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Hailed as TV's best new drama by critics everywhere, the award-winning HOMELAND* delivers compelling characters, thrilling twists and breathtaking suspense. Carrie Mathison (Golden Glober winner Claire Danes), a brilliant but volatile CIA agent, suspects that a rescued American POW may not be what he seems. Is Marine Sgt. Nicholas Brody_(Damian Lewis) a war hero...or an Al Qaeda sleeper agent plotting a spectacular terrorist attack on U.S. soil? Following her instincts, Mathison will risk everything to uncover the truth - her reputation, her career and even her sanity. (official distributor synopsis)
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Yeah, a spy, he’s got it tough. I'm not a fan of alternate history with actual living figures, but this is an exception. A fantastic series, completely unpredictable for most its run. It's admirable the psychological transformation Carrie Mathison undergoes through the series – that, dear Claire, is called the role of a lifetime. And the very last episode absolutely blew me away, in awe of what a brilliantly bittersweet ending they gave to the story. I know it's tempting, but I hope they don't make any more sequels, any more encores, it's perfect this way.
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Regarding Homeland, I get the feeling of being divided. On one hand, there are the undeniable positives - brilliantly written and superbly acted charismatic characters, excellent casting that brought together several wonderful character actors, whether it's Damian Lewis as the war veteran, Claire Danes as the mentally ill agent, or Mandy Patinkin as the clever intelligence analyst. They all give their best and deserve the highest recognition for their acting. The fight against terrorism is a long-standing issue, and the writers skillfully maintain tension and repeatedly present critical situations where their heroes have to choose sides. The series cleverly weaves between genres and functions incredibly well as a mix of crime thriller spiced up with action elements, psychological drama, and a love romance. On the other hand - how can I put it gently - the plot is far-fetched and cannot deny that its prototype is an Israeli series from an environment where the narrative context has a different purpose; additionally, the Israelis solely rely on psychological conflict and uncertainty from the beginning. Many impactful but questionable elements are omitted from the source material. In the American series, the (anti)heroes behave like series characters, not real people and professionals in their field. As time goes by, some of the storylines and characters appear unnecessary, and the writers simply did not know where the story was heading and kept them in reserve. This is typical in the case of Brody's daughter or his former Marine colleagues. The later excursion into the South American slum and glimpses into the guts of an unfinished skyscraper are enticing, but after three seasons, I say stop - further exploitation of the original idea reeks of doing the same thing over again. Overall impression: 60%.
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Season one: Another superb series that is cleverer than it seems to begin with. Damian Lewis is excellent and Claire Danes gives the performance of her life, especially in the penultimate episode. And after 24 I’m glad that similar topics are again entering television waters. Keep up the good work.Season two: It has much higher tempo and hasn’t lost any suspense. The tension rises even higher and the final episodes are the very best. Unexpected development of events, excellent action and memories of the days of Jack Bauer. The inroads into a third season look very positive, I can’t wait. Season three: A grand finale loaded with silent emotions that drives the implementation of an ingenious plan in the interests of the “greater good". The creators are free to start over with a clean sheet. Season four: Hot damn, Quinn! He’s showing his full colors this season and while Carrie often stoops below the level of endurability, the sympathies of the couch potato shift to his side. The focus on Pakistan was a move of genius from the very beginning and the creators make the most of the foreign environment (we see the USA only in perhaps three episodes). Espionage and counter-espionage implemented by the book with brutal twists and consequences. The Brody family is gone at last, so it flows along pleasantly. Just what I was hoping for.Season five: Berlin, Germany. Almost brutally contemporary. There’s nothing on TV right now that reflects world events so precisely. Hats off to the creators for not flinching at broadcasting even after Paris, in fact they made good use of the attack. Snowden, Syria, immigrants. Questions that must be asked, consequences that must be taken into account. The modern history of yesterday.
