The mark of a good premiere is the conversation after it happens. When a new season of television premieres and its audience can't wait to see what happens next, can't help but speculate, and can't stop raving about the story, that's when you know a solid hour of television aired. Not all premieres are perfect, but in the case of Agents Of SHIELD, some of its seven season premieres come pretty close.
IMDb users have been able to review and rank individual hours of television as well as movies. Out of ten stars, Agents Of SHIELD has season premieres that range from a 7.6 to a 9.0. With the show so close to getting that 10 stars for a season premiere, this list examines how the hours stack up against one another.
Season One: Pilot (7.6)
It should come as no surprise that the pilot episode of the series is the lowest-ranked of the premieres. It's not a disappointing hour of television by any means, but it's very clear that the series has grown since its inception.
The pilot episode introduces audiences to the core five that have remained with the show into its final season: Coulson, May, Simmons, Fitz, and Skye (now Daisy). It gives the audience a taste of their personalities, but not all of the characters can get the attention they deserve in a pilot. The story is just enough to keep the audience intrigued, but it also does an interesting thing for the audience. It allows them to see how people outside of superhero teams view an organization like SHIELD. Skye is a hacker who sees SHIELD as a shadowy government group whose secrets should be released to the public. She changes a lot over the years, but people like her still populate the Marvel world.
Season Six: Missing Pieces (8.2)
By the sixth season, the audience is heavily invested in the main characters of the series. That might be why, despite being one of the more recent premieres, this one ranks a little lower. It focuses on a lot of characters that the audience isn't familiar with - including someone wearing Coulson's face.
Coulson's loss between seasons five and six hit a lot of fans hard, and while some were excited to see Clark Gregg back on the show, they wanted to know who the character was. This episode spends a lot of time teasing the mystery of Sarge and setting up the events of the season without explaining anything, and that didn't sit well with some fans. They were used to being teased with partial answers, not more questions. It also didn't sit well with fans that Fitz and Simmons find themselves separated yet again as the season starts, something that's become a running joke amongst the audience.
Season Two: Shadows (8.3)
When season two begins, SHIELD is facing seriously hard times. The first season's Hydra reveal means they don't have many agents, Fitz's brain injury leaves him with trouble communicating, Grant Ward is the monster in the basement, and anybody still working for SHIELD employees are all fugitives.
The season premiere manages to convey all of that incredibly quickly and effectively as new powered characters are introduced - and new agents are lost in the field. Coulson and his team risk everything during the episode simply to break into a military base and steal a confiscated quinjet, showing just how high the stakes are going to be for the season. The hour also sets up the major mystery of Inhumans thanks to an Agent Carter flashback and an obelisk.
Season Four: The Ghost (8.4)
The fourth season tries a new structural approach - breaking the season into pods. The first pod of episodes centers on Ghost Rider as well as Daisy's new life as a vigilante.
In addition to the introduction of Robbie Reyes, the season premiere also features a lot of upheaval at SHIELD headquarters, breathing some fresh air into the series. Simmons now outranks May, there's a new director at the base, and Elena acts as Daisy's contact, smuggling her information and pills to heal her broken bones. It's a nearly perfect premiere.
Season Seven: The New Deal (8.6)
The most recent season premiere also happens to be the show's last. Though the previous seasons have dealt with aliens, season seven throws the agents (and the audience) right into a time travel storyline as the team (minus Fitz) find themselves in 1931 with a newly woken Life Model Decoy of Coulson.
The team has to think quickly on their feet to go up against Chronicoms, blend in with their own history, and infiltrate a political party. They also meet some familiar faces and walk right into some SHIELD-Hydra history that looks to set up a very fun final outing.
Season Three: Laws Of Nature (8.7)
For a lot of fans, the third season is the perfect culmination of the early storylines of the show. So much growth happens for the characters in the season, so it makes sense that it would rank so highly from IMDb ratings.
Daisy, having embraced her Inhuman abilities, is now SHIELD's welcome wagon for new recruits, teaching fellow Inhumans about their heritage and their abilities. Fitz, separated from Simmons yet again, gets his own huge journey to rescue her that begins here with a message about death and a screaming match with the monolith that swept her away. Bobbi, Mack, and Hunter are now full-fledged members of the team (and back in everyone's good graces). It's part of one of the best chapters of the series.
Season Five: Orientation, Part One (9.0)
"Orientation" is actually a two-parter that aired on the same night. Even "Part Two" lands at an 8.8, higher than any of the other season premieres. This is the episode that is a game-changer in the same way that the Hydra reveal is in the first season. It seems like a straightforward enough premise when the episode begins - the team being abducted and ending up in space with Fitz left behind on Earth - but it quickly shows itself to be more twisty than that.
The characters that make it to space are split up and have to find their way back to one another while encountering alien "roaches" and Kree. They don't know who they can trust other than one another, and they're completely thrown off balance - especially when they discover they aren't just in space, but in the future. Everything the team goes through in season five sets up what's to come in seasons six and seven, and it starts here.