The New Trailer for Showtime’s Homeland Series

By Jason Apuzzo. I’m curious as to what readers think of this trailer for Showtime’s forthcoming war-on-terror themed series, Homeland. The series, from what I’ve read, involves a CIA officer (Claire Danes) convinced that a recently-rescued American POW (Damian Lewis) may be a brainwashed al Qaeda sleeper-agent charged with carrying out a terrorist plot here in America. The series also stars Mandy Patinkin as the CIA officer’s mentor.

The eagerness with which the networks always want to depict Americans as the ‘true’ villains never ceases to amaze me, even when it’s done in this convoluted form.

Posted on May 23rd, 2011 at 4:25pm.

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Jason Apuzzo

Jason Apuzzo is co-Editor of Libertas Film Magazine.

11 thoughts on “The New Trailer for Showtime’s Homeland Series”

  1. “The eagerness with which the networks always want to depict Americans as the ‘true’ villains never ceases to amaze me, even when it’s done in this convoluted form.”

    Truer words were never said. Yes, in general I would say that skepticism is warranted. It may be too much to hope for that this series winds up being a kind of “The Manchurian Candidate” for the War on Terror. I’m thinking of the original “The Manchurian Candidate” here, by the way, not the re-make, which I didn’t see. That’s probably the best case scenario.

    What are the odds, instead, that the suspected “brainwashed al-Qaeda sleeper-agent” in the series winds up being a fictionalized version of Timothy McVeigh? How about this: Claire Danes follows this guy, and he leads her right to the neo-Nazis that bombed Baltimore in “The Sum of All Fears”—the movie, not the book. I’m just thinking out loud here.

    1. Right! I like your thinking here, Eric …

      I strongly doubt we will get something as good as the original Manchurian Candidate out of this. That would require more intelligence and wit – and shrewder analysis of the culture – than appear to be floating around cable TV these days.

  2. I want to be more curious about this show, but I know Michael Klick, who produced 24 seasons six and eight, is behind it. This will probably be an exercise in equivalence rather than an honest discussion of Islam and American foreign policy.

    Maybe I’m wrong — I hope so, because the trailer is fine, and the cast is likable.

    How hard is it for a film of TV series to be made based on Brad Thor’s novels … particularly “The Last Patriot”? Thor’s prose is downright odd, but he can build a thriller woven with historical facts that’s not afraid to peer into the nature of Islam.

    The point is that honest, exciting, brave work is out there. It’s amazing that the establishment just wants to make propaganda.

    1. I agree, Vince. You have to deliberately overlook the good stuff that’s out there waiting to be adapted in order to continue producing such ‘exercises in equivalence,’ as you so perfectly put it.

  3. I’m sure we’ll find out in future episodes that the POW isn’t actually the bad guy, it’s the “American System” or some such nonsense. However, the two main CIA operatives seem earnest and straightforward, so who knows. Also, 24’s EP Howard Gordon, so hopefully the tone will be pro-American.

    1. I too will hope for the best, but I’ve become accustomed to expect the worst. One stays saner that way.

  4. I’m waiting for the Mitch Rapp movie, but I suppose we’ll have a better chance of John Wayne being resurrected from the grave first (or “Path to 9/11” being released on DVD/BluRay).

    1. A lot of people are waiting for a Mitch Rapp movie, and my sense is that such a project will likely happen …

  5. I also expect the worst–easier to recover when the disappointment hits. I thought Sleeper Cell was the best thing on homeland terrorism I have seen. Even their minor characters, like the terrorist’s girlfriend/cover, were flawlessly rendered.

    1. I’ll have to catch that on DVD sometime, Pat! Thanks for the recommendation.

      1. Sleeper Cell was pretty good, although it was a mistake to have tried to make it a continuing series. It should have been a self-contained mini-series. The second season wasn’t bad, just awkward and unnecessary. The only other problem I had with the show was their need to say ‘most Muslims aren’t terrorists’ at least five times an episode, every episode. It was worth saying, but not so often or so stridently, and I imagine it was mainly there as an attempt to keep CAIR off their backs.

        I think I’ve mentioned this before, but the best TV project about domestic Islamic terrorism I’ve seen is the 1997 HBO movie Path to Paradise: The Untold Story of the World Trade Center Bombing. Of course, that was made when the entertainment industry was still willing to take on such things on a regular basis…

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