10 Unforgivable Mistakes That Ruined Great 2013 TV Shows

6. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Wasn't Willing To Build Its Own Mythology

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had a lot to live up to in the first half of its freshman season. It was riding into the TV world on the coattails of the immensely successful Marvel movie The Avengers; it had Joss Whedon, writer and director of the Avengers as well as creator TV favorites Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as its showrunner. It also had a respectable cast led by the terrific Clark Gregg and a sizable budget. Or in other words, it had all the pieces to be a successful TV show. But the show was rarely willing to take risks in expanding its own mythology. The pilot episode was entertaining enough, but it represented the case-of-the-week status quo the show would find itself in. Many shows have found a successful way to balance procedural elements and mythology-building elements - Hannibal and Person of Interest come to mind - but S.H.I.E.L.D. settled into its case-of-the-week structure so much that it was unwilling to do much significant mythology-building. The show exposed the Marvel mythology mostly only in relation to what has already been seen in the Marvel movies. It relied on references to Thor, Tony Stark, and the Battle of New York not only excite viewers, but to 'expand' its universe only by reminding viewers of the Marvel universe as seen in the Marvel movies - parts of the universe that aren't even directly related to the plot of the show. For a show with such talent (especially the presence of Whedon who set the standard for single-season mythology building with Firefly) and good action scenes, it's a shame it wasted so much of last year relying on other Marvel media rather than asserting itself as a significant part of the Marvel universe.