Homeland Season 3 (1 Viewer)

Showtime is filling the nets with new preview behind the scenes and more footage of Season 3. http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/homeland-season-3-spoilers-new-saul-carrie-featurettes-released-carrie-is-tested-again-in-an-even-more-impressive-way/



Word is first episodes and more have leaked to the web already.. http://www.techinvestornews.com/Enterprise/Blogs-and-Tech-Dialogue/homeland-season-3-workprint-leaks-a-month-in-advance

What I'm seeing so far from Season Three looks much stronger than Season Two. The show built to a great ending in the first season, but then didn't seem to know how to walk back from that. The ending of season two was explosive, and it planted the seeds for where every character would go from there. More Mandy Patinkin is always a good thing, for as long he deigns to stick with a show, and the after math of what happened to Brody provides fertile storytelling for both Brody and his family.I just wish this didn't air Sunday nights. I'm usually so amped up after watching at the edge of my seat that I have trouble unwinding.

The ending of season two was explosive

Click to expand...

Sure, that's one way to describe it.

I'm still hanging on to this theory that Saul is the mole. Looking forward to the new season.

- Walter.

My thoughts after seeing some of the new Season 3 footage:

- I like Brody's new haircut- Maybe his daughter will become Muslim- Carrie admitted to a psych-ward?- Quinn will most likely be right on Brody's ass for most of the season.
I thought Season 1 of Homeland was the best thing on TV that year, apart from Breaking Bad. Season 2 slipped into a second tier, but still had a ton to like, and some people are likely going to lose it when the show sweeps the Emmys in a couple weeks based on "Q&A."

I'm still onboard on this show. Even at half-strength, it's still more entertaining than most other stuff out there.

I haven't read the whole article, but I saw a headline a few days ago that Damian Lewis and the writers were criticizing Showtime for not letting them take things where they think they have to go.

That concerns me, because needing to keep everything in neutral for years is part of what went wrong with Dexter and lead to a ton of mediocre seasons of that show too. I loved season 1 of Dexter (admittedly not quite as much as season 1 of Homeland) and it's depressing to think about the same fate happening to Homeland.

Hopefully that's not the case here, and I'm overreacting to a small snippet of an article.

Tons of spoilers..

Joe_H said:

I haven't read the whole article, but I saw a headline a few days ago that Damian Lewis and the writers were criticizing Showtime for not letting them take things where they think they have to go.

Click to expand...

It was actually Lewis speculating on the writers' intentions in a Men's Journal print article. Some news sites have cannibalized the article.Here's the quote: "I think simply for creative and artistic reasons, the writers want to kill me," says Lewis. He speaks frankly, as if the CIA has just poisoned his OJ with truth serum. (That totally could be a plot twist this year.) "There are so many compelling and devastating story lines that would jus be great TV and theater," says Lewis with a smile. "The more compromised storytelling is to keep him alive and to keep him bubbling along somehow. It's the executives who write that version."But then later in the article, it says "While Lewis is happy to argue both sides of whether Brody should live or die, he won't cop to a preference. We rode to lunch near his Charlotte residence, and he busily texted his wife and kids. 'I'll just see what happens,' said Lewis."

Oh yeah, the part I read was definitely cannibalized then. Glad that isn't necessarily going to be the case then.

This is definitely the way to kick off a season. Everything is out of kilter. Recriminations all the way around, and Saul in front of the congress with testimony that was an absolute body blow.

Fantastic premiere from beginning to end.

