We need a new thread on this excellent show. Can’t believe there isn’t one yet.
It was on past my bedtime last night (damn that Dexter crap), so it’s still on my DVR to be watched tonight. Everyone else… enjoy!
It was a disappointing start.
I’m not sure if the episode is actually poor, or if I’m judging it too harshly against what was an amazing first season finale. Here are a couple of my problems with the episode:
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[li]I’m not convinced that Estes would ask Carrie, a *former *CIA agent with serious mental issues, to fly to Lebanon for a meeting with one of her former assets. It’s implausible, and it strains credulity. For a show that’s been relatively realistic and restrained in its depiction of how the CIA operates, this really jumped out at me as something that would never happen.[/li]
And that Saul would be okay with it? Doubly doubtful.
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[li]Brody went from, “No, I will not aid in the slaughter of innocent lives!” to “Oh, sure, okay, I guess I will, then!” in the space of a single, short conversation. And Roya wasn’t particularly convincing, I thought, when she was explaining why Brody should do it. [/li]
And she’s asking this in his office? No attempts at subterfuge? No coded messages? Aren’t there, like, several people just outside of earshot who could open the door and completely unravel eight years work? She’s a terrible conspirator.
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[li]Jessica blowing up at Brody* because he converted to Islam? What the fuck, really? It’s one thing to be shocked that her husband had been hiding his conversion, but it’s another thing entirely to launch into a litany of bigoted bullshit, and then top it off by throwing his Quran onto the garage floor. I understand that, perhaps, the writers are trying to establish Jessica as a social climber – not that she gave any indication of that in the first season, but whatever? – but the way they’re going about it is way too convenient. [/li]
- And, of course, the prelude to her argument with Brody was her fairly screechy dressing-down of Dana for misbehaving at school, which was way too loud and vociferous to be taken seriously. What kind of parent reacts like that?
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I hope the clumsy writing will improve in future episodes.
I don’t agree with any of these criticisms.
And I thought all the scenes in the middle east were really great.
It’s a plot device to be sure, but it doesn’t strain credulity that much. Estes can’t afford to be the guy who ignored information about an attack on the US. And it’s more than plausible that a vulnerable CIA asset wouldn’t trust anyone else except her.
This I totally disagree with. How is she supposed to know the Quran can’t touch the floor, and why would she care? Finding out your husband has converted to the same religion of the people who tortured him for 8 years is a HUGE shock, almost as bad as finding out he’d joined the enemy. While the stuff she said seemed bigoted, she did have a point that some fundamentalist Muslims in certain countries might have stoned their daughter to death for having premarital sex. Presumably Brody isn’t one of them, but how can she know that for sure? The man she thought she married is a completely different person now.
Crazy-eyes Carrie is going to get on my nerves, I’m afraid. Do they really need to have her be in a manic frenzy all the damn time? Otherwise, I thought it was pretty good. After bouncing her from the CIA last season, they had to come up with some way to bring her back into at least a semi-active status or there wouldn’t be any season two.
Season one was so good that I don’t see how season two can even come close. For one thing, season one was all about 1) has Brody gone over to the dark side, and if he has, 2) what is he going to do about it. Those two things successfully drove the whole season, but the first was resolved quite clearly, and the second resolved with the incredible scene in the bunker. That was the peak of tension for the whole season. I don’t see how a comparable single story arc leading to a comparable peak can be created again in the second or any subsequent season.
Unless Brody becomes President and wears his “special outfit” to give the State of the Union Address or something. But even then, we would be expecting a far-out twist like that-- we’d be braced for it. Almost any dramatic event from here on might just turn out to be jumping the shark.
I thought it was an excellent first episode of Season 2!
They brought Carrie in because they HAD TO…and now that she is back in, she will be hard to put back. (That final insane grin of joy when she escaped the guy tracking her spoke volumes…)
Brody is set to become the all time greatest spy/terrorist/plant - or will he change?
They have set up this season really well, and the action was pretty much non-stop.
Homeland deserved every Emmy, and they are off to a great start this time around.
Count me as very pleased!
Highlight of the episode. I was actually wondering why the episode was called “The Smile,” but that little reveal was fantastic.
I thought it was a very strong start to the season, although I did think that Roya wanting to rendez-vous in Brody’s office was dumb, even though he said there was no surveillance. Why take the chance?
And here’s a gif of the scene. It made the episode for me. Obviously, like I said, I wasn’t thrilled with what I thought was shoddy writing, but nearly everything with Carrie was incredibly strong.
Was finally able to watch this last night. Absolutely loved it. Thought they did a great job of setting up the new season and I completely disagree with all of the criticism upthread.
Here’s a bit of an interview the Homeland creators did with Alan Sepinwall where they talk about the decision to bring Carrie back into action so early. The part about being inspired by John le Carré was interesting to me.
Lastly, does anybody else think that Dana is going to end up converting (or trying to convert) to Islam?
The arc certainly appears to be planting the seed for her to act in ways that are sympathetic to her dad, and therefore Islam.
