S01E07 "The Weekend" Promo

Carrie and Brody spend a weekend together... Mike and Jessica talk about feelings. Saul is behind Aileen.

Homeland: Opening Title

Opening Title of Homeland (Showtime)

When I think of an opening title review, I do it two ways, the conscious and the unconscious, to say the least, the cinematic and the information that’s coming along the way with that, meaning reading between the lines and not just literally watching, but going underneath and thinking about the metaphor.

The cinematic of Homeland’s opening title is undeniable. In it you can see a sequence of photographs and short videos, between 55 and 65 shots of plenty information of the show. On one side, you have Claire Danes’s character since she was a child in front of the tv, probably listening to the radio, perhaps reading papers, hearing her parents talk about the news, whatever it is, you mention it, you just get to see how we are constantly bombarded from all of these mass communication medias that are trying to control our lives and define what we should think, she is just standing there in the middle of all that happening around her, to grow old with the idea of stopping anything bad from happening.

You see many representative characters that whisper in her ears what’s going on, talking about terrorism and adding adjectives to it and implying that it must be stopped at any cost; buildings blowing up; chaos all around; people running and screaming; how the Army, National Guard, all the Intelligence Agencies are constantly watching…

On the other side, we have this massive labyrinth which could literally mean the world we live in, and then inside it we have the two main characters, Carrie and Brody, that somehow will meet up, that somehow their choices in life will make them turn over and confront each other in one, two, three, countless opportunities; and could probably mean that they are going to be playing cat and mouse, so one of them is going to be chasing the another one, or they both will play cat a the same time without knowing it.

I look at this Opening Title and I think about as a group of images that summarize the entire show. Claire being molded and programmed into this perfect  counterterrorism machine (whom in fact is far from perfection in her private life and makes decisions based on her judgment and listens to nobody) that will protect her homeland and Brody being labeled as a POW that will remain living behind that and could probably be lying at some point… Who knows? And there exactly is the beauty, you have hints everywhere but you will never be sure of any of that because they have managed to keep us thinking and not making up our minds about anything.

The most intriguing line that I find interesting in the title and line of which completely matches Carrie’s goal is: “I’m just making sure we don’t get hit again”. The point of the title is so we can get to know more of the show, and yet again we are introduced to tons of Carrie’s info, her growing up and her intentions, but we do not know of Brody, he is a big, massive, gigantic question mark. We know nothing about his previous life (previous life I mean before he was captured), how he was, why did he become a Marine, his interests… We know nothing! And there is revealed nothing! Nothing! It is somehow disturbing that he is so likeable and so dangerous at the same time, which makes him so appealing to Carrie and to us, because we get to know him as soon as she is discovering his game.

Carrie and Brody: opening title (Showtime)

Opening titles are and will always mean the world to a tv show and you can immediately like or dislike forever a series by it, and in the case of Homeland, it’s exactly the same, so if you think that it’s disturbing, well it is; if you think that it’s lame, well I tell you: look at it again and again…

S01E06 "The Good Soldier" Clips

Clips of "The Good Soldier"
CLIP 1
Helen is talking on his ex-husband Corporal Thomas Walker's Memorial, and she invites Brody to come on over and talk, meanwhile he's having flashbacks form when he was in captivity and was told to torture Thomas.

CLIP 2

Carrie and Saul talk about having Brody in the list of the people who is going to be tested by the polygraph.

S01E06 "The Good Soldier" Promo

CIA orders that everyone that went down to see Brody's torturer should be polygraphed, even himself, so Carrie will use this opportunity to question him.

Favourite Promo of Homeland

This simple and at the same time so intriguing video, is my favourite promo ever. There you have, in just a few seconds, what the tv show is about. You have two main characters, Carrie (left) and Brody (right), both swearing, looking at you in the eye and telling you honestly that they are going to protect the Nation, the constitution at any cost and yet, one of them is lying... Or not...

Carrie Vs. Brody

Carrie (left) and Brody (right) [Showtime]

The two main characters of Homeland, Nicholas Brody and Carrie Mathison, share more than this description, simply because both of them are playing pretend, toying with the idea of being somebody else so they can be classified as “normal”.

So next question is: what is Normal?

Normal: Conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; approximately average in any psychological trait, as intelligence, personality, or emotional adjustment; free from any mental disorder; sane; free from any disease or from experimental therapy or manipulation.

In order to understand, how many of those do actually fit our characters? Can you see what I mean? Most of the qualities that we love about Carrie and Brody are exactly out of normal, out of the ordinary, and that’s what we find so appealing about them, otherwise they would fit right in the mind of the average population, and if that happens, why would we watch Homeland?

