Renewed: Homeland, Masters of Sex (but what about that twist?).
Showtime has renewed 2 of its profile dramas, each for another 12 episodes. NB: Make sure you are up to date with Homeland before reading.
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Warning: If you’re not up to date with Homeland, look away now.
Two profile US dramas have been renewed today: Homeland and Masters of Sex.
Each has received a 12 episode order from Showtime in the US, which is good news for TEN and SBS respectively.
“Homeland continues to prove its strength for Showtime and is one of television’s most exciting, provocative and widely discussed shows. It has grown its audience significantly in each of its three seasons,” said Showtime entertainment president David Nevins.
“The critical and audience reaction to Masters of Sex since its great launch has been incredibly gratifying. It’s a privilege to get to work with such talented and creative people as Alex Gansa and Michelle Ashford, as well as their tremendous casts. They have each created truly original shows, with distinctive voices that are among the most admired series on television.”
But the reaction to this week’s episode of Homeland is just as big a story.
It was a helluva twist in the final scenes to learn that Carrie has been faking her hospitalisation just to smoke out the Iranians. Yes we were all fooled thanks. But be careful what you wish for.
As many have noted, we may get to the point of not believing anything we see anymore.
Hollywood Reporter said:
Even if we are to assume, now that the ruse has been revealed, that Carrie was “acting” in case outside forces (the Iranians) or inside forces of dubious intentions (Dar Adal) were watching her, the logic only works part of the time (in public) and even then not all the time. Homeland is using the camera’s point of view to manipulate the audience into thinking one thing while winking that it was all fake – and yet the camera catches moments (Carrie saying “F— you, Saul” at the end of the second episode, or Carrie, alone, crying and feeling hurt by Saul tossing her reputation to the congressional dogs) that had no reason to be faked. It’s just too convenient to say, “Oh, even though Carrie knew Saul was going to do that, it still hurt seeing it.” For one thing, that’s lazy. For another, it doesn’t explain subtleties like Carrie’s slow head shake that indicates disbelief that Saul would do such a thing. You can’t use the camera to both deceive and to lie outright to the viewer. That’s not a twist or even a trick. It’s cheating. It’s hackery.
TIME said:
Surprise twists are like a cheap drug for thriller dramas. They’re a rush, they give you a quick fix–but over time, you develop a tolerance. If you occasionally pull the rug out from under your audience, in a way that’s clever and serves the story, that can be effective. But pull the rug out too often, and the audience loses its investment, because you’re not telling a story anymore, just playing a game. A “successful” twist is not just defined by whether we didn’t see it coming; you can always fake your audience out if you’re willing to sacrifice enough character and story continuity to do it. Even in the twistiest story, there has to be some root narrative grounding the audience believes in. There needs to be a floor somewhere, not just rugs all the way down.
Huffington Post said:
According to an interview that executive producer Alex Gansa gave, Carrie and Saul hatched their scheme even before Season 3 began. I cannot tell you how disappointing that is to hear — to know that everything we saw happen to Carrie this season was part of an elaborate charade. It’s literally unbelievable. That revelation makes me even more convinced that Season 3 rests on a foundation of extremely unfortunate decisions.
Newsday said:
“Homeland’s” Sunday episode, “Game On,” is suddenly one of those “T V events” everyone has to have an opinion on, and I suppose that would include me. So, the choices before us are apparently this: a.) A brilliant twist that completely catapulted “Homeland” into an intriguing new place (and best of all, ends all those Carrie Mathison crying jags)? Or b.) One of the stupidest twists in “Homeland” history, that once again proves the writing staff is completely at sea, and resorting to gamey gimmicks that no self-respecting TV show would ever fall back on…?
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- Tagged with Homeland, Masters of Sex
14 Responses
@MattC: That is a good point and it does provide a logical explanation. However, I don’t believe Carrie is capable of such a feat. Since the start of the show, she has been a loose cannon. She’s endangered so many operations by losing it. I don’t think she’d be able to go from that to being a perfect spy overnight (24/7 no less).
