I think one thing that's making it tough for me is that it seems that you have to have quite the understanding of the comic book characters to really understand what's going on.
I'm not a comic book guy, so maybe that's why I'm not impressed thus far.
But none of the main characters on
Agents of SHIELD are from the comics. Coulson was created for the movies (though he's recently been added to the comics universe), and the other five are original to this show. The only comics characters we've seen in the show so far have been guest stars: Maria Hill, Nick Fury, Franklin Hall, Jasper Sitwell, and Victoria Hand are the only ones I can think of.
Indeed, that was the whole idea -- to make a show that fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe but was standalone enough to be accessible to audiences unfamiliar with the comics and not necessarily familiar with the movies. That's why they created a whole new cast around Coulson rather than adapting existing comics characters. Their recently announced slate of comics-based shows for Netflix (
Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders) is taking advantage of a subscription service that allows a more niche-targeted show to work, but since this show is on commercial TV, it has to be designed with a more general audience in mind.