Homeland season 5

Following my review of Vikings, a show that has risen in quality since its beginning, I now look back at Homeland season five and the bumpy road its taken viewers across.

While I have generally enjoyed the show, I have never truly felt that I needed another season. Despite the writers originally planning a different ending to season one than what met our screens, the continuation in to season two felt natural as the story developed. Ever since then the idea of having another season seems to come from the network's demand for viewer figures rather than creative storytelling. Minor spoilers ahead!

Season three ended with Brody dead and Carrie surely beyond the point of being able to stay in the CIA but the show went on and faced the challenge of reinventing itself. Season four went through a few tricky phases but managed to offer a more condensed, action oriented outing and also ended on a downer point where there was no need to continue. Yet here we are and now Carrie is in Berlin working for a philanthropic foundation as head of security and, as luck would have it, Saul is also in town with his team and soon trouble starts to happen.

Coincidence aside, season five's decision to set itself predominately in Germany offered for a nice change of scene and had many high points but it was not without its issues. There was the inevitable dip towards the end of the season and concluding the dramatic finale in the first 15 minutes of the final episode, which the season had been building us towards, resulted in a rather diluted conclusion.

As usual, all returning cast members were on top-form, including newcomers Sebastian Koch, Mark Ivanir and Miranda Otto. Visually the series was also great and kept the story moving, even in it weaker moments.

Ranking this among the previous seasons, it certainly isn't the strongest but triumphs over seasons two and three. While I do have mixed feelings about keeping Homeland going, there was still a lot to be enjoyed from season four but by now this is only for the fans.