Long Time Coming

This season of Homeland was incredible! Really mind-blowing stuff, and some of the most intense moments in TV history. "There's Something Else Going On" was an incredible episode that rivaled the greatest episodes ever made. Before this season finale, there was six strait episodes were it seemed that the writers could do nothing wrong. The writing was excellent. Then this episode came and...everybody became furious. This episode doesn't deal with anything that this season has set up, well at least nothing interesting. It was a filler episode. A filler season finale. I heard that this episode sucked, like really sucked. Therefore I kinda dreaded this episode....but I also felt something else - excitement. I was excited to see if this episode was as bad as most people said and, at least in my opinion, it wasn't, not even close. This episode currently holds a 5.1 rating on this site; 5.1. The worst episode before this was "Tower of David" which currently holds a 7.3 rating. So this episode should have been dreadful, awful, agonizingly abysmal, right? But I didn't think so! Sure it was absolutely nothing to write home about, but it did not suck either. I think it's definitely among the top 3 weakest episodes of the entire series, but I was expecting it to be the worst by far. What this episode was though was unnecessary. This could have easily been the season 5 premiere, a rather weak and bland one for sure, but nothing dreadful either. But, it now being a season finale, puts all of this astronomical hype on it, something the finale failed to deliver on. A decent season premiere, a bad season finale. But if you're a fan of this show, then the previous 11 episodes, the last 6 being fantastic, more than enough makes up for it. It surely left a lot of plots and sub-plots up in the air, which also might be the reason why I feel even more excited for season 5.

This season 4 finale was by far the worst episode of the series. It went no where and accomplished nothing. I believe it was just phoned in by writers, actors, and director. They must have been tired and just threw this out to get the season finished. Of course the whole of season 4 has been below the standard set by the first three season. I watched this episode on showtimeanywhere.com and pay for internet by the gigabyte. I feel like I have been taken and wasted an hour of my internet access. Season 5 better hit the street running or I am done. This season 4 finale was by far the worst episode of the series. It went no where and accomplished nothing. I believe it was just phoned in by writers, actors, and director. They must have been tired and just threw this out to get the season finished. Of course the whole of season 4 has been below the standard set by the first three season. I watched this episode on showtimeanywhere.com and pay for internet by the gigabyte. I feel like I have been taken and wasted an hour of my internet access. Season 5 better hit the street running or I am done.

Spending too much time on Carrie's development and her condition as its focus was not the best idea for the writers to use as the point of the finale. The whole time i was waiting for something huge to happen and eventually i figured out that nothing was ever going to happen and if anything we would be left with a cliffhanger. Turns out I, and many other people, were right. Season 4 as a whole was fantastic, so our standards were much higher than usual when it comes to a finale, so we were all let down by the pace and focus of it. I feel like the execs at Showtime gave the writers and producers a set episode count of 12 and they only had enough material for 11, and thus the finale was born. However, this finale did give the audience all the pieces we need to speculate on what season 5 will contain and how it will unfold. If anything this episode is making me anticipate season 5 more so it can fulfill the new standards that season 4 set for the show. I am very unsatisfied, but at the same time I am overall satisfied with season 4 because as a whole it was miles better than everyone anticipated it to be despite the challenge the writers had of creating a completely new plot following season 3.

"Marine One", "The Choice", and "The Star" tore up the viewer's hearts and minds with its emphasis on the emotions and more importantly the massive moments of action. "Long Time Coming" is being maligned by those with their hearts set on the big "BAM" moment that never came last night. I was expecting something to happen, but what we got instead is a perfectly good replacement for the blockbuster moment. After a run of episodes where the suspense drove the episode's arc, the writers toned it back so far to exclude all the action that most of the season relied upon.

Instead, the writers proved and reaffirmed the soul of "Homeland" is about—Carrie—and spent an hour probing her. "Long Time Coming" reminded the fans that none of the terrorist plots matter if we do not care about the person driving them. Carrie's development centers around two areas: 1) being a mother to Frannie and how she sees her own reflection in her estranged mother 2) how the men in her life are changing in what they mean to her (her father's dying, her disappointment in Saul, and the possibility of a future of with Quinn). It's an excellent piece of writing from a character viewpoint, and a courageous path to take for the finale.

While I was absorbing the finale, I realized the strength and weakness of season four. "Homeland" was able to have these, at times, amazing episodes that are adroit in their own time and space, but the cogency across the season does not come off with clarity. "Kreig Nicht Lieb" and "Long Time Coming" were both terrific hours of television, yet the do not unite evenly like pieces of a puzzle. That's where the season is weakest, besides utterly misfiring with some early episodes. Those two big mistakes are not enough to abate this great season of television. Though season one and two are better, the tonal identity the show, at this very moment, is the best it has ever been. Once it found its groove this year, "Homeland" season four rammed its audience like an angry bull.

When I wrote an almost bad review about the previous episode and comment about the huge difference it had with the previous 3 which were great, I saw many fans react and voting my review as not helpful.

Well my fears for the seasons finale that comes next were confirmed. Here you go. Another bad and uninspiring episode with meaningless subplots that no one really cares.

I wrote in my previous "you need a couple of sub-par episodes just for ...balance". Someone could think that they gave up their budget to the previous episodes so the next two (including this one) would look cheap and boring in comparison.

So. Not an actual cliffhanger to make you think for season 5. Nothing new or extraordinary. A good series having a couple bad days I guess...