Homeland, Season 1
Following 
abigail_n's reccommendation, I marathoned this show, which wasn't difficult; it's cursedly addictive. And stuffed with good actors - Claire Danes and Damian Lewis in the leading roles, Mandy Pantikin, David Harewood, Moreena Barracin and Ray Veccio David Marriciano in supporting roles, plus a couple of actors I hadn't known yet but who impressed me very much here. And, as
abigail_n promised, it is what Dexter used to be - a good, intelligent and thrilling show with complex characters.
When reccommending the show to me,
abigail_n mentioned the female lead resembled Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff, not Dirk Benedict), and as early as the pilot I could immediately see why. However, what was fascinating from the get go was Claire Danes' character, Carrie Mathison, doesn't resemble season 1 of BSG Kara, aka the universally beloved version, who has issues but is mostly devil may care; no, the Starbuck she resembles is the fourth season version, driven, considered insane by a lot of people around her, isolated except for a very few human beings and not sure about what she is herself, with very screwed up relationships. (As opposed to Kara, she neither got abused as a child nor returned from the dead; she's bi-polar.) Indeed, one of the early suspense points the show sets up is that whether or not Carrie is right in her guess that returned POW Nick Brody (Damian Lewis) has been turned and is now working for Al Quaeda mastermind Abu Nazir is an open question because of her nature, instead of presenting her as someone who by virtue of being the heroine has to be right.
However, the show doesn't drag this question out to the last but one episode, which was what I expected early on. Instead, by the mid season we get two twists that settle it. Damian Lewis, whom I last saw as Charlie Crews in Life (and then on stage in London in a Moliere play), is terrific as Brody, who early on is as closed up as Carrie is seemingly demonstrative, and yet, to quote G'Kar on Babylon 5, nobody is what they seem. Brody as the tortured POW who can't adjust to life at home easily is the obvious sympathy carrier, but as we get to know him better he turns out to be also strikingly manipulative, and capable of incredible emotional cruelty. And yet the show never demonizes him, either; one of the maxims of Homeland seems to be that nobody is all victim or all victimizer. Carrie, who starts out with the stakes against her in terms of easy audience sympathy, ends up as as heroine of the story but in the most cruel and ironic (to her) way; nobody but Brody knows that she actually managed to save the day, and a lot of people (including himself), and he does his best to make sure she never will find out and to destroy her. Until the last third of the season I wondered how the show could stretch its premise beyond one season - I thought that either Carrie or Brody had to succeed, which by necessity would mean the other's end and thereby the end of the story - but the story found a believable way, and now I'm eager for the next season.
Not least because Carrie pushed my competence button. No matter what emotional state she's in, she's always shown to be brilliant at her job (not in an over the top way, either; the show plays fair with the audience in how Carrie comes to her conclusions). Just as competent is her mentor Saul (Mandy Patikin), and her sidekick Virgil (Ray V). Like a beloved show of mine, the much missed Sarah Connor Chronicles, Homeland is really good at making the one or two episode characters our heroes encounter three dimensional and human; one of Carrie's strengths is that she's able to win over various other women she encounters (whereas with men she usually butts heads), and never to buy into "collateral damage/ stuff happens" justifications. What finally made Brody turn is just such an (American) "collateral damage" rationale; of course, Brody in his turn is also inflicting damage justified to himself. I was wondering why the opening credits sequence included Clinton among the Presidents whose fragmentary speeches are interspersed in said sequence, as his speech predates 9/11 and refers to the homegrown terrorism of what's his name in Utah - as we get to know Brody closer, it becomes obvious that there is indeed a reason.
The US painted in this show is as damaged and traumatized and paranoid as Carrie and Brody are, but the show doesn't simplify in any direction. Not in interpersonal relationships, either, or sexuality. Brody's wife Jessica had an affair with his best friend, but they both thought Brody was dead, which after eight years was more than understandable. The inability of Brody and Jess to have sex beyond masturbation is but one aspect of the initial dysfunction after Brody's return, neither downplayed nor presented as the only problem between them. Saul and his wife are losing each other for non-sexual reasons. And so forth. And all the characters have a point, including and especially Brody's two children.
In conclusion: I'm really glad I watched, and I will keep watching!
