I’ve joined the chorus of complaints about season three of Homeland since September, which is in large part a reaction to how amazing the first season was, but also how far the show has shifted not just in direction but in theme since that point. Tonight’s season-ender had more of the usual nonsense – absurd plotting and convenient coincidences that required more suspension of disbelief than a Uri Geller show – about which you should all feel free to rant in the comments.
I have one specific thought that made me want to weigh in after watching tonight’s show. For me, Homeland didn’t go off the rails this year, neither at the beginning nor in episode four when the first Big Reveal took place. I think the fundamental shift in the show took place in the middle of season two, when the writers chose to go from a show about facing an ill-defined, largely unknown, inbound threat to U.S. security to a show about outbound activities like attempting an internal coup d’état inside one of our strongest enemies. That sea change necessitated two adjustments in the direction of the show, both of worked very strongly against its success and defied what made the first season so compelling:
• It altered the tenor of the tension of each episode, reducing it while also narrowing its scope. In season one, the threat was global: The U.S. is going to be attacked, at some point, by unknown persons, and it could be massive in scale. During season two, the threat to the U.S. was diminished – nearly all of the season was devoted to smaller matters like chasing down individual suspects, with the eventual attack coming more or less out of nowhere. Season three was entirely about individual tension – first with Carrie appearing to be a prisoner of the CIA, then later with the attempt to engineer that internal coup within Iran’s security apparatus. Characters we know were placed in physical jeopardy, or saw their careers placed on the line, but the country was never at risk.
• When the protagonists were facing an inbound threat, we the audience were kept in the dark because the protagonists were in the dark themselves. In season three, with no inbound threat and only the outbound effort to bait, catch, and recruit a critical asset from Iran, the protagonists knew more than the writers could tell the audience, resulting in the massive unreliable-narrator arc at the start of the season but continuing through the next nine episodes. It got to the point where I trusted nothing that I saw; if Brody had done a double twist off that crane and stuck the landing in the season finale it wouldn’t have surprised me. The only way to create the tension the writers wanted was to hide, mislead, and lie. I was okay with it once. I was not okay with a full season of it.
The other fundamental problem with season three, for me, dated back to a problem I had in season one, something that I doubt is universal but started to detract seriously from the viewing experience in season two: I never cared about the relationship between Brody and Carrie. It seemed improbable and forced at the start, and eventually devolved into farce. Carrie becoming pregnant with his baby – really, neither of them thought about birth control? – read like a desperate attempt to infuse life and interest into a relationship that, for me, was nothing but a distraction from the cloak and dagger stuff that made season one click.
I won’t go into all of the plot holes and inconsistencies, as Alan Sepinwall has done that already. I don’t entirely agree with Alan’s sentiment that there shouldn’t have been a second season, but I agree that the way it was handled was less than ideal, and a once-great show has lost its way, to the point where season four is going to have to entice a lot of viewers, myself included, back.
This is pretty much always true, but just in case: Anything is fair game in the comments below, including spoilers and comments on stuff I didn’t mention. I’m curious to hear what others thought about tonight’s episode and the season as a whole.
It felt like the writers had the story line wrapped up before Season 4 was signed off on. The ending to this episode was like a bad “The End” screen. There were always cliff hangers after season 1 and 2. Season 4 will be starting fresh. New director, Saul out, Carrie in Istanbul. The Carrie-baby situation is not a good enough hold in my opinion.
Just a so-so ending to a so-so season.
I very much agree that Brody’s and Carrie’s relationship was never interesting to me. It quickly grew to a point where it was hard to take Carrie seriously because of her blind affection for and loyalty to Brody- especially when the entire first season was built around her being the only person who suspected he was a terrorist.
We all knew Brody had to die, even if it was about a season too late, so at least they got that part right. But man I could not have been less interested in those last fifteen minutes or so after he died. I found it excruciating.
So many plot holes the last two seasons, and little perfectly timed conveniences. One thing from this episode and what looks like will be the premise going forward that I’m baffled by: Saul is let go by the new director, but they’re keeping Carrie on board *and* promoting her? Not saying that she should be let go necessarily, but I find it impossible to believe the new director would keep her after all of the insubordination in her delusional loyalty to Brody.
Season 3 was definitely way better than season 2, but i think you nailed it. I never believed/cared about the Carrie & Brody relationship either. Deep down you knew it wouldn’t evolve because it couldn’t and still have the show somewhat credible. I thought season 3 was at its best before they forced Brody back into the plot.
