Okay, okay, so “Homeland” was truly awful for the entire third season (and if we’re being honest, for most of the second season, too). But, to the delight of entertainment masochists who had yet to give up on the CIA drama, “Homeland’s” season four premiere offered some painstakingly overdue promise.
The main reason the premiere — which comprised of the season’s first two episodes — didn’t suck was because it started anew, which, in a sense, reset the series.
Among other things (namely, the previously questionable state of the show retaining even a handful of viewers), this means people who have never watched the show can jump in and start.
And, since there wasn’t any ugly-crying, viewers have something they can look forward to next week. Here are four reasons why the first two episodes of “Homeland’s” fourth season proved that the show may not be a lost cause:
This season’s national security disaster is totally new.
That’s right! No more head scratching over what’s happening with Abu Nazir or Majid Javadi, or how to inquire about the difference between the two confusingly independent plotlines without sounding racist or stupid.
In the season four premiere, Carrie (Claire Danes), now a station chief, orders a bomb to drop — unbeknownst to her — on a Pakistani wedding. The bomb subsequently kills dozens of innocent civilians.
When Islamabad station chief Sandy Bachman (Corey Stoll) gets killed in the street by Pakistani protesters, it’s clear the bombing will be the plot lead for the season. (However, it’s not clear why Stoll, who also played Peter Russo in “House of Cards,” keeps getting killed off of TV.)
Carrie and Quinn get called back to Washington to meet with CIA Director Lockhart (Tracy Letts) about WTF happened.
Brody is dead.
Given that Brody staying alive longer than he should have compromised any shred of “Homeland’s” plausibility, his death last season gave the show some room to resurrect itself.
Also, Brody’s death meant the show could stop following his uncompelling family members, who were all emotionally destroyed from his heavily reported fall from grace into terrorism. This, to our collective relief, means no more angsty teenage daughter Dana Brody and no more weenie, neglected, tween son Chris Brody.
Wife Jessica Brody wasn’t so egregious, but still tragic and flat, so it’s awesome that season four’s focus renders her irrelevant.
Carrie has a baby.
The reason Brody stayed alive for as long as he did was probably because writers deemed his doomed relationship with Carrie to be the love story on which the show depended. Finally conceding that the plotline was more so a death sentence than a pulse demanded a new human-relationship-based storyline to take its place.
Before Brody died, we learned that Carrie was pregnant with his baby (while she continued to guzzle wine on prescription bipolar meds and throw herself into danger whenever possible). Carrie decided to keep the baby, exclusively so she could forever cling to a piece of Brody.
But, we know she is an unstable workaholic, who can’t take care of herself and who has, for seasons, displayed sociopathic low levels of empathy and remorse. Her being an awful mother is not a question, but a ticking time bomb of when she’ll drop the ball and do something (or forget to do something) unforgivable and irreversible.
In the season premiere, Carrie nearly drowns her daughter in the bath, allowing for probably the most uncomfortable scene aired on TV in some time. Carrie is, however, self-aware enough to know her presence in her daughter’s life is a safety hazard, so she looks for any reason to not be responsible for her care.
As always, Carrie shows her sensitivity in a starkly twisted way.
Saul and Carrie are friends again.
Though he returned to his wife’s good graces, Saul (Mandy Patinkin) is unhappy living in New York, working for not the CIA and being far away from the life he both loved and hated (for quenching his occupational thirst and making him a distant husband, respectively).
Saul and Carrie meet at Sandy’s (Stoll) funeral, and though nothing serious transpires, it’s safe to assume they’ll soon put their heads together to do something illegal and probably dangerous. This is a relief after last season, when Saul conspired to get Carrie institutionalized and out of his hair.
It sort of doesn’t matter what happens because so long as Saul and Carrie are on the same side, things are better in “Homeland.”
Photo Courtesy: ShowTime/Homeland
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