Screen: The Boys Season OnePage to Screen: The Boys Season One by Paul Brian McCoy
  • House of Wax (2005)House of Wax (2005) by The Final Girl
  • The Searchers: A Quaint and Polite Film about Racism, Rape, and RemorseThe Searchers: A Quaint and Polite Film about… by Thom V. Young
  • Shakespeare's Macbeth (2010)Shakespeare’s Macbeth (2010) by Paul Brian McCoy
Entertainment Earth

Latest Reviews

  • Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

    Paul Brian McCoy
    April 2, 2021
  • Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A Review, Comparison, and Breakdown

    Paul Brian McCoy
    March 24, 2021
  • Psycho Goreman (2021)

    Nate Zoebl
    February 12, 2021

Latest Columns

  • Anything Joes: UNBOXING: G.I. Joe Classified Flint and Lady Jaye

    Greg Engle
    April 12, 2021
  • Beautiful Creatures: Night of the Lepus (1972)

    Dan Lee
    April 9, 2021
  • EZMM 2021 Day 9: Blood Quantum (2019)

    Paul Brian McCoy
    April 6, 2021

INSTAGRAM

psychodrivein

Today at http://psychodrivein.com Anything Joes: Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Anything Joes: UNBOXING: G.I. Joe Classified Flint and Lady Jaye

Jaren takes a look at the newest Classified figures to hit shelves: Flint and Lady Jaye!
---
Watch Jaren's video at the link in our profile!

#AnythingJoes @AnythingJoesPod #GIJoe #GIJoeClassified #LadyJaye #Flint #Unboxing
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Beautiful Creat Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Beautiful Creatures: Night of the Lepus (1972)

Night of the Lepus is genuinely a science-fiction/horror in name only.
---
Read more of Dan's article at the link in our profile!

#BeautifulCreatures #NightOfTheLepus #JanetLeigh #RoryCalhoun #DeForestKelley
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 9 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 9: Blood Quantum (2019)

Blood Quantum satisfies all my zombie film cravings and is one of the strongest genre entries in years.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #Zombies #BloodQuantum #JeffBarnaby #BrandonOakes #ElleMaijaTailfeathers #ForrestGoodluck #GaryFarmer #KiowaGordon #MichaelGreyeyes #StonehorseLoneGoeman
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 8 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 8.2: [Rec] 4: Apocalypse (2014)

Anyway, [Rec] 4: Apocalypse is a perfectly fine zombie movie set on a boat.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #Zombies #Rec4Apocalypse #IsmaelFritschi #HectorColome #PacoManzanedo #ManuelaVelasco #JaumeBelaguero #ManuDiaz
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 8 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 8.1: [Rec] 3: Genesis (2012)

Granted, [Rec] 3: Genesis doesn’t really break new ground, but it is solid at what it does.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #Zombies #Rec3Genesis #PacoPlaza  #DiegoMartin #LeticiaDolera
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 7 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 7.2: [Rec]2 (2009)

[Rec] 2 opens with the final shot of the previous film before shifting our focus to a new set of cameras.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #Zombies #Rec2 #ManuelaVelasco #JonathanDMellor #JaumeBalaguero #PacoPlaza #ManuDiaz
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 7 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 7.1: [Rec] (2007)

[Rec] is a film that puts people in peril and then steps on the gas, refusing to let up until the shocking final moments.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #Zombies #Rec #JaumeBalaguero #PacoPlaza #ManuelaVelasco #PabloRosso
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 6 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 6: Dead Shack (2017)

Dead Shack is not heavy on scares and the zombies are practically an afterthought, but if you like juvenile humor there’s a dark streak to this film that delivers in the end.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #DeadShack #Zombies #PeterRicq #LaurenHolly #DonavonStinson #MatthewNelsonMahood #LizzieBoys #GabrielLaBelle #ValerieTian
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Godzilla vs. Ko Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

If there was ever a film that deserved to be seen on as big a screen as possible, it’s Godzilla vs. Kong.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#GodzillaVsKong #Godzilla #Kong #Kaiju #LegendaryPictures #MonsterVerse #AdamWingard #MechaGodzilla #AlexanderSkarsgard #DemianBichir #EizaGonzalez #EricPearson #JulianDennison #KayleeHottle #KyleChandler #MaxBorenstein #MichaelDougherty #MillieBobbyBrown #RebeccaHall #ShunOguri
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 5 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 5: Night of the Seagulls (1975)

While the ending of Night of the Seagulls isn’t a bombastic action-packed finale, I wasn’t as dissatisfied as many other reviewers.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #Zombies #NightOfTheSeagulls #TheBlindDead #AmandoDeOssorio #JavierDeRivera #JoseAntonioCalvo #MariaKosty #SandraMozarowsky #VictorPetit #KnightsTemplar
Today at http://psychodrivein.com Lost in Transla Today at http://psychodrivein.com

Lost in Translation 376: Watership Down (2018 Netflix mini-series)

Watership Down, of course, is the story about a group of rabbits who search for a new home after their original warren is destroyed by men.
---
Read more of Scott's article at the link in our profile!

#LostInTranslation #WatershipDown #Netflix #NicholasHoult #JamesMcAvoy #JohnBoyega #OliviaColeman #GemmaArterton #RosamundPike #PeterKapaldi #BenKingsley
Today at http://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2021 Day 4 Today at http://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2021 Day 4: The Ghost Galleon (1974)

The Ghost Galleon is essentially another reboot/reimagining of the basic concept of undead, blood-drinking, flesh eating Templar knights with little to no relation to the previous two films.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2021 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #Zombies #Zombies101 #TheGhostGalleon #AmandoDeOssorio
Load More... Follow on Instagram

TWITTER

My Tweets

Look Who's Talking

Ray
Ray - 3/3/2021
The Searchers: A Quaint and Polite Film about Racism, Rape, and Remorse
Bad review. Ethan doesn’t reject the family or society at the end, he realizes there is no place...
Amari Wolfe
Amari Wolfe - 12/11/2020
Popcorn Cinema: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
Don't know why, but the mention of Whammo Air Blasters made me laugh until it hurt. Very nicely...
mega leo
mega leo - 12/5/2020
Women in Horror: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)
To torture someone takes a cold kind of sadism. One that exceeds rage or revenge. One that shows a...
RSSTwitterFacebookinstagramtumblr

Archives

Large_rectangle_336X280
All work on this site is Copyright © each individual writer.
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
%d bloggers like this: