Homeland Season 1

Sometimes when I start watching a show, I will be on a roll, binge watching it tirelessly, and then one day I will just simply stop. Lots of times it will coincide with things in my real life that just take more time, or sometimes I will just want to move onto a different show. It happened twice with The Walking Dead, and it happened with Homeland the first time it. I finished the first season of Homeland very quickly and started the second season, but I just stopped midway through. Unfortunately, I never got around to writing the review for the first season and by the time I wanted to finish it, it had been so long I forgot the things I liked and the things I didn't like.

I did write a review of the pilot a long time ago, here was my initial thoughts.

If you're not a follower of my blog, you will know I spent a lot of time in High school watching the show 24. A pretty straight forward show about a federal agent who has 24 hours to prevent a terrorist attack on American soil. Every season it was pretty formulaic and eventually started using the same twists and turns so much that it got a little bit predictable. To this day though 24 is one of my favorite shows. So when I figured out that Homeland was a show about the CIA and some of the writers and producers of 24 were involved, i was on board.

Homeland centers around CIA agent Carrie Mathison (played by Claire Danes). At the start of the show, she is in Iraq and trying to get information out of a bomb maker who is set to be killed shortly. The last bit of information he gives her is that an American prisoner of war has been turned.

Ten months later, US Special forces are raiding an al-Qaeda safe house in Afghanistan and they come across an American POW. Sergeant Nicholas Brody (played by Damian Lewis) is rescued and brought home after being a Prisoner of War for 8 years. Remembering what her informant told her 10 months before, Carrie is immediately suspicious of Sergeant Brody and suspects him of being the prisoner of war that had been turned.

What follows is a cat and mouse game as Carrie uses all the methods available to her to investigate Sergeant Brody and his possible connections to al-Qaeda.

While the show does center on the intrigue of espionage and counter-terrorism, the show also has incredible social commentary on mental illness and the state of soldiers when they return home from being overseas.

Having been gone for 8 years, Brody's family has pretty much moved on and are actually very surprised when they realize that he was alive this entire time. Brody's wife Jessica (played by Morena Baccarin) has the difficult task of raising children who were very young when their father went off to war and now she has to deal with her husband coming back and not being able to understand the struggles he is going through.

This compliments the story incredibly well because while the show does give a great commentary on the state of soldiers coming home from being overseas, it also makes you question how much of that is Brody dealing with PTSD, and how much of it is him potentially being a terrorist and carrying out an evil plot.

On the other end of things, the show has a profound message and examination on mental disorders and relationships in general. Carrie is bi-polar and needs to keep it hidden from the CIA in order to keep her job.

Carrie is an incredibly interesting character and a strong lead for this show. Homeland is able to create characters that delve into the gray area of morality and while you like this character, there are elements of her that you definitely will not like. The show is able to make characters like this likable and more challenging at the same.

The last thing I think I saw Claire Danes in was a non-musical version of Les Miserables with Liam Neeson and I absolutely could not stand her. But in Homeland, regardless of whether or not you like her character or not, you have to admit that she gives a stellar performance and a challenging one as well. She represents one side of coin in the espionage element of this show and she pulls it off incredibly well.

The other side of that coin is Sergeant Brody and honestly I can't say which one I like more.

Sergeant Nicholas Brody is one of the most complicated characters I've ever seen in a television drama before. On one hand, he is a US Marine. I think as Americans we immediately jump to the conclusion that American soldiers are heroes and assume them to be the good guys. On top of that, regardless of whether or not Brody is a terrorist, you can definitely tell that some of the actions he takes are due to the sudden change of environment and clear signs of PTSD. This garners sympathy for his character.

However, because you are introduced to Carrie first and you see how insistent she is that Brody has been turned, you immediately are skeptical of him as a character and the things he does could either be signs of PTSD, or they could have more nefarious motivations behind them and be evidence towards him actually being turned against his country.

But Brody's story is only made more impactful when you see his relationship with his wife and his children who thought he was dead for 8 years.

