Umm, yes. Go back to the time in the cabin. There’s a reason why they’re always trying to re-kindle that. They connect on multiple levels.
— Alan
I should clarify. The show is (or should be) premise-driven. They began with Brody, and Brody is by himself not fascinating – he’s interesting situationally. (Simple test for whether or not a character is intrinsically fascinating: would you still care about what they were up to +/- 15 years from the current point of the story? I’d like to see Don Draper growing up, or Soprano, or Al Swearengen. Nick Brody taking Jessica to prom? Eh.) So the further the story gets from that really intriguing premise of “ostensible hero possibly a terrorist” the worse the story works. The 2nd season romance sucks because it no longer plugs into that premise: that premise has been resolved, in fact. In the 1st season the cabin sequence was awesome because everybody was playing with fire, but once we figured out that Brody was essentially a good dude, the writers asked us to care about Brody and Carrie as people, which they haven’t been that good at.
(By the way, I think Saul is the one “intrinsically fascinating” character on the show, and I’m not sure why. This may just be Patinkin’s charming performance.)
Hooo boy, are you in for a world of disappointment. Ol’ crazy eyes ramps the cuckoo meter to 11 in almost every episode. I’m always surprised when her eyes don’t pop out of her head like a Tex Avery character anytime someone just gives her a bad weather forecast.
I’m not sure why people keep heaping praise on her performance as in my opinion, she’s only capable of perhaps two emotions…and one of those is “full on retard” (to coin a phrase from Tropic Thunder)…something any 1st year drama student at a community college could do.
4 Episodes in now. I’ve gotten used to Claire Daines’ character now.
But I’m pretty bored by the glacial pace of the show. And I’m also a little uncomfortable. I’m Muslim, and I’m just weirded out that every muslim portrayed in this show so far is either a terrorist or a potential terrorist. I just get a very Islamophobic vibe from the show so far. I’ll stick with it a little longer, maybe it will change. Or at the very least, maybe something interesting will happen.
Rock8man: Did you ever watch the show Sleeper Cell that was on Showtime several years back? That did a much better job examining how terrorists pervert the religion. The main character (FBI guy hiding in a cell) is muslim and struggles with this concept a lot.
I missed Sleeper Cell. That does sound intriguing though. I’ll have to check that out. Thanks Vesper.
I just got done watching both seasons. Wow. I’ve never seen a show like this before. It continued to be Islamaphobic, but I have to admit that I just couldn’t look away during that second season. They switched things up in nearly every single episode. Every time I thought I knew where the show was headed, it headed in a different direction in the very next episode. It was crazy! Like Carrie Mattheson! CRAZY!
I still think there’s a possibility that Brodie is guilty. They never showed exactly what went on with him and Abu Nazir when they were together for 12 hours. He didn’t reveal everything when he went back to the CIA. Could the plan all along have been this, as planned with Nazir? Nazir gets Carrie, which provides Brodie with cover for doing something against the VP. Brodie gets pacemaker serial number. Then Brodie drives to his funeral and blows up the car.
It’s a stretch, but it’s not anything crazier than what’s been on the show already.
Still, I hope the show continues to be as wild and crazy as it has been during the second season. There’s shark jumping all over the place! The whole show is about jumping sharks in every episode.
Yeah, I was pretty impressed with the season 2 finale. They did alright. I wasn’t sure where they were going to take things after s02e11 once Abu Nazir was killed.
Looks like Claire Dane will try to free Brody’s good name while Brody plays Harrison Ford in The Fugitive. The old Jewish mentor dude will take over Este’s position as CIA Director and the tension between Claire and her mentor will continue. Her constantly trying to prove Brody innocent and he trying to capture him.
Looks like the story arc for season 3 is pretty predictable… or is it? muhahahahaha…
You ever notice whenever a cast member buys coffee in this show it is from Tim Horton’s? what American city is the setting? I guess they are filming in vancouver…
let me google that (turns out there are lots of headlines on this issue):
Tim Hortons wants to take over America, has infiltrated the CIA and has its sights set on the Navy SEALS.
Canada’s most famous coffee showed up in a recent episode of the ultra-popular, Emmy award-winning Homeland, a television show about CIA agents fighting terrorists. It was no accident.
“We’ve been getting more aggressive with brand placement this year,” says David Morelli, director of public affairs for Tim Hortons.
The company has been working with Burbank, California’s Feature This, which seeks out opportunities for brands to authentically work their way into scenes of big TV shows and movies.
Just finished season 2…
There is definitely a problem with Brody’s story about meeting Abu Nazir on US soil. We see him walked in and Nazir gets out of the car, but when telling the story to the CIA he makes it look like he was tied up in a room and then Nazir came in.
And of course, Brody didn’t walk the same route to the elevator that Carrie did, he took longer even though they showed him taking jogging-type steps and not just walking. She was moving pretty slow/normal and he was moving quick, but he still shows up later… so, either he took a much longer route to the elevator, or he also moved the car.
Anyway. Loved it. Looking forward to seeing where they take season 3.
Yep. My thoughts exactly. Though they left enough ambiguity in there that they could argue for it either way. I’m just a little surprised that after Carrie was so suspicious at first, she came around and believed Brody so quickly.
When does Season 3 start btw?
They left it ambiguous but I have hard time imaging how they could justify Brody being guilty without throwing out too much. It’s always a fine line when the viewer sees characters even in private moments, but the show omits key events that reverse what you think you are seeing and reveal that character was ‘acting’ in the other scenes. They’ve already pushed hard against this - I just can’t see them flipping it yet again with Brody.
True enough. The audience can only take so many flips. That’s what happened to me with Metal Gear Solid 2. After about the 2nd time they flipped the ending and revealed “the real ending” (only to then reveal another), I had already checked out, and my eyes had rolled so far in my head that I was past caring by the time the game really ended.
But I think they could do one more flip here if it’s done carefully and with the right ground work. Presumably, if they were to do it, they’d have a whole season to set it up.
September 29th.
Hmm… other than the daughter praying Islamabad style all the other scenes look like season 1 and season 2.
Cool. I haven’t seen anyone do an extended “crazy eyes” scene in ages, it seems. Danes’ overacting makes every common, every day occurrence into a study of the absurd. Danes’ runs out of eggs while making breakfast? time to break out the crazy eyes and start drawing up plans for an Egg Pacification System on the wall of the living room for 72 hours straight. Danes’ finds out that gas is up 5 cents a gallon at her favorite service station? Crazy eyes and offer to sleep with Saul if he’ll issue a kill order on the Michelin Man.
Lost among the Breaking Bad hoopla last night was also the return of Homeland.
Resuming about two months after the bomb which went off to conclude last season, Season 3 opened with some interesting developments for Carrie and Saul and a continuing presence of the Brodie family (though not Brodie himself) which is becoming a little odd to justify now.
Whatever the case, I was happy to see the show return and look forward to next week!
I had hoped Claire Danes would’ve used the downtime to take an acting class. Alas, 'twas not to be. She still expresses herself like a mime trying to perform for an audience 4 blocks away.
Huh, Danes has always been the highlight for me.
Meanwhile, instead of the Brody family shrinking from the spotlight, they’re back and throwing in more annoying members. Not thrilled about that.