Homeland (TV series)

Season 1 (2011)

The first season follows Carrie Mathison, a Central Intelligence Agency operations officer who, after conducting an unauthorized operation in Iraq, is put on probation and reassigned to the CIA's Counterterrorism Center in Langley, Virginia. In Iraq, Carrie was warned by an asset that an American prisoner of war had been turned by al-Qaeda.

Carrie's job grows complicated when her boss, Director of the Counterterrorism Center David Estes, calls Carrie and her colleagues in for an emergency briefing. Carrie learns that Nicholas Brody, a U.S. Marine Sergeant who had been reported as missing in action since 2003, has been rescued during a Delta Force raid on a compound belonging to terrorist Abu Nazir. Carrie comes to believe that Brody is the American prisoner of war whom her asset in Iraq was talking about. However, the federal government and her superiors at the CIA consider Brody a war hero. Later, another Marine, Tom Walker is also rescued casting doubt on which of the Marines is the suspected spy.

Realizing it would be nearly impossible to convince her boss to place Brody under surveillance, Carrie approaches the only other person she can trust, her mentor, Saul Berenson. The two must now work together to investigate Brody and prevent another terrorist attack on American soil. Eventually, Brody attempts to kill the Vice President as a suicide bomber but falters at the last moment after an intervention by his daughter Dana, while Carrie becomes more doubtful and paranoid by her belief that Brody is a terrorist.

Season 2 (2012)

The second season follows Carrie and the CIA working with Brody to capture Abu Nazir. Discovering a video of Brody's confession during a CIA operation in Lebanon, Carrie and Saul, along with analyst Peter Quinn, work to turn Brody into a double agent. Brody gives in to the CIA interrogation and is now an asset for the CIA, sending information to both sides. The downside of being a double agent as well as a rising Congressman with the Vice President's support brings Brody closer to Carrie while worsening his relationship with his family. Brody's friend Mike tries to find the truth behind Tom Walker's death. Egged on by Abu Nazir, who is now in the U.S., Brody silently kills the Vice President while the CIA tracks down Nazir's contacts and Carrie and an FBI team kill Nazir using information from Roya, a journalist who is Nazir's contact. Seemingly free of being Nazir's man, Brody celebrates with Carrie at the CIA headquarters and both survive an explosion that kills Director Estes and many others. Brody's earlier video confession, meant to be released in the aftermath of the aborted bomb vest killing of the VP, is released by Nazir's people to claim responsibility and is used to frame Brody for the bombing. Brody then flees the U.S. with Carrie's help. Saul, who was attending the burying of Nazir's body at sea, is left to pick up the pieces.

Season 3 (2013)

The beginning of season 3 presents the aftermath of a terrorist attack committed by Abu Nazir's people. Carrie is blamed for the CIA's failings as Senator Lockhart grills Saul, now Acting Director of the CIA, in front of the Senate Committee. However, it turned out to be part of a bigger plot, as Saul had Carrie seemingly disavowed by the CIA to lure a senior Iranian intelligence officer Majid Javadi (who financed the Langley bombing) into becoming a CIA asset. He later relayed the information to Carrie that the main perpetrator of the bombing was still in the U.S., and the CIA acted to bring the real bomber and the officer's lawyers in for questioning.

As the Brody family struggles to live within their means amidst Brody's terrorist status, Brody himself is in hiding in Caracas, Venezuela, effectively being held prisoner by his captors until Saul's arrival. Following a gunshot wound to the torso, Brody becomes addicted to the heroin given to him as a painkiller. Saul eventually rescues him, detoxifies him, and recruits him for a mission: to go to Iran and use his notoriety as the "Langley Bomber" to get close to the current head of the Revolutionary Guard, Danesh Akbari, to assassinate him. During the initial assassination attempt, Brody publicly declares that he is seeking asylum in Iran, but is unable to get close enough to Akbari to assassinate him. Assuming that Brody will never have another opportunity to complete his mission, senior CIA officers order his assassination. However, with help from Carrie, Brody escapes and is able to arrange a meeting with Akbari, claiming to possess sensitive information about Javadi. During the meeting, Brody strikes Akbari and suffocates him to death. Carrie takes him to a safehouse, but Lockhart, with a direct order from the President, gives up their location to Javadi in order to increase his chances of being promoted. Brody is then publicly hanged as Carrie watches in the crowd.

