There’s a quite basic, important idea that underpins the making of any television show planning on sticking around for more than a handful of episodes: learn from mistakes. It can apply to the characters, certainly, but it’s crucial that it applies to the creative team. Writing, specifically, can often falter at some stage, but it’s the way that the show realises the issues it had in those weaker times and why they existed, and understand how to avoid those problems in future.
With Homeland, that problem was Brody. Trying to keep him around as long as they did was understandable, but his continued presence sent the series down a rabbit hole that it just about managed to pull itself out of in the fourth and fifth seasons.
Now, I fear we’re heading down a similar rabbit hole, and this far into the show’s run, can it be pulled out for the second time?
Peter Quinn has long been a fan favourite, and though there have been times in the last couple of seasons where he has felt underutilised, it’s always entertaining (*) to see Rupert Friend on screen. But his miraculous survival of sarin poisoning from the end of season five and his subsequent problems has made both of season six’s opening two episodes unendingly frustrating. Certainly, there’s a case to be made that his current state opens the potential for some important storytelling - namely, the difficulty with which operatives like Quinn have upon coping in the world after a mental or physical trauma, or in Quinn’s case, both. The premiere even threw in the VA and his reluctance to be there (**), and the basis of his issues right now could form an important, meaningful story arc.
(*) At one point in “The Man in the Basement”, Quinn attempts to justify not taking a shower, delivered deadpan, which is simultaneously funny and tragic.
(*) Then again, the premiere also featured a scene where a woman took advantage of Quinn, taking him out of the hospital and paying someone to come and rob him of money she gave him. Can’t have it both ways.
The problem is that Homeland is neither in a position to make it meaningful nor has its large devotion of time to him thus far been focused in a way that works. Instead, last week’s premiere and this week’s “The Man in the Basement” seem more concerned with pointing out Quinn’s unending misery - there’s even a line in the upcoming hour about how he isn’t happy - than it does addressing it in a competent way.
In spending nearly half of its running time across these two opening episodes, Homeland is essentially just filling space. What’s happening with the other characters - Carrie’s new job, Saul and Dar’s potential conflict with the President-Elect - is, right now, more interesting, and is going to be what this season ultimately revolves around. So while I’m not suggesting that Quinn’s story is pointless because it won’t be the loudest and most striking story told in these 12 episodes, I am suggesting that, in its current state, Quinn’s story is pointless because it is serving no real purpose other than to simply exist.
Which brings me back to Brody. By the time he was killed, his character had long since outlived his usefulness. With Quinn, it’s difficult to justify right now why he’s still alive, other than the creative team being unable to let go. This is an understandable attitude, but after the Brody mistakes, it isn’t too much to hope that the mistakes of the past won’t be repeated in the present.
(Also, it’s worth making the distinction that where Brody’s story descended into ridiculousness, Quinn’s is simply aimless. At least, depending on how much you’re willing to suspend disbelief that he survived the sarin; should Quinn ever make a full recovery, Brody’s longevity will look like a piece of storytelling genius.)
It’s sad, really, because what’s happening elsewhere isn’t necessarily the most actively engaging, but is instead a solid foundation to some highly intriguing - and timely - story arcs. Carrie’s new job at the organisation defending Muslim-Americans from discrimination provides her with a nice new role, and the substance of the material is socially relevant and important to tell. One particular curveball in “The Man in the Basement” adds a new dimension to Sekou’s arrest, and there’s plenty of potential to come from it.Dar Adal’s secret meetings in the premiere may play a hand in enacting some of the events of the second hour but, irrespective of his involvement, the shift it provides to a more typical Homeland story is welcomed. The dilemma of having mere weeks until President-Elect Keane is inaugurated and likely changing the game for their counterintelligence operations means that both Dar and Saul are fighting time to keep things as they are, and it’s enough to keep both men in the picture in a way that makes you want them to be there. And while Keane’s development remains limited, a new revelation creates a curious dynamic moving forward.
In certain aspects, Homeland’s sixth season is well placed after two episodes.
If only it could solve its Quinn problem.
“The Man in the Basement” airs Sunday, January 22 at 9pm on Showtime.
