I’ll give the series Homeland
Homeland, adapted from a ten-episode Israeli series called Prisoners of War, follows the return of a POW, long presumed dead, from eight years of captivity in Iraq as he readjusts to normal life and finds himself held up as a hero and used as a political pawn by the current Adminstration … all while a rogue CIA analyst believes that the soldier is actually a terrorist sleeper sent to the U.S. to carry out a major attack. The first season’s twelve episodes dance on the edge of implausibility but rarely cross it, with brilliant pacing that belies how much of the series’ action is happening in something approximating real time.
Claire Danes, playing the CIA analyst Carrie Mathisen, is the series’ ostensible star, but while her performance playing an obsessed workaholic who is hiding her bipolar disorder from her colleagues was superb, I thought Damian Lewis, as the former POW Nicholas Brody, was even more deserving of the postseason award. The viewer knows from the first moment on which side Carrie sits, but Lewis has to spend much of the season bobbing and weaving to keep his true intentions hidden from the viewer and, to some extent, from other characters. Lewis is practically asked to play three or four separate characters, if you include flashback scenes to his captivity as well as the different faces he shows to colleagues, to his family, and to Carrie. Danes’ performance might not have won if not for the difficulty level of the final two episodes of the season, although she was incredibly convincing as the just-barely-hinged obsessed analyst who is absolutely sure that there’s an imminent attack but can’t quite convince anyone in a position to do something about it. Mandy Patinkin is also superb as Carrie’s closest ally within the CIA, while Morena Baccarin, playing Brody’s wife, is gorgeous with or without her top on and I suppose she’s a pretty good actress too. (Obligatory Firefly
Where Homeland succeeds most is in bringing realism to unreality: The basic premise is, at least so far, a fiction, an American soldier who might have been turned by Islamist terrorists and who is intent on causing harm to his own country. Moving forward from this starting point, however, the writers kept the series grounded with mostly realistic, or at least plausible, depictions of the the various plot threads, including Brody’s difficulty readjusting and the CIA often being a day late and a dollar short when trying to chase people who don’t want to be found. Absent are the mindless midday shootouts on urban streets present in most network police procedurals. Absent is the uberhacker who takes a few seconds to “break through the firewall” and cracks non-alphanumeric passwords with a few keystrokes. I don’t know exactly how the CIA operates, but at least I never thought that Homeland was insulting my intelligence with shortcuts and misused jargon just to move the plot along. And by making the possible antagonist a white American male, the series forces viewers to confront some of their own biases, even subconscious ones, where the subject is Islamist-based terrorism.
The series did slip into implausibility, for me, with the extent of the personal interactions between Carrie and Brody, a relationship that evolves very strangely over the course of the season, although there is a plot payoff to all of that in the season’s final two episodes. But I was more disturbed by the treatment of Carrie’s bipolarity as a critical plot point, especially that without her medication, she becomes an insane savant, barely capable of rational thought. It wasn’t even clear to me why the character needed to be bipolar, or needed to be shown going off her meds, to advance the overall plot, and I don’t like seeing mental illness trivialized through fictional depictions that show sufferers as cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
The season finale wrapped up many of the outstanding questions – I don’t want to spoil anything for those of you who haven’t seen it – but left enough plot points open to create suspense for the second season. There is still a plot afoot at the end of the finale, although I won’t say how or why. We still don’t know who the leak within the government is, a detail I expect to see resurface in the second season. And some of the backstory remains untold; I still felt like the motivation for the threatened attack felt incomplete and am somewhat anticipating more flashbacks that fill in those blanks for the audience. This kind of episode-to-episode or season-to-season suspense was completely lacking for me in the first seasons of both Breaking Bad and Boardwalk Empire, two critically-lauded series that many of you love but that couldn’t hold my attention into their second seasons. To create suspense without forcing viiewers to suspend their disbelief is a rare skill for writers in any medium, but Homeland does so, making it, in my opinion, the best dramatic series currently on American TV.
