Homeland: "Pilot" Review

     Many tuned into Showtime last Sunday night to catch the season 6 premiere of Dexter. But also airing that night was the promising new series, Homeland. A unique twist on the espionage thriller genre, Homeland attempts a unique, modern, and somewhat edgy direction. Does it come together? Here's what we think:

One of these people goes topless. Unfortunately, it's not Claire Danes.

[We will get into Spoiler territory. My conscience is now clear.]
     The show starts off with our main character Carrie Anderson, played by Claire Danes (My So-Called Life), racing against the clock to get information from an Iraqi prisoner who is about to be executed. The show quickly sets up a few key plot points, such as an imminent attack on the US, and that a man called Abu Nazir is the mastermind. We also see an important point about Carrie's character. Her bribing her way into the prison shows that she is willing to break the rules if it means getting her job done. This comes back later, in a few ways.


      She gets into the prison and at the last second she gets the shocking information: "An American prisoner of war has been turned." I think the writers intentionally left this vague, but later on in the episode, we see that it may have been pointless.


    The show cuts ahead 10 months. We find out that an American prisoner of war, missing since 2003, has been found. This introduces us to our second main character, Sgt. Nicholas Brody, played by Damian Lewis (Life, Band of Brothers). The earlier scenes with Brody paint a very sympathetic picture.  I found some of these scenes to be very reminiscent of '24' and a certain iconic scene with America's greatest hero, Jack Bauer (another Howard Gordon show). The man seems battered and broken. He is nervous on the plane ride home about public speaking. He comes home to find people different or gone. It's almost impossible to believe that this man could be a mole. You almost start rooting for him, hoping things turn out alright for him. Of course, when the first call with your wife in 8 years comes right after she has been having sex with another man, you know things won't be fine.

Yes, Firefly fans, Inara goes topless!

     There are a lot of good character moments that really sell the situation. The scene where the daughter asks the son if he even remembers his father, and the moment when Brody walks into the room and the family breaks down, were very real scenes that made me sympathetic for Brody and his family.  When Jessica, Brody's wife, takes off his shirt and is startled by his scars, it shows Brody has been through an unbelievable trauma, making him much more sympathetic to the audience.


    From the get-go, Carrie believes Brody is a mole. When her attempt to convince Saul, a mentor to her, to authorize surveillance on Brody fails, she actually pays out of pocket for the job to be done, without a warrant. She seems obsessed, almost unreasonably so, given that the impression the audience has so far is that Brody is a decent guy. Once the surveillance is set up, we get the first hints that Carrie may not be well when one of the surveillance men finds a pill that is later revealed to be for psychosis.  It is also suggested that Carrie feels personally responsible, in some way, for 9/11.  It appears as though she may suffer from Multiple Personality Disorder, which might explain the habit for anonymous sex and why she was seen clutching her ears.


      It isn't really until Brody is debriefed by Carrie that the first seeds of doubt are planted in the viewer's mind.  During this intense scene between Carrie and Brody we see that Brody is lying about meeting Abu Nazir. We don't know why that is, but later on we see that his relationship with Nazir is much deeper than it seems. Tension mounts as it appears Brody is finally going to meet his contact. When it's revealed that the meeting is with Brody's partner's wife and not some kind of contact, Carrie's sanity comes into question. This is a pretty interesting development, and it adds a sense of intrigue. When whatever she sees needs to be questioned, it calls everything we've seen so far into question, that maybe Brody isn't the mole.  Who are we to believe?  After all, the promotional tag for the show was "Watch Carefully."    

                                                   Sgt. Nicholas Brody or Jack Bauer?


      When Saul discovers Carrie's surveillance operation, everything seems to be over. It seems Carrie has made a serious error in judgment, and it is going to cost her everything.  Bewilderingly, Carrie approaches Saul in a sexual manner, to which Saul is thoroughly disgusted. Carrie seems to have a breakdown and decides to go out drinking. Meanwhile, Brody seems to catch on that something isn't right between Jessica and Mike, the man who was sleeping with her earlier. This will obviously cause problems in later episodes.  This archetype of "wife sleeping with husband's best friend" is nothing new, but I'm still curious to see how this plays out given that exposing that scandal might compromise his position as a national hero and his usefulness as a mole. 


    While out, Carrie drinks a plot convenience on the rocks and catches a twitch in Brody's hand that she realizes is him "making contact". This is enough to convince Saul that maybe she has something here, and they decide to finally start watching Brody.


      The episode ends with a disturbing montage showing a flashback to Brody and Nazir with Brody's partner,Walker, being held. Nazir is telling Brody "Harder," as Brody brutally beats his partner to death, all but confirming that he is in fact, a sleeper agent. The episode ends with Brody staring down the Capitol.


     All in all, it's a very intriguing start to a new series. While it seems more than likely that Brody is some kind of mole, its interesting to see how these characters interact and play off of each other. It's almost like a game of poker, trying to find out what one person knows without giving away your hand at the same time.  This drama may just be the most culturally significant show on TV right now. I look forward to seeing how this develops, and if the preview is any indication, I won't be let down.


Arbitrary rating: 196.57