In Homeland, ex-CIA obsessive Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) remains suspicious of Marine-turned-congressman Nick Brody. Image courtesy Showtime
Homeland’s weirdly prescient season 2 opener kicks off with unsettling images that could have been lifted straight from video streaming in from the Middle East this month: Outraged Muslims burn the American flag and march through the streets, calling for retaliation against Western powers.
It’s not an inflammatory YouTube video but an Israeli attack on Iran that triggers protests in the Emmy-winning Showtime drama, which returns with a vengeance Sunday for its second season. Still, the fact that Homeland acknowledges the fractious global stage makes it a rarity among U.S. television shows.
The show’s real genius can be seen in the way it filters big questions about revenge, justice, national defense, religion and paranoia through the actions of a twitchy, bipolar ex-CIA agent and a superhumanly smooth former POW who’s so adept at fooling the public that he’s become a politician.
(Spoiler alert: Minor plot points follow.)
Season 2 catches up with high-strung spy Carrie Mathison (played by Claire Danes, who recently won the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Emmy for the role) six months after she’s been booted from the CIA after suffering a nervous breakdown. She’s teaching English, gardening and doing her best to lead a normal life with a little help from lithium.
Meanwhile, the man who drove her crazy, Marine Nick Brody (Damian Lewis, who won the Outstanding Lead Actor Emmy), seems to have recovered from the trauma of being held captive by Al-Qaida for seven years. He’s been forgiven past weird behavior by gorgeous, feisty wife Jessica (Morena Baccarin) and become a U.S. congressman with designs on the White House.
But everything goes haywire after the attack on Iran. In Lebanon, the wife of a Hezbollah leader possesses vital information but refuses to share it with anyone but Carrie, her former handler. CIA boss Saul Berenson (portrayed convincingly as a cerebral deep thinker by Mandy Patinkin) makes a call and, by episode’s end, Carrie is being chased through the narrow streets of Beirut with a manic grin on her face.
She’s back in the game, and loving it.
On the home front, sexy Islamic activist reporter Roya (Zuleikha Robinson) asks Brody to take on a secret mission. Later, Jessica freaks out when she learns why Brody keeps going into the garage late at night.
Though Danes and Brody share no scenes in the season opener, the contrast in their performance styles lends the show its riveting hot/cold dynamic. Danes spits out F bombs with more vitriol than any actress in recent TV history, telegraphing every mood swing with furrowed brow, twisted lips, twitching cheekbones and darting eyes.
Lewis takes it to the other extreme by giving away nothing with his character’s blue-eyed stare and placid half-smile. When is Brody lying? When is he sincere? Whose side is he on? Perfectly attuned to the chipper, can-do facade that serves as Yankee shorthand for “winner,” Brody conceals toxic doses of nightmare terrors.
Homeland’s season 2 debut covers some familiar ground: Brody’s sulking 16-year-old daughter Dana (Morgan Saylor), a “you’re being followed, keep walking” secret rendezvous, and a generic safecracking scene all play out like dramatic moments we’ve seen before. But Homeland functions like a slow-ticking time bomb, effectively ratcheting up the dread, betrayal, clockwork plot twists and moral quandaries as it goes.
Adapted from Israeli TV series Hatufim, aka Prisoners of War, by 24 writer-producers Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, Homeland casts a skeptical eye on extreme ideologies of all stripes. Better still, this politically charged soap opera for our times employs two of prime time’s most mesmerizing head cases to bring its big-picture dilemmas to riveting life.
Homeland’s second season debuts Sunday at 10 p.m./9 Central on Showtime.
WIRED Flawed spy and “perfect” Marine dramatize big questions about religion, patriotism and loyalty.
TIRED Familiar scenarios bring to mind older, lesser spy thrillers.
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