Outed CIA spy Valerie Plame thinks “Homeland” has seen better seasons.
“It’s compelling TV — Claire Danes is of course fabulous,” Plame said at a Television Critics Association panel Wednesday, according to The Wrap.
But she added: “I think they have jumped the shark this season.”
Plame said there were themes on the show which could never happen, including Danes’ character Carrie Mathison’s battle with mental illness.
“You see all the things that make you roll your eyes, like come on,” she said. “But it has to be entertaining, and it certainly is entertaining.
“The fact that the character she plays is bipolar and no one really notices?” asked Plame.
But Plame said her biggest issue with the show is with the use of cell phones by undercover agents at CIA headquarters.
“They always use their cell phones inside headquarters,” she said. “You realize your cell phone is really like a little transmission device? Okay, great. Little GPS inside there? That doesn’t happen.”
Plame is a former covert CIA officer whose identity was famously blown by Washington Post journalist Robert Novak in 2003, ending her career. Like Danes’ “Homeland” character she was for a time based at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and also traveled overseas on projects including ensuring Iran did not acquire nuclear weapons.
Plame was at the TCA tour as one of the women featured in PBS’s “Makers,” which looks at women’s accomplishments in fields including war, entertainment, and politics. She said that in some parts of the world, “women are wallpaper,” barely noticed — which can be helpful to a spy.
“You can move around in a lot of places without anyone looking askance at you,” she said.