TV Previews: DEXTER 7.3 - Buck the System, HOMELAND 2.3 - State of Independence, REVOLUTION 1.5 - Soul Train

Dexter 7.3 - “Buck the System”

I have been hugely impressed with Dexter since its return to our TV screens a couple of weeks back, last weeks “Sunshine and Frosty Swirl” saw Debra taking on babysitting duties in an attempt to rehabilitate her serial killer brother, of course we knew that would never last and this week Dexter is at breaking point wanting Debra to back off before something bad happens, I can only presume he means him killing her as apposed to drugging her food. “Buck the System” looks like another great instalment with Louis getting creepier than ever and Dexter's new love interest Hanna (Yvonne Strahovski) joining the cast.

Homeland 2.3 – “State of Independence”

If you didn’t see Homeland last week then boy did you miss a treat, that reveal at the end with Saul Bresnan finding out that his paranoid partner Carrie had been right about the loyalties of Sgt Nick Brody all along, wow. This show really is brilliant but so far I’m not really feeling the need to write about it every week (think I’ll leave that to real writers). This week’s “State of Independence" like all the other shows looks like a brilliant episode which can’t be missed as the net will surely be closing in on Brody, but, where does the story go from here?

Revolution 1.5 “Soul Train”

You may remember from my review of “The Plague Dogs” that I have a new found desire to watch this show, it delivered its best episode yet as far as story line and character development goes with the previous episode. The story of Miles Matheson was one of those stories that was looking continually promising as the group made their way across America in search of Danny Matheson, currently being held captor by Militia Captain Tom Neville. “Soul Train” looks like it will be delivering that story line a little further as Neville and Miles Matheson come face to face in what looks like another classy episode of Revolution which will be packed with action.

TV Review: HOMELAND - The Smile 2.1

Homeland had one of the most successful first seasons of all time, proved even further last Sunday when it pretty much wiped the boards at this years Emmy Awards, the first season was brilliant, not only in story but the characters, direction and writing involved were also brilliant, again like Dexter and Person of Interest, Homeland’s second season premiere is one of the most highly anticipated in the Fall season, and rightly so. “The Smile” followed straight on from the Dexter premiere to massive audiences and I have to say it did not disappoint, it was brilliant and I probably enjoyed it more than both of the shows which I have mentioned above.

A lot has been said in the summer on how they were going to top the mightily impressive first season, the writing and characters were so brilliant along with stellar performances from Clare Danes and Damien Lewis that things looked like they couldn’t get any better. Now we know or at least have an idea of where the show is going following this premiere and a good look as to why season two of Homeland may well be even better than the first. It was finally confirmed in the last episode of season one that Sgt Nick Brody (Damien Lewis) was a terrorist, although he still stands by his words “I’m not a terrorist” which he reiterated to Abu Nazir’s aid during this opening episode, reminding them that yes he may work for them and is conspiring against the US government but he does not consider what he does to be an act of terror.

It really puts things out there for you this show, why does a US Marine who went to war for his country now have such strong beliefs against them? He is willing to work along side them and provide them with information, but just how far is Sgt Brody willing to go? It is his lover of Abu Nazir’s son Issa who was killed during a Drone strike which first got him to start changing his views, but now he has that same pulling effect from home as his daughter Dana who in the first season discovered that her father had converted to Islam, it would seem that she is all for it, and actually wants to learn more about the religion herself.

It really is brilliant story telling, and the development which Dana will have during this season is going to be great, will she be the anchor that stops her father going to far? I guess we will wait and see. We also were left wondering at the end of the first season about how Carrie would become involved this year as last season the CIA sacked her after they found out that she had Bi-polar, pretty sure she would have some sort of employment case there but never mind, it’s by the by. They brought her back into the story brilliantly with a mole recruited by her in Baghdad coming out and wanting to speak with her and only her, the CIA have had no other choice but to bring her back in as the mole is the wife of as high ranking person who’s information may be to good to turn up.

