I finally caught up this and just finished the first season the other day. And... I found it pretty mediocre. Danes is fantastic and I like Carrie, though the writers are certainly doing their best to give her a ridiculous arc.
But overall, the show seemed like it was spinning its wheels for a while there (the couple in the house by the airport was pretty much a lot of drawn out nothing) and then it ramped up for the final few episodes, but in a way that felt clumsy and eventually just plain sentimental. Brody's whole "I'm a family man, not a terrorist" realization in the bunker rang false for me when the failed switch would have sufficed as the end to his plot.
I'm also totally over the whole Brody clan, who have become such a dull bunch. Jennifer was actually interesting at first, but now she's just a doting wife. The son is a non-character and Dana instantly went from reckless teenager to a suddenly mature young woman with no time for her friends.
That said, Carrie is fun to watch and Mandy Patinkin's Saul brings some solid weight to his scenes.
It's just that overall, this season is basically all about setting this story up to get dragged on for much longer. It's a pretty dull progression. In the end, Brody is just going to lay low in his position of power and Carrie is about to temporarily lose her memory and forget all about this Brody-is-evil stuff for a little while. I feel like, other than Brody getting into some position of power, we're all back at square one now. That makes for a pretty underwhelming season-long arc for me.
Anyways, I'll probably give season two a bit of a shot, especially since people here seem so happy with it, but I'm not really a fan so far. Except for Danes. She rules, of course.
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Originally Posted by Blue Zeppelin
