Homeland - new season TONIGHT !!

Whose watching tonight ??

Thanks for the reminder!!! I'm not sure I'm ready to handle this but I'm going to try

Good first episode. Looks like it could be a promising season.

vermontgolfer said:
Good first episode. Looks like it could be a promising season.

I thought it was pretty good too. I probably would have benefitted from watching the last couple of episodes from last season. I struggled to remember exactly how things ended (I'm getting old......)

mjh said:

vermontgolfer said:
Good first episode. Looks like it could be a promising season.

I thought it was pretty good too. I probably would have benefitted from watching the last couple of episodes from last season. I struggled to remember exactly how things ended (I'm getting old......)

This is an ongoing problem for me with all of the shows I watch. I can't remember ANYTHING that happened in the previous season. If they don't have a "Previously On" segment I am screwed.

I can't remember exactly how things ended last season, either. However, this season is supposed to be two years after the events of last season, so much of what has happened to the characters was "off camera," so to speak. For example, Saul obviously blames Cary for tanking his shot at the Directorship, which was not shown last season. (He was serving as interim Director then.)

BrickPig said:
Saul obviously blames Cary for tanking his shot at the Directorship, which was not shown last season. (He was serving as interim Director then.)

This is exactly what confused me, so perhaps I didn't forget anything after all!

they showed last seasons end show prior to the 1st episode. I watched the last 1/2 hour of it-it was helpful

I'm having a sense of foreboding about Carrie's little girl. I really hope they don't write in any harm to her but who knows. It would be sort of an interesting parallel, acutally, to Brody's change of heart when Isa was killed back in season 1.

Nothing must happen to Brody Jr.!

Previously on Homeland:

This is what I recall about how last season ended (correct me if senility has set in). Saul retired; went to Pakistan as a contractor; got kidnapped by jihadists; got freed; got a sorely needed shower, shave and haircut; then at the end of the season appeared to be selling his soul to the devil -- Dar Adal, who asks Saul "What if you could have it all?" or something. Carrie or Quinn discovers Saul and Dar together, apparently hatching an undefined evil plan. Quinn (Quinn!), rejected by Carrie, royally pissed off at Dar Adal, gets guilted by his special ops bros into going on super-secret, high-risk missions into locales so classified that they could not be named. Possibly, Dar Adal hopes Quinn goes out in a deniable fashion.

(Spoiler alert)

We open this season in Berlin. Saul is DDO or something and blames his not being Director on Carrie. (By now, I have no idea what she did, or whether the viewers are even supposed to know what she did). She's in Berlin with Brody Jr., looking good, but it turns out her wealthy billionaire philanthropist boss (1) inherited his wealth from Nazis, (2) wants her to go to a hot area in the Middle East where the terrorists probably know her by sight so the boss can get other billionaires to help Syrian refugees, (3) is running some kind of Wikileaks project as part of his foundation, headed by a woman who goes around self-righteously proclaiming "the people need to know the truth!" and stuff. Carrie's boyfriend is the in-house lawyer for the foundation but is no Peter Quinn. German intelligence is about to be outed for violating German law in order to prevent Germany from being blown up by local bomb-makers. Saul comes to Berlin looking Botoxed and like he's been living in the CIA gym. His posture is amazing. Quinn comes to Berlin to take care of business. Of course, it's all deniable and if he gets caught he's #onhisown. Things blow up. #quinning The local Hezbollah leader sends a car for Carrie and they a heartwarming meeting. Stylish cross-body messenger bags abound. Next on Homeland:

Having held herself together for one episode, Carrie makes a crazy wall, or floor.

All I remember from last season is everyone being thoroughly disillusioned. So this season, Carrie has left the CIA and has gone to work for the "other side" i.e. the Wikileaks side. And both Saul and Quinn have a "Screw moral imperatives, I'm just going to do my job" attitude. So I see this season as being about all parties questioning their duty vs their morality, which should be good. But since we're in germany, I don't see as much potential for gorgeous middle-eastern people (that junior CIA woman, the Iranian general and the government woman, the reporter, etc), just pasty Germans so far, which is not so good.

