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Monday, Dec 17, 2012 9:00 PM UTC

“Homeland” showrunner addresses Season 2 criticism

Alex Gansa argues that the season finale had "its own shape to it" VIDEO

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Topics: Video, Homeland, brody and carrie, Television, Showtime,

(AP Photo/Starpix, Dave Allocca) (Credit: AP)

“Homeland” showrunner Alex Gansa addressed the criticism against the show in an exclusive interview with Grantland following an overwhelmingly disappointing season finale; the finale focused less on tightening the plot and more on the implausible relationship between CIA agent Carrie (Claire Danes) and her target Brody (Damian Lewis), of which Gansa said:

“The finale has its own shape to it. The strategy was to sort of to lull an audience into thinking it’s going to be about one thing, and then really turning it on its head in the middle of the story and make it about something else entirely.”

According to Gansa, the love affair was “the promise of the season”:

“We were fulfilling the promise of the season, which I’ve been saying from the very beginning is the story of this doomed love affair between Carrie and Brody. And that’s what we were really positing in the finale: Is a happy ending really possible for these two characters? And I think the answer was clearly no.”

And as for the audience’s desire to see Brody die off — Gansa explains why that’s unlikely:

“Brody could have died in a number of ways. But we always come back to the fact that whenever those two characters are on screen with each other, the show elevates. And so the idea that we’re actually going to end his story for good is…one that we’re terrified of doing because it really means that we would really have to reinvent the show in a way that it would be a completely different show.”

Watch the full interview below:

h/t Vulture

Prachi Gupta is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on pop culture. Follow her on Twitter at @prachigu or email her at pgupta@salon.com. More Prachi Gupta.

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