Ready to be called back into the field? Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D” returned for its fourth season on Sept. 20 after a big event to close out the previous season when the main villain of that season was defeated. The new season starts off with enough of a bang to continue that same level of excitement.
Agent Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet) is now a rogue agent and has started fighting crime outside the authority of S.H.I.E.L.D (the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division). After a traumatic event after the end of the third season where her love interest sacrificed himself to save his team and the planet, Johnson left the agency and went off on her own. S.H.I.E.L.D. is now reorganized and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) is no longer the director. Aside from his usual duties at the agency, Coulson sometimes goes against orders and even defies the new, unseen director’s orders to try and track Johnson down and bring her home to S.H.I.E.L.D.
The character of Ghost Rider is one of the main plot points in the fourth season. The incarnation of Ghost Rider in the show is Robbie Reyes (Gabriel Luna) and most of the action of the episode takes place in his hometown of East Los Angeles. It will be interesting to see how the show will tell his satanic origin story and rise as the Ghost Rider. His interactions with Johnson and the other agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will also be interesting to see since they all technically fight enemies, but Johnson and S.H.I.E.L.D. try to be more restrained in their dealings with evil, while Ghost Rider just kills them.
It is good to see that Coulson is trying to maintain his fatherly tendencies to protect Johnson and to do what’s best for her. Johnson never had a father in her life, so Coulson is the closest thing to a father figure that she has.
It is also exciting to see the relationship between Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), the engineering and biochemistry experts, develop more. The dynamic between the two characters is one that was always the most interesting. Starting off as friends, Fitz declared his love for Simmons as he saved her from drowning at the cost of developing brain damage. The second season dealt with the couple coming to terms over their relationship and the third with actually trying to be in a relationship. It took three seasons before they were actually able to be together, not separated by distance, awkwardness or other obstacles, such as Simmons being stuck on an alien world for almost six months.
One interesting aspect of the new season is the camera angles. The showrunners added more angles to make scenes seem more dynamic. They kept the normal angles like those over the shoulder to see who is speaking in a conversation as well as angles where all participants in a conversation can be seen, but they also added more moving shots and different angles. Whenever a conversation is occurring, especially a more intense one, the camera swings around those involved, showing their faces and expressions. This helped in showing the intensity of the scene.
The special effects are still at a superior height in “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” For a TV show, it has an unusually high quality of special effects compared to other primetime shows. It has kept up its standard for effects throughout all of its seasons. The effects are almost as good as those in the Marvel movies. Not only are the effects that simulate vehicles flying around amazing, but the effects on the human actors are incredible as well. Whenever Johnson uses her vibration powers, it seems believable that she is making the ground and everything around her shake. Additionally, when Reyes transforms into Ghost Rider, the effects seem realistic. Even after the transformation, the skull that Ghost Rider has looks real and demonic, something that shows with menial special effects standards would never be able to pull off.
Season four of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D” is proving to be one of the best seasons of the show. It will be great to see more of the returning cast appear in the show and any new faces they may bring along the way.
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