While I agree with you that the series should not have ended after season one, I like Sepinwall’s second idea. Perhaps the show would have been much better off with Brody blowing himself up at the climax of season one, and had Carrie and Saul shift their focus to a new threat in season two. Have each season focus on a new case. However, I’m not sure there would have been enough talent to carry the show without Lewis. Maybe that’s also how the writers saw it and that’s how we’ve ended up where we are now with the show.
Imagine you’ve got a band. You’ve been together 10 years. You’ve been writing songs for ten years, playing every night, polishing that material. Then you break through and have a huge hit record. You hit #1 on the charts. Klaw opens a chat with a reference to your lyrics. Everything’s great until a year later when everyone expects a new album that’s just as good as the one you spent basically your entire life making. It’s hard to make exceptional art. And it’s almost impossible to keep churning out consistently exceptional art just because there’s demand for it. These shows can collapse under their own weight. You get renewed and suddenly you’re writing because you have an order to fill instead of because you have increasingly profound things to say. All of which, I guess, means I more or less agree artistically with ending the show earlier. (Although I would probably feel differently if I was the one turning down the money Showtime was offering.) So season four should be something completely different. I’m thinking Chris and Xander living together in a dorm.
This show has always thrived because its characters were strong – season 1 had all the main characters as well drawn out, and even secondary and tertiary characters like Estes, the VP, Carrie’s father and Elizabeth Gaines were interesting. Season 2 at least added Quinn and Adal to the mix as complex characters, or at a minimum, guys who were sinister and thoroughly entertaining.
That all went out the window this year. Carrie was completely unlikable and unrelatable. Saul turned into someone unrecognizable – I still find that scene where he chews out the Muslim analyst to be one of the worst of the entire history of the show. Adal and Lockhart turned into meek cats by the end of the year. Even Quinn because uninteresting. Why continuing watching if the plot is contrived and the characters are uninteresting?
“Carrie becoming pregnant with his baby – really, neither of them thought about birth control? – read like a desperate attempt to infuse life and interest into a relationship”
Infuse life… I see what you did there. That could have used a signature Chris Treager “LITRALLY”
Brody was the only reason I kept watching after a few episodes this season. Without him, we were left with seemingly endless amounts of Carrie tears and the internal power struggle at the CIA.
I kind of liked the “Carrie is Brody’s baby momma” angle because I thought it meant Brody would make it to season 4. For me, the show was always about Brody, and the rest of the gang was there to just move the story line along. I would like to see a complete reboot of the series in a different direction because I have very little interest in any of the characters still alive.
I agree with Zach. Carrie is an insufferable character at times. This show was all about Brody for me. I’m not expecting much out of season 4.
We can dance through the plot holes all day, but it really all comes down to Showtime’s decision not to have Brody blow himself up at the end of season one. Howard Gordon and Alex Ganza have spent the past 24 episodes dealing with that mistake and for all the soap opera BS (the time wasted on Dana this season) and missed opportunities (Quinn’s crisis of faith after shooting a child in S03/E01), at least we’ve finally bid Brody fairwell and we can see what kind of show the showrunners might really have in mind.
The turns frees Claire Danes to stop playing the lovesick school girl and – as she says to Quinn – get back to being ruthless (and manipulative). That’s always been Carrie’s most interesting play. Remember the way she manipulated Fara to broker a meeting with her uncle? They don’t have to lure me back for S04, but they’re gonna have a pretty short rope before I cut the show loose.
I agree the show has been dissapointing, but the season finale gave me hope for what’s to come. Assuming that Carrie does give up the baby it will allow everyone to move on from that romance, hit reset and get back to what the show does well. I know people don’t like Dana but I was hoping for more character development there and see how the Brody family responded to the last few months. Was it public knowledge that he killed the guy? I feel like sometimes the show is too insulated in the CIA bubble and didn’t have to respond to the outside public or political forces. Once Lockhart was named Director it was just more infighting.
Seasons 2 and 3 of Homeland fell off just as hard as Dexter after season 4. And when you parallel the failures of each of the respective seasons the commonality that makes each show mediocre is how each, as Keith put it, diminishes the various threats–“nearly all of the season was devoted to smaller matters like chasing down individual suspects, with the eventual attack coming more or less out of nowhere.” What’s even more mind boggling is they had the formula to succeed, as did Dexter. Let’s hope season 4 starts fresh strictly focusing on the things that made them successful during season 1.