BaseballMom said:
Nothing must happen to Brody Jr.!
Previously on Homeland:
This is what I recall about how last season ended (correct me if senility has set in). Saul retired; went to Pakistan as a contractor; got kidnapped by jihadists; got freed; got a sorely needed shower, shave and haircut; then at the end of the season appeared to be selling his soul to the devil -- Dar Adal, who asks Saul "What if you could have it all?" or something. Carrie or Quinn discovers Saul and Dar together, apparently hatching an undefined evil plan. Quinn (Quinn!), rejected by Carrie, royally pissed off at Dar Adal, gets guilted by his special ops bros into going on super-secret, high-risk missions into locales so classified that they could not be named. Possibly, Dar Adal hopes Quinn goes out in a deniable fashion.
(Spoiler alert)
We open this season in Berlin. Saul is DDO or something and blames his not being Director on Carrie. (By now, I have no idea what she did, or whether the viewers are even supposed to know what she did). She's in Berlin with Brody Jr., looking good, but it turns out her wealthy billionaire philanthropist boss (1) inherited his wealth from Nazis, (2) wants her to go to a hot area in the Middle East where the terrorists probably know her by sight so the boss can get other billionaires to help Syrian refugees, (3) is running some kind of Wikileaks project as part of his foundation, headed by a woman who goes around self-righteously proclaiming "the people need to know the truth!" and stuff. Carrie's boyfriend is the in-house lawyer for the foundation but is no Peter Quinn. German intelligence is about to be outed for violating German law in order to prevent Germany from being blown up by local bomb-makers. Saul comes to Berlin looking Botoxed and like he's been living in the CIA gym. His posture is amazing. Quinn comes to Berlin to take care of business. Of course, it's all deniable and if he gets caught he's #onhisown. Things blow up. #quinning The local Hezbollah leader sends a car for Carrie and they a heartwarming meeting. Stylish cross-body messenger bags abound. Next on Homeland:
Having held herself together for one episode, Carrie makes a crazy wall, or floor.

Perfect!

Excellent recap BaseballMom! Do I remember some kind of inquiry towards the end of last season? Carrie in a room with lots of 'higher ups'? I feel like she might have revealed some not so flattering things about Saul - maybe that's what the reference was all about?

I confess: this is totally my calling.

Interesting story in the NYT Sunday Styles sectionon Claire Danes and her preparation for the role..

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/fashion/claire-danes-jeh-johnson.html?ref=todayspaper

noo2wood said:
, just pasty Germans so far, which is not so good.

they could use a Hanz or Franz or one of these guys!

Ken Duken

Marco Girnth

(yes, I just googled "Hottest German actors"!!)

QUINNNN!

It was a really great season - on par with the earliest seasons.  Tonight's episode was excellent I thought.  And yes ... QUINNNN!

He's dying, right? I totally thought they were about to have a Sleeping Beauty moment where she kisses him and he wakes up I wonder why they didn't finish it but I don't believe there's ambiguity there. I can see why they went that direction...they really didn't have much left for him to do.

The final scene with Allison was pretty epic (Godfather-style!) but part of me wanted her to get her commeupance and suffer for it. I guess that's mean

Did anyone else find it hard to sympathize with Laura Sutton? She just always seemed in the wrong to me. Then again...what WAS in the hacked documents? Did we ever even find out? What was actually the point of her storyline?

Dar had told Carrie that this was Quinn's "worst nightmare." She was there to do what Quinn would have wanted. Taking the sensor off his fingertip and putting it on her own was the first step.

A few reviews/recaps I read said that given the extent of his reported brain damage, Homeland would lose a lot of credibility if he miraculously recovered. I thought that was a good point. 

looks like it could be a wrap for the show?

I seem to recall there's going to be at least one more season. 

That was a great season!!! It was less "24" and more like the first season. 

My only minor gripe was how little security there was in the German subway station. No cops at the entrances or platforms and when people walked on the tracks it was business as usual.

skadave said:

That was a great season!!! It was less "24" and more like the first season. 

My only minor gripe was how little security there was in the German subway station. No cops at the entrances or platforms and when people walked on the tracks it was business as usual.

Then again... Think about the average NYC subway station. Once you get beyond Penn or Times Square I feel like they're kind of a ghost town.