Belated Thoughts on Homeland, Season 1

Yep, a year late, but worth the wait. While we get most American programs up here, not all Showtime and few FX shows are shown when they are in US.  So, I have to either hope that they eventually show up or get the DVDs.  So, I am fully invested, for instance, in Justified. 

So, a few thoughts on Homeland beyond the break.



Overall, the acting was great, the tension was certainly amped up, and it was an interesting tale.  Besides being distracted from time to time by Damian Lewis's prior role as Dick Winters in Band of Brothers, the other big, big distraction was the bad politics:

1. The Brody family just happens to live in the district with the Congressman who is forced to resign.  Maybe I missed the tradecraft that forced him--I was confusing the guy with a character in The Americans (so far, one episode of that, not sure if I will get more than that for a while).
2. More importantly, the VP keeps saying things that suggest that the current President is doing poorly.  That we need to do better on the war on terror and take things more seriously and so on.  But he is VP, so the President's record is his record.  VPs have to run on the record of the Presidents they serve.  May suck sometimes but really cannot run away from the President too much.  Just ask Al Gore.
3. Finally, there is NO WAY that the Joint Chiefs or any subset of them would attend a political event where the VP is announcing is candidacy.  NO WAY. This would have been obvious anyway, but especially after the State of the Union where the Chiefs only stood when the President said nice things about the troops.  The U.S. military does not take sides in U.S. elections.  So, the TV folks decided to amp up the tension/risks/stakes but this was silly.  It would have been enough to have the VP, the next head of the CIA (both responsible for the drone strike), and perhaps the SecDef (again, he was in the video), and a few other celebrities/notables but not the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Please.

Anyhow, there can be much to comment on this show, but I am way late to the game.  I enjoyed running through the series this week and last.  I enjoy Justified more because there is more humor.  I found Mad Men and Breaking Bad to be "better" than Homeland and more Emmy-worth as TV shows, but the acting here was top-notch.

I have heard that season 2 may not have been as good, or that it jumped a terrorist shark or two.  I shall see when it comes out on DVD.