That sparked some great scenes showing that although Carrie is quite prepared to put herself back in the field for the CIA she is nowhere near ready for the level of secrecy and involvement of it all, she really seems on the edge and I’ve no doubt some of her own problems will surface during her time in the field. Clare Danes threw herself back into Emmy spots for next years awards along with Damien Lewis in this opening episode as both where brilliant, the scene with Brody and CIA Director David Estes was very nerve wracking, will he get caught? It’s kind of odd to watch because you want Brody to not get caught. Morrina Baccarin (Brody wife) is also back and learned during this episode that her husband is a Muslim, she went a little mad at that after all her war hero husband is inline to become the next American Vice President, it will be good to see what they do with Jessica’s character this season, all of Carrie’s ranting last year did not go unnoticed and maybe she will start to put the pieces together.

I was really impressed with “The Smile” if you hadn’t guessed that already, I actually was late getting into this show during the first season and found it rather tuff going at first but Homeland has now firmly cemented a place into my weekly TV schedule as a must watch along with Dexter and Person of Interest, only thing left now is to see which one of the new shows will be joining them.

Weekly TV Previews: Will REVOLUTION Get Any Better? PERSON OF INTEREST Finding Mr Finch, VEGAS and There Back DEXTER Season 7, HOMELAND Season 2

Hello and welcome back to the regular Fall TV season feature here at Movies Music & Television of the weeks TV previews, like always I will preview the next episode of all the shows currently under review here at MM&T as well as the shows which I’m watching but maybe not writing about every week. This is the first one back since last Fall so some shows (Dexter/Homeland) are yet to premiere on their respective networks, there for not to much to give away right now, but we’ll get through what we can, here goes;

Revolution – No Quarter 1.3

Following two episodes of Revolution I’m yet to be enthralled by what’s been on offer, best way to put it, is that in my opinion it’s been mediocre when compared to other works from J.J. Abrams, that’s not say that it can’t get better and in all honesty I hope it does, I touched on the subject in my review of “….” That there are plenty of avenues for the show to go down and hopefully it will do that. In respect of this review, well it does not really give much away other than Miles (Billy Burke) telling Charlie (Tracey Spiridakos) that the futuristic USB stick has the ability to turn the power back on and give the US it’s power back, take a look and let me know what you think.

 

Person of Interest – Bad Code 2.2

It goes without saying that Person of Interest is the best show that J.J. Abrams has on TV right now and the season 2 premiere did not disappoint in any way whatsoever. Reese was back to doing what he does best in kicking ass whilst Finch was off being all mysterious and wisdom like fencing off against computer hacker Root (Amy Acker). It seems that season 2 will deliver action, drama and mystery at the same level and above from what we got during season one and I can’t wait. “Bad Code” sees the hunt for Mr Finch head to Texas and possibly the first opportunity for the Machine to act outside of its usual jurisdiction of New York, amidst the kick ass who thinks Reese will be successful in finding Finch this week?

 

Vegas – Money Plays 1.2

From all of the pilot episodes I have seen so far in this Fall season this one has by far impressed me the most, it delivered a classy first episode which saw a weekly crime procedural mix together what should be a longer running feud between law enforcement and a local Mob boss, I’m hoping the weekly procedural side of things drops like I said in the review and hopefully we concentrate more on the bad guys v good guys side of things. The latest offering from Vegas “Money Pays” looks to continue in the light of the “Pilot”, plenty of kick ass from Dennis Quaid and a weekly procedural, I don’t mind that to much if like Person of Interest they can keep the focus on the main story behind the characters, take a look at the preview. 

 

Dexter – Are You…? 7.1

Without doubt the biggest returning show of the Fall season is Dexter, hype has been building since last December when Dexter Morgan plunged his knife into the chest of Travis Marshall’s chest, only to be caught by his sister and Miami Metro Lieutenant Debra Morgan, finally part of Dexter’s secret is out but now Dexter must fight even harder to stay one step ahead of Miami Metro and more importantly his sister, who can never find out the full truth behind Miami’s best blood spatter expert. Being the first episode I can’t find a direct trailer for the episode but this is the latest preview available from three days ago, enjoy.

