15 shows that define prestige TV

7. Homeland

Talk about a meteoric rise and an equally impressive fall from grace. Homeland holds a strange place in the history of prestige TV, but must be included here both for just how incredible its first season was and as the ultimate cautionary tale of what can happen when a show flies too close to the sun.

Homeland‘s inaugural season in 2011 took the TV watching world by surprise, mostly because it premiered on Showtime, a network more known for shows that build small but passionate fan bases and then stay on the air forever (hi, Shameless). It proceeded to win the 2012 Emmy for Best Drama and earn statues for Claire Danes’ unstable CIA agent Carrie Mathison and Damian Lewis’ maybe-a-terrorist Nicholas Brody.

The show’s initial conceit — is former POW Brody working with al-Qaeda? — sustained the show for exactly one breathlessly exciting season of television. The incredible chemistry between Danes and Lewis, as well as a superb supporting performance by the always reliable Mandy Patinkin, took the show from above average to something truly special.

And then it all came crashing down. It was clear the show had no real plan after season 1, as the quality of each subsequent season diminished until it barely resembled the cat-and-mouse thriller it initially was. Seven seasons later, Homeland‘s current iteration has unequivocally lost the right to call itself prestige TV.

Like Heroes and Glee before it, sometimes a show starts off strong out of the gate and just doesn’t know what to do creatively after receiving critical praise and commercial success. But at least we will always have that glorious first season of Homeland.