Homeland (no naked spoilers)

[Wargazm]

Is anyone else watching this? I just watched the pilot (they are 7 episodes in already) but it was one of the best pilots I've ever seen. Absolutely gripping.

[Toilet of Sadness]

What's the show about?

[Wargazm]

TL;DR: US Prisoner of war returns home after being missing in Iraq for 8 years. Mystery and intrigue begins to pile up regarding the circumstances of his return.

More detail, kinda spoilery (everything I'm writing here is essentially given to the viewer in the first 10 minutes of the pilot):
The pilot starts with a CIA agent (played by Claire Danes) trying to get some information out of a prisoner in Baghdad prison who has been condemned to death. The CIA agent believes the prisoner has some information on an upcoming attack on US soil. She ends up getting him to tell her that a US prisoner of war has been turned by Al Qeada.

So then it fasts forward in time a bit, and guess what? A special forces operation finds a US prisoner of war that has been missing for 8 years, since 2003. So immediately she suspects him. The pilot then goes on to cast doubt on pretty much everyone involved in the whole mess, so you don't know who to trust.

So yeah, the pilot was awesome. I hope the series can keep it up.

[Reagraham Lincool]

TL;DR: US Prisoner of war returns home after being missing in Iraq for 8 years. Mystery and intrigue begins to pile up regarding the circumstances of his return.

More detail, kinda spoilery:
The pilot starts with a CIA agent (played by Claire Danes) trying to get some information out of a prisoner in Baghdad prison who has been condemned to death. The CIA agent believes the prisoner has some information on an upcoming attack on US soil. She ends up getting him to tell her that a US prisoner of war has been turned by Al Qeada.

So then it fasts forward in time a bit, and guess what? A special forces operation finds a US prisoner of war that has been missing for 8 years, since 2003. So immediately she suspects him. The pilot then goes on to cast doubt on pretty much everyone involved in the whole mess, so you don't know who to trust.

So yeah, the pilot was awesome. I hope the series can keep it up.

Neat.

[Wargazm]

seriously, dude.

[Toilet of Sadness]

Yeah, that's an excellent premise. Think I'll grab that to watch while I'm off for Thanksgiving.

[Wargazm]

I bet you'll pass me, my TV watching time is pretty limited nowadays. going to try to watch the second episode tonight.

[Zapruder]

Really digging this show so far.

[Gretyl]

TL;DR: US Prisoner of war returns home after being missing in Iraq for 8 years. Mystery and intrigue begins to pile up regarding the circumstances of his return.

More detail, kinda spoilery
spoilertext

I think all TV threads should be subject to the Santa Doctrine. If you bother reading the thread, be prepared to read spoilers up through what has been aired.

[Gretyl]

That said, I really dug what they did between The Weekend and Achilles' Heel. Just when I think they're sticking us in a rut, they manage to break free.

The pressing question for me will be how they reliably stage these lead characters to "do it all again" for next season. I'm in for the ride through the rest of S1.

[Gretyl]

Yeah, that's an excellent premise. Think I'll grab that to watch while I'm off for Thanksgiving.

That's how I spent my Thanksgiving. I love how compromised both the recovered prisoner and the agent are.

[Wargazm]

I think all TV threads should be subject to the Santa Doctrine. If you bother reading the thread, be prepared to read spoilers up through what has been aired.

well I'm often behind. So start your own naked-spoiler-filled thread!

[Gretyl]

The show jumped the shark when they gave us Brody's drone-attack conversion onscreen. I need a new reason to keep watching.

[Gretyl]

I am still watching. The burning question for me is how they transition into a season two while plausibly maintaining tension. Are Carrie & Brody supposed to become buddy cops, or at least equal but opposed hero-protagonists?

What I didn't like about my spoiler in the previous post was that it seems to indelibly paint Brody's character into a corner in an easy and obvious way. What I love about the show is the episode out at the lake where they directly challenged all the similar assumptions we'd been making about both characters without definitively saying "oh, so the real situation is X". This is a compelling tension like Lost was able to maintain up until its final season when the answers (and lack of answers) unraveled everything.

I don't yet see how this show could possibly sustain its one-two is-he/isn't-he, but I'm willing to keep giving it a shot for now.

TLDR: thumb's... up?

[Toilet of Sadness]

I spent the last 2 days watching the show from start to current and have been thoroughly impressed with what's been created here. Like Gretyl I find the terrorists' motivations to be easy and obvious but at least it's mostly logical. I still don't really understand Walker's motivation for this whole scheme. Best I can guess he was actually brainwashed, but the show's never really made it clear.

Moving this thing into season 2 seems pretty obvious--you let Nazir's plan succeed and spend the next season tracking the guy down and outting his mole in the government. Only problem with this is that it kills your second lead and it pretty much becomes a paint-by-the-numbers season of 24. But it seems to be the track we're on at the moment anyway.

Really getting a kick out of Carrie's father. He really shone in the last episode. Favorite moment in the series so far has to be the reveal of Brody in the diplomat's house. Just a goddamn excellent scene.

Looking forward to tomorrow's finale for damn sure.

[Gretyl]

I still don't really understand Walker's motivation for this whole scheme. Best I can guess he was actually brainwashed, but the show's never really made it clear.

A critic whose reviews of this I've read makes a cogent case that they establish this directly on-screen. Walker is betrayed by his own wife&kids (in addition to being stranded as a POW alongside Brody in extreme duress) to a government he no longer trusts. Basically, what you've said only it's presented without some hokey OMG this is a brain being washed scene.

