'Homeland's Chris Needs a Story Line

As of last Sunday, the third season of Homeland is underway. A lot has changed for Carrie and co. — TV's best crier is in court, Brody's M.I.A., Peter Quinn is an assassin, and Saul has turned mean. In the Brody home, though, not much is any different. Jessica is majorly stressed out, and Dana is continuing to divide fans with her moodiness. You know what else hasn't changed? The lack of story lines for Chris Brody, the forgotten member of the most dysfunctional family on cable TV.

Poor Chris. While his parents and sister routinely get major plot lines in the series, he gets nothing. If he's lucky, he has a line or two per episode, but they never carry any significance; they're almost always followed by a "that's nice, Chris" or "get your sister, will you, Chris?" His lack of screen time is so bad that Vulture even made a video capturing all the times Chris has been asked to leave the room — and if you had any doubts, it's a lot.

Why doesn't the kid get some air time, already? It's ridiculous that we see so much of his sister's life yet absolutely nothing about his. We don't know anything about his feelings about his father, his life at school, or his reaction to any of the insane, traumatic things that have happened to him and his family.

For all we know, the events of Homeland's first two seasons affected Chris just as badly as they did Dana, but because he's never onscreen, we're left to assume he just doesn't care. What if Chris has PTSD or depression, and no one realizes because they never give him a chance to speak? What if Dana's not the only Brody child who's considered taking drastic measures? Or maybe Chris is processing his family's traumas in a healthy way, but we'll never know, because he never speaks.

Three seasons into Homeland, it's just silly that Chris is the only Brody family member that hasn't gotten a prominent story line. It'd be great to see Chris deal with his father's absence in a significant way, not just by hugging Dana or saying an occasional, "It's okay, Mom."

Maybe Chris could rebel by defying his family's wishes to keep things private and not speak to reporters, or perhaps he could reveal that he knows information about Brody's whereabouts. Whatever it is, he needs something.

Thankfully, it seems the writers are beginning to realize this, at least according to Jackson Pace, the actor who plays Chris. In an interview, Pace discussed Chris' role on the show, saying that this season, Chris is "really getting his own opinion. Before he kind of went with his mom and everything, and now when it's not his opinion, he's usually not on his mom's side and now with Dana's side. I'm hoping for some good teenager meaty stuff coming on."

In regards to Brody's absence, he continued: "It's just Chris, so he has to step up."

Let's hope he's right. Maybe this will be the season of Homeland where Chris finally gets a chance to matter.

Image: Showtime