Good afternoon everybody! Thank you for joining Daily News TV critic David Hinckley and I (your friendly neighborhood recapper) for our live web chat about last night's shocking "Homeland" season finale.
by Ethan Sacks
I personally did. Once his confessional video from the aborted suicide bombing went public, there was zero chance he could have returned to U.S. soil without being in handcuffs or in a body bag. His whole original storyline was based on him living with this horrible secret. Once that secret was out, even if he wasn't responsible for the attack at the end of the second season, there was never going to be a happily-ever-after for poor Brody.
by Ethan Sacks
Short answer: yes, he did. You could argue persuasively he had to die at the end of Season One, but since his romantic chemistry with Carrie registered so well with audiences, he got a stay of execution. But by the middle of Season Two, really, and certainly by the end of Season Three, he had nowhere to run and almost nowhere to hide. Even if they'd made it out of Iran, there were still those pesky little lingering problems like his having murdered three people, including the vice president. And his suicide bomber tape.
I'm not sure any amount of PR would have cleaned up his image and let him live as a regular person. There were too many complications. The Ozzie and Harriet life he led with Jess was not replicable with Carrie.
For the show to move on, he had to be terminated. So the show spent a lot of time laying out all the reasons why he couldn't plausibly continue to be part of it, from the debacle with Dana to all his bad deeds.
by David Hinckley
I think the first season and much of the second season, arguably, will stand with the best dramas on television. The third season, not so much. Still good, all things being relative, but it felt like it lost some of its focus. Some of the things it did so well in the beginning, like developing characters and giving us a reason to care about what happened to them, seemed to fall aside. This third season, it felt like the subplots were disposable -- even the Dana part, when earlier in the series Dana was such a critical lens through which to see Brody.
So at the moment, no, not one of the great dramas. But we won't know the final answer until it ends.
by David Hinckley
I think it was absolutely deliberate to make Season Three end like a Series Finale -- because that's clearly the model with which the show is going forward.
You have your main character, obviously Carrie, with some familiar faces for continuity, but with a lot of new faces, in a new setting, with in all likelihood a new central crisis.
In order to set that up, you need to bring "closure" to the Brody storyline. You could argue how well it was closed, but Brody's death ends the chapter that revolved around him and Carrie.
Again, it feels like the model here is "24," on which showrunner Alex Gansa used to work. You recharge the batteries by changing the trappings.
I fear that alas, Saul may also be downsized in the future. I hope not, but it seems likely. Among the returning characters, the Senator (sorry, I know he's director, but he'll always be Senator to me) will become a much different kind of boss for Carrie. Among more sympathetic characters, Quinn is obviously at the head of the pack. He's been underdeveloped for two seasons, perhaps deliberately to give him room for growth.
by David Hinckley
I'm in the group -- a minority, perhaps, depending on the anecdotal evidence one follows -- who loved Dana.
Like Sally Draper on "Mad Men," she was a whole different lens through which to see the flaws and potential in her parents. She was used that way in the first two seasons, while still being developed as a character herself. I thought she was great, and Morgan Saylor played her very nicely.
So I liked that she got what seemed to be a lot of screen time and some focus early in the season....except that, unfortunately, it didn't feel like it served her well. It was like she was just heading down a bunch of tunnels, hoping one led out -- and we kind of got the point after the first one. The bad boyfriend story went on longer than it needed to, except that in the end it didn't lead anywhere we hadn't already been.
By the abrupt end of her storyline, we didn't know much more about her except that she felt lost and bitter -- and even that didn't feel like it was about her. The storyline seemed to be saying that only mattered in terms of its impact on Brody.
So I thought she was badly used and badly served this season, when the first two seasons had set up so much potential for her to be a character on her own, and to give Brody something more than simple rejection.
by David Hinckley
Bear with us for a couple of minutes. We are experiencing a technical glitch.
by Ethan Sacks
Okay, sorry about the delay. David, it's all you...
by Ethan Sacks
Yes, in an outfit that's known for its cold maneuvering, that one was particularly icy.
