HOMELAND - Season 1 [2011]

 

“Why kill a man when you can kill an idea?”

It's not often a television series has me completely absorbed into it by the final scene of the pilot episode.  Normally it takes a few episodes, sometimes a complete season.  However Showtime's Homeland managed to capture my undivided attention within the first twenty minutes of the pilot.  Inspired by Gideon Raff's Israeli television series, Hatufim, showrunner's Howard Gordon & Alex Gansa (of the Kiefer Sutherland vehicle 24) run over familiar territory, dealing with the subjects of terrorism, espionage and paranoia.  It tells the disturbingly intense story of a troubled U.S. Marine returning home to his family after being a tortured prisoner of war for 8 years to the al-Quada.  Even though he's celebrated as a hero, an equally disturbed CIA agent suspects him of being turned by the enemy and a potentially dangerous threat to the country. 

While 24 was driven by it's implausible, yet riveting, action, Homeland keeps it's feet firmly grounded in realism and makes the experience all the more terrifying.  Driven by such intimate intensity, Homeland is the type of show that will keep you awake at night wondering if it's time to lock yourself up in your house with a tinfoil hat. 

The first 5 episodes are consistently strong, compelling and effectively suspenseful, however it seems to lose it's step for a few episodes in the middle but still has enough purpose to keep the viewer trucking on forward.  Thankfully, we're rewarded by the final 4 episodes that pick up the slack and dare you not to break a sweat or hold your breath. Without the wonderfully absorbing cast, including My So Called Life's Claire Danes, Band Of Brother's Damian Lewis, Firefly's Morena Baccarin and Dead Like Me's Mandy Patinkin, Homeland probably wouldn't have been nearly as emotionally engaging. 

It's not a perfect series or even breaking new ground, with 24 and Rubicon before it, but it is certainly something that's easy to recommend to anybody that loves episodic suspenseful television. 

13 episodes.  Roughly 55-60 minutes each

Buyer's Guide:

Available in DVD and Blu-ray box sets and on iTunes, Netflix and Amazon.

3½  instances where your own side is scarier than the enemy out of 5

FIREFLY [2002]

“When you can't run you crawl, and when you can't crawl…

...You find someone to carry you.”

Writer/director Joss Whedon was on fire in the entertainment industry.  With an Academy award nomination for the Toy Story screenplay and two cult-hit television series still on the air, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and it’s spin-off Angel, it seemed like he couldn’t be stopped.  So the FOX network gave him the go ahead to produce another television series hopefully with the same appeal as his two previous efforts.  What Whedon handed in was without a doubt the last thing they wanted to see…a space western called Firefly.

They hated it.  FOX gave it the notorious Friday night deathslot and even decided to push the pilot episode aside, because it was too slow and aired the second episode first.  It was very apparent that Firefly was doomed from the beginning.  Without any phasers, spaceship battles or a single alien in sight, it baffled the FOX executives, especially when they found out the characters cursed in Chinese.  What the hell was this show? 

I’ll tell you what it was.  One of the damn finest sci-fi series to grace your televisions sets. 

Firefly sits neatly beside Arrested Development and Freaks & Geeks as the best TV shows no one watched and should all be damned to that very special level of Hell for just that.

Set 500 years in the future, after Earth has been overpopulated, it follows the misadventures of a group a space traveling thieves constantly on the brink of starvation and constantly questioning their own morals and choices. 

The cast is led by the oddly charismatic Castle star, Nathan Fillion as Captain Malcolm Reynolds who pretty much just kicks ass all around with his cranky charms and constant struggle with his own self-appointed morales.  I Robot’s Alan Tudyk , Stargate: Atlantis’ Jewel Staite, Full Metal Jacket’s Adam Baldwin and Barney Miller’s Ron Glass are also notable cast members chewing up their scenes as well.

Littered with freshly executed witty dialogue, original storytelling structures and more than enough moments to make you laugh out loud, Firefly is a must see for any sci-fi fan.  Sadly it was canceled after only airing 11 of the 14 episodes produced.  Thankfully with only 14 episodes made, Firefly never got the chance to ever really suck.  It’s pretty much solid from start to finish. 

14 episodes.  42 minutes each.

Episodes To Watch:

1x06 : Our Mrs. Reynolds: Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks guest stars and makes for some interesting and funny character moments.

1x08: Out Of Gas: Angel/Terriers writer, Tim Minear does what he does best.  Perfect flashback episodes.

1x12: The Message: The emotional impact of this episdoe always takes me off guard.  Wonderful stuff.

Episodes To Avoid:

Nothing really weak here.

However 1x04: Shindig is the weakest of the bunch.

Buyer’s Guide: 

The complete series is widely available in DVD & Blu-Ray box sets for very reasonable prices. 

5 BIG DAMN Heroes out of 5