Homeland – The Smile 2.1

Homeland was without doubt the biggest new drama to hit screens last Fall, from start to finish it was brilliant, it had you constantly guessing, is Nick Brody (Damien Lewis) a terrorist? Or is CIA Agent Carrie (Clare Danes) as crazy as everyone thinks she is? The question was answered during the season 1 finale when Sgt Brody was preparing to blow up the US President and a roomful of his representatives, of course he didn’t go through with it but now he has an even bigger position of power, spurred on terrorist Abu Nazir, Sgt Brody is now a US Congressman with an influential voice in US politics. Again like Dexter I don’t have a trailer for the first episode but this latest teaser really promises that Homeland will once again be hard hitting and possibly even better than season one.

 

Returning TV Shows Fall 2012, DEXTER, HOMELAND, PERSON OF INTEREST and THE WALKING DEAD, What Will I Be Reviewing?

As you probably know there really has not been to much on TV lately, in the last three weeks that would be largely due to the Olympics, fair play but some TV would have been nice. If you read this blog often then you’ll know that I have been occupying myself with some box sets, first up was Dexter season 2, which was brilliant and then I have been watching Breaking Bad's second season, which was also brilliant. Thing is were are coming towards September now and you know what that means, good TV will be back with all of our regular favourites, here I want to give you an indication of what you can expect to see from Movies Music & Television during the Fall TV schedule of returning shows, what I will be watching and what I will be reviewing. I will review all of the returning season premieres, but from there I discuss below what I may continue with.

Dexter – Season 7 (Showtime, Sunday’s @9pm) – Premiere September 30^th

It goes without saying really that I will be covering Dexter, if you read this blog often then you know its one of my favourite shows on TV, I didn’t watch the first four seasons but I’m looking to make up for that and have already watched seasons one and two, I am thinking now that we are getting pretty close to the season 7 premiere so maybe I’ll just leave seasons three and four so I can assure my weekly Dexter fix once season seven wraps. Season 6 was not one of the best for Dexter but I still really enjoyed it, especially the ending where Debra caught her adoptive brother plunging his knife into the chest of The Doomsday Killer Travis Marshall (Colin Hanks). I will be reviewing every episode of Dexter season 7, so subscribe to make sure you don’t miss out.

Dexter season 6 reviews

6.1 – Those Kinds of Things

6.2 – Once Upon a Time

6.3 – Smokey and the Bandit

6.4 – A Horse of a Different Colour

6.5 – The Angel of Death

6.6 – Just Let Go

6.7 - Nebraska

6.8 – Sin of Omission

6.9 – Get Gellar

6.10 – Ricochet Rabbit

6.11 – Talk To the Hand

6.12  - This is the way The World Ends

Homeland – Season 2 (Showtime, Sunday’s @10pm) – Premiere September 30^th

Homeland is a show which I really enjoyed and during it’s first season I watched and reviewed most episodes, it’s hard to pick a favourite but the finale was brilliant watching protagonist Brody (Damien Lewis) come full circle ready to blow up the US President, he didn’t go through with it of course and it now looks like he is going to run for office which will see Homeland’s second season take more of a political angle, I don’t mind that but I wouldn’t say its really what I look for in a TV show, as far as Homeland goes you can be sure I will be watching every episode but I’m thinking that maybe this is going to be a season premiere review, a possible mid-season and the season finale, unless of course it is really great and I feel the need to write about it every week.

Homeland season 1 reviews

1.1 - Pilot

1.3 – Clean Skin

1.4 – Semper I

1.5 - Blindspot

1.7 – The Weekend

1.8 –Achilles Heel

1.9 - Crossfire

1.10 – Representative Brody

1.11 – The Vest

Person of Interest – Season 2 (CBS, Thursday’s @10pm) – Premiere September 27^th

Again, Person of Interest is a given, I will be watching and reviewing every single episode of this great show. Some people I heard of gave up on Mr’s Reese and Finch about three or four episodes in, all I can say to that is you should have stuck it out because is quickly became apparent that Person of Interest is not your normal weekly procedural, we now roll into the second season with questions looming large as to who Root is? And what she wants with Mr Finch, and more importantly who was on the other end of that telephone in the season finale closing scene? I’m sure POI will provide us with yet another fun thrilled ride.

