The dialogue was, to give a shout out to a certain fan site, Whedonesque. It was the best aspect of the pilot, and precisely what you expect from this team. Smart, witty, self referential, with lines playing off your expectations (such as a riff on Spider-Mans with great power comes great responsibility line).
Clark Gregg grounds the drama. Im not a fan of bringing back firmly and explicitly killed-off characters. But watching the pilot you realize the wisdom of having Agent Coulson. Though a minor role in the films, hes a very TV-friendly presence here. The character believes he was only dead for eight seconds or so after Loki shot him in The Avengers then spent time recovering in Tahiti. But were told by his colleagues, He really doesnt know does he? and He can never know. So, its a nice tease for the ongoing storyline. Also, as EW.com reported earlier today, Cobie Smulders has joined the cast too.
The rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. cast: Theres several young actors who are relatively new to TV audiences. Chloe Bennett as a pseudo anarchist hacker type Skye seemed to pop the most. I suspect her hyper-sexy adorkable-ness (think Olivia Munn back in her Attack of the Show days) will have plenty of young male fans thinking yes, a girlfriend like that would do nicely, while perhaps annoying some others. The rest of the cast didnt have as much of a chance to really define themselves, so its tough to say, but there is potential here.
Action: Trying to pull off a cinematic idea on a TV budget is one of the shows big challenges. If anything, S.H.I.E.L.D. was less lavish and action-driven than I expected (Foxs Almost Human looked more pricy). Thats not necessarily a bad thing. It can be a mistake to make a costly pilot if it means that regular episodes look dinky by comparison. You want the first episode to impress, but not set expectations too high.