(First off, I have to admit that I only watched the first seven of the twelve episodes that constitute this Fifth Season. As such, this review will mainly focus on the reasons why I'm "out" after four full seasons and 7 episodes of this one.)
"Homeland" has always been a strange show for me in that it makes me think about how a television program needs to be paced. Often, I will complain about a show "not getting to the point" quick enough, or extending plots/relationships past their due dates, so to speak. For the first two seasons of "Homeland", the show did the exact opposite. It "went for it" every single episode, creating such incredible tension between the characters of Nicolas Brody (Damien Lewis) and Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes). The show creators could have drawn that tension out for many a- season, but they chose to go for the jugular instead, creating what I consider to be two of the greatest seasons of television I've ever viewed.
What I'm beginning to understand (based on the current state of "Homeland"), however, is what the pitfalls are of that approach, as right now "Homeland" is a shell of its former self, and it's in large part because it can't nearly come close to sustaining that breakneck pace of the "early years". Before I continue, I would like to add that I also view "Homeland" in a different context than what potentially many others do. To me, the show was never "a show about terrorism". I mean it was, to a certain extent, what with the "is heisn't he" tension surrounding Brody, but I viewed the early stages of that show as mostly about the tension between the characters. In other words, I felt that the show was using events to push the characters instead of the other way around. I was perfectly fine with that and loved every second of it. There may be others who watch "Homeland" more strictly for the political intrigue (in which case they are likely still watching and loving it), but I can't count myself in that camp.
Thus, besides a really strong plot line towards the end of Season Four, "Homeland" has been a bit of a struggle for me since the end of Season Two, which is when the show started to get more political and less character-driven. It has had its moments since then, to be sure, but with this Fifth Season I've finally been compelled to give up watching entirely.
Now, this is where I would usually give a quick summary of the Fifth Season (well, at least the first 7 episodes), but this is part of the problem: far too often I had no idea what was going on and struggled to follow the characters. "Homeland" always was a show that required close viewing (unlike, say, the straightforward "black and white" nature of "24"), but this season I feel that it may have went too far. It starts off with a plot arc about hacked documents, spends quite a bit of time dealing with German intelligence, then the Russians get involved, and the hacked documents finally start to come back again. To be honest, I was confused from the get-go and never able to "buy in". Maybe that is on me, but I usually haven't had that problem with previous seasons.
Perhaps this whole review (and synopsis of my "Homeland" experience) can be summed up by saying this: after the white-hot intensity of the Carrie/Brody arc in Seasons 1-2, I never felt that the show ever really even came close to those heights again. Characters such as Saul (Mandy Patinkin), Quinn (Rupert Friend), Dar Adal (F. Murray Abraham), and the newcomers from Season Five might be interesting in their own right, but not nearly enough to sustain a show that had lost its core. It finally got to the point where it felt like a chore to watch, and that's when I know it is time to punch out. It feels strange, considering how much I have invested in certain characters and just the overall feel of the show, but (as previously explained), the show has moved a considerable direction away from what made me love it in the first place.
There is a scene in the fourth season that really exemplifies my relationship to this show, a scene in which Carrie has a vision of Brody while she is in a drug-addled state. My heart practically stopped during that scene, as it brought up the deep emotions from those early seasons. I realized at that moment that my time watching "Homeland" might be coming to an end (as the show, due to that furious pacing, had to move away from that relationship). I'll always treasure those first two seasons, but now the other shoe has dropped for me.
"Homeland" has always been a strange show for me in that it makes me think about how a television program needs to be paced. Often, I will complain about a show "not getting to the point" quick enough, or extending plots/relationships past their due dates, so to speak. For the first two seasons of "Homeland", the show did the exact opposite. It "went for it" every single episode, creating such incredible tension between the characters of Nicolas Brody (Damien Lewis) and Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes). The show creators could have drawn that tension out for many a- season, but they chose to go for the jugular instead, creating what I consider to be two of the greatest seasons of television I've ever viewed.
What I'm beginning to understand (based on the current state of "Homeland"), however, is what the pitfalls are of that approach, as right now "Homeland" is a shell of its former self, and it's in large part because it can't nearly come close to sustaining that breakneck pace of the "early years". Before I continue, I would like to add that I also view "Homeland" in a different context than what potentially many others do. To me, the show was never "a show about terrorism". I mean it was, to a certain extent, what with the "is heisn't he" tension surrounding Brody, but I viewed the early stages of that show as mostly about the tension between the characters. In other words, I felt that the show was using events to push the characters instead of the other way around. I was perfectly fine with that and loved every second of it. There may be others who watch "Homeland" more strictly for the political intrigue (in which case they are likely still watching and loving it), but I can't count myself in that camp.
Thus, besides a really strong plot line towards the end of Season Four, "Homeland" has been a bit of a struggle for me since the end of Season Two, which is when the show started to get more political and less character-driven. It has had its moments since then, to be sure, but with this Fifth Season I've finally been compelled to give up watching entirely.
Now, this is where I would usually give a quick summary of the Fifth Season (well, at least the first 7 episodes), but this is part of the problem: far too often I had no idea what was going on and struggled to follow the characters. "Homeland" always was a show that required close viewing (unlike, say, the straightforward "black and white" nature of "24"), but this season I feel that it may have went too far. It starts off with a plot arc about hacked documents, spends quite a bit of time dealing with German intelligence, then the Russians get involved, and the hacked documents finally start to come back again. To be honest, I was confused from the get-go and never able to "buy in". Maybe that is on me, but I usually haven't had that problem with previous seasons.
Perhaps this whole review (and synopsis of my "Homeland" experience) can be summed up by saying this: after the white-hot intensity of the Carrie/Brody arc in Seasons 1-2, I never felt that the show ever really even came close to those heights again. Characters such as Saul (Mandy Patinkin), Quinn (Rupert Friend), Dar Adal (F. Murray Abraham), and the newcomers from Season Five might be interesting in their own right, but not nearly enough to sustain a show that had lost its core. It finally got to the point where it felt like a chore to watch, and that's when I know it is time to punch out. It feels strange, considering how much I have invested in certain characters and just the overall feel of the show, but (as previously explained), the show has moved a considerable direction away from what made me love it in the first place.
There is a scene in the fourth season that really exemplifies my relationship to this show, a scene in which Carrie has a vision of Brody while she is in a drug-addled state. My heart practically stopped during that scene, as it brought up the deep emotions from those early seasons. I realized at that moment that my time watching "Homeland" might be coming to an end (as the show, due to that furious pacing, had to move away from that relationship). I'll always treasure those first two seasons, but now the other shoe has dropped for me.