1.1  – Pilot

1.2  – Ghosts

1.3  – Mission Creep

1.4   - Cura Te Ipsum

1.5  – Judgement

1.6  – The Fix

1.7  – Witness

1.9  – Get Carter

1.10          – Number Crunch

1.11          – Super

1.12          – Legacy

1.13          – Root Cause

1.14          – Wolf and Cub

1.15          – Blue Code

1.16          – Risk

1.17          – Baby Blue

1.18          – Identity Crisis

1.19          – Flesh and Blood

1.20          – Matsya Nyaya

1.21          – Many Happy Returns

1.22          – No Good Deed

1.23          – Firewall

As for episode 8 which I missed out first time around, I will watch that again when it airs in the UK, following that I will put out the review.

The Walking Dead – Season 3 (ABC, Sunday’s @9pm) – Premiere October 14th

I still have not seen season one of The Walking Dead, but I did really enjoy season two, more so towards the end and during its second stint on TV, this is one of those shows which breaks for the festive period and usually returns around February time, I reviewed a few episodes of the second season including the mightily impressive “Pretty Much Dead Already”, with season 3 I will be reviewing the premiere and then seeing where it goes from there, I will watch them all and hopefully with the introduction of all the new characters there will be something to talk about other than zombies.

The Walking Dead season 2 reviews

2.1 – What Lies Ahead

2.5 – Chupacabra

2.7 – Pretty Much Dead Already

So there is the low down on what I will be watching and reviewing in all of our favourite returning drams this year, I’ll be back tomorrow with a list of new shows coming to TV this fall and I’ll talk there on which ones I will be watching and adding to the weekly reviews, ideally there will be about two.

Review: HOMELAND 1.11 - The Vest

Homeland was good in so many ways this week, but it’s one that I’m not finding to easy to write about.  It was brilliant but as always with Homeland more empathises was placed on the characters rather than the action itself, the show is coming to the critical point with the season 1 finale following Dexter’s next week, we already know that there will be a second season which should also prove to be as much of a powerhouse as this has due to the amount of loose ends to tie up and the fact the CIA are no closer to catching radicalised US Marine Tom Walker.

Little do the CIA know of course that Walker is not their only problem, it was revealed to us about two weeks ago now that Nick Brody is very much a part of Abu Nazir’s plans for an attack on US soil, up to now he has passed everything thrown at him with flying colours and this weeks show focused on the two main characters we have come to know through ten episodes of the show.  Carrie and Nick himself, the pair who were romantically linked mid-season are now heading down very different paths.

It was touched upon at the very beginning of the show that Carrie had bipolar disorder a problem which she self medicated for, that was brought back with a vengeance this week following Carrie being involved in the Blast the week before.  Her long time mentor Saul is amazed to find a very erratic Carrie who is making no sense whilst at the same time working tirelessly on a theory she has developed regarding Abu Nazir’s plans.  Carrie’s weakness became her strength as she came very close to finding out exactly what Nazir’s plans are she also noticed a very long period of inactivity from Nazir, this was the period that he had Brody captive, or at least that’s what they think we know he was living with Nazir teaching his son English.  Carrie has one problem now, the only person who believes her theory during her erratic state of mind is Saul and she has made the mistake of telling Brody, who in turn thinks she is getting far to close for comfort and reports her previous misgivings to CIA Director Estes bringing an end to her little plan.  Her only hope to stop it now would be Virgil, the former CIA agent who does covert non CIA approved ops on her behalf. But we still don’t know weather he can be trusted, remember we are still looking out for a mole.

