Homeland [Showtime - US] [** Spoilers **]

Richard Dower

MagicMarker wrote: »

Now I know what I'll be watching all day today. Sweet!

+1....trust me, Grammer will blow you away!....he's gripping to watch, the stuff he does

don ramo

Richard Dower wrote: »

Season finale tonight!

WOW no way, :cool:

Basq

Feature length finale too! :cool:

Looking forward to this!

Jagera

Looking forward to the finale. I'm wondering how much loose ends they will tie up, and how much they leave open for season 2. I hope we're left with some closure, at least to wrap up parts of the story.

Also going to check out Boss, as per suggestions above.

Mr E

Just watched it there now. Lets just say it pisses all over Dexter's finale from a great height.

If they gave out Emmys for individual scenes, Damian Lewis would get one for his work in the bunker. I held my breath for the whole thing. Loved the hooks for season two (both from Abu Nazir and Carrie's memory at the end).

If anyone is on the fence about checking this show out, get off it now. Absolutely thrilling, rewarding and compulsive finale.

Long 9 month wait ahead.

EarlyStorms

I can’t wait to see the finale when I get home tonight. This show is hands down the best new show out there. The acting is just tremendous even in Ep’s were not alot happens you're hooked due to the incredible acting. I can’t recommend this show enough.

DeepBlue

I was hoping they wouldn't cop out on the finale. I should have known they would but somehow I felt they wouldn't. Never place your faith in a television network.

Also never buy cheap middle-eastern electronics. :pac:

Biggins

Spoilers below - Yes, I know its in the title of the thread - but just in case!

Gawd... great show and the final link to the whole long jigsaw revealed (if it was possible for the spy agencies to learn) in Carrie's words before the electroshock treatment... I went "NOOOOOO... Don't shock her!!!! She has to tell someone!!!"

Damn!

Bloody Brody getting off too so far! GRRRR!!!!

Friggin' 9 months to the next one. Gawd, I'll be chomping at the bit!

Tristram

Very well done! My favorite show on TV the last while.

Gingervitis

The only problem or two I may have with that fecking brilliant finale:
1, The bomb doesn't blow the first time (acceptable I know, with Brody being manhandled into the panic room) still a bit of a deus ex machina.

More importantly 2. That they're gonna throw in an amnesia plotline that's gonna frustrate the hell out of me in season 2. They'll play it out, she'll remember eventually - then what? She's blackballed from the CIA; Saul will listen to her, sure, but any investigation will have to be entirely off the radar.

I noticed that Damian Lewis hadn't been confirmed to be returning for the second season, which was a very smart move in relation to the plot. In an age of internet trawling for spoilers and gossip, the finale didn't deserve to be spoiled in knowing whether Brody carried out the attack or not.

One thing I noticed on the Onion AV club review of Homeland is very true: by keeping Brody in the picture, they've avoided having to introduce a new villain for the second season - a tactic which has successively proved to be a bad one if you consider 3 out of the last 4 seasons of Dexter...(the less said the better).

Not to sound like a fanboy, but this show needs more attention. Gripping TV, and a cast at the top of their game. I would suspect either Claire Danes' previous episode or Damian Lewis' bunker scene would give Bryan Cranston a run for his money when the Emmys roll around...

mewso

Great series, good finale but I'm a bit disappointed really. The idea of dragging this into a second series and beyond will have diminishing returns I feel. Not to mention how much drama can we have now with a villain who has no plan to kill anyone just "influence policy" and a possible 12 episode recovery period for the hero? With no tangible terrorist plan then it may just concentrate on exposing the vice pres. which has far less appeal to me. Colour me impressed but concerned about the future.

ktulu123

Best new show on TV by far! Just watched the finale, class! The nurse at the end should be shot!

MagicMarker

expectationlost wrote: »

the purposely dropped a bomb on his compound and the president went on tv to talk about, they are not going to forget it.

Are you happy now?

expectationlost

MagicMarker wrote: »

Are you happy now?

not really they didn't really explain how they wouldn't know about it, or match the data of the bombing of 82 kids with his fallow period, again its what I talked about when I first started watching about these cia guys being in a bubble.

The Black Oil

Yes, quite brilliant, I thought. I almost automatically clicked into this thread just after 7 this morning, glad I didn't just in case.

After last week I looked up Lewis on IMDB and it lists him as being involved in another series. That didn't really sway me any particular about whether or not he'd survive here.

I had a thought this morning, before watching, that maybe POTUS wasn't the real target, but if he was meeting some Saudi prince or some such and that Abu Nazir wanted to take out, with the president being a bonus, rather than a general 'fcuk you' to America. Surely the Secret Service would be quite edgy given that the POTUS and VPOTUS are essentially on lockdown and Brody's war hero status shouldn't give him an automatic pass and particularly nowadays, they would be alert to threats from suicide bombers, but Walker opened the door.

