Homeland- Season One

Gah, it is so much harder to write about TV shows than it is movies. There is just so much I have to put in, and I have to make sense of it all, especially for those who haven't seen the shows I'm talking about. There is so much to say about this show. I love the intensity of it, I love the suspense, I love the twists, I love the frustration. All of it. When my husband first introduced it to me, I did not have any interest because I hate everything that has to do with the war. But he said, "Ok. We'll watch just the first episode, and if you don't get sucked in we won't watch it." He says that with everything and it always works!!

*Spoilers*
Basic background of the series: Carrie (the main girl) gets this information that there is an American soldier in Iraq who has turned. When Brody (the main guy) is rescued and brought back to the US, everyone, especially Carrie's superiors, considers him a hero, but Carrie believes that he is the turned soldier. However, she can't tell her superiors because she has already been put on probation for the way she went about retrieving the information she received, and they will just downright not believe her. So before she can go to them with anything, she has to find something on Brody that shows he is the turned soldier. She sets up cameras, follows him around, "accidentally" bumps into him, and develops a relationship with him so she can find anything that will show he is the one.

So crazy stuff happens. All throughout the season Carrie works her butt off to find stuff on this guy. I love Carrie. She is so obsessive, persistent, and determined to get proof on this guy. She just won't let it go. But she can't find anything on Brody. She watches him, she follows him, but nothing. And Brody does nothing wrong. He may be weird about a few things like staying in one spot against the wall in his room for 8 hours, since that's what he was used to while a prisoner in Iraq, but there's not much on him. I started to think, ok woman, this guy isn't him, you're watching the wrong guy.

Meanwhile, Brody is going through a tough time readjusting to his life back at home. He was gone for a really long time, for 8 years, and now his kids are grown, and his wife was seeing his best friend, but now that he came back, they try to keep it all quiet from him. She doesn't want her husband to know that they were seeing each other, that she "gave up" on him, and she cuts it off with the other guy. But of course, Brody is suspicious. It's hard to figure out if he's really the bad guy or if he is just having a really hard time getting back into his old life.

BUT THEN the last couple episodes everything unravels. Since Brody finally finds out about his wife and his best friend, he decides to do whatever he wants, and that's where Carrie comes in. One thing you got to know about Carrie is that she is bipolar, but has not told anyone at work about it because she would lose her job instantly. She gets drugs from her sister who is a nurse so it all stays hushed up. So Carrie bumps into Brody at a meeting and starts a relationship with him. They spend a weekend together, where Carrie forgets her meds, and she questions him about what she truly thinks of him. He has an answer for everything and makes her look like a lunatic and a real douche bag for getting him in bed just to figure out more things on him. Once she gets back home, she ends up in one of her crazy modes, but during this time she figures it all out. I won't say what she figures out, but it's so good, and totally unexpected.

The finale ends with a GIANT cliff hanger. I was super pissed. She had it all figured out, she knew what she was talking about, but everyone, even her friends and those co-workers close to her, convinced her that she was just crazy, that she wasn't making sense, and that her illness was taking over.
*End of Spoilers*

I really like this show because it makes you go back and forth. You really can't predict what is going to happen, or at least I couldn't. It's not like most shows where you figure it out before they reveal it. The whole time I'm iffy about the guy, but every time I think he's the bad guy, something happens to where I'm convinced that he's not, and it's just the girl who is going crazy and is making a bigger deal of things than they really are. The thing I don't really like about this show: the nudity. Yeah, it's a Showtime show so it's unrated or uncensored or whatever. If you can get it edited somehow, it's a great show to watch. Anyways, I really enjoy this show, and I can't wait for the next season to start at the end of this month.