Carrie

Some people find Carrie annoying, but she’s exactly the opposite; Carrie is chasing her goal: see that nothing happens, and that just ironically leads to Brody, because she honestly believes that he is a threat to the Nation’s safety.

In terms of projecting her persona, Carrie is pretending to fit into this huge normal society box, why? I can think about a good reason: Pills and psychotic disorder, we know nothing about her illness, just that her father has the same, and that if it’s known, she’s out of the CIA, so it’s a bad idea to go around and scream out loud about it.

Another interesting aspect about Carrie is that she never talks about herself, and that’s pretty much because she has nobody to talk to, she is not surrounded with people that can understand her nor even match her insane way of resolving things; she’s got followers (Virgil) or Boss (Estes). Not even Saul knows the worst of her; meaning that Carrie has this secret and very dark whole that needs to be kept buried… All I’m wondering is what happens if she stops taking the pills? Can she be worse and fill into the black spot of unknowing her true self?

Carrie is a mystery. I don’t know if what she is portraying is real.

Brody

All I can think about is: 8 years in captivity… Al-Qaeda… 8 years…  Al-Qaeda… 8 years… Al-Qaeda…

Next is: How can somebody act that normal after going through that? Answer is: Nobody can.

We are starting to see this character’s erratic behavior cracking up but very slowly, he is a smart guy and knows how to blend in.

Brody is reflecting some of his experiences during captivity through his relationship with Jessica, so what is she doing? She is trying to be there for the sake of her family, giving him space; working on reunite the Brody’s, and even cut off her relationship with Mike, which I’m not sure if Brody knows for certain or not.

Brody is a big question mark. He is a freaking POW and he is like rejecting that status, somehow fighting it; he shows nothing, talks to nobody, opens up to anybody… And that leads me to believe that he is indeed hiding something, what that is I don’t know.

We’ve had glimpses of something going wrong when he shot the reindeer, and because he is surely not comfortable around too many people, and not to mention his sexual encounters with Jessica.

So the thing is, Carrie is pretending, Brody is pretending… When are we going to see what’s behind?

Season 2 of Homeland is on the way!

Very good news! Homeland Fans we are getting a season 2 of our great show! Showtime has picked up Homeland for another season of 12 new episodes of one hour.

We are going to have the chance to see more of Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) and find out whis is the hero and the threat!

Showtime says that the show is getting more are more viewers every week which demonstrates that the audience  is clearly interested, so we are confident they will return to watch a next season.

News on Twitter:
@SHO_Liz So excited to announce that #Homeland has been picked up for Season 2!! (Showtime PR)

Homeland is currently Showtime's highest  rated freshman series ever! So we are delighted to get another season!

Want to congratulate Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa and Gideon Raff for creating such fantastic show and interesting characters.

S01E05 "Blind Spot" Clips

Clips of "Blind Spot"
CLIP 1
Carrie shows Brody the single guy who survived and he says that was his torturer.

CLIP 2
Carrie makes Saul to let her break into the house of the guy who bought it with the stolen necklace.

Meet the characters: Nicholas Brody

Nicholas Brody (Showtime)

Name: Nicholas Brody.

Age: UKN.

Date of birth: UKN.

Town and Country: UKN, United States.

Status: Married to Jessica Brody.

Children: Dana and Chris Brody.

Affiliation: United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper. Actual rank is Sergeant.

Current Work: Brody is not working as a military at the moment because he was recently brought back home from captivity.

Work experience: It’s unknown when Sergeant Brody joined the Marines, but it is believed that he’s been serving for quite some time.

Brody served as a Scout Sniper USMC in Iraq when he was captured in early 2003 near the Syrian border along with his partner Corporal Thomas Walker. He was taken to a facility outside Damascus where he was help prisoner for eight years.

During those eight years, Brody was tortured, mistreated, beaten up, burned up, and clearly suffered from undernourishment.

Profile: Brody, as a former Prisoner of War held in custody by an enemy power during an armed conflict, hides everything away from people, locking up behind doors all his feelings to his closest persons, his family.

He is been having harsh flashbacks from when he was held prisoner, which makes him struggle with reality sometimes and cause him to do specific methods in order to be or feel more comfortable with his current position. A perfect example is when he needs to sit in the corner of the room to feel some sort of safety; or when he embraced Islamic customs and practices them in secrecy.

POWs try to act normal, so he is not the exception. He tries very hard to keep an outdoor face so nobody ever asks him ‘how are you’.  This is extraordinary to watch because he let go in the shape of mistreating his family, specially his wife Jessica, as if he was punishing them at every opportunity that he has. Yet again, nobody said it was going to be easy…

In order to know more about Brody, there needs to be a comparison of how he is before he was captured and how he is now. Pre POW is happy, distressful, enjoying his life as a married couple with Jessica, living with his children, going to school plays and so on; meaning that they were at their best as a young married couple. Post POW is what we are watching now, complex character, hard to read, unconventional behavior, erratic decisions… All answers that he is not what he’s showing us and is hiding something, or on the contrary he is just another POW trying to survive, trying to adapt.

