SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
Seriously, there are so many SPOILERS.
Last night was the finale of Homeland Season 3 and… good God, this is not the same series I thought it would be. I LOVED Season 1. I thought Season 2 had a lot of issues, but I still liked it overall. Still, the cracks began to appear in Season 2 and then in Season 3… it just became less of an espionage TV show and more like The Carrie Soap Opera, with bonus Brody and Saul.
Months ago, I read an interview with Damian Lewis where he said that he kept getting the feeling that Brody was not long for the show, and that he was asking the writers every week if Brody was going to die. Well… it happened. Brody was caught in Tehran with Carrie (who they let go because OMG THAT’S TOTALLY HOW IT WORKS, RIGHT?) and Brody was hanged in public. Part of me liked the finality of it, that Carrie and Brody got to say their goodbyes and say everything that they needed to say to each other – Carrie even told him she was pregnant. He seemed pleased. And then he was dead.
The problem I had with those scenes in Tehran wasn’t so much the way they treated Brody – I’m prepared to buy the Brody situation. It was all of the Carrie sh-t that irritated me. It just seemed so silly that Carrie – after seeing Brody dragged off by Javadi’s police force – would return to her hotel in Tehran, only to be dragged away by more policemen, and then she’s taken to Javadi… who then gives her a f—king pep talk about love and the mission. WTF?!
As for the pregnancy storyline, when Carrie said “I didn’t think this through,” I was like, “Ha, I bet that’s what the writers were thinking.” You can’t be the Istanbul station chief with a baby! Unless it’s a cover baby. And even then! So, I’ll give the writers a little bit of credit – Carrie’s ambivalence towards motherhood seemed very much in character with who she is and her lack of long-term personal goals. She is the job. She’s never wanted to be much more than the job. She wanted Brody for a while, but she never really wanted his baby. And once again, Carrie got another pep talk from the new DCI – I like the line about “I’m not judging him, I’m just not memorizing him.” Seriously, Carrie, Brody did NOT deserve a star on the CIA wall. And that magic marker moment? Did anyone else think that was insulting to the actual CIA employees who die in the line of duty? Christ.
So, what happens now? How does Season 4 change? No more Brody, no Abu Nazir, but we’ve got Mr. Pep Talk Javadi. And now Saul is “retired” too. Thus, Season 4 is going to be even more about The Carrie Show. Which means that I don’t know if I’m going to watch next season – I would have stuck with it without Brody (at the end of the day, I’m sort of glad he died), but if Saul is gone too, I can’t deal. The only good news? Morena Baccarin and Morgan Saylor (Brody’s wife and daughter) are not going to be cast regulars next season, thank God. So… should I watch next season? Here’s the deal I’m making with myself: if Rupert Friend goes to Istanbul with Carrie, I’ll totally watch it. They have some unfinished business (in their pants).
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Quinn is pretty much my deciding factor for the next season: the show has to give him something more/better to do than, to borrow from NYMag, “stand around dispensing aphorisms and cigarettes.”
That said, I like the finale. I liked that there was no crazy James Bondian rescue mission, and that Brody was dead half-way through the ep. Done. Time to move on.
“They have some unfinished business (in their pants).”
HA!
Agree on him being one of the only reasons I stick around, but not entirely sure if I want him with Carrie who I’d rather was taken out with Brody as her carry on this season has annoyed me to the point of fury at times.
I haven’t watched the episode yet, but I’m SO GLAD Brody is dead. His character and his storyline after Season 1 were miserable to watch. I can’t stand him or his family. I was never interested in his “romance” with Carrie and never bought that he loved her anyway. Brody’s life lasted 2 seasons longer than it should have. If Saul is gone, I probably won’t watch. I’m just not that interested in Carrie without Carrie + Saul. I love Quinn’s character, but the writers haven’t given me any reason to be interested in him. If they improve his story, great. But without Carrie + Saul, I could not care less about this show anymore.