Looking forward to tomorrow's finale for damn sure.

This. I won't see it until Tuesday, but

[Gretyl]

Holy shit. Intense season finale is intense.

Still on the hook for how they set up season two.

[Toilet of Sadness]

Yeah, that episode brought hella intensity. The tension of two particular scenes nearly made me stop the episode to take a breather:

1. The first attempt at setting off the suicide bomb
2. Brody's call with his daughter.

[Gretyl]

Any scene with an armed suicide vest will make the balls tingle, donchaknow.

[fiveSD]

Watching S1 as well. The finale just about gave me a heartattack. I love it. I find it difficult to see how the plot will continue to sustain itself without becoming repetitive, but so far they've done a good job so I'm looking forward to S2.

[MrTippet]

I just finished up watching all of season 1. I'm definitely on board for the next season. I'm not a huge fan of the way they are just resetting everything after the finale to a similar spot of a few episodes ago but I guess they had to do something to keep the show interesting. I guess the wait is on to see how long it takes Carrie to remember.

//edit: typo

[Gretyl]

everything after the finally

[alex]

Just wrapped on the finale. I enjoyed this. It's not amazing, but it's something to watch besides the standard crime/sensing (touch, mentalist, finder) procedural of the day. The creators have done a pretty good job of creating an atmosphere similar to that found in 24, but done a much better job of fleshing out (and making us care more about) the players. No nasty mountain lions in this show. At least not in season 1. Plus... Morena Baccarin topless. +2 in my book.

I still don't really understand Walker's motivation for this whole scheme. Best I can guess he was actually brainwashed, but the show's never really made it clear.

They didn't make it clear, but I feel it was pretty logical. Terrorists pit Brody vs Walker, Brody believes he kills Walker and in the process he is broken, Walker actually lives and acquires a substantial grudge against his former partner, and likely against his fellow American. He's sequestered from Brody and likely subjected to a few more years of brainwashing before he's shipped back to the U.S. by the bad guys. Brody's turning was more drawn out (he's tortured for a long time, finally plucked from that torture and dropped into a place of refuge by Nazir, so he's seen as Brody's savior, and his kinship for him is only more solidified by the bond he shared with Nazir's son who's slaughtered by the man he's groomed to kill). Walker doesn't share Brody's hatred for the VP, per se, but has been programmed to hate the U.S. or whatever, so he'll kill who they tell him to kill.

Oh, and, spoilers or whatever.

[Gretyl]

alex makes baby wargie cry

[alex]

The season has been over for a month. So where is the line drawn? When can plots be discussed openly? btw, Rosebud was Citizen Kane's sled.

[Gretyl]

Not my thread, not my policy.

[alex]

No, but here you are, pissing about it.

Better?

[Cody]

Good show, would watch again.

[Gretyl]

Season two ain't until end of September? Fack me.

[Gretyl]

Comes back for S2 tonight. Who else has high hopes for another go-around?

[Toilet of Sadness]

the premiere was good, but Claire Danes needs to dial back on the crazy eyes. It seems like she's constantly trying to get her eyes to bug out of her head and it's freaking me out.

[Gretyl]

Oh holy shit, this show's blowing way beyond what I wanted the first half of BrBa season 5 to be. After S2E4 (last night's ep, New Car Smell), Carrie's been proven right in the eyes of the CIA, gone rogue again and had Brody black-bagged.

[Gretyl]

Aaand the very next episode steps up the acting again. I may be speaking too soon, but I think they pulled that off about as well as season one's cabin episode.

[alex]

This show needs less bug-eyed Carrie, and more Jack Bauer.

[Gretyl]

Fuck 24.

[Toilet of Sadness]

That Dana/VP's son sub-plot from the last few episodes was so bad it might as well have been an unused Kim Bauer story from the 24 writers' room.

Everything else to this point has been strong, but that story is getting the FFW treatment for me on every rewatch.

[Gretyl]

The subplot was weak, but it set up a nice counter-tension between Brody & Dana when she couldn't come clean about it.

[Toilet of Sadness]

I think I'm tapping out on this show after next week's finale. I've just become disillusioned with the story and the focus of the show becoming Brody/Carrie's romance. Also this show is starting to repeat a staggering number of 24 cliches which isn't helping things.

[Gretyl]

No actual mole yet. And I loved the honesty in Brody/Jess' car confessional.

But I'm close to giving up too.

[Gretyl]

I dig the season finale but have no fucking clue how they'll use Brody in S3.

[Toilet of Sadness]

Yeah, that finale was good enough to hook me for another season. As for Brody, I guess they do a man hunt thing (a la The Fugitive).

[Gretyl]

I got a big heart-on when Quinn ended up being a soldier with a brain.

[Wargazm]

so what kind of out-of-this-world holy-fucking-shit fantastic television are you guys watching that would make you even think about giving up on this show at any point in its two season run?

Both seasons have been absolutely magnificent in my eyes, with season 1 in particular being pretty much flawless.

[Toilet of Sadness]

Do you want a comprehensive list? Or is just quoting myself from ~10 posts above sufficient about the couple particular problems I had with season 2?

[Wargazm]

comprehensive list please.

[Gretyl]

so what kind of out-of-this-world holy-fucking-shit fantastic television are you guys watching that would make you even think about giving up on this show at any point in its two season run?

mainlining is a different experience from week-by-week viewings, obvs

glad you caught up finally

[Wargazm]

yeah, that's a fair point.