I know a lot of folk who've given up on MAoS, and I can understand their reasons why.
1. The connections between the Marvel movies and the TV show continue to grow more slender (and only one-way).
2. The show itself has been a muddled mess, aimless (not to mention AIMless) in plot, too many characters, too much drama, too much focus on [fill in character(s) the person dislikes] at the expense of [fill in character(s) the person likes], too much set up and then just dismissed, and not enough fun to spend an hour a week on it.
And all of that is, sadly, true. The times when the show has really peaked has been at the end of seasons, usually as a bunch of folk leave or get killed off, the main plotlines begin to converge, main baddy is about to triumph, and things go out with a bang and a boom (and often an amusing / foreboding denouement).
That was the case (IMO) last night, as MAoS wrapped up its third season. I won't go into spoilerish details (comments may not be so spoiler-free), but the cast (good guy and bad guy) is considerably reduced from where it was at the beginning of the season[1], the Inhumans stuff reached enough resolution to move on, the Bad Guy's plans (which felt very thrown together at the last moment[2]) were thwarted. There are hooks for more people to leave, and some to come back, and the denouement included a "4 months later" flash-forward that seemed like an intriguing shake-up of the status quo, as well as another that laid out an interesting new threat / menace / complication for the next season.
Yes, there will be a Season 4 — though it's being moved to a supposed death slot at 10pm Tuesdays.[3] I'm very much hoping the show breaks the curse of that programming and becomes more interesting — not necessarily "darker and more violent" (as the execs say the slot move is for), but tighter and more focused. Word also has it that ABC is looking at some other Marvel properties (even as they dropped Agent Carter and never picked up Marvel's Most Wanted), though it remains to be seen if there would be any cross-over there.
Actually, the characters left on the team (from what I can tell) are the ones I'm most interested in, so that, at least, is a good sign.
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[1] MAoS Season 1 was a weird mess, restrained by the changes coming to SHIELD in Winter Soldier, but it really did work well having a smaller, tighter team, something the last two season completely lost. Of the "regulars" in the photo attached below, two are permanently gone, one may be an intermittently returning character, and two more are in (narrative) limbo. That's a good thing.
[2] Actually, this feels like a lot of the problem that MAoS has: a sense that the team is making up everything, within broad brushstrokes, as they go along. "Hey, let's put Character X into the show; he'll be a great bad guy" followed by "Hey, we could only get Actor Y for two episodes, so let's kill of Character X." I was astonished by how long Malick lasted. The writing staff seems to just throw everything at the show in terms of complications, characters, and relationships, and only starts to hack things down to manageable plot in the final four or so.
[3] A concept I have no way of gauging, since I time-shift everything via DVR.
weedon still involved?
The final episode of the season, at least, shows Jed Whedon as the writer [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4899794/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_wr#writers].
+Dave Hill thought i'd read he had jumped ship due to execs interfering, must have been another project. Agree with your point 2) MAoS has always been too chaotic.
+Dekks Herton Can't speak to in general. I just looked up the last episode of the current season.
I really couldn't care less about this show.
Which is a shame, as there are quite a few good actors on here whom I generally enjoy.
My problem is that ABC is so goddamn stingy with streaming. If I get too far behind, I can't catch up and end up waiting for the whole season to hit Netflix. These shows have a narrative, and they would do so much better if they would keep the entire season on Hulu/their site instead of just the most recent four episodes. It just makes it impossible for people to jump in later or try to catch up.