Showtime’s Homeland ended its eighth and final season on Sunday with a cry for help. As the preceding episodes had threatened, the show descended into an abyss of the ludicrous. (Spoilers ahead.)
We learned that the United Nations is a place where Russia’s GRU intelligence service can be America’s friend, even as it is a de facto American executioner. The writers apparently thought this juxtaposition was clever. It wasn’t. I’m sorry, there is just no way that the GRU would have lived up to their bargain with Carrie to prevent a looming nuclear war between the United States and Pakistan. In the real world, the GRU would have likely gotten what they wanted from Carrie, then happily stepped aside and allowed the U.S. and Pakistan to nuke one another.
