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My over-indulgent tribute to Agents of SHIELD

In 2012, as a college student, I saw The Avengers in theaters opening night. It was a viewing experience that would change my life. Seeing the audience reaction to that film, hearing the enthusiasm, I realized that my career trajectory was wrong: I didn’t want to write novels, I wanted to write for the screen. I wanted to create something that elicited THAT level of excitement and engagement.

The next year, my sister told me that they were making a spin-off show all about the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization from Avengers, and it would star Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson. I was immediately excited about this show even before I saw the first episode. I had grown up on shows like Get Smart and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. so I was in love with the spy television genre. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. seemed right up my alley, plus I had loved Agent Coulson from all of the Marvel movies up to that point.

I watched the release of the AoS pilot live, and from that moment, it became a weekly ritual. As a writer, I walk away from most movies/shows thinking, “It was really good, but if I had been writing it, I would have done this thing differently.” But the first season of Shield was different. I watched every episode thinking about the writing, “They did exactly what I would have done.” The way they defined and developed their characters, the way they balanced monster-of-the-week type programming with advancing the larger season arc, the way they seamlessly tied themselves into the greater Marvel universe was just outstanding across the board.

I remember the big push they made to have fans go out to the theaters and watch the premier of Captain America: The Winter Soldier between episodes 116 and 117, and boy, watching that movie with the full understanding that its events impacted the narrative I had been engulfed in on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was one of the most surreal viewing experiences of my life. I drove back to my campus with my friends in the car, all extremely rattled by the events of that film, and we tried to predict what the show was going to do. With my writers mind, I remember the moment I pieced it together and realized who was going to turn in the next episode. We got back and basically immediately watched the episode Turn, Turn, Turn and my mind was blown. It was such a huge event, and I truly pity all of the fans that have joined the show late in the game and weren’t there in those early days. There was truly nothing like experiencing that tie-in in real time. It broadened my mind on what was possible to do through TV, and it solidified the feeling that had been festering inside of me for over a year: I wanted to be a television writer.

Fast forward another year and it was 2014. One of my great friends had managed to get us both tickets to the San Diego Comic Con, and the cast and creators of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. would be in attendance. Over the course of that week, I had more dream-come-true fan moments than I could even recount here, but chief among them, I got to meet Maurissa Tanchereon, the Co-Creator of AoS and one of the Showrunners on it. I got to give her a letter I had written and I got to thank her face-to-face for writing the show. As a female writer, I was so inspired by her career, and having her stand right there in front of me, holding my hand while I gushed over her talent, was like a tangible proof that my dreams were possible. I didn’t just have to WANT to be a tv writer; I COULD be. I could do it.

Fast forward another few years and I took the first step towards working in TV. I volunteered as an unpaid PA on a feature film being shot in my area. I made contacts and worked my butt off and soon, I was getting hired onto the next production, then the next one. I worked my way up in the industry in Oklahoma until I was ready to make the move to a bigger market. I moved to Los Angeles at the beginning of 2019 and have been working fulltime in the television industry ever since.

Now, I am a writers PA, closing in on the end of my first stint on a scripted television show, getting to sit in the writers room of a major Disney+ series and hear all of these brilliant writers work their magic. I have finally gotten a look behind the curtain and have learned so much from the talented people in our room. I’ve been able to pitch a few ideas or lines from time to time, and in every possible way, this feels like only the beginning. I am looking for my next gig in scripted television, and in the meantime, I am developing my own pilot. I am doing this, you guys.

And what has remained a constant, through this whole journey, has been the show that started it all: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Every year, they find a way of reinventing this show and telling a new and exciting story. The characters have grown and been challenged in every way possible, and I feel like I have grown and been challenged right alongside them.

Now, I’m sad to say it’s goodbye. Tonight, the show’s finale episode is airing, and you can bet that I’ll be there, decked out in all of my fan gear, to watch the final mission as it airs. And I just couldn’t let a day like this go by without taking a moment to write this tribute, to commend this show for the legacy it has had, and thank those responsible for literally changing the trajectory of my life.

So thank you to the brilliant creative team, Maurissa Tanchereon, Jed Whedon, Joss Whedon, Jeff Bell, Jeph Loeb, and many others. Thank you to the wonderful writers who have inspired me for years with their great work (I can’t possibly list them all, but here are the writers behind just a few of my favorite episodes), Rafe Judkins, Lauren LeFranc, Drew Greenberg, DJ Doyle, Craig Titley, Brent Fletcher, Paul Zbyszewski, Monica Owusu-Breen, and so many others.

Thank you to the talented cast who brought the pages to life: Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Ming Na Wen, Elizabeth Henstridge, Iain De Caestecker, Brett Dalton, Henry Simmons, Nick Blood, Adrianne Palicki, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, Jeff Ward, Joel Stoffer and so so many others.

Thank you to Mark Kolpak and his amazing visual effects team for making the impossible look so real (and also for his incredible social media presence, serving as our man on the inside and releasing all of the behind the scenes goodies). And thank you to Bear McCreary and his team for creating the iconic soundtrack to this epic adventure week after week. The sound of that main theme on the French horn will never fail to inspire me and make me feel like an Agent.

There are countless other people that I don’t know by name and can’t thank but they too played a vital role in making this show happen, so thank you.

This show has been such a huge part of my life for the past seven years. It has broken my heart, made me belly laugh, and pumped me up more times than I can count. It has given be new friendships that will be with me all of my life. It has inspired me to try and succeed. It has influenced the way I write and the way I watch. And one day, I’m going to create a show that is exactly as good, maybe even better.

So thank you Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I’m proud of you. You’ve been the best. And I’m ready for tonight’s final mission.

--Agent Grice