I agree 100 percent. Every storyline worked, the show got away from the intense "24"-esque thriller feel of much of the second season and back to the uneasy sense of foreboding that permeated the first season. Each and every storyline was focused squarely on the human individual at its center.Before the bombing, Saul had risen as far as he could within the moral boundaries he had set for himself. As a result of the bombing he found himself at the top of the heap. Finding himself there, he had a decision to make: does he stay within the moral boundaries that he had set for himself, or does he give everything he's got to save the institution he's devoted his life to -- an institution that he believes is essential to the safety and security of the United States of America? In the final moments of the season premiere, we got our answer. And that puts Saul in a very interesting place; now that he's stepped over that line, we'll get to find out just how far he's willing to go to complete his mission.Given the way Carrie's been backed into a corner, it seems essential to the future of the series that Brody is exonerated for the bombing at Langley. Otherwise, I can't imagine how she has a future at the CIA. Claire Danes continues to be amazing and show why she won the Emmy. She traverses all of the varying subtleties and degrees of Carrie's mental illness in an incredibly nuanced way.A lot of people are down on Dana because he storyline last season really sucked and didn't dovetail with the rest of the narrative at all. But since the show started, I've consistently considered Morgan Saylor to be one of the best young actresses working today. I thought she absolutely nailed it in the premiere, and nothing about her storyline felt contrived. Being put in the position Brody's family has been put in is absolutely devastating, and Dana's our window into that. I do think her topless cellphone photo is going to blow up in her face in a really big way.I don't think Morena Baccarin gets all the appreciation she deserves for her role. Here is a woman who's been through it all. From war widow to Congressman's wife and now wife of #1 on the FBI's most wanted. You could tell in the premiere that Jessica had been hollowed out, drained of so much. And yet, she gets beaten down to a certain point, and then the woman who survived all of those years after Brody went MIA reasserted herself. There's a tremendous strength there.Usually I don't like it when main characters are introduced mid-series, but Rupert Friend is phenomenal as Peter Quinn. There are lots of times when he's impossible to read, and he's certainly willing to do the morally questionable jobs that so many people would say no to. But he's not a psychopath. He was willing to blow that whole mission because a child was in the car. His performance when Quinn discovers the person with the flashlight that he shot was the boy is absolutely devastating. The show doesn't shirk away from the moral questions raised by clandestine actions, and it doesn't make excuses for the collateral damage.I was very happy to see Barbara Hall credited as a writer and producer for the series premiere. I've enjoyed her writing going back to "Northern Exposure", and the last series she created ("Joan of Arcadia") is one of those shows that I absolutely loved. She's a phenomenal character writer, and I'm glad her CBS pedigree wasn't too mainstream for Showtime. She worked on a lot of projects with recently-departed "Homeland" writer Henry Bromell in the nineties so I wouldn't be surprised if he helped bring her aboard prior to his passing.

Holy Cow tonight. There were a few really great scenes. The sequence where Saul dresses down a new analyst, and the moment where she rips into banks.. those are classic, classic material. Everything about those moments were riveting and awesome.

I love the way not all of these storylines are coming together and Brody is completely out of the picture. This is all about the aftermath, and the way it is all playing out seems to work as a narrative more then forcing the plot to go a different way. This was pretty brave to take an actor who won a best actor in the emmies and pretty much remove him from the mix because the story works.

I thought the sequences with Dana were very good, and the end sequence of her explaining why she wanted to kill herself and that it wasn't a plea for attention managed to leap off the screen and just hold you there. This was some great TV tonight.

What I'm loving about this season is that it's taken the most moral character on the show, Saul Berenson, and put him in a position that's inherently morally compromising. Again and again, he makes the strategically correct choice -- at the expense of another portion of his soul. What they did to Carrie was awful. Not because it wasn't the truth, but because she was right and they're pinning all of the blame on her anyway. What he said to that analyst was awful. Once again, effective, as it got the results he was looking for. But it's the worst kind of broad brush painting. It's a declaration: you're not one of us, you're the Other, you'll never be one of us, and you need to work your ass off every day to make us forget it. Once upon a time, the people under Saul would have sacrificed everything for him. That comes from earning loyalty through respect, even love. Now he's lowered himself to using fear.I love that Quinn the ruthless assassin is sort of sliding into Saul's old role as the show's moral compass. Killing that boy really rattled him, and what they've done to Carrie disgusted him. He's a real wild card, in the best sort of way. He's definitely not Saul's man.I also think the stuff they're doing with the fallout in the Brody household is some of the most powerful stuff on the show. There is a human toll to all of this, and it's being captured in searing fashion here. That scene in the bathroom near the end was stark and brutal and riveting. Two great actresses at the top of their respective games. Morena Baccarin is a pro at playing characters who wear masks. In Jessica Brody's case, the mask is of someone who's holding it all together. And Baccarin knows just when to let the mask slip a little, and by how much. By contrast, Morgan Saylor's incredibly talented at conveying in the slightest facial movements and changes in body language exactly what Dana's thinking or feeling or considering at any given time. The dialog-free scene in the garage where she found her father's prayer rug is a tour-de-force of acting.And then the final beat in the psychiatric ward, with Carrie medicated to the point of being comatose. Saul walks up and says he's sorry, but it's not an apology. It's not "I'm sorry I through you under the bus like that, and I'm sorry I institutionalized you to shut you up." It's "I'm so sorry that you're out of control and unbalanced and a mess." And even through the heavily drugged haze, Danes radiates pure hatred back at him. "Fuck you, Saul."

