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Like many Whedon projects before it, ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ introduces us to a scrappy female hero in a world full of male titans, that of Rising Tide “hacktivist” Skye. Hers is the first voice we hear from the entire series, placing ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ at least partially from her perspective, even with Coulson acting as our bridge between the films and the TV series. The only problem? Skye isn’t nearly as interesting as the show wants us to believe.

The pilot saw the character roped into the plot against her will, and given a choice to hitch a ride to the crazy plane thereafter. From there, we’ve seen her question her value to the team, flop loyalties once a week, and bungle life-saving lessons from teammates trying to keep her alive. So far, Skye only works in the sense of a fulcrum to delineate the S.H.I.E.L.D. world’s wilder ideas, but nothing we’ve seen gives us an active reason to get really behind the character, at least not in the way someone like Buffy had our sympathy from the start.