Season four of "Homeland," is Brodyless, which is sort of a relief. But what about a "Homeland" where we all hate Carrie? How's that feel?
She's the show's central character, and this season's first few episodes have shown audiences a Carrie that's pretty unlikeable. (Video via Showtime)
Granted, main characters can be villainous — we'll name drop Walter White and Tony Soprano here -- but the overall feeling from the Carrie naysayers: Characters who are jerks better be good at their jobs.
So far this season, we've seen a Carrie who's emotionally icy when dropping drones, who barks orders at her own team. She's coming off as a bad decision-maker and a bad manager.
Carrie has always been mentally unstable, but as The Atlantic puts it "...her only saving grace as a character is the oft-repeated assertion that she's professionally extraordinary."
And that's not the case anymore. The Washington Post agrees: "The biggest problem 'Homeland' has ... is that increasingly, the show's claims to Carrie Mathison's charisma and hyper-competence fall flat."
So the question becomes, is this Carrie here to stay?
As Vulture points out about Sunday's episode, we saw glimpses of Carrie "at her best." She set up a shadow team and potentially recruited a new asset.
EW dubbed those scenes "reminiscent of the best moments from Season 1."
Bottom line, "Homeland" needs to head home, to the Carrie that we love, or risk losing viewers who already feel burned after a third season of Carrie-and-Brody melodrama.
Which is why we won't even get into many critics' and fans' fear that that's exactly what we're about to get again with Carrie and Quinn.
(Video includes music from Pierlo / CC BY 3.0.)
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