Homeland - back soon!

[Hassled]

I am beside myself with excitement. here - who's putting the contacts in? Is that Carrie in a disguise? Any one else agog?

I'm a bit confused. Carrie nearly worked it all with her wall of paperwork then just as she went for her ECT she made the connection which is Abu Nasir's son being killed. Are we to assume as soon as she knew she had been right about him it all came back to her? Is the drone strike cover up at CIA out in the open now?

I agree, GetOrf.

I agree with frilly - how come Quinn knew about the Issa connection (he used this in his interrogation)? Are we to conclude that a) Carrie realised the connection and b) despite having the ECT has not only remembered the connection but has told the rest of the CIA?

And how many times can I used the word brilliant?

Didn't Brody explain about Isa in the video?

That would make sense. God, I wish they would let us watch that bloody video one time all the way through, instead of showing just the first 30 seconds over and over. Admittedly this would involve the writers having to construct an amazing speech rather than just snippets, but it feels weird not having seen it ever.

I worry that it will end up like Lost, brilliant first series but the producers then make it up as they go along!

The thing that really annoyed me with lost is the people who produced/wrote it said they knew where they wanted it to go from the beginning. They clearly didn't as the ending was a complete cop out and left so much unexplained. They may as well had a main character waking up and it was all it dream.

I think the problem is the way American TV works. From what I can gather if a series is successful they commission several seasons and contract the actors to several seasons. This means the shows gets stale and they drag storylines on for ages/revisit them because they don't even shake it up my having a cast cull and moving on to new characters. There are so many shows that should have ended several seasons before they actually did and I just hope this isn't one.

I am thinking of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip now.

Completely different genre but it was BRILLIANTLY written, excellent cast, rave reviews and then, for dark and mysterious reasons, cancelled after one series which meant that that writers had to make everything happen quickly in order to tie it up.

I think of it fondly as it never had the chance to go stale.

Conversely, Lost and also (in a more shallow but entertaining way) Nip/Tuck. Could have actually been quite good, dark and disturbing look at the cosmetic surgery industry and some of the relationship stuff was quite compelling but then after the second series it became utterly ridiculous, with ludicrous storylines and all the characters turned into parody's of themselves. They dragged it out so long it ended up on FX or some such channel

I would hate to find that Homeland is something I am watching just because I have invested in the first two series' and not because it is brilliant.

Studio 60 was fantastic. I have no idea why that was cancelled. Off the top of my head I can't think of any other US show that I was sad to see end or where I was left wanting more. Even big shows like friends where dragged out for far too long.

Yes, in the pantheon of Sorkin Injustices, the cancellation of Studio 60 is up there with the inexplicable decision not to cancel The Newsroom

Very difficult for any long-running series to avoid Mad Stuff happening to its lead characters (one of the charms of Revenge is that Mad Stuff is built in from the beginning, so they can pretty much do what the hell they like).

Homeland could never sustain this intensity and twisty-turniness of storyline for too long without drifting into parody.

Pseudo - thanks, I hadn't realised Brody explains the Issa story in the video. That would make sense indeed. Must pay better attention!

One day they'll show us the entire video. And it will probably blow our minds - there's a reason we haven't seen it all, and that's because there's some twist we don't know about in there which will make sense of something or other, or cause our heads to explode.

Agree absolutely re a) the dangers of making Homeland become shit by dragging it out just for the hell of it and b) the glory that was Studio 60.

What if Nazir planted the video? It's not clear how it got from the bench where Brody left it to Beirut. What if they thought it was easier to control the story if they blew the whistle on Brody themselves ...

Never fear the next episode is excellent

Ooh trib good one...

Glad to hear it coco.

You are such a tease coco. Are you watching on RTE?

You've restored my faith then coco because I was considering throwing in the towel now that the secret is out and Brody has been revealed as an agent.
I will watch next weeks and see how I feel.

Yes I am Wips, they are starting to give others more time in the story, Dana, Mike etc. It's shaping up well I think.

Every week I try really hard to follow what is going on but I have come to the conclusion I am too thick to work out what the hell is going on. Why are Estes and Saul closing Mike down?

Holy shit!

Who were they? The gunmen?

I never saw that coming.

They were baddies viva

Ha ha.

We're they Hezbollah?