Review: HOMELAND 1.1 - Pilot

I’m actually watching this show on catch up, I read a review on the pilot episode and thought I ought to give it a look.  I have to say I am really impressed with this show and if the Pilot is anything to go on then I think cable network Showtime may well have another hit on their hands here.

The show starts with a US Marine raid on an Iraqi Compound, there they find a locked room, being the curious type they decide to take a look and stumble upon a US marine Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) who went missing in action (MIA) 8 years earlier and is presumed dead, he is sent back to the US with a heroes welcome in store one problem though.  CIA operative Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) formally worked in Iraq and remembers some Intel one of her sources gave her that an American marine had been turned and was now working for a terrorist named Abu Nazir.

Mathison tries to convince her commanding officer, deputy CIA director David Estes (David Harewood) that they should be monitoring the activities of Brody especially after the intelligence she received.  Estes won’t help nor will Mathison’s most trusted friend Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin), all she can do not is set up her own illegal surveillance in the home of the war hero.

Being MIA for 8 years and presumed dead brings it’s own problems for Sgt Brody, who returns home to his wife and children, his wife Jessica Brody (Morena Baccarin) has moved on with her life and is now sleeping with his best friend Mike (Diego Klattenhoff), his two children Dana (Morgan Saylor) and Chris (Jackson Pace) have not seen him for so long and remember hardly anything about him.  That should bring us some good tense moments during the series, his wife clearly does not love him anymore we saw that when his torture scars where unveiled to her, que loveless one sided sex (he hasn’t had any for 8 years) and crying.  Brody isn’t stupid though he knows something is going on, he just needs to figure out what.

Will Brody turn out to be dirty and working for a terrorist group as Mathison thinks?  Maybe, all the flashback we have seen up to now are of Brody or his marine colleague being tortured.  Only problem is when his colleague is getting tortured or beaten to death it’s Brody who is doing the beating.  Is that because he was under threat?  Or have they turned him as Mathison expects?  He has already lied a couple of times since his arrival back on US soil, firstly to his wife saying he was stuck in Virginia being questioned by the CIA, when really he was meeting up with his former colleagues widow to tell her what had happened.  He also lied to Mathison about knowing who the terrorist in the picture was, why?  Does he know more?  Or is he a double agent?

The show is written by the people who brought us 24, so in that case you would expect it to be this good, they have delivered big time in my opinion.  The show is gripping, it has a great concept and shows some real potential that will keep us glued for however many episodes they churn out (10 at the moment).  The stories which could come up look great and the cast were all brilliant in this opening sequence, I can’t wait to catch up with more of Homeland.