I just finished binge-watching the first season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  Wow.  This series turned out significantly better than I had expected from the beginning.

A little background:  so far, I’ve really enjoyed the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.  I think the Captain America movies were the best with Iron Man holding a special place in my heart.  I mean, what geek wouldn’t want to be a genius billionaire inventor with a flying power suit?  When The Avengers came out, I went with my girlfriend at the time to see it.  We were blown away, and when she saw Joss Whedon’s name in the credits, she went nuts.  She is a huge Whedon fangirl.  So when Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. came out, she saw Joss Whedon’s name attached to it and was expecting something along the lines of Firefly or Dollhouse.  That’s not what Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was supposed to be.

She ended up bored with the series pretty early on.  I had recorded the whole thing on the DVR and planned to watch it at some point, but I lost interest after she stopped talking about it.  I wasn’t big on TV back then anyway.

I recently found myself with lots of free time and decided to give the series another chance after hearing how it really picked up after the revelations in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  I sat down and watched all 22 episodes including the ones I had already seen.  It started off slow, but definitely picked up the pace.  The last 7 episodes are incredible.  If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, at least watch the pilot and the last 7.  You’ll miss out on a few major plot points, but they do a pretty good job of catching you up on the important stuff in the “Previously, on…” bit at the beginning of the episodes.

If you’re a geek, and if you’re reading this, you probably are, do yourself a favor.  Get this show, a big bowl of popcorn, and spend a weekend or two watching it.  I’m looking forward to the next season and seeing what other MCU tie-ins happen!