The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and The D

After the sixth season finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. aired in August 2019, showrunners Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, and Jeffrey Bell revealed that the seventh season would feature the team trying to save the world from invasion by the Chronicoms. They use time travel to do this, allowing the season to explore the history of S.H.I.E.L.D.[2][3] Later that month, one of the season's episodes was revealed to be titled "The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and The D" and written by Brent Fletcher.[4] It was confirmed to be the seventh episode of the season in July 2020, when Jesse Bochco was revealed to have directed it.[5] Following the ending of the previous episode, "The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and The D" is set during the 1980s. The title of the episode is a reference to the 1989 film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.[6][7] Fletcher stated it was determined at the beginning of the season that, while the specifics were unknown, one of the episodes would be "Chopping Mall-esque".[8]^:6:27

With Alphonso "Mack" MacKenzie and Deke Shaw stranded in 1982, Deke actor Jeff Ward said his character "kind of finds a way to thrive in" the time period.[9] Mack, after the death of his parents in the previous episode, hits rock bottom in the episode, which actor Henry Simmons said was necessary to show since "we’ve seen [Mack] be strong so much". Ward added that "it's a hard thing that could be trivialized in [the] world [of the show], and it's not [...] there's a feeling of what real loss feels like, and how real people deal with it and come together to overcome it ... It led to a really human experience that I think people will relate to." Deke can also relate to Mack after losing his own parents at a young age.[10]

The episode pays homage to various media from the 1980s, including Max Headroom (Coulson's resurrection), Short Circuit and Chopping Mall (the new Chronicom bodies),[10][7] Doctor Who's Daleks (a Chronicom screaming "Exterminate"),[11] The Breakfast Club (using "Don't You (Forget About Me)" in the episode), The Terminator (Chronicom hunters HUD), WarGames (Sybil reaching out to Russell), Weird Science (Russell falling in love with Sybil), Commando (Mack's suit up montage), Predator (Mack and Deke's handshake),[7] The A-Team ("the classic montage intro" when Deke introduces the members of his Deke Squad),[9][12][7] Top Gun, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Rambo,[13] Back to the Future, MacGyver,[6] and campy slasher films.[13] Other 1980s television tropes were also used.[9] Ward said while the episode was shot "earnestly", there was also "a side-eye kind of making fun of it at the same time".[9]

With the season renewal, main cast members Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Elizabeth Henstridge, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, and Jeff Ward were confirmed to be returning from previous seasons as Melinda May, Daisy Johnson / Quake, Jemma Simmons, Mack, Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez, and Deke Shaw, respectively.[14] Series star Clark Gregg also returns as his character Phil Coulson,[15] portraying the consciousness of his Life Model Decoy version, visualized as Coulson appearing on a television set.[10] Although credited, Bennet does not appear in the episode.[6]

Guest stars returning from past episodes of the season include Tamara Taylor as Sibyl and Thomas E. Sullivan as Nathaniel Malick (uncredited).[5][16] Also guest starring are Jolene Anderson as agent Olga Pachinko, Austin Basis as Russell, Ryan Donowho as Cricket, Matt and John Yuan as agents Ronnie and Tommy Chang,[16] and Tipper Newton as agent Roxy Glass.[17][18] The latter's character name is a reference to Ron Glass, who was a guest star in the first season of the series.[17] Several journalists, including Chancellor Agard of Entertainment Weekly, served as background extras at the bar during Deke Squad's performance.[19] Matt and John Yuan had auditioned for another part in the episode "Fear and Loathing on the Planet of Kitson" (also written and directed by Fletcher and Bochco) in season six and did not get cast. However, Fletcher "loved them so much" and when crafting "The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and The D", knew the brothers would work as Deke's best friends. As a result, the Yuans did not have to audition again for the parts.[8]^:11:50

The title card for the episode features "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." being typed on a black computer screen in a "throwback green font of the first generation of computers". Since the episode pays homage to "tech and hacker movies" of the 1980s such as WarGames,[1][7] Ian Cardona at Comic Book Resources felt this title card was "a simple but totally effective introduction" for the episode.[1]

Filming of the episode occurred from the mid- to the end of May 2019.[8]^:42:45 Remote controlled robots were created for the episode.[9] There were some software issues with getting the robots to work on set, but the team working on them was able to get "the software to work and [the] robots did what they were supposed to" according to visual effects supervisor Mark Kolpack,[20] who added that there was nothing for the visual effects team to "clean-up" for the robots.[21] Discussing the remote controlled robots on set, Ward said, "When you see these things in the hallway on patrol and it just rolls in and turns — it feels alive." Simmons added that at times, seeing the robots moving down the dark hallway was "freaky and scary" since they had "a life of [their] own".[9] Blood was also created practically for the episode by the series' special effects team,[22] with "gallons of blood" used on the set.[23] This was done as a reference to the idea that "Everything in the 1980s was overly done."[24] The resurrected Coulson was also created on set, with footage of Gregg played on the television for the other actors to interact with.[21] Gregg was shot three times, with him looking at the camera and to the left and right of the camera, to allow the takes to be edited together to create the effect.[8]^:26:45