I will admit, while these are some of the slowest moments of the show, Brody's relationship with his wife is quintessential to figure out the man that Brody was before he left, and the impact being gone for 8 years had on him and the impact it had on his family.

You find out very quickly that Jessica has moved on and is sleeping with someone else. This relationship is cut off very quickly, but it still remains subject to scrutiny and a point of drama in the film that I'm sure is probably real for military families, even ones where the service member is just gone on a deployment, not for 8 years as a prisoner of war.

I don't claim to be an expert on the military, I know enough to not be ignorant but I can't say I've had all the experiences others have had yet. Mainly, the tension and issues they face in this show feel realistic and they feel like they come from a legitimate place. I can't say for sure how true they are and I'm sure a lot of it is dependent on the service member themselves, but this show takes a hard look at those issues.

There are a lot of really great characters in this show, but the one other supporting character worth mentioning is Carrie's former boss and mentor, Saul Berenson (played by Mandy Patinkin).

I honestly cannot say I've seen Mandy Patinkin in a role I didn't think he was amazing in. Now to be fair, I can't say I've seen a lot of the films he has been in but the movies and TV that I have seen him in I just love him. The Princess Bride, Criminal Minds, and I've even seen clips of him performing in The Secret Garden on Broadway. The guy is a fantastic actor and of course in Homeland, he continues the same track record.

Saul is a little bit more of a traditional mentor character. There are a couple of episodes that have him in a story arc where we learn more about him, but while Carrie and Brody are two characters you might have conflicting feelings on, Saul is a good character through and through. He is the anchor to Carrie's thought process and he is always the rational thinker, especially when it comes to making decisions and moving forward with evidence to support her plans.

As calculated he is, you can definitely see that Saul cares for Carrie, especially in the later episodes of the season. And Mandy Patinkin gives a very caring emotional performance, even though he's not a complex character like the other people in the show.

If you take away anything about this show, you should recognize that it is an incredibly relevant show, especially in the times we live in today. The show has a lot to say about our intelligence agencies, terrorism, homegrown and lone wolf terrorism, and mental disabilities.

Now, are there things that don't especially work in Homeland, well definitely.

I have mentioned that the family relationships and drama, especially within the confines of the Brody household are where the show starts to take a bit of a slow turn. Even the times where they are trying to uncover this terrorist plot, the CIA is not the kind of agency that goes in guns blazing. A lot of the "action" in this show is more centered on the dialogue, interrogations, and mystery solving done by the CIA. Furthermore, a lot of the intrigue comes by trying to figure out what is going on with Brody. But overall, the show is kind of a slow burner.

While there are a lot of things this show says about mental disorders and those messages are important, sometimes the show can be a little bit overdramatic. Like I said before, these characters are not always going to do the right thing and you might get frustrated or think that they are overreacting. Part of it is leaning in with the narrative and the things these people are going through, but its also the show creating drama for the sake of an hour long episode of good television.

Also the kids...

I have seen a lot of good child actors and a lot of bad child actors. Luckily, I think we live in a world where studios are getting better at casting kids and giving them meaningful parts. This is not the case with the first season of Homeland. I can't stand Brody's kids. To me, they are distracting and annoying.

They do have a part of the show that affects one of the main characters, so they are important, but I can't say they were really written that well.

If you've read my blog in the past, you'll know that I have openly admitted to being a little bit of a television snob sometimes. I have a track record of ripping on shows on major networks and raving about shows that are on networks that have a little bit less restrictive measures on content. (Although I will have you know that I have been watching Designated Survivor and am looking forward to writing my full series review on that show). I don't watch a lot of ShowTime shows but they definitely killed it with Homeland. I'm hoping that I stay on top of watching the rest of the seasons of Homeland and stay tuned for future reviews of later seasons I finish watching.

But what do you think of Homeland? Have you gotten around to seeing it? What did you think? Are there any shows like Homeland worth checking out that I don't know about? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies and TV shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie and TV reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. I had to be a little bit careful with the video I posted at the end as I, and I'm sure anybody who hasn't seen it, don't want spoilers. Here's Claire Danes talking about the strange opening credits to the show. Enjoy!