OK so I'm not a big MCU or superhero guy, though I read a lot of the Marvel comics. Not so much the DC comics.
I've watched a lot of the MCU movies, also the DC ones too. I didn't go out of my way to see them though, I watched several of them on flights.
In general they're well-made, acted. Probably fulfillment of dreams of every kid who read the comics or watched shows, to see these characters put on the big screen with special effects. However, I think it may not be the best thing that they're among the most popular movies which are being made. Why do adults, even those who were heavily into comic books, need to believe in superheroes?
So I wasn't the most likely person to watch this show. Reason I did, there were some photogenic cast members and you figured maybe some crossover of movies and great special effects regularly on TV.
The series as a whole carved out it's own place within the MCU, it seems. There were references to events occurring in the movie and there were some crossover appearances of the movie characters,, beside the obvious one in Coulson. I get that the show runners didn't always get as much cooperation from the people making the MCU movies.
I'm not disappointed about that at all. In fact the show might have been stronger if it didn't have anything to do with MCU. Call it something other than SHIELD, just make it about other characters. Because it seems like by tying it to the MCU, they progressively raised the stakes in the show.
They started out like junior cadets, investigating strange artifacts or phenomenon. Seemed like they were sent on missions that Tony Stark and Thor or any of the Avengers would be too important to bother with. I actually enjoyed the first couple of seasons, when it seemed like they were kind of interplanetary detectives, going all over the world and triaging relatively low-level threats.
But as the MCU movies raised the stakes, going from alien invasions to the death of the universe, it seemed like Agents of Shield tried to tag along, creating highly consequential situations, where the planet is threatened repeatedly. This is when you wondered, if they're dealing with alien invasions, where are the Avengers? Why send the B Team or the JV team out to the state championships?
Because as long as they're in the MCU universe, that's what they would be, not the team of superstars which make up the Avengers.
So the plots became progressively outlandish over the seasons, where the agents had to deal with being transported hundreds of light years away or being trapped in time, then learning to time travel.
Having plots grow in complexity and gravity isn't necessarily a bad thing. For instance, that is the series arc of Breaking Bad, where Walter White gets into more and more extremely existential situations but keeps escaping. But in Agents of Shield, the characters are repeatedly put in predicaments which would end the life they'd know. Instead they'd be stranded on distant planets or in different timelines, separated from their loved ones. They kept getting out of those predicaments, including this last season, where they were traveling through time and to distant planets, switching timelines.
So it's not surprising that all the characters collectively win again, defeat the alien killer robots and return to earth with satisfying careers and personal lives. It just seems a little too pat and predictable.
I'm not saying it's bad because everyone gets a happy ending. Or that it would have been better if one or more major character didn't make it out alive, like Walter White, maybe sacrificing himself to save the others.
But it makes you a bit distrustful over the trajectory of the series, with the massively increasing stakes, with them saving the planet repeatedly, even though once again, you'd think saving the planet would be someone else's responsibility in this universe.