Re Carrie, you'd have to wonder about next series…The ECT scene was pretty tough going. Gingervitis, I think your second point is a very fair one. Can they really stretch the Lewis thing for another 12 episodes?

I mentally punched the air when the vest didn't detonate (can you imagine if we had that as a cliffhanger? Probably would have been knocked as a cop out), not because he didn't die, but because for a split second, it completely pulled me in and threw the tension out of whack, for me anyway. Also, the whole scene with closeups on Brody (and I think some later on), was just really well-done.

Later on you knew he'd go looking for the video card memory at the dead drop - is it definitely gone?

Towards the end I was scrambling to think of who was the standout, my money's on Patinkin. Also, the actress playing Dana did a really good job when Carrie came to the house (scene fizzled out a little once the police arrived and threw the bracelets on Carrie) later when she was speaking to Brody. Earlier on, before Brody said grace, I thought she might say something about the present for Jessica at the dinner table.

Best line - 'Good God, somebody actually came up with that language'.

MagicMarker

expectationlost wrote: »

not really they didn't really explain how they wouldn't know about it, or match the data of the bombing of 82 kids with his fallow period, again its what I talked about when I first started watching about these cia guys being in a bubble.

They didn't know because it was covered up.

crushproof

I knew the bomb wouldn't go off....but naturally enough deep down I was hoping it would, and really it should have. Or at least someone would have noticed, I doubt anyway would get out of a locked down area without being searched or scanned in one way or another.
And gah!!! Those last words before the electro.... not a hope now she's gonna remember.
No idea what's in store for season 2, hopefully it doesn't delve deep into Congress politics and stays focused on the CIA, Saul and Carrie.... although I'm not quite sure what role she'll have to play, unless of course she goes and works for the Germans or French!

TwoShedsJackson

mewso wrote: »

Great series, good finale but I'm a bit disappointed really. The idea of dragging this into a second series and beyond will have diminishing returns I feel. Not to mention how much drama can we have now with a villain who has no plan to kill anyone just "influence policy" and a possible 12 episode recovery period for the hero? With no tangible terrorist plan then it may just concentrate on exposing the vice pres. which has far less appeal to me. Colour me impressed but concerned about the future.

It was a really good finale to a great series. Why worry about what happens in the second season and whether or not they can keep it up, trust the writers until they prove they can no longer do it I say...

mewso

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

It was a really good finale to a great series. Why worry about what happens in the second season and whether or not they can keep it up, trust the writers until they prove they can no longer do it I say...

Concern for the direction a series might take is not the same as any real concerns I have I like to speculate about where a series might go. The fact that Brody didn't either get caught or go through with his plan was a dissappointment to me. I give the series full credit for everything else.

pH

To me Homeland sums up what is all wrong with US TV - it was well acted, well made and yet lacking a coherent story or plot.

Utterly predictable, a plot holes only an idiot could ignore, with no balls to actually deal with any of the real issues about terrorism on US soil - when given an option in the plot the writers take the "Sunday TV movie" way out - even worse no "story" can ever be told because there couldn't be any other reason for making 12 episodes of TV except to get another 12 episodes made next year could there?

So the plot for season one seems to be summed up as "one woman on the verge of mental collapse beats the rest of the CIA in figuring stuff out, yet still can't actually achieve anything and instead everything turns out fine because of a bit of faulty wiring".

TwoShedsJackson

mewso wrote: »

Concern for the direction a series might take is not the same as any real concerns I have I like to speculate about where a series might go. The fact that Brody didn't either get caught or go through with his plan was a dissappointment to me. I give the series full credit for everything else.

Well he fully intended to go through with it as we saw in the bunker, yes it was a bit of a deus ex machina that he failed but they knew they had a second series at that point and wanted him back.

The series was head and shoulders above anything I else I saw on US TV this year.

So the plot for season one seems to be summed up as "one woman on the verge of mental collapse beats the rest of the CIA in figuring stuff out, yet still can't actually achieve anything and instead everything turns out fine because of a bit of faulty wiring".

This is far more realistic than what would normally happen on US tv, the series showed that powerful people will usually get away with the **** they do and there is very little the lower ranks can do about it.

Normally Carrie would have been redeemed in the last episode and it would have been all 'oh you were right all along, congrats!!' here they set it up for redemption and then tossed her off the edge. You don't see that too often.

I didn't find it predictable by usual tv standards.

stevenmu

pH wrote: »

So the plot for season one seems to be summed up as "one woman on the verge of mental collapse beats the rest of the CIA in figuring stuff out, yet still can't actually achieve anything and instead everything turns out fine because of a bit of faulty wiring".

Don't forget that he was still going to go through with the attack after fixing the wire, until the daughter rang him after being prompted by Carrie.