Perceptions of Environment and People: Nick, very clearly, doesn’t feel safe anywhere. He is always with his guard up and studies everything without exception.

Family: Spouse is Jessica Brody. Children are Dana and Chris Brody. There has been no mention to other family members.

Interpersonal Relationships: It is clear that Brody has issues with communicating his true feelings to his closest circle; in fact he tries hard to cover them up, and just sometimes we can actually see him for what he is.

Jessica is his wife, but just by name, because she is backed off when he has needed her; so they have a weird relationship, as if they are some strangers that find themselves living together, and that is normal regarding their special situation, he is a POW and she believed that he was dead, so they have to meet up again, know each other personalities, likes, dislikes, fears, interests…

Brody and Jessica have had a few frustrating sexual encounters, and this has stayed deep in her mind, plus he is not talking about anything to her, only superficial conversations, causing her to believe that he needs serious help.

Apart from his wife, Brody has been dealing with his children. Dana and Chris show different positions. Dana is coping well with the idea of having her dad back home, even changing her relationship with her mother. On the other hand, Chris is scared of Brody, and I believe that it has to do with the fact that he doesn’t remember him at all, so he has nothing to relate with.

Overall Review

There’s a big question mark around this character because we really don’t know what to think about him not to mention we know absolutely nothing about him. We are actually discovering things regarding him in the same way the other characters do on a regular basis, day by day, actions, how he speaks, behave, his tone when he’s talking, way he reacts to people… Meaning it is going to take a while when we get him since he shows very little, which makes him very irresistible to us.

Meet the characters: Carrie Mathison

Carrie Mathison (Showtime)

Name: Carrie Mathison.

Age: 32.

Date of birth: April 5, 1979.

Town and Country: Maryland, United States.

Status: Single.

Academic: Bachelor’s Degree in Near East Studies and Linguistics from Northwestern University. Arabic and Farsi at the American University of Beirut. Summa Cum Laude from Princeton University with a BA in Arabic Languages and Literatures.

Current Work: CIA Agent. Counterterrorism Unit. Status: Active Intelligence Officer.

Work Experience: Carrie Mathison joined the CIA on 1999, being trained by her current mentor Saul Berenson, with whom she is still close.

She worked in Bagdad, Iraq to gather Intel for the CIA. During this period of time, she was trying to find something against Abu Nazir, the worst terrorist in the world, when she caused an international incident by sneaking into a prison to talk to one of her contacts about Nazir, which led her to nothing at that time because Ibrahim only got to tell her: “An American Prisoner of War has been turned”.

For the past 10 months she’s been working behind a desk in the CIA headquarters, and the orders came directly from Estes, because he didn’t want her to cause anymore problems.

She is currently studying Nicholas Brody because she believes that he is a turned Prisoner or War.

Profile: Agent Mathison is, secretly, under medication, specifically antipsychotics which are a tranquilizing med primarily used to manage psychosis, particularly schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Situation of which probably supports the theory that she has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder tendencies.

Adjustment Level and Major Need: The main concern for Carrie is her surrounding and her obsessive need to control things around her so she knows what’s happening to gain her main goal, incriminate and prove that Brody was in fact turned to attack the US form the inside following abroad instructions. That way she develops a big shield to battle her strong feeling of loneliness and unhappiness that are carefully hidden inside of this complex character.

Perceptions of Environment and People:  Carrie does not view her surrounding as a safe place at all. Doubts everything that comes along and studies every detail of everything before making any decision, knowing in advance that can and will change what’s going on.

Family: Father is Frank Mathison. He has the same disorder of Carrie. Sister is Maggie Mathison. A nurse who illegally provides her with the medication to treat her illness. Nieces Ruby and Josie. Loves them deeply.

Interpersonal Relationships: It is evident that Carrie has problems initiating and, above all, maintaining long term relationships. In addition, she is going through some sort of sexual anxiety which causes her to have sex with total strangers, meaning one night stands.

Overall Review

Very interesting and intriguing character played by the talented Claire Danes. The thing about Carrie is that we can't actually be a step ahead; she is very intuitive and not quite predictable, which is what I love most about this character.

Carrie Mathison is a fascinating woman, not only because she is a kick ass CIA agent, she also speaks her mind, stands for her beliefs, very intelligent, keen senses, accurate skills that make her the owner of some high-class and complex way of seeing things that nobody else can, reason why she not quite loved in the Bureau.