I'll be honest. There have been at least three different times when I've just kind of assumed that "Homeland" was finally off the air.
After a stellar first season and a meh follow-up, the show went straight, over-the-top ridiculous somewhere around Season 3. So seeing this show make it up to and through an eighth season was as unlikely to me as Carrie Matheson making it through an episode without crying.
For the last few seasons, here's a typical plot for Cryin' Carrie:
- Carrie is given a crucial assignment in a Middle Eastern country, seemingly in complete ignorance of past transgressions and missteps.
- Carrie catches on to the plot, but makes an emotional decision that backfires, destroying lives in the process.
- Carrie has a breakdown and is dosed/institutionalized/arrested/captured/sidelined.
- Carrie promises she is recovered and, against every institutional guardrail, is placed back into active duty and thrust immediately into the most pressing and global threatening scenario possible.
- Carrie and her chin quiver quickly start breaking protocol and wreaking havoc in a Middle Eastern country.
Rinse.
Repeat.
Like, at one point, I realized I had found the one TV character who could make me actively root for the terrorists. "Homeland" went off with a whimper, not a bang, without even the cathartic release of seeing a heroic Carrie death at the end.
Credit to the crew for squeezing out five extra seasons after its most interesting character, Brody, was killed. But now "Homeland" is finally, officially off the air -- and Claire Danes is now freed up to become the face of Kleenex.
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