Four months later, Iran offers the IAEA full access to its nuclear sites in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Lockhart (now CIA Director) offers Carrie (now eight months pregnant) the job of station chief of the CIA's Turkey operations (after a maternity leave). Carrie accepts the position but her request to place a star on the memorial wall to commemorate Brody is refused. In the final scene, Carrie is seen discreetly drawing a star on the memorial wall herself.

Season 4 (2014)

In the fourth season, Carrie is working as a CIA station chief in Kabul, Afghanistan. Pakistan station chief Sandy Bachman tips Carrie about the location of terrorist target Haissam Haqqani in Pakistan. Carrie orders an air strike, supposedly killing Haqqani, and 40 civilians are killed as a wedding was taking place at his location. A survivor of the air strike, Aayan Ibrahim, after losing his family, returns to medical college where his friend uploads the wedding video from Aayan's phone. This causes uproar and Sandy Bachman is attacked in the streets of Islamabad by an angry mob, after his picture somehow finds its way onto local TV. Carrie and Peter Quinn try to rescue him, but Bachman is dragged from the car and is killed, while Carrie and Quinn barely escape. They are recalled to the U.S. by CIA Director Lockhart. Carrie contacts another agent who reveals Sandy was trading state secrets in exchange for target info and Lockhart was aware of it. Carrie blackmails Lockhart to send her back as the new station chief in Islamabad, Pakistan. There, Carrie sets up another secret base with Max and Fara and convinces Quinn to join. Saul arrives at the embassy to oversee private security. Carrie asks Fara to recruit Aayan but she fails to do so as Aayan is too scared. Carrie then makes contact with Aayan offering help, to smuggle him out to London. Fara later follows Aayan to a mosque where it is revealed that Haqqani is alive and being helped by his nephew Aayan with stolen medicines.

Meanwhile, ISI official Tasneem Qureshi contacts the ambassador's husband, Dennis Boyd, revealing the latter as the source of Sandy, by stealing info from his wife, Martha. Tasneem forces Dennis to continue working for her. Aayan confesses to Carrie that Haqqani is still alive. In a staged attack set up by Carrie and her people, Aayan flees the safehouse and makes contact with Haqqani. Carrie monitors Aayan via drone leading them to Haqqani. Dennis gives info about Aayan to Tasneem who alerts Haqqani. Haqqani's men have kidnapped Saul and Haqqani meets Aayan in the mountains where Saul is shown captive. Haqqani blames Aayan for the drone tracking him and kills Aayan. Carrie, out of anger, orders a strike but Quinn intervenes. Haqqani demands five prisoners to be released in exchange for Saul. Lockhart arrives at the embassy to manage the situation. Saul escapes from captivity and calls Carrie who leads him to a nearby town for extraction, but he is later surrounded with Haqqani's men and Saul is recaptured. Lockhart agrees to the terms of the prisoner exchange. At the embassy, Dennis is caught as the leak and imprisoned. Saul is successfully exchanged, despite not wanting the deal to go through.

On their way back to the embassy Carrie's convoy is hit with RPGs by Haqqani's men. Haqqani infiltrates the embassy by a hidden tunnel (information given by Dennis to Tasneem) and kills several people. Threatening to kill more people, Haqqani demands the list of informants, which Lockhart eventually gives up. However, Haqqani kills Fara, and Quinn attacks, forcing Haqqani to retreat and escape. The convoy gets help from the Pakistani military after a delay. The White House cuts relations with Pakistan and orders an evacuation of the remaining embassy personnel. Quinn escapes the embassy and plans on killing Haqqani. Carrie stays behind to find him. During a rally of Haqqani, Carrie forces Quinn to abort his plan on killing him and discovers Dar Adal in Haqqani's car. Back in the U.S., Carrie reunites with her estranged mother. Quinn accepts a dangerous assassination mission in Syria. Later, Carrie confronts Dar Adal who reveals Saul as a supporter of a deal made with Haqqani, to take him off the CIA kill list, in exchange for Haqqani no longer harboring terrorists in Afghanistan. Carrie leaves in anger and confusion.

