If not for the great acting from people like Sebastian Stan, Daniel Brühl and Anthony Mackie, this show would be unwatchable. The writing is execrable, character arcs are completely ruined for the sake of convenience and everything is 'serving the plot' no matter if it makes sense. This show could've explored the character of Bucky and how he got rid of his programming, since they really wanted to show that he did; they could've explored the problem of repatriation in a much more realistic way, not just the childish labeling of terrorist groups as 'activists' when their cause makes no sense if confronted with the real issues such a global scale event would face.

Characters were skewed, opportunities were missed and the writing is just plain dumb. They have a huge budget, and it shows in the production and everything about it, but the story is just not there - plus the directing is very incoherent at times, especially action.