In the mean time Brody has taken a road trip to Gettysburg giving himself a reminder of what it’s like to be the all American family, it’s all a ploy on his part of course as he was visiting a shop where he was handed a suicide vest by the owner.  His family are non the wiser at this point but his daughter Dana has started to notice that her father is acting a little strange, firstly she captured him on video when they visited Gettysburg, he was just staring into space but then she noticed the parcel he had picked up from the store.  To say that she is not satisfied with the excuse he has given would be an understatement.  What Brody’s mission is with the vest is still unclear, weather it’s a suicide mission for him or weather he has to give it to someone else, Tom Walker maybe.  What ever it is I’m sure we will find out in this Sundays finale.

Other than that there really was not to much going on this week, Brody was treated like a national hero in the diner when people recognised him shook his hand and said that they would vote should he run for office, such is the respect he has earned being a US prisoner of war for 8 years.  That is a story that will surely run into season 2 as I can’t really see them killing off the main character after the first season, can you?  Anyway this was a brilliant character episode with very little action, this weeks finale should prove to be action packed leaving us wanting more from the second season.

Review: HOMELAND 1.10 - Representative Brody

"What do we know, not a lot.  But sometimes in our profession that's enough", Saul Bresnan Homeland.

I’m not really sure where to start with Homeland this week, maybe we’ll start here and see where we end up.  I suppose you can’t expect every episode to have you gripped to the screen and unlike the previous episode “Representative Brody” was not capable of that in my opinion.  It was still good don’t get me wrong but I didn’t enjoy it
as much as I usually would. 

The main story this week was the CIA’s hunt for Tom Walker, the American POW who has been turned by terrorist Abu Nazir, this leads the CIA to Al Sharani (Ramsey Faragallah), a Saudi diplomat who it would seem works for Nazir, although he claims to know nothing about Nazir’s plans and only knows that he has to contact Walker weekly.  This leads to a real good scene in which Carrie (Claire Danes) and Saul (Mandy Pantikin) lured Al Sharani to his bank where he was about to be interrogated, being a diplomat he could have just walked but not when Carrie put the pressure on.  First off she showed photo’s and threatened to expose his homosexuality to the world, he didn’t really care to much about that, Carrie had the ace though and threatened his most loved daughter with deportation back to Saudi Arabia where opportunities for her would not be so great, not only that they would also make sure that she wasn’t granted access to many other western countries where she could flourish.

The CIA are certainly putting in plenty hard work as you would expect but do we sniff a bit of corruption in Homeland, 24 was never far away from that story and the writers here seem to have the same sort of plan, after all if there wasn’t a mole then Walker would probably have been caught this week, that didn’t happen and it lead to Walker unleashing an attack in the very meeting place Al Sharani and the CIA were waiting for him, so how else could he have known, unless he now has to kill Al Sharani and that’s all he was trying to do.

There is really not that much more I can say about Homeland this week, I really should start taking more notes, oh and writing these reviews just after the show rather than four days later, but never mind this will probably go as more of a re-cap than anything else, I’ll be back on form (yeah right) next week, hopefully.

Review: HOMELAND 1.9 - Crossfire

Homeland enjoyed probably it's best episode last week with the impressive "Achilles Heel", this week's "Crossfire" was no different.  Homeland has not let up once with every episode being equally impressive in tense drama and lately plenty of action.  Right at the beginning this week we saw Brody (Damien Lewis) get kidnapped, we didn't know who by but we could guess it had something to do with the Saudi Arabian diplomat he roughed up last week.  You pretty much knew something was going to happen when he's in the underground car park and the creepy music comes on, right?

In the mean time the FBI and CIA are busy dealing with the shooting at the Mosque, two innocent members of the community had been shot dead whilst the FBI chased Tom Walker (Chris Chalk) through the Mosque, something is not quite adding up for Carrie (Claire Danes), the Imam seems to know something but won't tell Carrie the information he knows about Walker unless she can convince the FBI to come clean and say that they have made a mistake and shot two innocent people when no fire was opened on them.

