Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
If you have a friend that’s a diehard follower of the sprawling Marvel Cinematic Universe, then odds are you’ve heard the phrase “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been kicking ass this season!” a number of times over the past few months. Okay, maybe they just said “S.H.I.E.L.D. has been kicking ass this season!” Either way, your friend is right. S.H.I.E.L.D. turned out its most consistently enthralling and enjoyable season to date, one packed with plenty of surprises and major characters from the comics. Now you can catch up with the show since Season Four is now streaming on Netflix.
Unlike previous seasons, S.H.I.E.L.D. show runners Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, and Jeffrey Bell loaded up Season 4 with three distinct mini-arcs: “Ghost Rider,” “LMD,” and “Agents of Hydra.” This new structure allowed the show to move at a brisk pace, as the team of super spies headed up by Clark Gregg’s Agent Phil Coulson and Chloe Bennet’s Quake tussled with the supernatural Ghost Rider, had their reality questioned by the arrival of lifelike androids called LMDs (Life Model Decoys), and struggled to break free of an artificial reality called The Framework.
And just in case you missed it, let me say this again: Ghost Rider is a major player this season! After two out-of-MCU-continuity feature films starring Nicolas Cage, the Spirit of Vengeance rode into the shared universe on his flaming motorcycle. Played by Gabriel Luna, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team wowed audiences by pulling off Ghost Rider’s demanding VFX and making the character finally work in live action.
With two more Marvel movies on the way this year (Spider-Man: Homecoming in July and Thor: Ragnarok in November), now’s the time to get caught up on Marvel’s spy drama. It’ll definitely give you something to talk about with your friend!