Love Homeland, it is the show I am most excited about this fall and there isn’t a show that comes close. I would defend Carrie’s mental illness as an interesting standalone plot point rather than one that simply advances the overall plot, but I would have to spoil some story, so I won’t.
Don’t like Boardwalk (I still watch it, though; I’m a completist).
Hope you continue on with Breaking Bad. The first season is the weakest and is, from what I remember (I don’t re-watch TV shows so I’m remembering from a few years ago), a quirky dark comedy. The series transforms into a straight up thriller with taut storytelling, rich and distinct visuals, and superb performances. Season 3 had the most satisfying finale of any TV show I have watched.
Keith – completely agree about Lewis’s performance driving the show and being superior to Claire Danes’s (even though hers is tremendous too). He had to play a subtlety and deal with an emotional tug of war between his family and mission. And midway through the season after being convinced he’s bad, you suddenly cast all of that into doubt yourself. Lewis in the last episode when on lock down (no spoilers) was brilliant. Most tension I’ve ever felt watching TV.
I can’t imagine season 2 being better, but I will be watching no matter what.
Are you going to do weekly recaps of the episodes now that you’re a showtime subscriber?
Hey Keith,
Homeland is a great show, and season 1 was good (love Danes’ performance), but in my opinion it was the 3rd best season after Breaking Bad’s season 4 and Mad Men’s season 5. I’m not sure if you ever watched Mad Men, but it’s a great show as well.
I second what Obo said. Season 1 of Breaking Bad tried to be a dark comedy/drama, but the show gets increasingly better as the season progresses. Season 3 and 4 of BB are up there with any drama on television. I highly recommend it.
As always, thanks for posting.
My main issue with the bipolar plot is it came out of nowhere. The whole character felt that way a little. I mean, we are supposed to believe that a quiet teenager from Three Rivers, PA somehow turned into an insane CIA agent. They also did a terrible job with the family recasting, these people look nothing like the Chases.
Great review. Will not argue with it at all.
I loved Danes and Lewis as well. Both magnificent actors who played their roles better than they could’ve been asked (i’ve been a fan of both for a long time – especially Lewis). I can’t underplay, however, just how fantastic Mandy Patinkin was. I had written him off as an actor anymore after seeing a couple of episodes of Criminal Minds (I think that’s what show he was on), but he was perfect in this role. So, so good playing off Danes and the rest of the CIA.
I cannot understand how he wasn’t even nominated for a Best Supporting Actor. He deserved the award just as much as the other two.
Glad you started watching Klaw. This show really is tremendous. I can’t wait for Sunday nights on Showtime beacuse of Homeland and Dexter.
HI Keith,
My wife and I are going to DC over Thanksgiving for a few days and was wondering if you had any restaurant recommendations. My wife and I are big TC fans and are planning on visiting Spike’s “We the Pizza” restaurant for a lunch. Wondering if you had any other recommendations. Thanks!
Eric try this
http://meadowparty.com/blog/?p=1027
Keith, from someone who thinks The Wire is undoubtedly the greatest show of all time, please trust me on this: WATCH MORE OF BREAKING BAD. Season 1 is easily the worst part of the series…beginning in season 2 it goes from being excellent to being the best show currently on television.
Keith,
Couldn’t agree more about Damian Lewis. As much as I love Bryan Cranston and ‘Breaking Bad’–and really believe that you should start back up with the second season, I believe streaming on Netflix–I was not at all upset to see Lewis get recognized for his work.
I re-watched the first season on DVD and just finished today in preparation for the premiere. I forgot how spectacular Lewis was, particularly in the finale, which, according to the Wikipedia, was his Emmy submission episode. The scene where he is on the phone with daughter brought out so many emotions in me that I had to pause it.
P.S.-When you get time, and enough privacy,’Shame’ really is a tremendous movie carried by two stellar performances that really deserved more recognition than they got.
Also, just curious if you have had a chance to sample ‘Mad Men’ at any point?
I agree with several of the posters above – Season 1 of Homeland was a great debut. However, Seasons 3-4 of Breaking Bad and Seasons 2-3 of Mad Men are the gold standard for shows currently on air for me.
