It's Fall! Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!!!

Did everyone have a good summer?  I had a good summer.  I went on a road trip, and watched the entire series of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries--the cheekbones!  The fashion!--and I almost completely failed to melt into a little puddle when the hottest months in recorded history came to visit.  All in all, a stellar season.

But it's fall, and that means I'm back to watching DWTS while I do the dishes, and Lucifer while I bake cakes.  And today... today I got started with the new season of Agents of SHIELD.

Which... has Ghost Rider in it now.

Hello, flaming devil car.

I confess.  I am more than a little confused.

Also this season seems sad and depressing.  The Scoobies have all been split up.  Fitz is making sad puppy dog eyes, and Sky (no, I will not call her Daisy) is running a rogue take down operation.  Oh, and she's back to wearing some VERY gothy make-up.  Mac isn't getting laid, Simmons is busy being a SADIST, and Coulson and May apparently never see each other.

What the hell, y'all?  What is this, Buffy season six?

Anyway, this episode seems like it's definitely headed down the tube of the weird and depress--

OH MY GOD IT'S A WALKING TALKING SEX TOY.

It's a little less depressing, I guess, but a LOT more weird.

Fitz, Fitz, do not--DO NOT.  DO NOT.  YOU WILL REGRET THIS THING, FITZ.

Oh god.  He and Doctor McWhacko are gonna build a fully functioning Android.  Apparently Ultron didn't really make an impression on anyone in the Marvel universe.

Okay, I gotta take a moment...

For three seasons now, Sky has been wearing these low, v-neck t-shirts. First, I would really like to know where these shirts come from, because I want some.  Second, what is she wearing under it?  Y'all know what I'm talking about, right?  It's like the top line of a bra, only, instead of it being a bra, it's a strip of cloth, and then there's more skin below.  Is it some kind of mesh bra?  Is it part of the shirt?  Does she have a rope fetish, and that's a harness of some kind?  I really need to know.  It's driving me crazy.

There!  Right there!  WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THAT STRAPY THING?

Right, okay, now that I've got that out of my system...

Back to this whole Ghost Rider thing.  This... is weird.  I mean, I don't really mind, per se, but it's definitely weird.  Marvel is really going in a whole bunch of directions with their universe, mimicking the comics, and that's great.  Thor brings in the idea of Gods (or aliens so powerful that they could be where our ideas of deities come from), Iron Man has that whole "normal man with a really awesome suit" thing going on, Hulk and Cap are altered by science--I mean, there are lots of options there.  But (in this version at least) they're all specifically not mystical.  In fact, the Thor movies have kind of gone out of their way to banish the idea that the Asgardeans are really Gods.  They heavily play up the "super powerful aliens" angle.

But Ghost Rider?  Ghost Rider is straight up magic.  He's an evil (sometimes demonic) spirit that fuses with a mortal one.  We're talking *souls* here, people.  And to have him appear on Agents of SHIELD, of all places, which has always been a show that burrowed itself deep into the pseudo science and refused to come out and play in the realm of magic, that's a little cray cray.

Oh sure, guys.  I mean, all the supers on this show are the product of genetic manipulation by aliens that has now been triggered by a very specific chemical agent.

But this guy is the devil.

No big thematic different there.

Anyway, it's bizarre, and I am highly skeptical. 

HIGHLY SKEPTICAL.