Marvel's Agents of SHIELD is leaning hard on Ghost Rider joining in Season 4 as a hook to get people watching the show, so it makes sense that Gabriel Luna's take on Robbie Reyes would be introduced right at the beginning of the premiere, "The Ghost." It was the right choice not to force viewers to wait to see the fiery Marvel superhero, and he proved to be the best part of SHIELD's return.

Loading

Loading

Loading

The difference made by shifting Agents of SHIELD back to a 10 p.m. time slot came across most notably through the Ghost Rider story arc; there's a whole lot more blood this season, and a generally darker aesthetic. Thinking back to the Season 1 premiere (which was in an 8 p.m. time slot), it's clear how Agents of SHIELD has matured over the years, and given the success of the darker Marvel shows over at Netflix, it's a smart move for ABC's series to be more tonally similar. It also helps that Ghost Rider looks great. It could have been a risky move to go for a Johnny Blaze-inspired flaming skull for the character's head instead of Robbie Reyes' skull motorcycle helmet-look from the comics, but the entire presentation looked fantastic and sold the scarier side of the character.The darker tone works best when it means the series is free of its formerly cheery demeanor. A lot has changed after the time jump that ended Season 3, and not all of it for the better. Fitz is now keeping lies from Simmons, the team is split up, Coulson is no longer Director of SHIELD and the person who replaced him doesn't have a lot of love in his heart for the ragtag bunch that came before him. Then there's Daisy, who is so determined to not lose another person close to her that she is still evading Coulson's attempts to bring her in, and has become a bit of a vigilante in the process.It would have been easy to have Coulson and Mack find Daisy in the premiere and try to bring her back into SHIELD, but it's much more interesting to have her on Robbie's tail. Though viewers have seen her try hard over the past few years to find her place within SHIELD, it's much truer to Daisy's personality that she break off as a loner. Having her pulled deeper into the vigilante world through Ghost Rider's vengeful quest feels more true to her journey than seeing her return back to SHIELD -- as she repeatedly notes, everyone has something they care about, and she's doing her best not to fall into that trap again.Back at home base, there's a lot going on with the tensions between the various members of the SHIELD team. May, Simmons and Fitz settled about where you'd expect, though it is really fun and interesting that Simmons is now the most senior member of the squad. Mack and Coulson prove to be a fun pairing, and I've heard there's going to be some great shotgun axe scenes coming up.Agents of SHIELD has trimmed down its cast a lot in the past year, so Season 4's premiere doesn't feel as overstuffed as it would have last year with Yo-Yo, Radcliffe and his new Life Model Decoy AIDA and Robbie Reyes balancing out the ensemble, but there still is a lot going on with a limited amount of episode real estate. There are some balance issues across the premiere as Agents of SHIELD tries to stuff in a lot of information all at once that ranges from very scientific to very magical. (What's in the box?! Best guess: a Spirit of Vengeance.)Hopefully those two seemingly disparate sides of the Marvel sandbox blend together better later in the season as the very analytical Fitz and Simmons try to wrap their minds around possessions and visions and whatever else the Ghost Rider storyline is cooking up. In terms of the tone of the show, the darkness works for Ghost Rider, but there are some definite growing pains as the other facets of the experiment with the time slot freedom as well.The increase in blood and violence was a little jarring after three seasons of comparatively less intense action, but it did feel true to the direction SHIELD is headed in. What didn't fit as well were the close up shots of Daisy getting dressed; these pants-come-up, shirt-comes-on sequences are familiar ways to add sexuality into TV shows and movies, but SHIELD has already done a great job establishing Daisy as a sexy character without needing to depict it in this unsubtle way. Hopefully the inclusion of more overt sexuality in the show feels a bit more organic to the show as it continues to explore the new territory of the 10 p.m. hour this season.