Visual effects for the episode included adding red lasers for Sybil; adding paintball hits to the training sequence; showing the Zephyr's time jump, which reused some of an old visual effects shot featuring The Bus; and creating the explosion for when Sybil is blown up.[21] The latter was the "big" visual effects shot for the episode,[25] with Kolpack noting that the episode had a lot less visual effects in it compared to other episodes of the series,[21] and that the amount of visual effects would "ramp up" for the rest of the season.[26]

"Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds is performed by Deke and his band, claiming it to be their own since it has not yet been written in 1982.[19] Other 1980s songs had been considered, including "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits, but these were abandoned because Ward was not familiar with them.[8]^:46:22 Deke's costume while performing was based on the music video for "Working for the Weekend" by Loverboy.[8]^:1:01:15

Ward was nervous filming his performance but said "once we were able to just go and I stopped thinking about it [and] could just kind of do it — it became so fun and one of my favorite things that I've ever gotten to film". Ward watched David Bowie, Prince, Elvis Presley, and Bruce Springsteen to help inform his performance in part because he felt that Deke would have watched them. He also watched Bowie perform at Live Aid 1985, which Simple Minds had played "Don't You (Forget About Me)" at. Knowing Simple Minds did this helped Ward created a backstory for Deke, feeling as if his time between seasons five and six was spent catching up on history, including watching Live Aid and feeling as if he could replicate Simple Minds easier than Bowie. Deke also changes one of the "babies" in the lyrics to "Daisy" as a way to express his feelings to Daisy "just in case he never got back" to her.[19]

In the United States the episode received a 0.3 percent share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, meaning that it was seen by 0.3 percent of all households in that demographic. It was watched by 1.39 million viewers.[27] Within a week of release, "The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and The D" was watched by 2.44 million viewers.[28]

Giving the episode an "A−", Christian Houlb of Entertainment Weekly felt the episode "had as much fun as possible with" its premise, feeling it was "a nice counter to how heavy things have gotten recently". He could also tell that the writers were "more familiar with the vibe of the 80s than the previous decades", since the episode featured multiple references to the era such as "glam rock, superteam action movies, and a little bit of Cold War" where as past episodes focused only on one or two references.[12] Writing for Bam! Smack! Pow!, Wesley Coburn gave the episode an "A+" and said it "was a standout standalone adventure that mixed humor with pathos, with just enough character and action to make things interesting. By far the best episode yet this season."[6] Trent Moore from Syfy Wire said "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has done a lot of wild things over the years, but this beautifully weird homage to everything about the 1980s is arguably the craziest. It’s a standalone work of eclectic, throwback joy — but cut down the middle with a year of mourning for one of the show’s fan favorite characters." He added that "The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and The D" was "among the best standalone-ish episodes the series has ever attempted".[10]

Reviewing the episode of The A.V. Club, Alex McLevy felt as if the writers were trying to mimic the fun nature of the DC Comics series Legends of Tomorrow with the episode. He said, "while it’s hard to not smile at the fey but likable tributes to retro horror-comedy tropes, it’s also not exactly bold or original, either. It mostly elicits some knowing chuckles, a breezy and enjoyable episode that bends the series’ format in ways that are broad and occasionally too cute by half", and compared the episode to "Fear and Loathing on the Planet of Kitson" from season six. McLevy gave the episode a "B−".[18] Michael Ahr at Den of Geek said, "although the movie allusions were entertaining and appreciated, the stylistic narrative choices felt very much out of place" with "the whole episode feeling a bit like a parody of itself." He gave the episode 3 out of 5 stars.[29] Matt Webb Mitovich from TVLine felt the episode was a letdown, describing it as "a well-intended but tonally wayward misfire". Mitovich conceded the episode was "every bit the love letter to the decade that it promised to be" but amidst all that, "it felt like actual storytelling opportunities were missed." For him, Mack's storyline was disappointing, likening his downward spiral to "Bro Thor" seen in Avengers: Endgame (2019), and called the Deke Squad storyline "just this side of too silly". Mitovich concluded, "If the events of this episode had taken place in an alternate reality or dream, then the over-the-top humor would have worked ... But as a very real juncture in the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents' final mission, it fell flat for me".[13]

Chopping Mall director and co-writer Jim Wynorski was not enthused about the episode, claiming he had not been informed about the references used and that the episode was "overtly plagiarizing other people's creative hard work".[30] Conversely, when the series had referenced the film in the season four episode "Broken Promises", Wynorski messaged Fletcher, who also wrote the season four episode, thanking him for referencing the film and sent Fletcher an autographed Blu-ray of the film.[31][8]^:6:50