I don’t want Quinn and Carrie to get together. Carrie is just not that into him. I don’t feel any chemistry between them either. Quinn can get it from me instead, please.
It felt like a series finale and that’s good enough for me. With so many of the shows that drew me to subscribing to Showtime gone or descended into awfulness (Masters of Sex not withstanding), I’m giving serious thought to dropping it. Part of the lure of the first season of Homeland was that Carrie and Brody were both unpredictable and unreliable. I don’t see how a change of venue is going to recapture that magic particularly since the more interesting of the two ended up swinging from the end of a crane.
I too thought it was the series finale. It was for me anyway. So over Carrie and her b.s.
This season did seem awful up until the last 4 episodes. The problem with that is it got better just when you finally had Brody and Carrie back on the show at the same time, which IMO, is really when Homeland shined. So where does that leave it without Brody?
I was disappointed to see him killed off, even kind of sad. I don’t quite agree with Kaiser when it is suggested that Brody didn’t deserve anything positive in the end…. I found him a very tragic figure who was thoroughly abused by just about every possible side. He was just disposable to all of them! The middle eastern captors tortured him and perverted his mind, his CIA handlers then threw him to the lions because it was convenient. In the end he didn’t have a friend in the world, other than Carrie, even his own family disowned him. A tiny star on a wall doesn’t seem like it would have been a disproportionate reward.
On a funny note, I was reading comments about this on another site where someone suggested that this would all turn out to be some heroin induced dream that Brody was having, and he’d wind up being back next year. That definitely got me laughing.
I agree with you renata about Brody’s continued abuse and brainwashing – and I’m not really sure why the finale didn’t manage to give him more props given what he managed to accomplish despite all of it.
I’m not really sure what the Homeland writing staff had in mind with bringing him back only to have him overcome their (ordered) heroin addiction, a dangerous detox, training, and then sent off to assassinate a man on behalf of the US only to let him die. Ironically, IRL, it would seem more extraordinary measures are taken to rescue any soldier, let alone someone involved in a seal mission. Any CIA agent could be asked to commit acts of murder, violence, etc. and that is not considered treason or the like, and they are generally not tortured for a decade. The show lost me with continuing to act as though Brody’s behavior was out of line for someone who’d gone through what he went through. He was a survivor and someone who, despite all odds, never lost his humanity – and I’m surprised that we’re expected to believe that he deserved to die (as I’ve been reading at many places today), or that someone in Saul’s position has underlings who torpedo his extraction plan.
The entire pregnancy storyline was handled so poorly ( a few months in and she’s diagnosed as anemic and essentially heading for preeclampsia, was off her meds, had been drinking and smoking… then she was shot and that magically didn’t send her blood pressure higher or the blood loss cause a problem with the anemia (!?!?!), and then she runs around the globe in life-and-death peril but miraculously has no bipolar psychosis or ever comes close to losing the baby(?!?!?!)) that I’ve wanted to quit after every episode this season, but alas, things got interesting and I wanted to stick with it. Blech to the show and it’s poorly-handled, black-and-white depictions of a mass of gray. Series finale indeed!
I completely agree. The whole season was a mess from beginning to start. I seriously doubt anybody thought beyond season 1. I wish Homeland was a miniseries instead of a tv show. And why were Brody’s wife and children given so much coverage in the beginning only to be dropped by the second half? It contributed nothing to the story and basically was all filler. All that time could have been better used to avoid those time skips.
I also agree about The pregnancy subplot and how poorly it was handled. And that baby must be some kind of superbaby. It was also ironically a slap after slap in my face, given I miscarried my first baby a couple of weeks ago despite being by the book yet the superbaby was perfectly healthy after all the booze, drugs, being shot, anemia, high blood pressure and stress.
So I think I’m done with the show.