I had been really annoyed at Saul for betraying Carrie, but I had thought/hoped he was doing it for a reason. But I never imagined Carrie was in on it too. A lot of people on the various blogs have been speculating that Saul was the mole, so at least now we know he is not. That would have been hard to take. Some think his wife is, so only time will tell on that. Don’t like that Dar Adal character, don’t trust him.
I think this just made Homeland more interesting. How can second guessing the truth be a bad thing for a spy drama?
Masters Of Sex is great so far, Michael Sheen is a terrific actor(very convincing faking an American accent).
Homeland – a complete mess so far this season. I have zero interest in the Dana character. The sooner Brody and Carrie are reunited, the better.
@Pertinax: The writers have come out and publicly said that the ‘setup’ took probably one episode too long, and I’d happily agree.
I don’t agree that the scenes you’ve listed were purely to ‘manipulate the audience’, though. If a character is deep undercover, putting on a show to lure out an as-yet-unknown observer, that character wouldn’t drop their guard for even a second. Having Carrie drop her guard would have implied that she knew exactly who her observer was, and that it was ‘safe’ to do so.
She didn’t know who was watching her (a nurse, a patient, CCTV?), or even if she was being watched, therefore it was never safe to acknowledge the ruse.
Homeland has its flaws, but this storyline isn’t one of them.
I can see why the Homeland twist has annoyed some people, but I’m just glad we finally got something interesting happening. Carrie is a great character, but her crazy stuff can get a bit old. All the other characters seem pretty weak on their own this season: Brody, Dana, Saul. I get the feeling the writers are kinda making it up as we go along, but I’ve enjoyed Homeland for long enough to give them the benefit of the doubt for a while longer.
When you say both shows have been renewed, were they really not sure if they’d get 12 eps this season? Or do you mean they are already renewed for next season?
Next season.
@MattC
Sure one outburst at Saul while Carrie was doped up on drugs is not a problem.
But it was 3 episodes full of things like Carrie arguing with Saul in private, Carrie’s discussions with people at the hospital, Carrie surprised her accounts were frozen and her car repossessed. They were all staged purely to manipulate the audience. And it felt manipulated and that it why it is angry.
Good writing is manipulating the audience and having them like it.
MattC – completely agree.
I don’t really understand all the hate that’s being directed at Homeland.
Hollywood Reporter basically answers its own question with regard to Carrie’s reaction at the end of episode one. The ‘F**k you, Saul’ scene at the end of episode two also makes sense in context, as Carrie’s ‘mission’ didn’t make her psych ward experience any less traumatic. She was in there, she didn’t know when she was getting out, and the longer it dragged on, the angrier she got at Saul for orchestrating it.
It’s one thing to say that you don’t like a plot twist, but to say it ‘doesn’t make sense’, when it clearly does make sense in its context, is just stupid.
It’s a standard double agent ploy e.g The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. I think it is a good twist, poorly executed.
I figured Carrie was deliberately being recruited once they approached her, but that she was doing it on her own to have something to barter her way back into the CIA.
As the articles said I was fooled by the effort she spent convincing people who didn’t matter. If Dar Adal is involved then it is particularly silly. And why were there no secure contact arrangements in place if it was all carefully planned from the beginning?
A lot of lazy writing fairly typical of much of 24 and Homeland.
I also wanted to say that i was at the Adelaide Festival of Ideas which als coinsided with the Adelaide Film Festival which i didnt attend, and i was at a talk which was Art costs Entertainment Pays. I found it very informative. I asked one of the guests about the current TV climate in Australia and i asked him what we can do to put shows like Masters of Sex and longform shows with quality made in australian tv and he kept bringing up The Killing as an example of a low budget show which is high quality, i tend toagree with him. I think if we are going to make groundbreaking shows like Masters of Sex or the Killing then the IPTV will be the platform for it.
@aesthetic. Yeah me too. as i have said this before i really like the storytelling and the cinematography i.e. the shots of the nude characters or the sex scenes, i personally am not offended by the nudity or the sex scenes but some people are i guessbecause i am of european background that kind of thing does not phase me, but some people may be. I am really enjoying it because as i have said before. Masters of Sex is not just about sex but sex is an overaching subject which effects all the lives of the characters in some way shape or form. Also we are seeing a lot of firsts for that time in this show.
Really enjoying Masters of Sex for something refreshing and different.