Homeland: Pilot

So in case you can't tell, I'm in a little bit of a international spy thriller mood. Anything from Tom Clancy, to 24, to American Sniper has been free game in the past few days.

Homeland is a show I've heard incredible things about and the only reason I haven't watched it prior to now was because its not on any streaming site that I use regularly, (i.e. Netflix). But now I have seen the pilot, what's this show all about?

The show begins with Carrie Mathison (played by Claire Danes) as a CIA field agent in Baghdad in the middle of transition of power to the new Iraqi government. A terrorist informant whispers into her ear right before his execution that Al-Qaeda turned an American and is plotting an attack on US soil.

At the time, Mathison has no basis for this claim and nothing can come of it. But months later, an American Marine is discovered. Nicholas Brody (played by Damien Lewis) returns to the States after 8 years of torture and captivity.

While the rest of the world believes that this is a story of an American victory and the long awaited return of our prisoners oversees finally coming home, Carrie believes this is, instead the very scenario her contact in Iraq was talking about. She is suspicious that Brody is in fact a sleeper agent for Al-Qaeda, and wishes to bring forth an attack on US soil.

But of course, nobody believes Carrie. Its later discovered, in the pilot, that Carries suffers from a bipolar disorder and is not the most reliable officer in the CIA intelligence community she works in.

Usually, I'm not a huge fan of Claire Danes. The only thing I've seen her in is Stardust, Les Miserables (the one with Liam Neeson, not Wolverine) and Romeo + Juliet. All movies I wasn't exactly impressed with, and if I was, it definitely wasn't because of Danes.

However, this show speaks incredibly highly of Danes and there is potential for "redemption" for Danes here, especially if how she portrays her bipolar disorder is done well or not.

What makes this pilot a little more complicated, is that while Carrie is investigating Brody, he returns to a family that basically thought he was dead.

This is always a difficult situation. Because frankly, I don't blame them. I don't blame the mom and wife (played by Morena Baccarin, from Firefly) for moving on and starting a relationship with one of her husband's friends. Some might see that as slutty or asshole like, but I don't blame her. Her husband was gone for 8 years. That's a long time for somebody to be missing, most likely dead. People have needs, why wouldn't she get some action if she needed it?

It makes for good drama though and of course he's going to find out down the road.

Until then, there's a look into the shock and somewhat awkwardness of a POW returning home, readjustment, all along with the fun idea that the audience is investigating and analyzing the show to see if they can correctly guess whether or not Sergeant Brody is a terrorist spy, or just a charismatic marine who is finally returning home.

The pilot sets up for an interesting plot and I know for a fact that I will be watching the entirety of at least the first season. The pilot is simple enough and grabbed my attention enough to keep watching.

Honestly, there's not much more I can say. I'm guessing this is just a preview of the review I'll be doing once I'm done with the season and to let you know that that is coming up... Hope you liked it?

That's honestly something I like about this pilot. The show isn't bogged down with a lot of different story lines and plot lines so far. Its pretty simple. A CIA agent with bipolar disorder is looking into a POW who has returned from captivity after 8 years. The POW may or may not be a sleep agent for terrorists, but until that's revealed, he has some issues with his family that is going to come forward sooner or later. And that's it. Its simple, its to the point, and it doesn't make me have to overanalyze the pilot.

Its hard to tell from one episode if a series is going to be good or not. That's the reason the views of a show are at its all time high at the pilot of television shows and then create a gradual bunny hill of fewer and fewer viewers.

Homeland doesn't make me question the show, it gives me all I really need to know to decide whether or not I'm interested or like these characters, it gives the plot for the rest of the season, and its concise and to the point.

From what I saw so far, the cast is very good. Claire Danes is surprising me already. Damien Lewis is interesting and makes me question a lot of things about plot in the future. Morena Baccarin was pretty good and made me have conflicted feelings about her. Oh and Mandy Patinkin is in this... need I say more?

This is a short review because there's no too much else I can say about this pilot. It was concise, it made sense, and it made me want to continue watching the show. Way to go Homeland.

But that's what I thought of the pilot. Without spoiling anything, tell me your thoughts on Homeland? Should I continue to watch it? Is it a show I'm going to end up loving? Comment and Discuss below! Or follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and get updates on future reviews and posts.