She's Such a Carrie

Good news: Carrie Mathison, Claire Danes's batshit-but-brilliant CIA officer on Homeland -- and arguably the hardest-working face in national security -- returned to Showtime on September 29. So what about this bipolar terrorism savant has earned our loyalty? Her blinding paranoia? Her immaculate rainbow evidence walls? The way she demolishes a screw-top bottle of white wine alone in her kitchen? Whatever it is, major networks, sensing America's current affinity for spy dramas and damaged female protagonists, are trying to cash in with a slew of conspiratorial copycats. Mathison would plead, "I won't -- I can't let that happen again." But inevitably it will. Here, our classified dossier on three potential offenders.

SUSPICIOUS SIMILARITIES TO HOMELAND