TM2YC said:
Agent Carter has popped up on Amazon Prime. So is it worth watching, despite the cancellation?
Season 1 is absolutely worth watching. It's downright excellent (by my standards, anyhow), and tied with season 1 of "Daredevil" for my favorite MCU television production so far. If I had to choose, I'd probably pick "Agent Carter" as my favorite of the two. Hayley Atwell is an absolutely fantastic lead actress (I'm not exaggerating when I say that she deserves to be an A-list movie star), James D'Arcy's Jarvis is also brilliant (he and Peggy have a John Steed & Emma Peel type of chemistry and comedic timing together), Bridget Regan's character Dottie (who I won't say too much about for fear of spoilers) is downright unforgettable, Dominic Cooper's guest appearances as a roguish Howard Stark are very enjoyable, the season's storyline is well-written with a solid plot and great character development for almost everyone, there are numerous fun and memorable action scenes (let's just say that you might never look at office staplers or spiral staircases quite the same way again), the 1940s setting is captured beautifully, and the tone has just the right mix of drama, humor, adventure, and suspense.
Season 2 is sort of a mixed bag. There's some good stuff, even some great moments, but there's a lot of junk as well (a dull and poorly-written double love triangle, numerous instances of Peggy acting out of character, some plot points that feel too contrived, too much corny humor, a badly anticlimactic finale, an unresolved cliffhanger, etc). It's a big step down in quality from season 1.
I'm not sure I want to watch 18-episodes if it all ends on a never-to-be-resolved cliffhanger.
You can watch season 1 without worrying about a cliffhanger. It is perfectly standalone, and is an excellent sequel/companion-piece for "Captain America: The First Avenger". When they made season 1, they didn't know that there would be a season 2, so everything is self-contained with a satisfying ending.
Season 2, on the other hand, was apparently made with the assumption that there would be a season 3, and it has a cliffhanger at the end. However, it's not as if the whole plot is unresolved. The season's story wraps up, then something major suddenly happens in the last minute of the last episode which sets up season 3 but is never resolved due to the show's cancellation.
Also, on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being 'Agents of Shield', how good is it?
I'm not quite sure how to work with that particular scale (I consider "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." to have gotten quite good partway through season 1 and downright great starting with season 4), so suffice it to say that I'd classify season 1 of "Agent Carter" as about twice as good as seasons 1-3 of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", but season 2 to only be about half as good as those "S.H.I.E.L.D." seasons.
However, I'd also rank "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."'s fourth and fifth seasons far above the first three. It turned into a excellent series (IMO) starting with season 4, although I still prefer seasons 1 of "Agent Carter" and "Daredevil" over it by a smidgen.
In case you're interested in owning the Blu-rays, Zavvi is having a great sale on Marvel Blu-rays (including both seasons of "Agent Carter" and the first three seasons of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."). All Marvel Blu-rays are region-free, so they'll work in your Blu-ray player no matter where you live. I live in the US, but I order from Zavvi UK anyway, because of their cheap sale prices.
Marvel Multi-Buy - Zavvi