TV Review 030 Agents of SHIELD season Four Premiere

Agents of Shield s04e01 the Ghost
{abc} (Marvel) [2016->] 85%

Ghost of Yourself

After the culmination of their fight with Hive, the aftermath saw the remaining SHIELD members serving the agency in their own way: Mack and former Director Coulson had been on plane duties travelling from continent to continent for weeks at a time, May teaching the next generation of agents in her preferred hands-on way, Fitz and Simmons finally in a relationship (with the latter having the most authority over others), Yo Yo remains as an asset but under the Sokovia Accords (enhanced individual could only use his/her powers in the service of the government), but Skye's solo vigilante pursuit saw her going after criminals especially the Watch Dogs and used her powers to the extreme while giving back to the poor without receiving any good recognition for it.

Ghost of Vengeance

Moving on to the new main throughline for this season, the first introduction showed just how frightening the reputation he has accumulated and it was fully deserved when he inflicted his no-nonsense punishment on the criminals. When he was shown again in full glory against Tremors in a fantastic duel later in the episode, the reinterpretation of the iconic look of the 'Rider' was pretty much on point with the flaming skull, weapon and car, definitely following in the right step of the excellent on-screen imagery of Hive's octopus-inspired face. The portrayal of the carrier of the Spirit of Vengeance was wonderfully acted by Gabriel Luna with enough balance of intimidation and care to tease more character development later in the season, especially with an intimate tease of his relationship with his crippled brother and how it would affect the trajectory of his storyline later down the road.  

Ghost from the Future

As a result of a good intention by the crazed Radcliffe off of a defunct classified SHIELD project, the unveiling of the Life Model Decoy shocked Fitz to the core but then convinced by the noble idea to replace the agents in the line of fire with the soulless automatons, wanting to partner up with the Doctor to perfected this secret project of theirs. Technology is man made but when it got into the wrong hands or even have their own artificial intelligence, it would be another big matter the members have to face eventually.

Ghost of the Unknown

The 'demon' inside of Robbie Reyes that is the source of his fiery powers with its origin still unknown could be directly connected with the Inhumans epidemic or maybe more supernatural in nature. With the upcoming Doctor Strange movie opening the door to the more magical side of the Marvel Universe, it is a big possibility for the Spirit and the ghostly woman being released from her containment to have their source of power from there, giving the show more places to go down the line. The apparition came and went as she pleased but not before affecting the mob leader and his followers to their deaths and when she affected Agent May and she started to see the sign, it would not end well for her and her colleagues around her sooner rather than later.

"So... you got the Devil inside you too?"

- 8.7 {s04e01} - wikia {s04e01} - 6.9 {s04e01} - wiki - official -

- Synopsis {s04e01} - 

Daisy has left S.H.I.E.L.D. and is trying to solve the mystery of a bunch of serial killings in the Los Angeles area. At the same time her old friends suspect her for the killings and are following her trail in an attempt to find her.

Cast

Phil Coulson - Clark Gregg

Daisy Johnson - Chloe Bennet

Melinda May - Ming-Na Wen
Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider - Gabriel Luna

...

(22 Episodes, Release 092016, Duration 43-45 mns, Rating TV-PG, Genre - Action, Drama, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sci-Fi, Spy) 

+ Highlights:

the more overall darker tone of the series, the transformation in the mid-air, bloody and gory imagery of criminal's dismemberment by Ghost Rider, the entertaining interaction between the characters,  the always strong Melinda May, the foreshadowing of Ghost Rider's power of 'burning the souls', the high-end hand prosthetic, the flirting between Yo Yo and Mack, the tease of LMD, the hero of the people's reputation Ghost Rider has gotten, the Spirit's control over Reyes, the clashing of power in the agency, a number of unique cinematography, the effectiveness of the SHIELD squad, an awesome duel between the enhanced, Daisy's mental and physical deterioration without the agency's help, perfect reinterpretation of the fiery Rider in all of its glory even under a television budget, the family background of Reyes, the tease of May's ghostly infliction

- Lowlights:

the totally unnecessary objectification of the lead actress, the totally ineffective eye mascara as a way to mask the identity, the inevitable cutting off of the Ghost from majority of the episodes just to save on the budget, the objectification of the LMD

Source: Collider