11 Beloved TV Shows With More Bad Seasons Than Good

Back in 2011, there wasn't any TV show quite as biting or as current as Homeland. Placing their sights squarely on contemporary terrorism, the writers at Showtime tapped into the fears and anxieties of viewers with a great central hook: a former CIA agent taken prisoner by al-Qaeda has returned to America, but who are they really working for?

This brilliantly juicy setup led to a couple of incredible paranoia-laced seasons that, while never smartly written in the conventional sense, were still able to deliver some mind-bending twists that more than did the pulpy premise justice.

Once the second season wrapped up though, the charm had run dry. Instead of capitalising on its daring premise and following it through to its natural conclusion, the third season made a few U-turns and head-scratching creative decisions that weren't in service of the plot, but were seemingly only there to keep the actors and the story chugging along without changing things up too much.

It was the beginning of the end for the flash-in-the-pan series, and although the creators eventually started to trim the fat and put the focus on Clare Danes' Carrie, Homeland had already transitioned from being an enjoyably dumb popcorn thriller to being just plain ol' dumb.