Am I Right Ladies? Carrie Matheson Is My Hero

 

I just finished a tv binge in which I watched the whole first season of Homeland in three days. Let me sum that up by saying holy shit, this show is so effing good. As is, it’s only one season but it may be in my top five of all time (kicking out Dexter, which has suddenly gone to such a shitty place). I so rarely find a show with a great female character who isn’t either (1) an embarrassment to the gender, (2)a complete stereotype of a nagging wife or girlfriend or (3) always just a “side” character created to enhance the main male character. Enter CIA Agent Carrie Matheson, played to perfection by Claire Danes.

I’ve had a complicated relationship with Claire Danes throughout the years. I found her too broody and emo in My So-Called Life. She has also been horribly miscast as the ravishing beauty as Juliet or the most beautiful star in the world in that awful Stardust movie. I’m not being shallow, she’s just not a traditional beauty or romantic lead. And that’s fine. She was fantastic as Temple Grandin. But she’s finally found her raison d’etre as CIA Agent Carrie Matheson.

Homeland, in a nutshell, is a suspense drama about terrorism and the agents who hunt them with lots of surprise twists and unexpected turns. yea, sounds like every other show, but it is so damn good I can’t even handle it. Maybe in my top five shows of all time. Carrie Matheson learns that an American POW in Iraq is now working undercover with foreign terrorists. At the same time, US Marine Nicholas Brody is found after being held captive after eight years, and Carrie is convinced he’s working with the terrorists. Which he may or may not be, the audience is kept in suspense for a while.

Why is Carrie Matheson so awesome? Let us count the ways.

1. She’s kicks ass at her job. She’s one of the best interrogators in the CIA. And she got there because she worked her ass off. She’s not some smart-mouthed prodigy who is given advantages. She is the first one to pick up on a lead and she knows how to get shit done.

This makes her often a bit difficult to deal with and she often clashes with her boss. In a show with lazier writing, she may be portrayed as a loose cannon or a “sassy woman who doesn’t play by the rules”. In Homeland, she cares deeply about her coworkers and is just someone who is so deeply committed to fighting terrorism its the only thing driving her. Which leads to…

2. Her dedication to her job has left her single and without much of a social life. Again, in a worse-written show, she would go on wacky blind dates where hijinks ensue and would be a living Cathy cartoon eating ice cream by the gallon thinking about men. However, her loneliness stems from the fact that no one in real life can interest and excite her as much as her job does.

Carrie has made the conscious choice to dedicate her life to her work. Which includes 24-hour secret video surveillance of Nicholas Brody in his first few days home after being held prisoner. Carrie is convinced that she will find something on Brody, but at the same time becomes attached to him because she watched his every move. In fact, after the surveillance is done, she orchestrates a meeting with him because she misses him. It’s not pathetic, it’s rather fascinating and creates a kind of “reverse Stockholm Syndrome” in which she starts to empathize with his pain. Their following relationship proves to be more layered and complicated than a “will they or won’t they” or constant bickering and relationship woes (I’m looking at you, Modern Family).

3. Carrie, as a protagonist, is not perfect and her motivations and actions are not always morally aligned. In fact, the viewer, at one point, is not entirely sure that her relationship with Brody is motivated by her feelings for him or is used as a tactic to find more information. She also uses questionable tactics to get the answers she needs.

Somehow her ambiguous morality makes her more appealing as a character. I don’t want to watch a constant do-gooder; it’s predictable and boring. And none of us (well, at least me) don’t always do the “right” thing all the time, so it’s compelling to see that in a character I’ve become invested in.

4. Carrie is also bipolar and that in itself isn’t inherently awesome, but provides another layer of mystery and doubt. Carrie has some really crazy theories sometimes, but are they a product of her brilliance or just her mania? Would she be good at her job if she wasn’t bipolar? The writing and Danes’ acting do a pretty good job of showing mental illness in a realistic way, unlike other shows and movies (I’m looking at you, A Dangerous Method).

5. There’s also that general “enjoyable to watch” part of her character. She always has a great answer for something, always a smart solution, and when she interrogates a witness, goddamm it, she can rip out someone’s soul with just her questioning.

In other words, she’s someone I want to be bffs with.

Oh, and remind me never to work for the CIA. it seems too darn stressful.