Tag Archives: Carrie Mathison

Drama, FRONT, Homeland, TV

Homeland: Where To Go From Here

1 Comment
Image
Didier Baverel/Showtime

Feeling more like a series end rather than a season end, espionage thriller Homeland closed out it’s season three with a rather emotional and sometimes difficult to watch finale that is diving viewers right down the middle.

In an often frustrating to watch season three, Homeland saw Carrie (Claire Danes) pretending to be on bad grounds with the CIA while actually on a secret covert operation under the very watchful eye of Saul (Mandy Patinkin).  Saul, meanwhile, had hatched a plan of grandeur that involved inserting a high-level asset (Javadi) into the Iranian government and to bring Body (Damien Lewis) back into the United States.  Brody himself, was under suspicion as being the CIA bomber that killed over 100 CIA agents and after his innocence was proven, was tasked to return to the marines in order to assassinate the current Iranian high ranking officer, allowing Javadi to take over.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, there is Quinn (Rupert Friend) dealing with his demons after the accidental shooting of an innocent child and Brody’s family – Jessica (Morena Baccarin) and Dana (Morgan Saylor) dealing with the aftermath of Dana’s suicide attempt.

IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE FINALE THEN STOP READING!

I’m pretty sure, even as it was starting to begin, I was hoping that something would happen to stop Brody’s death.  A bomb, a military attack, the crane used to hang Brody breaks down, but in the end, we, the viewers, actually felt as hopeless as Carrie did, watching Brody being executed for his assassination on General Akbari.  All their work together, hers with Saul and with Brody, was all in vain as it ultimately led to Brody’s death.  Did Javadi need Brody to ensure his election into the Iranian Government?  Yes.  Was Dar Adal (F.Murray Abraham) right to go against Saul’s original command to extract Brody and Carrie and inform Javadi of their whereabouts?  Yes.

So where does Homeland go from here?  Saul has moved from the CIA to the public sector and he and Mira (Sarita Choudhury) have moved to New York while a heavily pregnant Carrie has been offered station chief in Istanbul and wants to give the baby up for adoption.  It’s already been confirmed that both Morena Baccarin (Jessica Brody) and Morgan Saylor (Dana Brody) are not returning for the new season (though their contracts remain open for guest appearances) as the show moves away from the Brody story line and should focus more on Carrie’s new position as station chief in Istanbul and I’d also expect her to bring Quinn along with her.  As for Saul, Dar Adal did hint that Saul may return to the CIA if Senator Lockwood (Tracy Letts) came begging and I would be surprised if that situation did not reveal itself in season 4.

Homeland returns for season 4 in mid 2014.

Drama, FRONT, Homeland, TV

Homeland’s Big Twist Shocks

Image
Homeland’s Claire Danes

Originally, I was going to title this post as “Oh Crap It’s Dana” but decided against it as the actual plot twist thrown at us at the end of 3×04 was so much OMG that it’s all I could really think of, I mean, did anyone, ANYONE see that coming?

I don’t claim to be all foreseeing and knowing of plot twists coming our way, and some are so blatant it hurts, but this, this totally side swiped me and that, to me, makes for great TV.  I mean sitting there, at the end of the episode, seeing Carrie and Saul walk inside together, I just…i just…I’m pretty sure I looked like I had lost a chromosome sitting there mouth agape.

Funny though, after last weeks Brody themed episode, everyone threw their hands up and went “How can we fix Homeland?” now it seems (me included obviously) we’re all applauding the show.  So among all the long and unpronounceable names involved with money laundering, Dana finally running away (and never coming back?), Saul throwing Carrie under the bus to save face, Carrie’s complete and utter melt-down and subsequent meeting with someone who wants her to reveal confidential CIA information, it turns out Carrie and Saul were working together all along.  Talk about perfect timing for a show that had everyone worried.

That said, with this season pointing out Javadi as the big bad guy (worse than Abu Nazir) it’s hard to actually feel excited for Carrie and Saul’s plan if the only time we have seen Javadi is via a photo.  We have no connection to him, no feelings, we are working with what is being conveyed to us via conversations between Saul and Fara.

Oh, Dana was in this episode, but as noted, she ran away.  She wasn’t really that annoying this episode.  I think we actually got to see some real depth behind her character, especially when she noted that when standing outside the army base, she pointed out that this was where her father had said the very last truth to her, which was “goodbye” and that everything after that was a lie.

Hopefully Homeland shines a little more light on Javadi and the plan Saul and Carrie have set in place to keep us going on this roller coaster of a ride that is Season three!

Drama, FRONT, Homeland, TV

Homeland – We Need To Talk About Dana

Image
Morgan Saylor as Dana Brody

I’m just going to put it out there…When you have a show focused on terrorism, counter intelligence and the C.I.A and the one character that seems to annoy almost every viewer is the teenage daughter of one of the main characters, you know, as a writer, you must be doing something wrong.

Homeland had it’s third season episode two last night on channel 10, and just a heads up, for all the Dana Brody haters out there, there’s a lot more of her coming, and you’re not going to like it.  We’re beginning to wonder why a side character such as Dana Brody is being given so much screen time and literally her own feature story-line (a suicide attempt between seasons two and three) compared to other characters like Brody’s wife Jessica (Morena Baccarin) or even lead character Nicholas Brody (Damien Lewis) himself, who is still rather absent even in this second episode.

twhome

Between Carrie Mathison’s (Claire Danes) constant tears and Dana’s moody and angsty attitude, there’s not much left in between to counter the two and suddenly Homeland is beginning to feel like a teenage drama that no one wants to watch.

Apparently the decision to focus more on the Brody family more prominently- while leaving viewers in the dark about the whereabouts of Damien Brody was a conscious one for the creators.

‘There are all these families that are the victims of somebody in the family doing an act of violence. Whether it’s Sandy Hook, whether it’s Columbine, the Boston Marathon bombers, these people all have families who suffer the consequences of these psychopathic actions,’ show-runner Alex Ganza told New York Magazine. ‘It was interesting to think about what would happen to the Brody family.’

Homeland airs Monday nights, 8:30pm on Channel 10.