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Homeland drew me in from the very first episode and, to my own surprise, it has kept my enthusiasm high over 60 episodes. I suppose it's because it's so incredibly good. I originally wanted to skip it altogether, expecting a tsunami of patriotism and melodrama, but I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, the terrorists are the bad guys (and rightly so), but even the good guys aren't exactly all good and aren't portrayed as the standard relatable characters at all times. Damian Lewis is excellent as always, Claire Danes is absolutely superb, and the script is so good that after each season I can't wait for the next one to start. Edit: After finishing Season 8 and the whole series, my initial enthusiasm has somewhat waned. The creators gradually deviated from their original course. I even felt that they had completely lost their way more than once, which was most evident in the drop in quality in Season 7 and the Disney finale in season eight. Despite these quibbles, I still consider Homeland to be a great show that I enjoyed most of the time.
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Showtime repeats the “Dexter concept", this time in Manchurian Candidate garb. And, judging by the intro, it looks no less interesting and quality-full. Worries about Claire Danes fade away during her first scene face to face with Lewis. The tension and chemistry between them... Indescribable. If Showtime builds the whole season on that, we have a lot to look forward to; especially if they add a few unobvious twists and aren’t afraid of being politically incorrect. S1: When the creators were fearless of twists and when they were focusing on the central duo, it works excellently. What trips this series up in the end is the ending; this should have been just one season long. Not that the loose ends hold no promise for some interesting journeys, but that from the very beginning it was heading toward a single moment that doesn’t happen in the end. But, it's not so bad either like this. In many ways this is a logical conclusion. It’s just... It’s just that since that nothing is right after that phone call with the daughter. And in view of the qualities and the tightness of the entire season, the number of loose ends in the last episode is surprising. It’s simply on a different wave from all the episodes before it. S2: It begins with a few pontes asinorum to get all the players from the first season back into the game, but as soon as it gets going as of episode two, it’s almost surprising what risks the creators take, what twists they try and what tempo they set. When they get to the moment when in the last season they had a grand turnabout which seemingly spoils everything, the tempo drops and... And this time they didn’t make the same mistake as last and the proverbial silence before the storm meets its purpose as a more than respectable final period. And while I was “merely" curious about season two, I confess I am looking forward to season three. S3: Which was a mistake, because season three failed to avoid the age old problems. Again it has a dead period, in the first four episodes. Brody’s family is given a disproportionate amount of room in the first third which has no fundamental influence on later developments and is a prime example of series filler. Both Brody and his family are evidently a superfluous ball and chain. Too bad that the creators got Carrie into a vicious circle of “disobeys an order - acts on his own - gets told off". We had this in past seasons, but here it becomes more and more obvious with every episode that this works only thanks to Claire Danes. When you add that, from the very beginning, the entire season is all too obviously headed to “that" one moment, so no excitement there. But we get some satisfaction, because the actors carry it along and all of the purely espionage-related parts are still unusually gripping. S4: Freeing this from family and relationship complications in favor of focusing on spy games is certainly beneficial; straight away it becomes considerably more intriguing and suspenseful, despite the fact that here and there the creators’ roots in 24 show more obviously than ever. However, some episodes and parts (I would say episodes 6 thru 11) are some of the best that Homeland has ever come up with and so even some unavoidable filler in some episodes is easily bearable; especially since this time it isn’t boring, despite holding things up, sometimes rudely interrupting the tempo. S5: A season that suffered from having to be twelve episodes long. If it could have been half as long, it has the material to make it the best season yet, but this way it was stuffed full of filler that then fizzles out, tries to be up to date and is altogether hopelessly... Redundant, making the characters get up to incredible nonsense revolving around a hundred and one MacGuffins. Quinn’s storyline suffers the worst of all, but none are spared completely. Too bad; fundamentally it is outstanding and entertaining, but the stories about nothing sent it down the drain. | S1: 4/5 | S2: 5/5 | S3: 3/5 | S4: 4/5 | S5: 3/5
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