What was really great this week were Brody's flashbacks to Iraq three years earlier, we have head Brody say that terrorist suspect Abu Nazir (Navid Negahban) was the only person who showed him any compassion during his eight year ordeal, it would seem that he spent the last three years of it living with Nazir, who instructed Brody to teach his son Isa fluent English.  Brody made a massive connection with Isa during this time, not speaking to Nazir that much, but he clearly trusted Brody with his son.  That brought about the whole plot really, we saw Isa killed when an American bombing campaign hit their village, this made Brody say that he would do something in the name of Isa which is now clear.  Brody is going to make it his business to become a political figure, but it's yet to be seen weather he knows what Tom Walker is really up to on behalf of Nazir.

Carrie is clearly very respectful of the local Imam and the religion that they follow, due to her time spent in the field she speaks their language and respects certain things, the FBI are not so respectful in that way which clearly upsets the Imam, understandably.  Carrie even made the FBI agent remove his shoes when he entered the Mosque.  Carrie clearly wanted the FBI to come clean about their mistake hoping that the Imam would provide her with valuable information on Walker, luckily for her the Imam's wife agreed to meet with her in secret telling her that Walker has been to the Mosque on eight or nine occasions meeting with a man she doesn't know but he drives a car with Saudi Arabian diplomatic plates on.

We heard Walker speak for the first time this week, he sounds like the all American hero you would expect, only he's playing for the other team.  Walkers character has got so much room to grow as yet and I'm really looking forward to seeing how he came to be involved, we saw that Brody is clearly involved and why this week.  I'm hoping we get the same with Walker heading into the second season, has he changed religion like Brody, has he saw something that's made him change his mind on what he believes?  It will all be revealed I'm sure and I for one can't wait.

Following his ordeal Brody returned home to his wife Jessica (Morena Baccarin) giving her the story that he was mugged in the car park of the supermarket.  He has told her that he wants to spend more time with her and the kids as a proper family, this is no doubt to put on a show and gain public confidence before he is put into office by aids of the vice President, the plot will then no doubt thicken.

This show was no doubt helped in the beginning by the fact it follows Showtime's biggest hit Dexter but for me it's way above what Dexter is achieving this year, and show runners for Showtime are saying that they see Dexter and Homeland being their big Sunday night shows running together for the next few years.  If Homeland can keep up the pace it has set this season then the second will be a thrill ride from start to finish.

Homeland continues on Showtime Sunday 4th December 2011 at 10pm, don't miss it!

Review: HOMELAND 1.8 - Achilles Heel

Wow, no seriously wow.  This has been the best episode of Homeland so far, everything thing it left us wanting more of last week was provided and we now know for certain that Tom Walker (Chris Chalk) is alive, back in the USA and is clearly planning something along with terrorist Abu Nazir.  Whilst over at Brody’s (Damien Lewis), he is going back to his wife following Carrie’s (Claire Danes) admission that she thought he was a terrorist.

“Achilles Heel” was based firmly on the main story line, there wasn’t to much room for backing story's.  We got a little, enough to get a grasp (a good one) I would say.  This is going to be one ride on the final few episodes of this season and is easily materialising into a show which premise could span a second and possibly even third season.
 

It turns out every man has an Achilles heel (of course), but this was meant in the sense that it's what you always go back to.  Saul (Mandy Pantikin) told his wife she was his Achilles heel and it was made clear that Tom Watson’s is his wife and son, think of it as a weakness.  The CIA managed to track him down eventually, taking full advantage of Watson's weakness when Saul found that he called home everyday, but wait, not to speak to his wife.  Watson rings when he knows she’s going to be out only wanting to hear their voices on the messaging system.

We were introduced to Watson begging in downtown DC, holding up a “Homeless Vet” sign, not long into that he spots a diplomatic vehicle, I’m thinking he’s going to kill someone in that car.  I was wrong, you just can’t guess with this show.  Watson is handed a folded up bank note by the occupant in the back clearly someone important, inside the note is a key to a secure lockup facility, in there is one single item.  A sniper rifle, we all know where this is going.

 

It would seem that Brody is being groomed for a position that he could only have dreamed about prior to his capture, he and his wife Jessica (Maria Bacharin) are invited to a party by Elizabeth Gaines (Linda Purl), why, that’s their first thought.  It soon becomes clear that they are being put into the spotlight to takeover from a disgraced congressman, one of the heads of military I think.

