President Obama once said that one of his favorite television shows is “Homeland.” In response to this compliment from the Command in Chief—the guy whose job it is confront the realities of terrorism and homeland security on a near constant basis—the show’s two stars, Claire Danes and Damian Lewis signed a boxed set for the President. Danes, is good taste, wrote “I was a fan of yours long before you were a fan of ours.” Lewis, in slightly less good taste, wrote “from one Muslim to another.”
“Homeland,” Showtime’s suspenseful thriller about a POW turned terrorist, Nicholas Brody, and his love affair with CIA agent and mentally unstable genius Carrie Mathison, is returning to television tonight for its third season and it is expected to be heavier and darker than before. And darker is really the only direction that the show could go after last season’s explosive (pun intended) finale, which killed off a good portion of its entire cast in a terrorist attack at the CIA headquarters that forced Brody to flee the country with Carrie’s help.
As season three begins, Homeland’s main characters, CIA director Saul Berenson (played by Mandy Patinkin) and Carrie Mathison will be tasked with the burden of dealing with the repercussions of the CIA headquarter bombing that left dozens dead and prompted an international manhunt for the man many believe to be responsible for the attack: Nicholas Brody. Season three of Homeland will follow Saul and Carrie as they try to unravel the increasingly twisted plot surrounding Abu Nazir — an Osama Bin Laden like figure who was killed last season — and his terrorist ring, as well as Brody as he goes into hiding and fights to prove his innocence.
Claire Danes won an Emmy last week for outstanding lead actress in a drama series, but its unclear if she won because of her brilliant acting or because she so flawlessly goes from beautiful to belligerent in a matter of seconds. Whatever the reason is, we can expect a lot more of Dane’s crazy-eyes and weird cry faces on tonight’s premier, as she struggles to piece together the plot that left her lover framed for terrorism and her world shattered.