Keith,
Nice review. By chance have you seen the show Boss on Starz? To me it is the only show on TV that rivals homeland. Thanks for the review.
I’ll second, third, forth, fifth and sixth what everybody has said about Breaking Bad, its an absolutely fantastic show and you have to give it another try! I can’t wait for this next season of Homeland too.
Overall, Homeland was strong. I had a few issues, the first of which were my own, unrelated to the quality of the show.
At times, it was difficult to watch terrorism as entertainment. Still a bit too soon for me, I suppose. Also, I found it uncomfortable to watch those scenes in captivity where they were breaking Brody down as a person. There is something really ugly about destroying a person’s identity and sense of self. On some levels, it was harder to watch than the run of the mill violence and killing that typically permeates television and movies.
As for the show itself, I had a couple of issues. First, it was a bit jarring how quickly Brody went from nonfunctional and mumbling in a corner to being highly functional and holding court in front of hordes of media. Maybe more time was supposed to have elapsed unseen, but the show made a pretty quick cut between Brody’s two states. Second, I also had a problem with the nature of the relationship between Brody and Carrie. I just don’t think the show earned that development.
If the relationship was legitimate, then they should have had more preceding scenes involving Carrie’s PTSD (common ground between the two) and her difficulties in connecting with other people on a real, emotional level. That would have made the development more plausible. On the other hand, if the relationship was merely Carrie trying to play Brody for intelligence purposes, then they should have made her motivations more clear. Obviously, the show embraces uncertainty in its characters’ motivations to maintain suspense, but this was an instance where it seemed like a weakness. It didn’t add suspense to the narrative, it just confused the audience and felt fairly implausible.
As for Carrie’s bipolar condition, I didn’t have a problem with it. I actually thought it added some depth to the character, as it was interesting to know she had to control the condition as events escalated. In fact, it was refreshing to actually see a character on TV with this type of condition. And, while I can’t speak for the accuracy of portrayal of the condition, she was able to work through it in recognizing the pattern, so it wasn’t completely debilitating.
Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see if the show can maintain it’s momentum into Season 2. Given that all of season 1 led up to the events of the finale, I’m not sure how the show will, or even can, effectively pivot the narrative in a different direction. Seems like a tough task.
As soon as I hit the submit button, I knew that I wasn’t quite making the point I was trying to make regarding the relationship development between Brody and Carrie, so I’ll try it again.
The tension/suspense of the narrative is driven by uncertainty. With Brody it’s uncertainty regarding his motivation/loyalty. With Carrie, it’s uncertainty regarding credibility/ability. Carrie’s motivation has never been in question, her quest is to prevent the next 9/11. However, we are left to wonder whether she is tilting at windmills in her suspicions of Brody. Is he a threat or not? Is she credible or not? For me, her credibility is made uncertain through the presence of Mandy Patinkin’s character and her medical issue. It’s also somewhat interesting that the uncertainty of both characters is advanced through calling into question their respective mental well-being, which is another reason why I think Carrie’s condition adds complexity to both the character and the plot.
Back to the developing relationship between Carrie and Brody, when Carrie’s motivation is made uncertain, the development seems unsupported and at odds with the underlying narrative. When the uncertainty is applied to Carrie’s motivation, instead of just her credibility, it doesn’t add suspense/tension to the narrative, rather it comes off as disjointed and confusing. If they had added a few preceding scenes to better develop the evolving Carrie/Brody dynamic, then it would have been workable. As it was, it just struck me as confusing and disjointed.
While I personally agree with the people that have Danes slightly above Lewis, both are absolutely outstanding (and given the Homeland love at the Emmys, I’d hope Patinkin gets a nomination next year over one of the butlers). I think the biggest reason most people see Danes as being more deserving is because among her respective category, it wasn’t even close (largely because until Danes, women generally haven’t got an opportunity to play these types of parts), whereas in the male side of things, Bryan Cranston is giving the best television performance of our lifetime on Breaking Bad (with all due respect to James Gandolfini, Michael Chiklis, and Ian McShane) which makes Lewis’ win much more debatable.