I feel like something that hasn’t been directly addressed is that Homeland may have succeeded, and ultimately failed, because of the strength of it’s source material (an Israeli show). During the first season, I couldn’t fathom how they could conceivably draw the plot into a second, though ultimately they did in a not totally unsatisfying manner. When the show runners had to create their own story lines beyond the original story, they struggled with the task.
The series finale was exceptional. Of note:
1) Javadi being the only character able to perceive the heroic element of Brody. Odd that an absolute monster that destroyed his wife with a glass jar was the only one capable of this level of sympathetic feeling. A commentary on human emotion in general? Are the most depraved the most sensitive?
2) The contrasting world views of the war on terror by the jingoistic Carrie vs. the reflective world weary Brody.
3) In season 2, Carrie makes a decision to be with Brody over a CIA career. In season 3, Javadi puts her entire career vs. an attempt to try to save Brody. This time, she accepts her role in the CIA and the death of Brody.
Time to bail on this show?
I thought the actor who played Javadi really nailed it.
Maybe parts of the writing helped. It was mentioned during the episode, but a guy doesn’t rise to power for nothing.
Portraying the character as a soft spoken, thoughtful and convincing, goes beyond the typical “villain who laughs out loud and does evil all the time”.
@Munchkin: I agree on the actor/writing of Javadi – it’s what made his cold-blooded killing of his daughter-in-law so shocking. We knew he was up to no good, but the fact that someone so soft-spoken and apparently intelligent thinks so little of shooting someone in the head is hard to believe when it first occurs.
“Imagine you’ve got a band. You’ve been together 10 years. You’ve been writing songs for ten years, playing every night, polishing that material. Then you break through and have a huge hit record. You hit #1 on the charts. Klaw opens a chat with a reference to your lyrics. Everything’s great until a year later when everyone expects a new album that’s just as good as the one you spent basically your entire life making. It’s hard to make exceptional art. And it’s almost impossible to keep churning out consistently exceptional art just because there’s demand for it. These shows can collapse under their own weight. You get renewed and suddenly you’re writing because you have an order to fill instead of because you have increasingly profound things to say. ”
While I think that is an apt comparison for many different television shows, I don’t know if I’d describe Homeland in those terms. I think the biggest thing was simply Damian Lewis being SO good in his role that they realized that there was no way that they could kill him off, even if it meant so much sense to do so. As others have noted, that one decision threw the entire series off balance as they’ve had to constantly react to that one thing. I, too, enjoyed Brody and Lewis is an exceptional actor, but the show really had to have more faith in its ability to give viewers a reason to tune in for Season 2 without Lewis. Imagine the Wire if Simon had felt that he couldn’t risk losing Idris Elba or Dominic West after Season 3 (yes, West did not disappear in Season 4, but he effectively did). The show would have suffered, just like this show did.
Once the show stopped featuring two of my favorite..um..characters, it really stopped holding our collective interests.
Scott–You hit the nail on the head. I see season 4 as an opportunity to start with a clean slate and re-orient the show back to (or closer to) what it was during the first season. Everything was wrapped up pretty neatly at the end of season 3; Carrie (and I assume Quinn and the rest of the recurring grunt characters from the CIA since she gets to “pick her team”) gets a fresh start. Some things they could do to throw a wrench into that idea would be some saccharine storyline about the hardships of single motherhood… in the CIA… in Istanbul… or that she somehow hires Saul to work for her in Turkey or something, just to keep his character around (as much as I like Mandy Patinkin, his character’s sun has set).
The political intrigue is what has kept me onboard with the show, much more than the individual storylines, and as long as the show relies on that kind of backbone, I’ll keep watching. Smaller insights into individual characters are a good support for the story, but this isn’t a show that should rely on that kind of thing. For example, the Javadi storyline is really interesting, and I think they did a good job with him in the season finale when he gave that speech to Carrie about Brody. Quinn’s crisis of faith is another one. Understanding personal motivations helps remind you that these are PEOPLE carrying out these complex and dangerous activities, but it gets really, really, muddled when you examine them too closely, IMO.
Overall, better than season 2, but short of season one. Season 3 did get better as it went, so I hope the trend continues into season 4.