Season 5 (2015)

The fifth season takes place two years after the previous and is set in Berlin, Germany, with Carrie no longer an intelligence officer and working as head of security for a private charitable foundation and its billionaire owner.

Season 6 (2017)

Taking place several months after the previous season, Carrie is back in the United States, living in Brooklyn, New York. She is now working at a foundation whose efforts are to provide aid to Muslims living in the United States. The season features a presidential election, and takes place between election day and inauguration day.

Cast and characters

Development history

Based on Gideon Raff's Israeli series Hatufim, Homeland was developed by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa in early 2010. The two had previously worked together on the similarly themed series 24. On September 19, 2010, Showtime placed a pilot order for Homeland as the first project David Nevins had undertaken since leaving Imagine Entertainment to become president of Showtime. Gordon, Gansa and Raff wrote the pilot, Michael Cuesta directed the pilot, with Gordon, Gansa, Raff, Avi Nir, and Ran Telem serving as executive producers.

On April 7, 2011, Showtime green-lit the series with an order of 12 episodes. It was announced that Chip Johannessen would join the series as a co-executive producer, while Michael Cuesta, who had served as the director on the pilot, would join the series as an executive producer.

On July 21, 2011, at the San Diego Comic-Con, Showtime announced that the series would premiere on October 2, 2011. Along with the announcement of the premiere date for the series, the network also announced that the names of the characters portrayed by Claire Danes and Damian Lewis had been renamed Carrie Mathison and Nicholas Brody, from Carrie Anderson and Scott Brody, respectively. The series is produced by Fox 21.

In September 2016, Gansa announced that he would be crafting the eighth season as the series' last. He pointed out that the decision would ultimately fall on Showtime, but that he would be moving toward an eight-season close. He also stated that it would be his desire to film the final season in Israel, where Homeland's source series, Prisoners of War originated.

Casting

Casting announcements began in November 2010, with Claire Danes first to be cast. Danes portrays Carrie Mathison, "a driven CIA officer battling her own psychological demons." Next to join the series was Mandy Patinkin as Saul Berenson, "the smart and politically savvy CIA Division Chief ... who is Carrie's main champion in the intelligence upper echelon and her sounding board." Laura Fraser was initially cast as Jessica Brody, "Nick Brody's smart, strong wife.", but after the pilot Fraser was replaced by Morena Baccarin. Next to join the series were Damian Lewis and David Harewood, with Lewis playing Brody, "who returns home after spending eight years as a prisoner of war in Baghdad", while Harewood was cast as David Estes, "a rising star in the CIA, Carrie's boss ... is the youngest director of the Counterterrorism Center in the Agency's history." Diego Klattenhoff, Morgan Saylor, and Jackson Pace were the last actors to join the main cast, with Klattenhoff playing Mike Faber, "Brody's close friend and fellow Marine, Mike Faber was convinced that Brody was dead, which is how he justified falling in love with Brody's wife Jessica", Saylor playing Dana Brody, "The Brodys' oldest child", and Pace playing Chris Brody, "Nick and Jessica's eager-to-please, self-conscious thirteen year-old son."

It was later announced that Jamey Sheridan, Navid Negahban, Amir Arison, and Brianna Brown had joined the series as recurring guest stars. Sheridan was cast as the Vice President of the United States, Negahban was cast as Abu Nazir, with Arison playing Prince Farid Bin Abbud and Brown playing Lynne Reed.

Filming

The series is filmed in and around Charlotte, North Carolina. The location was chosen because of film tax credits, and the atmosphere matches nearby Virginia and Washington, D.C., where the series takes place. Production claims it is easier to get around the area's smaller city atmosphere rather than in large cities where filming typically occurs. Another frequent setting is nearby Mooresville. Executive producer Michael Cuesta said Mooresville is "played for quite a few rural-type one-stoplight main-street type of towns."

