AGENT
CARTER S1

FROM A DISC EXTRA TO A SERIES ORDER

HOW THE ONE-SHOT’S COMIC-CON SCREENING WAS FOLLOWED BY AN ABC SERIES

The series began with Marvel One-Shot: Agent Carter. At San Diego Comic-Con in July 2013, Hayley Atwell was asked about audience demand for a full-length Agent Carter film. Her answer was brief.

“I know, yeah! I would be up for it, certainly.”

Hayley Atwell at Comic-Con, July 2013

By January 2014 a television version was in development at ABC. At the network’s Television Critics Association presentation on 17 January, ABC Entertainment Group president Paul Lee confirmed that a “good” script had come in, that Reaper creators Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas had been hired as showrunners and that Atwell was attached. There was no pilot order yet. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the writers of the Captain America films, are credited as the series’ creators and wrote the initial script.

AN EIGHT-EPISODE STOPGAP

WHY ABC ORDERED EIGHT EPISODES, AND WHO RAN THEM

On 8 May 2014 ABC ordered the series straight to production, without a pilot. Atwell confirmed an order of only eight episodes, well short of the 13 a new network drama usually gets, and that the network planned to air the show during the mid-season break of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to keep fans invested. Complex also saw an upside: eight focused episodes instead of a season that meanders.

Butters and Fazekas ran the show with Chris Dingess, and Marvel’s Kevin Feige and Jeph Loeb were among the executive producers. The eight episodes aired from 6 January to 24 February 2015, and each runs 42 or 43 minutes.

NEW YORK, 1946

PEGGY CARTER AND HOWARD STARK’S MISSING INVENTIONS

The season picks up Peggy Carter after the war, doing administrative work at the Strategic Scientific Reserve while carrying out covert jobs for Howard Stark. Stark has been accused of selling weapons to America’s enemies and is on the run, and Peggy’s task is to trace the stolen inventions, which leads her to an organization called Leviathan.

Atwell was joined by James D’Arcy as Stark’s butler Edwin Jarvis, Chad Michael Murray as SSR agent Jack Thompson, Enver Gjokaj as Daniel Sousa and Shea Whigham as chief Roger Dooley. Dominic Cooper returned as Stark, Bridget Regan played the neighbour Dottie Underwood and Lyndsy Fonseca played Peggy’s friend Angie Martinelli.

A TUESDAY SLOT, A SLIDING AUDIENCE

A TWO-HOUR PREMIERE, THEN A SLIDE TO THE FINALE

The first two episodes aired together on Tuesday 6 January 2015. They drew 6.9 million viewers and a 1.9 rating among adults 18 to 49, ahead of the 5.3 million and 1.7 that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had drawn most recently. That gave ABC its best rating in the two-hour slot since November 2013.

The audience did not hold. The finale on 24 February drew 4 million viewers and a 1.3 rating, tying the series low. ABC pointed to a positive comparison: the show had improved on the previous winter’s S.H.I.E.L.D. hiatus programming by 43 and 25 percent.

THE REWATCH

A WELL-REVIEWED SEASON AND A SECOND ORDER

Rotten Tomatoes lists a 98% critics’ score from 48 reviews and an 84% audience score, and its consensus says the show focuses on Peggy Carter as a “person first and an action hero second.” Metacritic gives the season a 72 from 27 critics.

The finale ends with a scene featuring Dr. Zola. Butters said Dr. Fennhoff’s research was the beginning of the Winter Soldier program, but that the producers did not plan to expand on that story. Asked about more episodes, Fazekas said “we’re in if everyone else is.”

ABC renewed the series for a second season on 7 May 2015, and Season 2 aired from 19 January to 1 March 2016. Agent Carter and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had both plateaued at six to seven million viewers once DVR use was counted. In the Marvel Marathon the season sits in the Marvel TV shows in order guide, between Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 and Daredevil Season 1.