But by the internal logic of the CIA, those other guys probably made the right call, whereas Saul was swayed by emotions.
I was a little surprised, frankly, that Saul did come down on the side of trying to save Brody. Season One Saul, yes. But this was the season of “Take ‘Em All Saul,” and this Saul didn’t even blink when Javadi butchered the woman Saul was so proud of having saved.
As for Carrie, I think her response, or lack of response, reinforced how deeply she believes in what she is doing — that is, the ends so often justify the means.
On the personal level, she’s probably livid. But she’s decided to move forward on the professional level, and she understands that getting angry at the people who betrayed Brody would only provide short-term satisfaction while short-circuiting her future.
She obviously wants the memory of Brody to live, but the final scenes suggested she’s taking a “realistic” approach and not fighting battles she knows she can’t win.
by David Hinckley
Sadly, I fear he may go out to pasture.
He's not as gone as Brody, obviously, since he's still alive, but if he's off in New York in the "private sector," that could make him a fifth wheel.
My guess is the show wants to develop the new CIA director as a very different, and more difficult, boss for Carrie. Her rabbi seems to be gone, which could make life a lot more difficult for someone who plays on the edge of the rules.
Dramatically, for the show, that would be a potentially fertile field to mine in a year of resets.
Still, there are a couple of ways to keep Saul in the game. Carrie could hire him to work with her in Istanbul, since it's been promised she can hire her own team. Seems like a demotion for Saul, but as Dar said, he does seem to want to stay in the game.
Conversely, he could keep working with Carrie from outside the game, like the spotter up in the box with the binoculars, following the action on the field.
Unless they do something really radical, like getting rid of the new director and bringing Saul back -- unlikely -- it's hard to see how Saul's role won't be diminished.
Personally, I just hope he's not gone, the way Brody's family will be.
by David Hinckley
Saul pretty much rode off into the sunset at the end of that episode. After that victory lap, his arc is almost as neatly wrapped up as Brody's. I could, however, see him return as a semi-regular recurring character who parachutes in (not literally) to offer Carrie occasional advice just to keep some continuity.
by Ethan Sacks
They did linger a little long on the visual didn't they?
by Ethan Sacks
Necessary, no. I think you could have gotten the same impact from seeing him with the rope around his neck, then getting a crowd shot, then maybe seeing Carrie climb the fence.
My guess is that unless we physically saw him expire, there would have been constant speculation he wasn't really dead. Hey, there already is.
Also, since in a lot of ways the show spent three seasons leading up to Brody finally paying for his sins, I think they may have felt they should hammer home the moment.
Call it a sort of anti-"Sopanos" ending. No ambivalence.
by David Hinckley
Yes, a much different show. It's like a car that's getting a new engine.
I think the viewers will miss the relationship less after Season Three than they might have, or than they did, after Seasons One and Two. I think Season Three, deliberately or not, sort of wore viewers down, making it very clear Carrie and Brody had nowhere to go. Their last real conversation acknowledged that.
Brody was also worn down by everything. When he said he was ready to go, I think most viewers probably believed him. So in that sense, the Carrie/Brody story did get an ending. Not a fairytale ending, but then, most of us weren't watching "Homeland" for a fairytale ending.
Can the writers make the reset work? Based on their skills in Seasons One and Two, absolutely. Based on how they kind of lurched around this season, I hope they have some fresh ideas. I suspect that maybe they do -- that for the writers, finishing up this storyline may have been harder than launching a new one.
by David Hinckley
I don't doubt that the writers are good enough - certainly you could make the case that the first season and a half of this show, right up through "Q&A" were as good as anything else during this golden age of TV dramas - but this show will now continue on in a radically different direction without Brody. Fortunately, Claire Danes is perfectly capable of carrying the show on her back IF the writers room can come up with a concept that's as arresting as the original premise. Here's to hoping.
by Ethan Sacks
Thanks for tuning in for the live chat during this time of grief!
by Ethan Sacks
0 comments:
Post a Comment