5. Opening With A Lacklustre Season Starter
Many shows fail to maintain momentum by their third seasons, especially given (in this case) the nail-gnashing tension of the previous two. Compound that with the fact that Homeland had such a definitive narrative structure throughout its first season that enough threads remained unpicked to flow into the second, however by seasons end that now moth-eaten original narrative remains ravaged for the sake of another set of episodes. At this stage in the game, main allegiance-switcher Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) has been framed for a bombing at CIA HQ that took place at the end of season 2, prompting him to bid farewell to leading lady Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and disappear for the first two episodes of season 3. However with Brody out of the picture, the focus is turned onto the aftermath of his family finding out his darkest secrets in the most public of ways, resulting in daughter Dana attempting to take her own life by slashing her wrists in the bathtub. Whilst there are a lot of points to be made about Homeland being a representation of the American mindset during wartime, just as 24 was a manifestation of the reaction to 9/11, diving so heavily into the psychological aspect of the characters in the very first episode provided the opposite to what this shows needed to convince viewers that stick with it going forward would be worth it.