Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. [US] ** Spoilers **

I've just caught up on AoS after abandoning it a few episodes in. I couldn't quite bring myself to watch the earlier stuff so I just jumped in at the episode that parallels TWS. It certainly improved massively on the utter bilge that the series started out as and Skye became a better character although she still demonstrated her use to SHIELD as a great hacker by finding videos on Twitter every now and then. Unlike most of the posters here, I really like Mockingbird and think Adrienne Palicki is great as her. I like her relationship with Hunter, I mean it's cheesey shít that we've all seen a 1000 times before but both characters are likeable and have great chemistry. I also enjoy Mack although it was beyond farcical that he and Tripp could barely survive half a season together. Not quite as bad as The Walking Dead for killing the black guy as soon as the new black guy appears on screen but still such a cliche. Separating Fitz and Simmons was such a good idea. I had detested the whole Rosencrantz and Guidenstern thing they had going on in the first series. It was awful. Apart they've both grown into their own characters and Fitz in particular has become enjoyable to watch. But the award for MVP has to go to Kyle McLachlan, he was magnificent. He chewed the scenery up and had such a great time doing it that I couldn't help but adore watching him. His story was also well written going from believing himself to be a monster (and the audience along with him) to the realisation that he was just another victim of the real monster who had manipulated him more than anyone.

I think the spin-off series would be a mistake for several reasons. I like Hunter and Bobbi and would enjoy AoS an awful lot less without them in it. AoS needs to be an ensemble show. It works better when Skye and Coulson are less prominent and the other characters share more of the screen time and have their own important storylines. I like Clarke Gregg and I enjoy how he plays Coulson but he is an actor who works better when playing off a strong lead than being the lead. The show buckles when he is the one to carry it, especially when the other lead actor is Chloe Bennet who just isn't strong enough an actor to be leading a show either. Their scenes together are painful. I don't see any of their supposed chemistry, I don't see why Coulson liked her so much in the first place or why he likes her quite as much as he does now. I really hope that the third season sees those two fade back a bit and let other characters come more to the fore it will be a better show for it. Let the other characters grow and Clarke Gregg can then play really well off them, instead of the show pushing for a Buffy/Giles relationship between Skye and Coulson that just doesn't work.