I don't buy for a second the show needed time to develop. There are very few to none things set up in the first half that pay off in the second. It's not like the show suddenly got good due to the way they wrote the first half. The show suddenly got good because it simply had better writing IMO. And despite how long it takes for a show to find its true legs, every show has to keep you captivated from the very beginning.
Ironically, I think the biggest thing this show had going against it was the biggest thing it had going for it: it was a tie-in to the third highest-grossing film of all time.
At least with something like Arrow, which was off to a bad start too, it was practically unknown to mainstream audiences in its early days. It had a cult following of some comic book fans and the young teen CW demographic. Then by the time it was brought to the public consciousness, it already found its legs.
SHIELD was the exact opposite. Everyone and their grandma knew there was an MCU spinoff series and gave the first episode 12 million views (what Breaking Bad finished with). It was in the public consciousness from the very beginning, and the mainstream audience's first impression was formulated on the basis of those first 10 episodes.
It really is a bummer, because I think the show is at a point where higher ratings are deserved. Unfortunately, I don't think it'll ever hit that $12 million peak again. It'll still have good ratings and a decent following, but in terms of being the Marvel show? Not a chance. Or at best, an extremely unlikely chance.
