Homeland - Season 8 (1 Viewer)

[SamT]

 

[SamT]

First episode was interesting enough. Better not to watch the trailers. It's not just from the first episode.

 

[SamT]

Funny, it seems this season's story is exactly what is happening right now in real life. The Taliban peace deal.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

It's probably not a coincidence.The writers are connected on and off-the-record to the intelligence community both here and abroad. And writers are always more free to project or write ahead of the slow moving bureaucracy or diplomacy.

 

[SamT]

8x03 False Friends

Hard to digest this story as I imagine it is in real life.

I don't remember exactly. Wasn't Haqqani a major Taliban leader and villain in a previous season? Didn't he kill some of our major cast like Fara?

Now he is supposed to be the "good" guy? Can't swallow.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

8x03 False Friends

I don't remember exactly. Wasn't Haqqani a major Taliban leader and villain in a previous season? Didn't he kill some of our major cast like Fara?

Now he is supposed to be the "good" guy? Can't swallow.

The US was once friends with Saddam when Iraq was at war with Iran... and then we weren't.
We were aligned with Osama when Russia invaded Afghanistan... and then we weren't.
Noriega in Panama was our pal until he wasn't.
And then we USED to know Putin was a very bad villain... until ....

 

[SamT]

Yes but it's not that easy. They are in the opposite order. They are first "Good" guy then Bad guy.
This goes Bad guy -> Good guy and also he killed some of Saul's friends. Saul acts like he is his friend.
It's personal, it shouldn't be like this.

 

[SamT]

8x04 Chalk One Up
8x05 Chalk Two Down

Two great episodes.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

So Carrie is responsible for

Spoiler

the President coming to Afghanistan, and therefore for him dying. That's what I take away, and then the previews for next week jump on the same premise. If that's not enough to send her back into a tailspin, I don't know what is. LOL

This episode was very much like an episode of 24, which, for me, is not necessarily a good thing. A bit too unrealistic.

Spoiler

And the new President has to suddenly make a decision about bombing the crash site without any other advisers or Joint Chiefs? Only in the movies or television.

 

[SamT]

8x11 The English Teacher

Huge Spoiler: This season makes no sense. Now she wants to give the identity of a secret agent to the enemy? That's treason. Nothing can be graver than this in the intelligence business I guess.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

You're trying to make sense of a show built around a CIA operative who's an emotional basketcase? Growing up near D.C. I went to school with classmates who later went into the CIA. They were the "C" students, but they weren't emotional wrecks like the main character in this show overreacting to everything that happens. But I give it a pass. And Mandy's always worth watching.

 

[John Lee_275604]

8x11 The English Teacher

Huge Spoiler: This season makes no sense. Now she wants to give the identity of a secret agent to the enemy? That's treason. Nothing can be graver than this in the intelligence business I guess.

To the extent this 'doesn't make sense' it doesn't make sense from a narrative POV, not a character POV. Clearly the writers have striven to craft a situation where a single surefire piece of intelligence to stave off a nuclear conflict is in the hands of the enemy. Treason, or the character's flaws, are a secondary concern. The narrative is how much one would sacrifice to avert nuclear conflict.

 

[SamT]

8x12 Prisoners of War

Spoilers for the entire series. First, the series ended a lot more upbeat than what I was expecting.

Carrie made me real angry. It was around the beginning of this season that she worried about her asset. It is their primary job and goal to cultivate an asset. Then she betrays an asset of their own, causes her to die and at the end, she becomes a secret asset? How would she like it if Saul gave her identity away and caused her to die?

And let's not start with Carrie sending a secret message in plain English!

It kind of felt small. I liked the overall idea of spies and discovering their identity, maybe if this season was only about that, that would have been better and more satisfying.

 

[MarkMel]

I guess it was okay as an ending.

The series did make me realize how much I really dislike jazz. (No offence to those that like it, to each their own) ;-)

 

[SamT]

The UN building. Can they run after you and kidnap you in the UN building!!!? All they had to do was to go out and not go downstairs where you get trapped!

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Yes, logic issues galore. But I was okay with Carrie ending up with a love interest, becoming a new Snowden, still maintaining contact with Saul, but never, I repeat never, roll your head to Jazz. Oh, yeah, not a big fan of no melody either.

 

[SamT]

That's no love interest, she is playing him. And didn't they imprison her last season and torture her? Now she goes back there.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

They definitely had a lust thing for each other, so I guessed she'd end up replacing the asset as soon as we knew who it was, and that she would reunite with him, if only for the sex. She at least deserved that. And what's a little torture to keep them apart?

 

[Patrick Sun]

Binged season 7 and 8 in 2 days. That was a wild ride. It almost felt like "24" when consumed in that fashion, but the ending was as optimistic as it could be for this show.