I really liked the twist we got at the end of this weeks episode, will it turn out to be a twist?  Brody being in the house of the Diplomat who handed Watson the key to the lockup.  Is Brody simply just angry at the fact that these people let him believe that his colleague had been beaten to death by him, or is he part of a bigger plan?  If Elizabeth Gaines gets her way and Brody becomes part of the political elite so to say then he is in a much more dangerous and threatening position.  His excuse to Carrie in last weeks episode "The Weekend" was pretty convincing but, he clearly knows more than he is telling anyone right now.

This for me has been one of the best, if not the best episode of this opening season, it has set up a brilliant premise for the remainder of the season which I'm sure is going to leave us wanting more from the second.

Homeland continues on Showtime Sunday 27th November 2011 at 10pm

Review: HOMELAND 1.7 - The Weekend

This show is really starting to crank it up a gear now, and this week was no different.  It’s seems Showtime were all about road trips this week with Homeland following a similar path to Dexter’s Nebraska.  The episode made more in roads to the obvious attraction between Brody (Damien Lewis) and Carrie (Claire Danes), some good moments with terrorist Aileen (Marin Ireland) and one quite terrifying reveal, that all but proves that Brody is innocent.

Quite a bit was revealed about Saul this week, especially in relation to his childhood.  He took charge of transporting domesticated terrorist Aileen back to CIA headquarters in Langley after she had tried to board a bus bound for Mexico.  Aileen put on the poor little rich girl show for Saul in telling him why she became a terrorist and she revealed why she bought the house on the flight path for the airport, from the roof a trained sniper could take out the President on the helipad which was exactly one mile away.

In the mean time Brody decided that it was time him and his new lover should be having a dirty weekend away eventually ending up at a cabin owned by Carrie’s family.  That was of course after they have visited the bar a beat up some mouthy Skinhead.  Following all of their good fun Brody finally found out that Carrie’s interest in him isn’t entirely sexual, he got to find out just what she had been suspecting.

That brought a rather abrupt end to their fancy little weekend, and forced Brody to set a few things straight.  First, the reason he has converted to Islam.  Because that’s the only religion available and 8 years being held captive is a long time, he also revealed that why he lied about knowing terrorist Abu Nazir, saying that he had bee the only person who was nice to him during his ordeal.  Both those excuses and all the rest were pretty convincing from Brody and does make you think that he must be really mentally stable to be able to pull off lies like that, considering he does it so coolly.

 

That’s pretty much when the big reveal comes in from Aileen, she has agreed to help the CIA and has confirmed to Saul that an American POW was turned by Abu Nazier but, it’s not Brody.  It’s Walker, the other captured POW who we have seen flashbacks of Brody beating.  This far on we have all been lead to believe that he was dead, they even had a funeral for him.  Maybe it’s just to obvious though, let’s not forget Aileen knows Abu Nazier (probably), they could be in cahoots and using Walker’s name whilst something far more is going on with the ever cool Brody.  Knowing the way this show goes I can’t guess it, any ideas?

Easily the best episode of the season in that it gave up a lot of information, or so we are led to believe anyway.  There are only five episodes left of this truly impressive show and I can’t wait to see them, then it’s roll on season 2, but if Aileen and Brody are telling the truth then where will that one lead us.

Review: HOMELAND 1.5 - Blindspot

The saga continues in what was probably the best episode of this show so far, it was classy, slick and quite revealing to some degree.  Of course being a show centred on the CIA and their investigation into terrorism the writers try very hard not to give to much away.

Like any great TV show Homeland keeps you guessing, it puts ideas of situations into your head that make you think there is no other way that could have happened other than how it just did.  Blindspot saw the capture of the only surviving Iraqi soldier (he was actually Syrian) found in the compound where Brody had been held captive for eight years.