Re: Breaking Bad. The first six episodes, while enjoyable, don’t really encapsulate where the series goes over the long term, and I’m disappointed that you haven’t got past that point yet, because I think you’d really enjoy it. The idea of episode by episode season by season suspense in Breaking Bad not being there is laughable to anyone that has seen the full series.
That said, I do fully agree about Boardwalk Empire. I like, but don’t love the show, and am really disappointed by that fact considering that you’d think a writer and EP for the Sopranos would be able to absolutely crush this subject matter.
KLaw, season 1 of Breaking Bad was cut short due to the writer’s strike so seasons 1 and 2 didn’t quite develop as they were intended…but towards the end of season 2 the show takes off like a rocket ship through seasons 3 and 4 (and now half of 5).
I thought Homeland was great too, but not as good as Breaking Bad season 4.
Loved season 1 of Homeland, but upon reading this review I wanted to comment. I agree with you for the most part, with the exception of your take on the bipolar disorder portrayal.
I don’t know if you have had close contact with someone with bipolar, but I lived with someone with this condition for several years, and when Carrie goes into her manic stage (re: the green pen), I had to stop the DVD because it felt like I was watching a scene from three years ago in my life. It was eerily similar, truly.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion; however seeing the weary face of Carrie’s sister in dealing with the mania, in my experience, hit the nail on the head. I did not feel like they trivialized the condition, but that they gave it the weight and power it can have in life.
Thanks for your review, I look forward to more of them in the future.
All the best.
Jay
Jay:
I do have a close family member who is bipolar and cannot function without medication. I think I was more concerned that the disorder was exaggerated and exploited than that it was unrealistic for her to be so unmanageable when unmedicated. It was used for plot purposes, not to illuminate the nature of the disease.
Agree with the people here who say that Homeland is a pretty good show, but Breaking Bad was vastly superior this year, which makes Cranston not getting the Emmy over Lewis a bit questionable. Would kind of be like Cabrera beating out Trout…
Hey KLAW. You have to give Breaking Bad another try. Season 1 had its warts, but that show has become great. Worth the time.
Just watched season one of HL this past week. Worth watching but I openly laughed out loud at both the writing and the acting at times. I never had that with BB but I’m only through season 1 there too. I think its a run of the mill movie thriller, which still makes it better than most TV. The plot is original, so I’ll keep tuning in for that.
Late to the (meadow)party — just finished watching Season 1. And while I was entertained, I was also disappointed. Some of that is inevitable given the glowing reviews that clearly raised my expectations. I mean, as much as I enjoy a show like Breaking Bad, at this point is it even possible for Keith to be wowed by it when every poster is telling him it’s the best thing ever?
My biggest disappointment with the show is actually what Keith enjoyed the most — it’s realism. I too don’t know the inner-workings of the CIA. But it doesn’t seem that realistic to me that: a) Carrie (and Saul) would not share any suspicions about Brody with superiors after the actionable intelligence she received in Iraq; and b) the sudden return of Walker (as a terrorist!!) would not only fail to raise suspicion over his co-prisoner Brody, but actually be treated as evidence that completely clears Brody of any further suspicion (hey, it’s just mistaken identity…we must have had the wrong highly decorated Marine POW). I certainly hope the real CIA is a bit more diligent in real life.
Beyond that, I found the rest of the first season to be riddled with unrealistic sub-plots. As Keith mentions, the Brody/Carrie relationship just makes little sense. Brody’s behavior also makes little sense. I get he’s a complex character…but I think there was very little subtlety or character development explaining how he could swing from huddled in a corner for a day to holding court with the media or dark parent who shoots a deer to loving dad.
Finally, Keith correctly mentions that it was refreshing to see a drama that didn’t involve a public gunfight or hacker breaking a code in seconds. I agree, but let’s not give the show too much credit…as apparently they’ve opted for the most trite plot twist in this genre – a government mole who is helping the other side for some reason.
All-in-all, this show strikes me as “24” with nudity and swear words. It’s entertaining, but still a boilerplate drama.