'Homeland's Carrie Mathison, Workplace Hero

Who hasn’t wanted to walk out of a never-ending meeting, or grown impatient with a co-worker’s dawdling? And who hasn’t wanted to interrupt the dull drone of a company conference call by yelling, as Carrie Mathison does in the season one finale of Showtime’s Homeland, “The world is about to end, and we’re standing around talking!”

Homeland, about to wrap up its second season, stars Claire Danes as Mathison, a CIA anti-terrorism agent who repeatedly tramples on procedure, disobeys orders, and breaks so many rules she makes Jack Bauer seem like a Starbucks employee of the month. She’s arrogant, hotheaded, unmanageable, and utterly unencumbered by either office politics or geopolitical reality. Mathison lies about taking psychiatric meds, sleeps with an admitted terrorist, and withholds crucial information from her bosses because she’s sure they just won’t get it—or act fast enough. “You are really something, Carrie,” an FBI agent tells her. “There’s no bridge you won’t burn. No earth you won’t scorch.”That might be an understatement.