Agent Sullivan on How I figure this first season will go...

So, it's the day before SHIELD premieres! I'm psyched, and so is everybody else. While you never can know for sure with TV, most observers, both geeky and not and both professional and amateur, believe that this show will be a hit! Oh, for sure, it's unlikely to meet the gigantic expectations and hype we (and ABC- which is so confident in the show they have put it against NCIS) have built up over it, but I'm not sure anything could.

So, with that in mind, here's how I figure this season of SHIELD will go:

It'll be a good show in the ratings, but not the super-duper-runaway-hit that the hype suggests. Four reasons for this: The first is that it has tough competition in NCIS, the second is that some people will come in expecting The Avengers and then leave when they realize Tony Stark isn't around (there is no help for these people), the third is that some people sadly will never give it a shot since they think they will be lost given that it picks up a pre-existing universe, and the fourth is that, again, I don't think anything could live up to the hype some have placed on the show. I'm predicting it'll do fine in the ratings, get a full season picked up pretty quickly and get a second season insured by mid-season. It won't, however, be able to beat NCIS or some of the other well-established series on TV.

It'll be a mix of "Freak of the Week" and an arc. This is standard for most drama shows these days, especially "genre" programs. In essence, some episodes might deal with a random superhuman or mysterious crime, while others will tie into big long conspiracies or organizations. And, of course, sometimes they will be both, with a random superhuman or crime that sort of has something to do with the big arc but where it isn't necessary to be following the arc to know about it. It's likely (SPECULATION) that the major arcs in Season 1 of SHIELD will deal with the "Rising Tide" group and the mystery of how Agent Coulson is back in the land of the living, but there will also probably be plenty of episodes about the team running into some superhuman or trying to solve some crime that involved alien technology.

We'll get a comparatively big-name character making an appearance by the end of the year. The Whedons have wisely said that they aren't just going to throw in the famous Marvel characters willy-nilly, instead aiming to get the show's characters to stand on their own rather than to overshadow them by throwing in the Avengers. And, besides, it's unlikely they could get stars like Robert Downey Jr. to show up anyway (although I wouldn't be shocked if we might get some wink-winks like having Stark Industry brand technology being on display). However, as the apparent appearance by Graviton in the Episode 3 summary and the cameo that's been revealed of Maria Hill show, this still will clearly be a Marvel show with Marvel characters showing up. And I'm guessing that by the end of the first season we will get a relatively big-name (i.e. every comic fan would recognize it immediately and even some non-comic fans would probably at least recognize that they are comic characters) to show up. While it could very well be Nick Fury coming in for a cameo or a sweeps-week guest star (Sam Jackson has apparently said he's up for it) or a character like Justin Hammer appearing (Sam Rockwell has also apparently shown some interest in reprising the character, who was basically the best thing in Iron Man 2), I'm guessing it's more likely to be a character that hasn't shown up in the MCU yet. Perhaps, for example, we will end up seeing Iron Fist and Luke Cage, or maybe even someone like Daredevil, who Marvel has regained the rights for and could provide a good spin-off possibility. Or maybe it'll be a pre-Captain America 2 appearance by Anthony Mackie as the Falcon or Emily Van Camp as Sharon Carter (which would also act as good ABC cross-promotion with Revenge, which Van Camp stars in) as a way to drum up hype for that film while laying the groundwork for it. But, rest assured, I'm guessing we'll see some character(s) that are far bigger names than Graviton show up.

Romance/Shipping For better of worse, Unresolved Sexual Tension runs network TV, and it was basically admitted in a NY Times article that SHIELD will have some as a way to draw in some of ABC's female audience (and also because, well, UST runs network TV in general). I'm predicting by the end of the first season at least one pair of SHIELD agents will have locked lips.

Death will no doubt play a role in SHIELD. Even if the Whedon family tradition of killing your favorite character when it hurts the most is held back by Disney's want to perhaps save certain characters for future merchandising and (in some cases) movies, that might not protect everyone, especially if SHIELD gets supporting characters beyond the usual ensemble. Like, if Coulson's cellist ex-girlfriend shows up, I'd get worried for her. I'm also worried for Lola. There is no way that car gets through this season unscathed. I wouldn't be surprised if "The Bus" gets shot down too.

So, there you go, how I figure this will go… what do you think?

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