Review: HOMELAND 6.12 - Marine One Season Finale

Well, as far as finale’s go you do have to admit that Homeland’s was one of the best, the show has not let up once during it's entire debut season with excellent acting from all involved, great story telling, great action and a plot which expanded so well that Showtime now have another Dexter style mega hit on their hands, if you hadn’t noticed already then I thought this is quite possibly the best 90 minutes of TV I have seen this year, I don’t watch, well haven’t caught up with the latest Breaking Bad just yet remember?  I have often said that Homeland is tough going, you could liken it to The Killing, only this show is so much better as it has a bit of everything.  The action may not be explosive week on week, it wasn’t even explosive for 90 minutes of this finale but the story and plot are so intense that you simply can not take your eyes off the screen for a moment.

It has often been talked about how the writers planned to make this show span more than one season, some people even argued that it would have been just as good in a miniseries, I’ve no doubt it would because the writers involved here are so clever in the way in which they story has been told/revealed that it could have worked in any format even more so with the actors who have been involved right from the off.  It is now clear where season 2 will be taking us, we know that Nick Brody (Damien Lewis) is definitely prepared to kill himself for Abu Nazir, the only thing stopping him here was the fact the vest failed first time around, he did fix it but was talked down by his daughter. 

What we do now know is that it was never Abu Nazir’s plan to have Brody make his way into government, he is getting the chance to run for Congress a decision he has made with the help of his family and a shrewd move really as this means that he will probably not have to go through with killing himself as he is a trusted aid of the Vice President and can grant access to places where Nazir’s men would not have gotten near.  That ultimately saved his life in the finale and although his vest malfunctioned he still has blood on his hands after he shot Tom Walker to prove his dedication to Abu Nazir.

Not only was Lewis sublime in his acting of these scene but the way the phone call from his daughter came across was brilliant.  Carrie (Claire Danes) had got to his daughter Dana (Morgan Saylor) and told her what her father was about to do, she didn’t believe her but was already uneasy about the fact her father was attending the function with the Vice President, she has noticed a stark change in her fathers behaviour of late and although not knowing what he was up to she has had her suspicions that something was up.

The acting has been great from all involved like I said above, not only Lewis and Danes but also Mandy Pantikin (Saul Bresnan), Morena Baccarin (Jessica Brody) and young Morgan Saylor (Dana Brody).  We have known right from the off about Carrie’s bipolar disorder but the writers really brought it back to bite her in the last couple of episodes, to the point that it now looks like she will loose her job with the CIA, although she even admits that she is acting “crazy” she is actually right about Brody but no one wants to make out that the all American war hero and honourable family man running for Congress would ever turn on his country.

I really can’t wait for the second season of this show, if they can keep up the pace they have in the first season and can make the story as interesting then Dexter and Homeland will be winning Sunday nights again come next September.