Flown into the US by the CIA and quickly whisked off to one of their safe houses Brody's former Guard was about to feel torture USA style, mental torture in allowing him to think that the CIA all ready know everything they need to know about him, and that his unwillingness to talk is only putting his family in danger. 

Saul (Mandy Patinkin) was the man charged with getting the required info from the guard but, how did he know so much.  Step in Brody who would sit and watch the interview with Carrie (Claire Danes), whilst feeding information to Saul via an earpiece and detailing the fact that he was beaten by the man with a stick covered in barbed wire and pissed on.  Brody wanted to speak to him face to face but had to go see the big boss first, would this be a good idea? 

Granted access to his captor Brody takes great delight in telling the soldier the tables have now turned, shoe is on the other foot before being spat on causing a violent outburst from both Brody and the prisoner who only an hour later commits suicide opening up his wrists with a razor blade.  Where did he get the razor blade from?  Carrie thinks Brody slipped it to him as the pair fell into the cameras only blind spot in the room, that’s feasible I suppose but would Brody really want to do that, if he’s been radicalised like Carrie suspects then I suppose he would

Saul refuses to believe that though and is still insisting that Carrie must back off Brody and his family.  It would be a little to obvious for Brody to have done it, what’s to say Saul did not put the razor blade in the Crayon he provided the prisoner with.  After all that was the big reveal this week, Saul is married to an Indian lady who he rarely finds time for due to the stresses of his job.  There is definitely a lot more to be revealed about Saul and possibly his extended family in India.

We saw the more vulnerable side to Carrie this week, following her falling out with Saul she rushed straight to her father’s before heading to her sisters, the place she clearly feels the most comfortable.

This has been by far the best episode yet, with Saul’s interrogation of the Iraqi soldier by far one of the tensest moments I have seen, no doubt the plot will thicken even more next week.

Homeland continues November 6^th at 10pm on Showtime.

Review: HOMELAND 1.4 - Semper I

For me this has got to be the best episode to this show so far, I have mentioned in previous reviews that Homeland is pretty tough going kind of like AMC’s the Killing.  I still haven’t changed my opinion on that but this episode was brilliant and it has now thrown in an all new way in which the story could go.

We saw probably the first stages of paranoia involved with Brody this week when he believed for a minute that a man was standing behind him and staring at him through the mirror.  Brody has returned to his homeland the all American hero and the military and the press really want to exploit that with little regard to his feeling or handle on the situation.  He was gearing up this week to give a speech to troops, motivating them for the gulf war they are about to become involved with.  Brody does this with ease, that’s the structured environment he knows being a man amongst men.

The Brody family story is really starting to pick up pace with Brody himself all to aware of what his wife and best friend Mike have been up to whilst he has been away for the past eight years.  He has never accused either out right but clearly he knows what has been going on.  I though at one point when he was standing polishing his gun that Mike was done for and Brody was going to unleash a little friendly fire on his former best friend, turns out not to be the case he only wanted to shoot the Deer in his back yard which had been trampling on his new flowers.

Carrie has now had to take the surveillance equipment out of the Brody house hold, that’s where the new bit of the story is coming for me because Carrie still does not trust Brody believing him to be a sleeper.  That’s really going to open things out a bit as far as tracking him goes, rather than watching him from the comfort of her living room she will now be forced to follow him.  Brody knows who she is so that’s not going to be easy.

Carrie is now going to be put in an even more dangerous situation though with CIA Deputy Estes (David Harwood) asking young agent Danny Galvez (Hrach Titizian) to watch her and report back on any extra curricular activities she may be involved with.  Form that meeting we got to find out who the man buying the house next to the airport, Raqim Faisel (Omid Abtahi) was followed by Carrie and Galvez heading back to his home however a call was made to his wife to warn him that he was being followed, he calmly drove past his house and no sooner did he come up in enquiries he has been cleared.

A really good instalment to what looks like it is going to be a really brilliant show, once again all involved where on top form and no doubt the story has a lot deeper to go in relation to everyone involved.  Like I said don’t expect laughs but do expect brilliant story lines and brilliant acting.

Homeland continues on Showtime, Sunday 30^th October 2011