You would think after four years AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013- present) would find it's footing. I'm not really sure it has. S.H.I.E.L.D. has gone from sanctioned government agency, to way, way off the books secret agency, to somewhat sanctioned secret agency (with the help of General Glenn Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) and President Matthew Ellis (William Sadler)), and once again, thanks to the Sokovian Accords, back to sanctioned government agency with a twist.
Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) is now just a field agent partnered with Agent Alphonso "Mack" MacKenzie (Henry Simmons), and they've spent most of their time trying to track Daisy Johnson/Skye/Quake (Chloe Bennett) down. She went MIA at the end of season three. Agents Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) now work in S.H.I.E.L.D. 's science division. Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) heads up the "muscle", Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) an inhuman, must report to S.H.I.E.L.D.for regular check ups and check ins.
With Daisy on the lamb, she encounters a new powered individual,Robbie Reyes / Ghost Rider (Gabriel Luna), who has been hunting and killing several bad people throughout the L.A. area. With Daisy wrongfully accused of some of Ghost Rider's murders, her S.H.I.E.L.D. "family" tries to intercept her before the new Director, law enforcement, and the Government find out.
Meanwhile, Fitz meets up with Dr. Holden Radcliffe (John Hannah) who despite his role in season three's events has been pardoned, albeit, he's on a short leash. He has created a female android (because they're always attractive women.) named AIDA (Mallory Jansen) in an effort to 'aid" S.H.I.E.L.D. Fitz is none too happy about this, and he decides to not only keep this new development not only from S.H.I.E.L.D., but also from Simmons as well.
Aside from Fitz and Simmons relationship evolution, these characters more or less kind of bop around life; one assignment to the next, and this new shake up in the S.H.I.E.L.D. hierarchy feels more like a step backward. Don't get me wrong-- I do like a show that's not predictable, but AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.feels more like Marvel's middle child Captain America, The Avengers, Iron Man, and even Thor have all had a direct effect on the show. While Marvel's Netflix universe remains relatively untouched by the MCU (For now.), AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D isn't so lucky. It gets tossed from one story to the next like a pinball.
With episode one, of season four, THE GHOST, we're off in a new direction
.again. Over all, the individual episode flows well, action, drama, even a little comedy. The show, and it's constant bopping around still has me worried. How the Ghost Rider fits into all of this is anyone's guess. The character seem out of place.
Anyhow, I'm still curious to see how the season pans out.