MovieChat Forums > Homeland (2011) Discussion > Why do they like Dana more than Chris?

Why do they like Dana more than Chris?

posted 7 years ago by codyhoskins
3 replies | jump to latest

I'm watching the show again as Showtime airs its marathon before Season 6 and I'm reminded how little the creators cared about Chris over Dana. She got all the primary focus out of the Brody kids just to show off her angst-ridden romances and giving her all the attention whenever her father was concerned. She became more annoying the more they gave to her and didn't spare enough time for a freckled cheery kid who's keeping it together, which reminds us how the writers' favorite kid is hardly ever going to be our favorite too. The less we saw of Chris, it was like picking a favorite kid that they love more than the other and I wish they had cut him more slack because we saw no effect on him after the attack in Season 2. We never hear of him or see of him, only Dana, as if Brody having a son was meaningless, and we never even see anything of them both or their mom in the Season 3 finale after learning what Brody did and died for. Everything that happened with them in the first three seasons seemed to matter and then it didn't by the end of Season 3 when they no longer existed and no effect of Brody's death is shown.

[–] lesleymattmuth 7 years ago

I agree about the son, I thought that was weird, too. I think the reason Brodys death was never acknowledged with them (family) is because of how awful and what a traitor Americans THOUGHT he turned out to be, (no one found out he was NOT the one that blew up Langley) ...and his wife was already way done with him, the daughter couldn't be seen in public anymore, etc., they were humiliated and people prob hated them too just cuz they were his family. I don't know, I could be wrong... but I agree it was a weird plot...ALSO, I hated that Brody only knew -for about a day- Carrie was having his baby. I Kinda wish she had told him right after he rehabed from the heroin..OH WELL. SO SAD.

[–] SnappinTurtle 7 years ago

I think they probably went with Dana because she knew her father when things were good. Everything points to the fact that they had a decent home life until he went missing. When he disappeared, she would have been at the age where girls believe their fathers are infallible.

Her childhood would have been a wreckage, but it seems things had become stable for them (ie Mike and some normality) then Brody comes back – deeply altered. More wreckage.

I believe Chris did not figure in as much because he never really knew his dad and he would have grown up already knowing Dad was gone and likely dead. Likewise, Brody would not have the memories of his son the way he did with his daughter.

The writers probably did not show the family’s reaction to his death because they overdosed the audience with that family by introducing endless tangential subplots, and there was a backlash.

That said, I agree there still should have been some kind of a wrap up with the family even if it happened off screen. They could have at least worked it in through the dialogue. I am still hoping that before the show ends we will at least hear Carrie say something about Dana or Chris wanting to meet their sister. There is no need to take up time with a Brody family storyline, but the writers need to address it. Good story telling doesn’t just drop a major thread like that into thin air without at least a final reference.

[–] spookyrat1 7 years ago

What you say is arguably true and I'm sure that's how the writers wanted us to accept the storylines.. But the differences between the 2 siblings' back stories are just so starkly obvious and inequitable IMO.

Dana gets this almost ridiculous overload of teen angst related tales, that by their end midway through S3 are just so nauseatingly soapy in nature, that it was all I could do, not to throw up every time she returned to the screen. Meanwhile Chris just hangs around the hallways of the house toothily grinning at one and all, seemingly not affected at all by his father's travails. And BTW, talking of the Brodys, what happened to grandma? She was in the first 2 or 3 S3 episodes fussing around her family and then just seems to disappear.🐭