‘Homeland’ creator responds to critical fans
Some fans of Showtime’s “Homeland” remain so upset about a major character’s death, more than four months ago, that they took out a full-page ad this week in The Hollywood Reporter to express their lingering anger. Now one of the creators of the show, Alex Gansa, has responded. The open letter, published Wednesday, outlined grievances over the treatment of Peter Quinn, a former soldier and a CIA operative specializing in surveillance played by Rupert Friend, who was — spoiler alert — killed off in the Season 6 finale in April. “Why have you relentlessly and brutally tortured the veterans you depict on the show?” the fans wrote. “And why did you ultimately render Peter Quinn incapable of both loving and being loved?” “Homeland” centers on the former CIA operative Carrie Mathison, played by Claire Danes, and her battle to fight terrorism around the world. The show routinely has killed off main characters, but Quinn’s plight particularly inflamed some viewers. Gansa responded in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter: “It is painful to hear that even a small segment of our devoted audience is disappointed in ‘Homeland,’” Gansa said. “Until now, I have refrained from commenting publicly on the death of Peter Quinn, believing that Rupert Friend’s heart-wrenching performance should speak for itself. “I have not changed my view. Suffice to say that I mourn the loss of Peter Quinn as much as anybody and that the character was created not to denigrate but to honor the men and women who devote their lives to keeping America safe. In my eyes, he died a hero.” For Friend’s part, he took his character’s death in stride, telling Variety in April that he felt the time was right. “I felt that for him to continue would be almost a bit sadistic,” Friend said. “In a sense, I think his time had come. I had a slight of pre-sentience that his time had come up,” he added.