Homeland 2.07. The Clearing
Back to catching up with my tv shows!
This is a quiet, character heavy episode which I loved but which I'd wager won't be that popular with watchers into the show for the suspense and/or shipping reasons. Kiss aside, the relationship between Carrie and Brody took a back seat in this one to the plot line about Saul and Elaine on the one hand and the Dana-Finn-VP Walden-Brody's political future one on the other, and both are distinctly uncomplimentary about the American status quo. Which is one of the reasons why I don't think this show is the new 24. We don't go to Guantanamo - not least because Elaine is an American citizen - but Saul's plot line this week show cases the treatment of prisoners in the "war on terror". Precisely because there is nothing over the top or sensational - Elaine isn't beaten, or threatened with rape; also, the audience knows she did do what she's in prison for - it's all the more chilling. Mandy Patinkin has his first show case this season being genuinenly warm and manipulative at the same time, and then horrifed by the outcome. (You can also construct a parallel to Carrie and Brody, in that both Saul and Carrie use genuine emotion, but they use to specific CIA purpose, and because their instrument of manipulation is genuine, it cuts them as well.) Also the show excells again at making scenes that are essentially two people in a room talking incredibly compelling.
Meanwhile, Dana had it with delays and reveals the truth about the hit and run in the middle of a weekend get together of donors and politicians, and the Waldens react just as you'd expect. (At which point Finn gets a smidgeon of sympathy back from me, because with parents like that... But just a smidgeon: he could still confess the truth to the police on his lonesome.) I loved that the episode took the time to show Jessica's reaction, instead of skipping to Brody right away. Jessica's genuine horror when she realises that her new friend the VPs wife doesn't for a second consider anything but how to make this inconvenience go away, and the need to know that Brody is on the same page here. The narrative irony that this is where Brody for a change could and wants to be honest and on his daugther's and wife's side but is then prevented from being so by his new CIA involvement was what I expected, but that didn't make it less well played. Methinks the next irony will be Jessica leaving her husband not for his Abu Nazir entanglement but for his seeming political careerness - which she had beein so enthusiastic about - and CIA work. Dana losing faith in her father in the final scene with Carrie right then and there was gut wrenching. (Did I mention Dana somehow became my favourite teenager on tv right now?)
Incidentally: my speculation that the cover-up of the hit and run is going to be what brings VP Walden down looks ever more likely, doesn't it?
As far as narrative irony goes: Brody now experiences the one where when he's telling the truth and means it, it serves as a complete and utter lie - when telling Ex Vietnam Veteran Donor Person that "I'm not that man" and meaning just that, which only makes the guy further convinced of Brody's humbleness, sincerity and worthiness. (BTW, it occured to me that whether or not Brody survives this season, his own political career will end through the car crash cover up as well.) Mind you: given that his bond to his daughter just got a severe blow and his tentative rapproachement with his wife is about to get one as soon as she finds out he did stop Dana from confessing to the cops, and given the self image Brody has depends on seeing himself as a good father at least, I wonder how long he'll be able to carrry on double agenting anyway.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/839094.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
This is a quiet, character heavy episode which I loved but which I'd wager won't be that popular with watchers into the show for the suspense and/or shipping reasons. Kiss aside, the relationship between Carrie and Brody took a back seat in this one to the plot line about Saul and Elaine on the one hand and the Dana-Finn-VP Walden-Brody's political future one on the other, and both are distinctly uncomplimentary about the American status quo. Which is one of the reasons why I don't think this show is the new 24. We don't go to Guantanamo - not least because Elaine is an American citizen - but Saul's plot line this week show cases the treatment of prisoners in the "war on terror". Precisely because there is nothing over the top or sensational - Elaine isn't beaten, or threatened with rape; also, the audience knows she did do what she's in prison for - it's all the more chilling. Mandy Patinkin has his first show case this season being genuinenly warm and manipulative at the same time, and then horrifed by the outcome. (You can also construct a parallel to Carrie and Brody, in that both Saul and Carrie use genuine emotion, but they use to specific CIA purpose, and because their instrument of manipulation is genuine, it cuts them as well.) Also the show excells again at making scenes that are essentially two people in a room talking incredibly compelling.
Meanwhile, Dana had it with delays and reveals the truth about the hit and run in the middle of a weekend get together of donors and politicians, and the Waldens react just as you'd expect. (At which point Finn gets a smidgeon of sympathy back from me, because with parents like that... But just a smidgeon: he could still confess the truth to the police on his lonesome.) I loved that the episode took the time to show Jessica's reaction, instead of skipping to Brody right away. Jessica's genuine horror when she realises that her new friend the VPs wife doesn't for a second consider anything but how to make this inconvenience go away, and the need to know that Brody is on the same page here. The narrative irony that this is where Brody for a change could and wants to be honest and on his daugther's and wife's side but is then prevented from being so by his new CIA involvement was what I expected, but that didn't make it less well played. Methinks the next irony will be Jessica leaving her husband not for his Abu Nazir entanglement but for his seeming political careerness - which she had beein so enthusiastic about - and CIA work. Dana losing faith in her father in the final scene with Carrie right then and there was gut wrenching. (Did I mention Dana somehow became my favourite teenager on tv right now?)
Incidentally: my speculation that the cover-up of the hit and run is going to be what brings VP Walden down looks ever more likely, doesn't it?
As far as narrative irony goes: Brody now experiences the one where when he's telling the truth and means it, it serves as a complete and utter lie - when telling Ex Vietnam Veteran Donor Person that "I'm not that man" and meaning just that, which only makes the guy further convinced of Brody's humbleness, sincerity and worthiness. (BTW, it occured to me that whether or not Brody survives this season, his own political career will end through the car crash cover up as well.) Mind you: given that his bond to his daughter just got a severe blow and his tentative rapproachement with his wife is about to get one as soon as she finds out he did stop Dana from confessing to the cops, and given the self image Brody has depends on seeing himself as a good father at least, I wonder how long he'll be able to carrry on double agenting anyway.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/839094.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.