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/742185.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
abigail_n's reccommendation, I marathoned this show, which wasn't difficult; it's cursedly addictive. And stuffed with good actors - Claire Danes and Damian Lewis in the leading roles, Mandy Pantikin, David Harewood, Moreena Barracin and Ray Veccio David Marriciano in supporting roles, plus a couple of actors I hadn't known yet but who impressed me very much here. And, as
abigail_n promised, it is what Dexter used to be - a good, intelligent and thrilling show with complex characters.
When reccommending the show to me,
abigail_n mentioned the female lead resembled Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff, not Dirk Benedict), and as early as the pilot I could immediately see why. However, what was fascinating from the get go was Claire Danes' character, Carrie Mathison, doesn't resemble season 1 of BSG Kara, aka the universally beloved version, who has issues but is mostly devil may care; no, the Starbuck she resembles is the fourth season version, driven, considered insane by a lot of people around her, isolated except for a very few human beings and not sure about what she is herself, with very screwed up relationships. (As opposed to Kara, she neither got abused as a child nor returned from the dead; she's bi-polar.) Indeed, one of the early suspense points the show sets up is that whether or not Carrie is right in her guess that returned POW Nick Brody (Damian Lewis) has been turned and is now working for Al Quaeda mastermind Abu Nazir is an open question because of her nature, instead of presenting her as someone who by virtue of being the heroine has to be right.
However, the show doesn't drag this question out to the last but one episode, which was what I expected early on. Instead, by the mid season we get two twists that settle it. Damian Lewis, whom I last saw as Charlie Crews in Life (and then on stage in London in a Moliere play), is terrific as Brody, who early on is as closed up as Carrie is seemingly demonstrative, and yet, to quote G'Kar on Babylon 5, nobody is what they seem. Brody as the tortured POW who can't adjust to life at home easily is the obvious sympathy carrier, but as we get to know him better he turns out to be also strikingly manipulative, and capable of incredible emotional cruelty. And yet the show never demonizes him, either; one of the maxims of Homeland seems to be that nobody is all victim or all victimizer. Carrie, who starts out with the stakes against her in terms of easy audience sympathy, ends up as as heroine of the story but in the most cruel and ironic (to her) way; nobody but Brody knows that she actually managed to save the day, and a lot of people (including himself), and he does his best to make sure she never will find out and to destroy her. Until the last third of the season I wondered how the show could stretch its premise beyond one season - I thought that either Carrie or Brody had to succeed, which by necessity would mean the other's end and thereby the end of the story - but the story found a believable way, and now I'm eager for the next season.
Not least because Carrie pushed my competence button. No matter what emotional state she's in, she's always shown to be brilliant at her job (not in an over the top way, either; the show plays fair with the audience in how Carrie comes to her conclusions). Just as competent is her mentor Saul (Mandy Patikin), and her sidekick Virgil (Ray V). Like a beloved show of mine, the much missed Sarah Connor Chronicles, Homeland is really good at making the one or two episode characters our heroes encounter three dimensional and human; one of Carrie's strengths is that she's able to win over various other women she encounters (whereas with men she usually butts heads), and never to buy into "collateral damage/ stuff happens" justifications. What finally made Brody turn is just such an (American) "collateral damage" rationale; of course, Brody in his turn is also inflicting damage justified to himself. I was wondering why the opening credits sequence included Clinton among the Presidents whose fragmentary speeches are interspersed in said sequence, as his speech predates 9/11 and refers to the homegrown terrorism of what's his name in Utah - as we get to know Brody closer, it becomes obvious that there is indeed a reason.
The US painted in this show is as damaged and traumatized and paranoid as Carrie and Brody are, but the show doesn't simplify in any direction. Not in interpersonal relationships, either, or sexuality. Brody's wife Jessica had an affair with his best friend, but they both thought Brody was dead, which after eight years was more than understandable. The inability of Brody and Jess to have sex beyond masturbation is but one aspect of the initial dysfunction after Brody's return, neither downplayed nor presented as the only problem between them. Saul and his wife are losing each other for non-sexual reasons. And so forth. And all the characters have a point, including and especially Brody's two children.
In conclusion: I'm really glad I watched, and I will keep watching!
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/742185.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.