But, like I said, that's the good news. The obvious implication is that this'd be the high point, and everything else suffers in comparison. Quite frankly, the A-1 writing staff did a poor job with this series, mishandling pretty much every opportunity for dramatic tension. Most of the time, it isn't that big a deal - a false note here, a second too long or short there - but the cumulative result is a story badly told.
Controversially, I think the ALO arc actually handled it better than the SAO arc, at least initially. It sacrifices a lot of the momentum put forth by the first cour's action focus in favor of a character study on the relational aftermaths of the SAO incident, which is exactly the thing to do after having a nation-impacting incident. But, even here, it got muddled halfway through - and it certainly doesn't help that they deflated all possible tension and sense of risk by focusing on how much ass Kirito kicks instead.
TL;DR: compelling setting, wasted narrative opportunities.