Another way to sum up the plot could be "woman destroys career and sanity to prevent a terrorist attack, but doesn't even get to know that she succeeded. No one else even believes that the attack was to take place, and the terrorist is still on the loose and positioning himself with the highest levels of government".

donnacha

really enjoyed that - as others have pointed out, if you haven't got around to watching this then you are missing the best new us series.

so much to look forward to in series 2 - where are the leaks within the cia and other agencies coming from, what did walker do with the video card or will abu nazir use this to force brodys hand to do more than just influence the presidential candidate, dana I'm sure is going to play a big role now that she knows brody converted to islam (that scene with her on the phone to brody was compelling viewing). not sure how the carrie role will play out next year - claire danes is one hell of an actress - for those who haven't seen her golden globe performance then check out the hbo movie temple grandin.

The Pontiac

This series could have be so good. Great acting bar Claire Danes, who was totally unconvincing as a CIA agent. Sol and the other CIA agents were excellent. Broody's family were also superb, especially the daughter.

The writing was excellent and the plot was good and believable up to a point. That point being when Walker came 'back from the dead'. Like you could believe one marine had been 'turned', but the two of them?

It just got more ridiculous as the series went on. The finale was just Hollywood bull****e.

Imagine if some-one like Sonja Sohn (Greggs from The Wire) had played the part of Carrie? I know Carrie was suffering from bi-polar, and this was important to the plot, but thought she went totally overboard.

I guess this is why The Wire is a modern day classic. You forget you're watching a TV series, as everything is so realistic. I felt this for the first few episodes of Homeland only.

The Black Oil

Hollywood bull? Was it directed by Michael Bay or sentimental twaddle from Mr. Spielberg?

Anyone who doubts Danes' acting chops should watch Temple Grandin. I'll grant you that she did perhaps stream a bit of TGesque mannerisms in episode 11 of Homeland, but I don't buy the overacting or unconvincing thing at all. I don't think there are many examples of main character female CIA agents on the small screen, if so, I'm happy to about about one as a point of comparison. There seems to be this whole mystique about the CIA agents that people buy into.

I'd be interested to see how the series went down the States. I can only imagine parts of the nutty American right talking about how unAmerican it is for daring to tell its the story in the way that it has and for not conforming to the Jack Bauer model. Mind you, the same idiots will probably seize on elements of The Dark Knight Rises trailer as being socialist propaganda.

Elohim

What an episode! I was gripped from start to finish.

Awesome plan to get Brody into the bunker, lucky the VP doesn't get his own private safe room but I can let that slide.

jcf

The writers pussied out ..... and whats the point of showing us at the end that
she remembered but then gets her head fried ?? surely she should have stopped it and got up ? - then an ending ... now she won't remember in S2 and it will be another 6 seasons of her chasing him ...

jcf

<Ollie> wrote: »

This series could have be so good. Great acting bar Claire Danes, who was totally unconvincing as a CIA agent. Sol and the other CIA agents were excellent. Broody's family were also superb, especially the daughter.

The writing was excellent and the plot was good and believable up to a point. That point being when Walker came 'back from the dead'. Like you could believe one marine had been 'turned', but the two of them?

It just got more ridiculous as the series went on. The finale was just Hollywood bull****e.

Imagine if some-one like Sonja Sohn (Greggs from The Wire) had played the part of Carrie? I know Carrie was suffering from bi-polar, and this was important to the plot, but thought she went totally overboard.

I guess this is why The Wire is a modern day classic. You forget you're watching a TV series, as everything is so realistic. I felt this for the first few episodes of Homeland only.

Exactly - I really thought the writers were above this "saved just intime bull****" - about to press the switch and then his daughter calls ??

if the writers had BALLS he would have hung up and detonated - that would surprise the viewers, I could see it coming, also could see Nasir getting him to kill Walker a mile off ...

Biggins

Elohim wrote: »

What an episode! I was gripped from start to finish.

Awesome plan to get Brody into the bunker, lucky the VP doesn't get his own private safe room but I can let that slide.

Youi can bet in real life, the real VP will now! :pac:

pH

jcf wrote: »

Exactly - I really thought the writers were above this "saved just intime bull****" - about to press the switch and then his daughter calls ??

if the writers had BALLS he would have hung up and detonated - that would surprise the viewers, I could see it coming, also could see Nasir getting him to kill Walker a mile off ...

Because they'd written themselves into a corner, can't kill the main character, can't have him blowing people up, and certainly can't exclude the possibility to "series 2".

The more I think about it, Homeland really is up there in silliness with 24, which is fine, 24 was fine in a dumb-US-TV kind of way, silly flawed heroes and cartoon character "baddies", with an improbable and senseless story, and multiple plot holes - but the fact that some people are putting this show on a pedestal seems crazy to me.