The Brody family house is in Mountainbrook, a Charlotte neighborhood near SouthPark Mall. Queens University of Charlotte is the Brody daughter's college. CIA headquarters is Cambridge Corporate Center in University Research Park. Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, the Ritz-Carlton, the old courthouse, Ed's Tavern, and Zack's Hamburgers in Charlotte, as well as Rural Hill in Huntersville and Lake Norman, have also served as filming locations.

Production for season two began in May 2012 with the series filming in Israel for two weeks, with the city of Haifa standing in for Beirut. The rest of the season was filmed in Charlotte and Concord, North Carolina.

Production for the third season began in late May 2013, continuing production in Raleigh, North Carolina. The series also filmed in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, which stood in for Caracas, Venezuela. The series was also planning on returning to Israel for additional filming, but filming moved to Morocco, due to ongoing conflicts in Syria.

Production for the fourth season took place from June through November 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa, while the fifth season moved production to Berlin, Germany.

The sixth season began production in August 2016 and is filming in New York City and Morocco.

Other media

Since the conclusion of season 2, several pieces of in-universe material have been published.

Critical response

The first season received near universal acclaim. Metacritic gave it a rating of 92 out of 100 based on 29 critics. TV Guide named it the best TV show of 2011 and highly applauded the performances given by Damian Lewis and Claire Danes. Metacritic named Homeland the second-best TV show of 2011, based on aggregating the year-end top-ten lists of a number of major TV critics. The second season also received near universal acclaim, achieving a Metacritic rating of 96 out of 100 from 21 critics. The third season initially received generally favorable reviews, with a rating of 77 out of 100 based on 23 critics, but reviews became more negative as the season progressed.

Hank Stuever of The Washington Post gave the pilot episode an A−, saying "What makes Homeland rise above other post-9/11 dramas is Danes' stellar performance as Carrie—easily this season's strongest female character," and that "The latter half of the first episode is exhilarating. I'm hooked." Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe gave it a solid A grade, and said it was his favorite drama pilot of the season. Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker gave it an A−, stating "It's the fall season's most intriguing, tense puzzler." IGN TV gave it a positive review, saying that it was an "ace thriller" that also managed to have something to say about the "War on Terror". The seventh episode, "The Weekend", received overwhelming critical acclaim and was described by both the creators of the show and Lewis as a "watershed" episode.

However, Greg Dixon of The New Zealand Herald criticized Homeland's thin plotting, Danes's "insane levels of overacting", and Lewis's "passivity". Robert Rorke of New York Post wrote about the third season "Seldom in the history of cable TV has a series imploded as quickly as Showtime's Homeland." and "The show, in the middle of its third season, is now impossible to take seriously."

Former U.S. President Barack Obama has praised Homeland and is known to be a fan of the show.

Ratings

The original broadcast of the pilot episode on October 2, 2011, received 1.08 million viewers, becoming Showtime's highest-rated drama premiere in eight years. The episode received a total of 2.78 million viewers with additional broadcasts and on demand views. The final episode of season one received 1.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched season finale of any first-year Showtime series. Ratings increased in Season 2, peaking with 2.36 million viewers for the December 9, 2012 first-run broadcast.

The series has also performed well in the UK, where it airs on Channel 4. The pilot episode drew 2.2 million viewers and the season one finale drew 2.8 million viewers. Season two saw a drop in viewership, with the season two premiere drawing in 2.3 million viewers, but the finale only 2.1 million.

The following graph indicates first-airing viewer numbers:

Awards and nominations

In its debut season, the series received several industry awards and nominations. The series was recognized with a Peabody Award in April 2012 describing the series as "a game of cat and mouse, a psychological thriller and a Rorschach test of post-9/11 doubts, fears and suspicions rolled into one." At the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, the series received nine nominations winning six awards, including Outstanding Drama Series, Claire Danes for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Damian Lewis for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon and Gideon Raff for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for the pilot episode. The series also won awards for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series and Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series.

