This one's a no-brainer, right? It seems weirdly appropriate that the one live-action property that Marvel's produced since taking control of its cinematic universe to be near-unanimously disliked (at least for the first half of the season) has been the only one not explicitly based on any source material other than the movies Agent Coulson has been featured in. Perhaps that's the main problem in a nutshell: While Iron Man, Cap and the rest of the Avengers have a rich, complex (often ludicrously so) history that even the most naive newcomer has at least a passing knowledge from which to put the movies in context, AoS has far too much too prove and not enough to back itself up to be the success it needs to right now. Let's be honest here: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. needed to be a comic before it was anything else to see if the premise of a superhero story led by ordinary folks would work. Well, that and actually being able to put the heroes back into the story instead of just having someone mention Thor every five seconds and removing a severely limited action budget. Having a trial run for the characters would also have helped greatly, as although many fans have warmed to characters like Skye and Fitz/Simmons over the first season, they were initially greeted with a pretty frosty reception. A potential season 2 might lift things, but a lot of time and effort has been wasted on a show that could have easily had a comic serve as a pilot season.
