Homeland

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 (2011-10-06) (less) (more)