While I’ll agree with most people that this season was I uneven and less satisfying than previous seasons, the last 3-4 episodes were as good as the show has ever been. I especially appreciate the events with Brody once he arrived in Iran. Once he was in Iran, that government essentially repeated the pattern of Brody’s arrival back in the US. The government paraded him around as the hero of the Langley bombing for propoganda purposes, not realizing that he was there for a different purpose. This time, though, he actually followed through on his plan. I love the concept that politics and intelligence are inextricably linked, and I suspect we’ll explore that theme even more in season four.
I couldn’t even finish Season 2, so I didn’t bother with Season 3.
I just keep thinking about the line that was repeated about Brody….. “But you always manage to survive, like a cockroach after nuclear bombs go off.” Hmmmmmm………….stay tuned for next season.
I was so over the assholery and implausibility of Brody, Over them trying to sell this relationship, Over them turning a competent chick into a shrill dick-crazy Moron, over the ridiculousness of Carrie not following any fucking orders yet still being in a mission, Over the subtly trying to make Carrie and Quinn a thing, Over this stupid ass poorly thought out pregnancy ….IDEvenK if i can watch this next season tbh
Completely agree with you about the stars incident. The first thing that crossed my mind is that defacing the memorial wall seemed incredibly disrespectful to the CIA employees being remembered there.
This show is just getting to be too much. I do understand that some suspension of belief is required to enjoy most TV shows, but seriously…A few episodes ago Carrie was shot by a coworker because she was going to seriously disrupt a mission; and there are too numerous to count incidences of poor judgment, poor impulse control, not following orders, near treasonous behavior, etc. I think it’s preposterous to imagine that she would even be kept on as an employee, but given a plum assignment as a promotion?!?!
The first season was just so great, so tightly planned and well thought out, it makes me a little sad that 2 and 3 were such a mess. This season briefly got good when they revealed Carrie and Saul’s secret plan, but the pregnancy storyline overshadowed all that good stuff, and the pointless focus on Dana and another “bad” boyfriend was just a waste of time.
I wonder if the writers got sick of Damian asking and just killed him off to shut him up, lol.
I have to say I was secretly hoping that the last scene when Carrie was called for “urgent business” that she would be brought into a room and Brody would be alive! I just don’t want to see this love story end…
LOL you and I are like the only fans of the Carrie/Brody love story!! I was prepared for Brody to get killed off this season but it wasn’t easy to watch. I just think Brody and Carrie’s relationship has been the heart of this show from the start, and I have absolutely no idea what this show is about without that dynamic. And frankly, given what the first half of the season was like without Brody in it, I don’t think the writers even know what this show is about without Carrie/Brody!!!!! I’m expecting next season to be pretty bad….
“if Rupert Friend goes to Istanbul with Carrie, I’ll totally watch it. They have some unfinished business (in their pants).”
EXACTLY!!!
I’m sorry Brody died, but I liked the season ending over-all very much. I feel bad for the people who didn’t like it. I don’t understand why people can’t watch and just enjoy what the writers have in store for us. It’s a TV show and everything can’t have a happy ending and it can’t always end the way you want it to. Sit back and savor this great show!
ITA-the amount of nitpicking and negative whining about this is off the charts. I still think it’s a great show with amazing acting, even though the writers may have made some missteps in the storyline at times. It’s freaking Hollywood entertainment, of course the viewers have to suspend some plausibility at times. Considering most TV shows absolutely suck, I’ll take Homeland (and Scandal, & Nurse Jackie, & Shameless, & GOT, etc) any day over something like 2 1/2 Men or Gossip Girls.
I seriously think you are sleeping with my husband because it is almost verbatim your point of view to his.
I totally agree, it felt like a series finale. The Carrie and Brody storyline is the heart of this show. The episodes without them together this season were a mess and the pregnancy angle was just, WTF?! Quinn and Carrie, nah, I don’t see that at all. They’ve been more like a brother- little sister story imo. The writers have used up all their mojo and should just pack it up and call it a day. They gave a proper finale and they won’t make it worse by trying to reinvent a shaky wheel.