Maybe We Don’t Need Tie-Ins

Having reviewed Agatha All Along (along with every other Marvel show the company has put out since the Marvel Cinematic UniverseWhen it first began in 2008 with a little film called Iron Man no one suspected the empire that would follow. Superhero movies in the past, especially those not featuring either Batman or Superman, were usually terrible. And yet, Iron Man would lead to a long series of successful films, launching the most successful cinema brand in history: the Marvel Cinematic Universe. started) it does strike me that maybe it would be a good idea to think about what Marvel actually should be doing with their TV output. I don’t think, on its face, that Marvel making TV shows that tie into the MCU is necessarily a bad idea. It’s just that the way they’re handling it is very much the worst possible path for TV shows going forward. It dilutes the brand the way they’ve been handling it, making shows people have to watch even when it’s about characters or storylines people don’t care about, and in the long run it creates this feedback of overload that actually drives more people away instead of bringing new audiences in.

This wasn’t always the case, mind you. The first miniseries that Marvel made for the MCU was WandaVision. That was a weird show, sure, but it got audiences interested. It was praised by critics and fans, it was considered appointment television, and in the end it created a satisfying story that left audiences interested in what was going to come next. It also came out during COVID, at a time when people were actually interested in binging all the TV they could, meaning that the core audience Marvel courted, the massive, built-in fanbase for the MCU, was there for this show.

The works that came after were of lesser quality, mind you. Most people thought The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was boring. Most people didn’t turn in for Hawkeye because even if that show was fun (and I did like it), Hawkeye himself is not a beloved character in the MCU. And then Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, these were all shows that had vocal contingents that hated them and even the audiences that showed up and liked the shows had to admit they were uneven at best. Marvel was not cranking out the kinds of shows that could match WandaVision.

So, sure, one thing Marvel should do is turn down the output of shows and only put out one or two very important miniseries each year. They have to make sure they’re stories that need to be miniseries as well. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier would have been better as a two hour movie and not stretched across six hours of bland episodes. Secret Invasion should have been an Avengers film so that the actual stars and heroes of the MCU could have been involved instead of cut-rate characters no one cares about trying to cover for a massive crossover that doesn’t, in fact, feature any crossover characters. Marvel has been making flawed products expecting their audiences to show up and, clearly, that hasn’t been working.

Deep down, though, I don’t think the Disney+Disney's answer in the streaming service game, Disney+ features the studio's (nearly) full back catalog, plus new movies and shows from the likes of the MCU and Star Wars. miniseries model really works for the MCU. It creates too many side projects, too many little things to watch and keep up with that most people just won’t bother with. Instead, Marvel should really look further back to other shows to see what model they should follow if they’re going to continue making television shows. As weird as it sounds, Marvel should go back to Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter.

In fairness, I don’t think they should actually go back and make new seasons of these two shows… although if we get to spend more time with Agent Peggy Carter, as played by Hayley Atwell, I wouldn’t complain in the slightest. No, what they should do is look at the model set by those two shows to see how to do an MCU show properly, because as those shows settled in and got really running, they actually provided the best kind of Marvel television we needed for the era they were running.

In the case of Agents of SHIELD, the first two seasons of the show were the worst. That’s because those were the seasons most directly crippled by having to be direct tie-ins to the Marvel machine’s machinations. Season one especially buckled under the weight of both being an adventure show about the titular agents at SHIELD while also having to wait and kill time until the big twist of Captain America: The Winter Soldier revealed that SHIELD had been taken over by HYDRA. This set off the events of the series finale, and that was a fun couple of episodes, but then it took time for the show to find its feet again, once more trying to balance its stories with being an MCU show.

Agents of SHIELD didn’t actually get really good until the third season when they threw off any need to do crossovers and pay deep attention to what was going on in the MCU proper. Instead they took thematic ideas from the films, like having a season all about magic aligned with the introduction of Doctor Strange in the film series, while doing their own thing. The series became watchable because it was just allowed to be a show about the characters doing their jobs and living their lives, and all because it no longer cared if it was an MCU show or not.

Meanwhile, by grace of its time period, Agent Carter could be whatever kind of show it wanted, free of constraints. Set in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Agent Carter spun off of Captain America: The First Avenger and it followed Agent Peggy Carter as she went on adventures, fighting against dangerous, period-appropriate threats from HYDRA and the like, all while battling sexism in the workplace. It got to have its own vibe, be its own thing, because there was no possible way it could crossover with the main MCU. The best the show could do was bring back some characters from the Captain America film, or reference some stuff that might eventually happen, one day, all with a wink and a nod.

And it was great. Again, there is nothing in the Marvel film and TV franchise that can’t be improved with more of Atwell’s Peggy Carter. Hell, What If? continues to be watchable because they keep bringing in the multiversal alternate Captain Carter (also voiced by Atwell), who is awesome in her own right. Agent Carter was canceled after two seasons, in large part because then Marvel television head, Ike Perlmutter, thought female heroes were stupid and didn’t want to watch them. But the series perfectly showed how to do an MCU show right: barely do it at all. Just go do your own thing.

Also, let’s not downplay the fact that these shows also worked because they could be long-form, episodic television that could explore different stories and ideas across their fleshed out seasons. Instead of six-to-eight episodes like we get now for these shows, Agent Carter got 10 in its second season, acting as a mid-season filler for Agents of SHIELD, and then SHIELD got the full 22 episode orders for most of its run (before it was eventually moved to 13 episodes Summer seasons). That time was used well to flesh out characters, to explore aspects of the series we might not have seen otherwise, and to just have fun.

Marvel’s current output strains under the obligations and requirements of the franchise. These shows are forced to be “important crossovers” from their conception, creating characters that not only have to carry their own miniseries but also be ready to become movie stars when they inevitably return. But no one expected the SHIELD agents or Peggy Carter to bounce off the small screen and carry their own films. They were television first and foremost, through and through. If Marvel really wants to create a television show that people turn in for, something to keep audiences engaged with the franchise (and continuing to pay for Disney+) then they should really work on making cheaper, longer seasons with characters that can just be television characters.

Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter weren’t perfect shows, but they were fun and enjoyable times that you could just tune into whenever you wanted. They kept the Marvel name alive between films without expectations that they had to carry the franchise. They could just be shows, and that’s all people wanted. Something was lost for Marvel when those shows were canceled and, at this point, it’s something the studio really needs to find again.