Maybe, but I can't see the people who have no interest in comic books or the scifi genre being all that interested in a show about spies chasing after alien artifacts and mutants-of-the-week either.
Umm, "comic books or the scifi genre" is not a single, monolithic category. There are millions of people out there who are fans of science fiction but aren't fans of superhero fiction. Heck, there are even plenty of comic books that aren't about costumed superheroes.
S.H.I.E.L.D. comics have always been primarily high-tech spy stories, tales of espionage, intrigue, and superscience in the vein of James Bond and
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (the latter of which was a direct inspiration to Lee and Kirby when they decided to invent a spy agency with an acronymic name). So if you're expecting stories about people in capes and tights, you've missed the point. The reason they decided to make a show about S.H.I.E.L.D. was because they wanted to make a spy-fi show with the MCU as its backdrop. If they'd wanted to make a superhero show, they wouldn't be making this one.
And it's not like the superhero genre is some strange, cultish little thing out there anymore. Right now it's about as accessible and mainstream as anything else the masses like to sit down and watch.
It's also more expensive due to the special effects. But spy shows, even sci-fi spy shows like
Alias (not the Marvel one) and
The Avengers (not the Marvel one), have been successfully pulled off on TV for decades. Sure, they could've done a show focusing on a non-superpowered crimefighter in order to keep the FX budget manageable; we know that they spent years exploring the possibilities of a Jessica Jones or Mockingbird series. But in the end, they decided to go this route, to make a spy show rather than a superhero show. Perhaps because The CW was already going the non-powered hero route with
Arrow -- and of course because they wanted a star vehicle for Coulson.
And
there's nothing wrong with that. The Marvel universe has a lot more going on in it than just superhero stories. Besides, this probably isn't the only Marvel TV show we're going to get. The news just broke today that they're developing a package of four more series and a miniseries. So I don't think that this show's choice to focus on the spy-fi side of Marvel is in any way harmful to the prospects of seeing Marvel superhero series on TV in the near future.
As for this episode, I feel it was really firing on all cylinders, thanks to a strong script by Jeffrey Bell (his first solo effort, though he cowrote "0-8-4") and effective, stylish direction by Roxann Dawson. The opening sequence in particular was potent and creepy. I'm a little disappointed that the guys in red masks weren't Red Skull groupies or something, but it did subvert expectations that the people we naturally assumed to be the bad guys were actually the victims.
The plot overall was an effective spy/intrigue story with creative superscience -- again, just the sort of thing one would expect in a S.H.I.E.L.D. series. It also gave me something of an
Alias vibe (not the Marvel one), which makes sense, since Bell was a producer on that show. I think this is probably the best exemplar so far of what this series is going to be. It's also the best exemplar so far of the characters and their interplay. Everything just felt deeper and more engaging than it has for the past couple of weeks. It felt like a more serious, edgy show, not as lightweight as the previous two. Let's hope it's finally finding its voice. And let's hope Dawson directs more episodes -- I feel she not only did a good job with the style and action, but brought out some really good performances.