I'm enjoying the season so far. While the scenes with Dana are well done, I'm not sure they really add anything to the story. Perhaps it will come together more when we start to see more of Brody.

Adam Lenhardt said:

It's not "I'm sorry I through you under the bus like that, and I'm sorry I institutionalized you to shut you up." It's "I'm so sorry that you're out of control and unbalanced and a mess."

Click to expand...

What gave you that impression? I didn't get that impression at all. I thought Saul was genuinely sorry for what he did, but knew it had to be done.

Scott Hanson said:

What gave you that impression? I didn't get that impression at all. I thought Saul was genuinely sorry for what he did, but knew it had to be done.

Click to expand...

Just how I perceived the scene. I definitely agree that Saul's sentiment was genuine, but I don't believe it came from a place of contrition. He obviously cares deeply for Carrie and hates to see her suffering like this. But I still believe he thinks his actions were justified and necessary. I'm interested in seeing what happens if/when all of the pragmatic decisions blow up in his face and he's left to live with the consequences of the choices he's made. Mandy Patinkin is doing some phenomenal work here.

Adam Lenhardt said:

Just how I perceived the scene. I definitely agree that Saul's sentiment was genuine, but I don't believe it came from a place of contrition. He obviously cares deeply for Carrie and hates to see her suffering like this. But I still believe he thinks his actions were justified and necessary. I'm interested in seeing what happens if/when all of the pragmatic decisions blow up in his face and he's left to live with the consequences of the choices he's made. Mandy Patinkin is doing some phenomenal work here.

Click to expand...

Yep. And, as a member of the audience, I can completely see it that way too.. Saul may have known those things, but he has to look out for a lot of consequences, and last season he did initially warn her about being too emotionally invested in him, and now he's stuck where neither answer is very good.

Carrie going crazy on a newsreporter only helps solidify his case.

Claire Danes is simply phenomenal on the two episodes which have aired. I am continually amazed by the dozens of conflicted emotional flickers that cross her face at any given moment.

Morena Baccarin's reaction to her daughter's explanation just devastated me. And I also am loving the use of Quinn this season.

I agree that the acting has been great and the new main plot looks to be shaping up nicely. I don't know that I need the teen angst storyline, but I've spent enough time with the Brody family that I'm invested in their lives after their father was exposed as a traitor (incorrectly, sort of). I do wonder whether this series would have been better had Brody detonated the vest at the end of season 1. Carrie would have been proven right and season 2 would have been drastically different, which in my opinion, would have been a good thing. Last season never felt right to me with the love affair between Carrie and Brody. I am cringing thinking of how they are going to reincorporate him into the show. I am encouraged with how good this season has been, but I don't want to go through more Carrie and Nick sitting in a tree.

Carrie in the psych ward feels like a revisitation of season 1 in some ways. We've already seen the scenario where Carrie was the only one to get it right and I'm hoping the series actually is doing a head fake and Brody was somehow involved in the bombing, or at least the show takes her certitude and spins it off in a different direction vs. what occurred in season 1.

Really admired Morgan Saylor's performance in episode 2. Very natural and very effective. I would agree with Adam that Quinn is becoming the moral compass now that Saul has vacated that role. That is an interesting development for that character.

- Walter.

For me the highlight of last week’s episode was Quinn’s visit to the banker to explain how things were going to go.

It just resonated with me because let’s face it our financial institutions are loaded with scumbags like that who are more than willing to do business with our countries enemies if it means more money for them. I just wish we could have a “Quinn” type visit them in real life to put the fear of god in them.

Finally caught up, but didn't much like tonight's 3rd episode of the season.