Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Eye Spy

Akela Amador (Pascale Armand) meets her old mentor, Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg)

Somewhere along the way there has clearly been a breakdown in communication between the makers of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and its audience. Channel 4 calls it a "superhero" show. The show's sponsors, PSVITA, call it a "superhero" show. Unfortunately, the one thing missing from Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is superheroes... or supervillains... or any semblance of superpowers.

Now Eye Spy did include some advanced technology that baffled Fitz and Simmons as well as a mysterious mathematical equation that "might have been alien", but really this episode was The Man From U.N.C.L.E. wearing Marvel clothes.

Coulson tasks his team with tracking down a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, that he trained, who is now using seemingly preternatural abilities to steal diamonds.

You can't fault Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. over the competence of its scripts and the solid performances from its leading actors, but there's still a nagging feeling that it's not delivering on its promise.

Despite the definite hints of a "bigger plot" - as there are no real answers in this episode (which I approve of) - I still keep coming back to the allegory I made last week of show set at Hogwarts that doesn't have anyone casting spells or playing Quidditch.

Of course, being set in Marvel's Cinematic Universe - rather than the comic book universe - the number of superpowered characters, and knowledge of such metahuman abilities, is rightly limited, but surely this show is a great way to introduce "gifted" characters to the world - be they good guys, bad guys or undecided.

Except for the dangling plot threads left at the end of Eye Spy that will hopefully be addressed sooner rather than later, this was really a very mediocre slice of spy-fi.