I didn’t see Jessica’s reaction as Social Climber - more pragmatic: if he is serious about political office, including being tapped for VP, he couldn’t further cloud his already-complex story by revealing himself to be Muslim. As his wife dealing with this unexpected news, it seems in character.
I was pulled out a bit by the Journalist trying to engage him in his office. Feels like that could’ve been handled better.
Here’s my question: in my uninformed brain, there is a HUGE difference between “being brainwashed” and “being turned.”
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[li]Being *Brainwashed *means you have been broken down and manipulated against your will. Movie representations aside, I would assume that this would leave a person capable doing specific acts, like a suicide bombing, but not much more. In my feeble mind, the trope of a truly brainwashed person staying mentally together over a long-term mole operation seemed unrealistic.[/li][li]Being *Turned *means appealing to a person’s loyalties and getting them to *choose *to work for your side. Folks like this are capable of long-term, complex work as moles, like the British officials turned to Communism at Cambridge who were Soviet spies for decades (Philby, Burgess, McLean, etc.)[/li][/ul]
I am enjoying the show, but struggle a bit with the concept that Brody was brainwashed, but when that failed, is now acting more like he was turned. Can that really happen to a person? The show seems to imply both have happened.
I think Brody’s real experience with seeing the drone destruction on the ground and the killing of the boy he had come to love, coupled with the inevitable feelings of gratitude he had toward his rescuer and his coming to learn authentic Islam all went into his “being turned.” It was clearly a complex process and the complexity was presented very well in season 1.
I think both did happen, and it was all part of Nazir’s master plan. He had to break him down physically and mentally before building him back up, thus creating a sense of trust & loyalty. He brings him into his family, teaches him about their culture. But that’s not good enough to actually “turn” him - Brody had to become so morally outraged that he makes a conscious choice to betray his country. Mind you, I’m not saying Nazir planned the death of his own son. But if that hadn’t happened, Nazir would have used something else to help turn Brody.
The office scene was my only complaint about this episode. The writers need to respect the audience’s intelligence. It wasn’t at all realistic that the journalist would mention Nazir by name during that meeting. It seems like that name keeps being dropped repeatedly as if we couldn’t follow the story otherwise. I’m sure people in real life would be more circumspect. And Brody wouldn’t just burst out with “I killed Walker” either.
I think we are supposed to believe that just the name “Issa” acts as a trigger, like during hypnosis, to activate his brainwashing. Perhaps they need the dramatic tension that leads us to believe Brody might become a full-fledged terrorist again, but it isn’t really believable.
Loved the smile. I was never really aware of Claire Danes before, but I think she is absolutely terrific in this.
I didn’t have a problem with the scene in the office. The journalist obviously works for Nazir. It was an interesting scene because Brody couldn’t tell if she “knew something” or if she KNEW something. Was she just following up on a rumor she’d heard (from Carrie) and was trying to fish for confirmation, or what. When she started giving details about Issa, Brody’s entire demeanor changed as he realized that the lady was legit.
So apparently everybody but me knew that Saul is Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride. Knowing that makes the show even more entertaining than before.
Since Mandy Patinkin has been in a lot of stuff on TV, movies and Broadway, I think of Inigo as one of his roles and didn’t really dwell on it. But when my son was watching one of the Homeland eps with me and Saul was saying something important to Carrie, with an earnest tone, I leaned over and said the “Hello - my name is Inigo Montoya…” line in his ear and I could see the lights go on as he realized who it was…
The HBO movie Temple Grandin (a biopic about an autistic woman) is well worth a watch for Claire Danes’ performance. She won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for it.
Maybe they will be able to sustain the tension. Even if they don’t, I’ll probably keep watching because I develop this irrational loyalty to shows and keep up even after they turn to crap (like Bones).
I’m so glad Saul got to see Brody’s suicide video. Things should get very interesting right away. I was afraid they were going to drag this out for many episodes.
Also, how about Brody texting a warning to Abu Nazir from the freakin’ Situation Room milliseconds before the sniper fired?? Pretty ballsy. I don’t like Brody, and not just because he’s a terrorist, though I guess that is reason enough. He’s a robot, which is in perfect contrast to Carrie, who is the opposite of a robot (don’t like her much either).
Open spoilers after the episode airs Sunday night.
I think it’s shaping up to be another intense, nail-biting season. Danes is knocking it out of the park, again, and so is Lewis.
I like what they’re doing with the Vice-President. He’s kind of a slimeball. He wants the Israelis to have the bunker buster, and he wants them to have it now, on the current President’s watch. That way, if things go south, it’s not his fault. Did I interpret his motivation correctly? (He’ll always be Randall Flagg to me, so maybe he’s not as bad as I’m seeing him.) Maybe I’m not reading him right, because if the current administration fucks things up, won’t that make things harder for him?
I like Brody’s daughter. She reminds me of Linda Cardellini’s character from Freaks and Geeks.
I don’t know how Brody holds it together. With everyone after him – his wife, his Marine friends, the VP, Abu Nazir and Roya – it will seem natural that he get back with Carrie, the one person he can be honest with.
I like that Saul now knows about Brody, and wonder what he’ll do with the knowledge. I think he’ll keep it from Carrie, at least for awhile.