10 TV Shows That Should Have Quit While They Were Ahead
4. Homeland
Homeland was a show hampered by its own premise. The two leads were screwed from the very first episode: Nicholas Brody was a POW released on purpose, turned into a sleeper agent by his own captors, while Carrie Mathison was a highly strung, mentally ill operations officer for the CIA. Both characters were on borrowed time from the word go: when they became romantically involved with each other, the lifespan of the show shrank still further.
The first season of Homeland was a show based completely around Carrie and Brodys relationship, good and bad, and the fallout from his mission and her obsessive need to stop him. In the finale, Brody is sent to assassinate the Vice President of the United States with a suicide bomb: the bomb malfunctions, and the assassination is never carried out, but we all know that he was going to do it.
And then the show carries on. Season two saw Brody be found out by the US Government and used as a double agent, extending the lifespan of the shows driving concept, but closing down the possible options for that character as it did so. The climax of that season saw Brody on the run after a monumental terrorist act on US soil. By this point, the show was a parody of itself, nothing but hokum, the show having long passed the point where it could recover as it carried on wildly painting itself into a corner.
Homeland was recently renewed for not only a sixth season, but a seventh and an eighth, although why on earth thats happened is a mystery for the ages. Brodys storyline dragged itself out for the first three years, and its still going: no ones entirely sure what this show is supposed to be about anymore.
When should it have finished? With season one: the vest should never have misfired, and Brody should have died committing the worst terrorist outrage in US history, changing Carries life forever. Now that's a show that people would never have forgotten.