I've heard that a lot but I really didn't see it. I liked the Skye/Rising Tide--> Shield agent meme and even liked the episodes on Mike/Deathlock, The Graviton scientist, the Flame dude...
Whatever happened to Quinn?
Not much happened in that first half. They spent a lot of time “world building” without really building anything. Then when they got revving up for CA2 they got to actually start telling stories. If the first half of the season had been 3 or 4 episodes it would be fine, it just took too long to put the pieces in place. Quinn got superseded, he was really just working for Hydra.