Homeland: New show on Showtime

It was a good episode, not great. I'm a fan but this season has been frustrating for me. Seems like everything that made this show great in the past is still there, except the writing. Last week Quinn robbed a gun store in a totally unbelievable manner. Apparently in the 2- 3 minutes he was in there, he also managed to steal a high- tech phone tracer (not sold at MY local gun shop!). This week, the big reveal is the phone trace led to an old bunch of paramilitary buddies of Quinn's. Wait, what!? That has to be the mother of all coincidences! And this convoluted 'fact' stems from Quinn meeting an old gal- pal waitress who inexplicably and unbelievably, seems to have no problem leaving the hubby at home and getting involved. Guess she didn't watch the newscasts the day of the bombing and missed that little tidbit about the standoff at Carrie's house, the one where Quinn's face was plastered all over the screen during the news. While I understand that it's just a TV show, in the past, the writing was SO compelling, I never nit- picked it. I will say this though, the highlight of the episode was Saul discovering old 'Crazy Carrie's' workroom. It was a reminder of the good ol' days!

 

I think this season is the best since probably season 3. Season 4 was pretty good but last season was terrible. The whole berlin storyline was crap. I'm glad they moved away from it and it seems for the best. The only thing that I didn't like about last night's episode was when the president elect went to talk to carrie about seeing Dar Adal and how carrie left the deposition. I don't know why carrie just didn't tell her what was going on. I'm pretty sure the future most powerful person in the world could've gotten your daughter back for you carrie. Anyway, I'm really excited to see what'll happen next. Only 2 episodes left!!

 

Claire Danes is amazing.

 

I can't agree. Except for the first season (which was compelling), the writing has always been a bit wobbly. I mean, any given season has had some really excellent episodes and scenes, but that level was never maintained consistently throughout a season - sometimes with real WTF plot developments and scenes, which drags the season quality average down.

 

I hope Max is ok...

 

The actor who plays O'Keefe must be British, he seems to occasionally slip out of his US Southern accent.

 

As my father would say "I wouldn't lend him any money".

 

I was getting frustrated with this season, but felt it was redeemed with the last two episodes. The potential Carrie/Saul/Quinn alliance moving forward is very exciting.

 

I find this season entertaining.

 

Who is O'Keefe?

 

That episode was brilliant. The thing is that print media and right wing shock jocks mainly preach to the converted and with Google+ no one's ever going to hear their rants (if my phone asked me would I like to watch a video of the President's cowardly son I'd probably cancel my alerts) but with a room full of computer geeks manipulating the internet the premise actually works. The million Youtube hits the video got (and the majority of the comments ["He looks like a pu$$y"]) were almost entirely generated by that room full of geeks thus creating a viral post.

The bad guys must be way stupid to have a fleet of vans with the same markings on the side

 

This is Russian standard operating procedure, as evidenced in Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia, UK, USA, France, and other NATO countries. Homeland basically took that state sponsored cyber industrial complex and translated it into the domestic context. I agree it is effective especially when there are so many low-information, incurious people walking around. I applaud the show for dealing with the situation (even if the gigantic wall-screen showing hundreds of snippets of misinformation is a bit over the top).

 

I fell asleep during the episode, read what I missed on wiki and streamed the whole thing again. Totally impressed with the way the show is travelling.

 

The propagandist.

 

I've been thinking an obvious reference to Bannon.

 

No, it's clearly an Alex Jones analogue (but they're all the same).

 

I'm intrigued but still can't for the life of me figure out Dar's purpose for all this. Great 2 episodes in a row though. Love seeing Quinn back to kick-ass (sort of) Quinn.

 

I would think this series would have been written and filmed before some current public figures gained prominence.

 

Yep.

The irony is how things played out quite different than anticipated in some ways, yet eerily similar in others.

 

What's puzzling about Dar's purpose? It seems pretty straightforward to me.

 

Is it? Seems he’s going ape**** just because he doesn’t like Keane’s policies. He just doesn’t come off as someone who “cares” that much.

 

When has the Dar character ever come across as someone who doesn't care? I've always perceived that he cares a lot about two things: 1) What he believes is right for the country and 2) maintaining his hold on the power to do so.

What he doesn't care about in the least is whether the end justifies the means.

 

No. It's Bannon. By the middle of last year or earlier the role of the alt right in the campaign was clear and Bannon was much discussed - not too soon to be worked into the show. The character is disheveled and low on social skills and similarity to Bannon just jumped out to me from the beginning. Here's a reviewer who agrees (so this is not such a readily dismissible view) (this is not politics - just discussing origin of a character in a TV show):
Homeland Review

 

Dar has always been slippery, but they've never shown him to have a motivation of being an actual enemy of the (US) state. They seem to have moved him from slippery fish to full on villain. Now they have him willing to frame Iran as cheating on their nuclear pact even though he knows they actually aren't. And other than making him a villain, I don't really see why he would do that.

 

My point exactly. Seems like a cheap excuse of coming up with a villain for the season. I liked Dar as being that guy you hate on the good side. Going full on villain with him for no reason is lazy.