I'm only six episodes into AGENTS OF SHIELD's final season. It's really good. It looks to me like they spent a massive amount of their season's budget on the first four episodes set before WWI and in the 50s and 70s with all the sets (practical and digital) and location filming. Then they've switched to episodes set the standing sets (the plane, the Lighthouse base) and I guess we'll go outdoors again for the finale.
Season 4 with Ghost Rider, the LMDs and the Framework was definitely the last season in which AGENTS had its full ABC budget. Season 5 had a massive cutback so that aside from the season premier, a mid-season episode and the final two of the year, most of the episodes had few extras and used the Lighthouse sets, redressed as needed if outside the Lighthouse. Every henchman wore duplicates of the same costume so that they could use the same stuntmen over and over again.
Season 6 (and 7) seem to have had a modest increase, likely because ABC renewed the show for two short seasons of 13 and spent less money over all than they would on a full 22 but still more on each individual episode. Season 6 once again had location filming and extras with four setbound episodes to save some money for the premiere and finale.
Season 7 was renewed during the filming of Season 6, and it looks like ABC and Disney made that decision so that they wouldn't have to pay the costs of shutting down and then restarting production between Season 6 and 7. As a result, they lost Iain De Caestecker as Fitz; he'd booked some projects to film during the Season 6 / 7 break only for there to be no break, but he was still contractually obligated to be away. It seems he returned for the finale, thankfully.
There was definitely some chatter about Peggy Carter returning to conclude AGENT CARTER's unresolved Season 2 cliffhanger. However, it looks like because Season 7 started filming right after Season 6, it would have been difficult to advance book a lot of the guest-stars they might have wanted like Hayley Atwell, Adrienne Palicki or Nick Blood with no real time between seasons.
I'm not sure I would have been too thrilled to see Peggy as a guest-character to resolve her Season 2 cliffhanger.
I really loved the first season of AGENT CARTER with its period New York City setting, Hayley's amazing chemistry with Lindsay Fonseca as Angie -- but then Season 2 took an odd turn due to the budget cut and the retooling.
AGENT CARTER moved its setting to Los Angeles so that it wouldn't have to do as many computer generated sets to create a post-WWII New York City and taking Peggy out of New York made the series lose its distinctive visual style. The emphasis on Peggy being torn between two love interests was incredibly juvenile for a character as driven and mature as Peggy. The loss of the Angie character with whom Peggy had a terrific rapport caused Hayley Atwell to lose a vital scene partner. There was a lot of intrigue with Peggy's pre-WWII past and dark secrets that led to a cliffhanger that was never resolved.
I understand why AGENT CARTER couldn't afford to do the period New York setting anymore. But in moving the show from its setting, it lost almost everything that made Season 1 special with Season 2 -- and seeing Peggy as a guest-star in someone else's show and to once again see AGENT CARTER further stripped of its identity by having its remaining parts collapsed into AGENTS OF SHIELD -- I just wouldn't have liked that.
I would rather just forget Season 2 of AGENT CARTER unless Disney+ can follow up on it properly with a third season; I wouldn't want a half-measure on AGENTS OF SHIELD. Either fix it properly or leave it alone.
Alright. Back to work.