At the 69th Golden Globe Awards, the series won the award for Best Television Series – Drama, and Claire Danes won for Best Actress – Television Series Drama, with Damian Lewis receiving a nomination for Best Actor – Television Series Drama. At the 70th Golden Globe Awards, the series won its second consecutive award for Best Television Series – Drama, Danes won again for Best Actress – Television Series Drama, and Lewis won for Best Actor – Television Series Drama, after being nominated the previous year.

Controversies

In October 2012 the Lebanese government was reportedly planning to sue the show's producers, asserting misrepresentation of Hamra Street in Beirut, Lebanon. Specifically, in the second episode of the second season "Beirut Is Back", the street was shown as a narrow alleyway with militia roaming and associated with terrorist activity. In reality, the Lebanese government says, it is a bustling modern hub of cafes and bars. The Minister of Tourism Fadi Abboud said he would take legal action over the "lies", saying "Beirut is one of the most secure capitals in the world, more secure than London or New York." Although Homeland's co-creator, Gideon Raff, is Israeli and thus forbidden to enter Lebanon, Abboud also protested the filming of episodes in Israel rather than Lebanon.

Peter Beaumont of The Guardian wrote about the portrayal of Muslims in the series "High-profile Muslims living in the US share a secret: both willingly or otherwise they are covert helpers of Abu Nazir, the al-Qaida terrorist leader. In other words, it does not matter whether they are rich, smart, discreetly enjoying a western lifestyle or attractive: all are to be suspected."

Raff's works, Homeland included, have been criticized for their portrayal of Muslims. In an article for Salon, Laila Al-Arian called the show the most Islamophobic show on television, accused it of portraying Muslims under the light of simplistic concepts and as a monolithic, single-minded group whose only purpose is to hurt Americans, and basing the Brody character to such an extent on "pseudo-psychology that only an audience conditioned by the Islamophobic, anti-Arab tropes in our media could find him consistent." She further criticizes the show for fanning hysteria of Muslim "infiltration" of the United States; poor mastery of even basic Arabic; misrepresentation of Islamic and Arab culture; and simplifying the politics of militant Islamic organizations, for instance by conflating groups that in real life are rivals.

An article in The Atlantic by Yair Rosenberg challenged al-Arian's criticisms, arguing that they missed what made the show valuable, which was that it was no gung-ho salute to U.S. militarism and tactics on the war on terror nor a black-and-white portrayal of "good" Americans versus "evil" Muslims, but rather a show that challenges the prejudices of its viewers rather than affirming them. Similarly, Zach Novetsky asserted that al-Arian's criticisms was a function of the show's having enough "depth and layers for someone to concoct a totally inaccurate interpretation of what the show really is about."

Middle East commentator Rachel Shabi opined that Homeland's take on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East does little more than defend the talking points of its advocates, presenting even U.S. violence against civilians as "necessary acts in pursuit of far worse crimes".

Middle East policy expert Fawaz Gerges told TheWrap "Homeland is poisonous to any attempt to bridge the divide between the two nations [United States and Iran]".

The German news magazine Der Spiegel said that the show depicts "hysterical CIA agents in a hysterical country," and demonstrates the "paranoid tactics that delegitimize its democracy" that the United States has applied and exceeded in real life, such as the tapping of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone.

In a 2014 report, the human rights group Amnesty International found relatively high levels of popular support for torture in the U.S. and Britain, in part due to the glorification of torture allegedly found in popular English language TV shows such as 24 and Homeland.

In October 2015, three graffiti artists hired to add graffiti writings on the set of a season 5 episode (intended to portray a refugee camp on the Lebanon–Syria border) to add "authenticity" to the scenes, wrote instead slogans accusing the show of racism.

Broadcast

Internationally, the series premiered on November 1, 2011, on Super Channel in Canada, on January 13, 2012, on RTÉ in Ireland, on January 22, 2012, on Network Ten in Australia, on February 19, 2012, on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, and on September 30, 2013, on Star World in India and Pakistan.