Once thought to be infinitely expanding, it turns out that even the Marvel Cinematic Universe has its limits. The clearest effort to map those finite dimensions arrived in the form of Marvel’s Inhumans, a television show that takes place between the craters of the Moon and the more verdant craters of Hawaii.

Indeed, as a range of superhumans are revealed, each of whom must have failed the auditions for Avengers and X-Men, you get the sense that the MCU is a barrel and here lie the scrapings at the bottom.

“What if I told you there was a place where we are all inhumans: the city of Attilan?” says a green-skinned amphibian with a fin that rises from his head like a Mohawk.

It is at that precise moment anyone above the age of 12 gives up on the show, and that’s a big problem for two reasons: One, it occurs less than two minutes into the first episode; and two, it is broadcast after bedtime on a school night. Those monsters!

The whole enterprise is jaw-dropping silly; a childish fantasy better suited to the shoulder-shaking verve of a Saturday morning cartoon.

Its heroes are swooning, near-mythological visions plucked from the distracted doodles of a stuffy classics lesson: winged girls, convulsing prophets and a guy whose special power is basically pessimism. All realized with a unforgivable frugal budget.

This might have been anticipated as it was preceded by the likes of Iron Fist, you see the MCU television shows did better when it came to more grounded story telling. Agents of Shield, Dare Devil, Punisher, Jessica Jones and even defenders to some extent were rather successful.

The main denominator between Inhumans and Iron fist is that they were both fantastical in a sense, perhaps too fantastical for their studios to handle.

This is evident even in agents of shield, with their introduction of the inhumans in season 2. Fans generally were not too enthused. The budget and time just isn’t there to pull it off.

The MCU movies were really a make or break deal for marvel so everything went into making them shine!

The TV shows really were not that big of a deal, especially as they were been overshadowed by the success of the movies, but now with Jeph Leob stepping down and Kevin Feige taking the reigns the shows might get the attention they deserve and that may be a good thing for Inhumans, especially considering the lurking rumors of a reboot.

There have also been rumors that there are talks to have Vin Diesel play Black bolt. If true this might be the break that the royals of Atillan need. In the meanwhile all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.