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Homeland: Season 3 - |Pledge Allegiance|

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R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Cornballer said:
- Maureen Ryan on the finale and this season
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Good review by Mo. I thought her closing paragraphs were funny:

Where do we go from here? I don't know. There aren't many supporting characters that feel ready to step up to the spotlight. Quinn's moral doubts were a thing this season until they weren't. Saul made Fara cry, but it all worked out because she deepened into... yeah, not much happened with Fara. Saul's wife and he exchanged Significant Looks and then she was duped by an Israeli operative and then everything between Saul and her was OK.

I love Dar Adal and his glittering, merciless eyes, but for long periods of time, he was reduced to standing around the operations center, glowering at nobody in particular. Big, bad Senator Lockhart was anti-Team Saul, until Lockhart blessed the Brody Play and then promoted Carrie. At least we are done with Carrie-Brody-Carrie-Brody-Carrie-Brody, who found love in a hopeless place. Their affair was one for the ages until it became the stuff of poorly conceived fan-fic. Those two wore me down and then they just wore me out.

Shows have off seasons. It happens. Sometimes they come back from them, sometimes they don't. What worries me about "Homeland" is that it seems to have made structural and thematic choices that limit where it can go next and how effectively it can get there. For three seasons, Brody and Carrie kept finding their way out of impossible situations.

I wonder if "Homeland" can do the same.
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D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
biosnake20 said:
So we'll see if that " a major character will die because he has a new show" rumor is true. Should be announced very soon if true.
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I literally just popped back into the thread because I remembered that report. If it was indeed a pitch that would star Damian Lewis, maybe that'll move quickly this week.
 
Y

You Know Nothing

Member
Wow, that was a great finale. Such a touching final scene. And I love the music that played during the credits.

So glad that Brody indeed ended up dead. Finally, they went through with it.
 
S

Slurpy2k20

Member
Dan said:
"I just didn't think it through." - Carrie describing almost everything she did this season.

Seriously, Carrie and Saul clearly never spent a single moment considering what would happen after Brody killed Akbari. Carrie sits there with a pie-in-the-sky fantasy of Brody somehow being able to have a life in America. Saul doesn't appear to think about any of the details, like how Iran reacts to this, he acts as if Javadi would replace Akbari in some magical seamless transition. *poof* New man with new western friendly ideas. Saul hadn't even considered that it'd be Javadi in charge of capturing Brody and that him failing wouldn't exactly help the plan. C'mon.

Gotta love how Saul was so incredibly hands-off about this mission that he didn't even know the extraction wasn't happening until fucking Carrie calls him from Iran. He's a little too concerned with carefully wrapping picture frames than paying attention to a military incursion into Iran to complete his operation.

Javadi must be a miracle worker to sway Iran's highest levels of leadership to make such a deal over a mere 4 months. Apparently Iran loves going to the negotiating table 4 months after an American kills their 3rd highest ranking official.

That was a surprisingly pleasant mob at Brody's execution, being so tolerant of the crazy weeping white lady shouting Brody's name.

Good thing they finally tried to explain why Akbari was such an evil dude. It's always best to establish your barely present villain after he's dead.

Also, this episode featured a stellar return of the super stealthy Iranian military. Big props to those guys for getting all those vehicles so close to the building while being quieter than the distant noises of helicopter rotors.


It was hilarious when Carrie immediately tossed out Javadi's name. Naturally, in this world non-main characters don't exist in any meaningful way, so no one will ever pursue Carrie and Brody's unusual relationship with Javadi. Despite her absolute best efforts, Carrie rarely succeeds in blowing ops.

Carrie's proven so abundantly insubordinate and incompetent, she's rewarded with a station chief position. Hoo boy.

Carrie, do you seriously not understand why Brody's name can't be put on the wall? Do you have even the remotest sense that there is a world outside of you and your love? And then she fucking draws on it.


That was the worst, when Carrie said it pretty much explicitly.
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Agree with every single one of your points, as I had the exact same thoughts during the episode. Carrie was so fucking irritating, much more than usual- especially when Brodie was trying to make peace with the fact that he was going to die, all Carie did was make that harder for him by doing the whole "BRODIE! BRODIE! THERE IS STILL HOPE! I WILL CALL SAUL" bullshit. I found that do sick and twisted. Not to mention yelling out his name during the hanging, the purpose of which was? Especially when he honestly asked her not to come? Was that supposed to make him feel good or something? Then the last image she gives him is her being knocked down to the ground. Excellent. If I was dying like that, the last thing I'd want is someone screaming my name. She couldn't even give him a modicum of peace and acceptance at the time of his death. If she wasn't so fucking self-centered, she would have realized what she was doing wasn't to his benefit.

Yeah, and love the fact that the crowd, that wanted to tear Brodie's heart out and cheering the hanging, didn't flinch at the american CIA agent who was wailing and sobbing over this traitor. I mean, really?
 
S

sangreal

Member
haha, that was great

"you know what happens if you get caught"

"yes"

"we will deny any knowledge of your existence etc etc"

"i understand"

*gets caught*

"JAVADI!'

Anyways, I thought the season was pretty good overall and it's wrapped up as tightly as it ever will be. Showtime needs to learn how to let a show run its natural course and end. When is the last time a baby sent a show in a good direction? Did the showtime execs even watch Dexter?
 
C

Cloudy

Banned
This should have been a series finale. Damn.....

Also the baby crap sucked. I'd have liked some closure for Brody's fam instead
 
M

mysterj

Neo Member
I feel weird out by the "he shipped kids by the thousands to landmine" line, is really racist unless it has real world context. Also he execution scene looks like its ripped from Game of Thrones.

After Brody died, there's no reason for his wife and kids in the show right? Seems pretty pointless to have sit through all those incredibly boring family drama earlier in season 3 only to have them become completely irrelevant.

I feel the series is extremely weak on the drama, and it wastes too much time on them. It should focus more on the cloak and dagger, which is the selling point of the show.
 
Z

Zeliard

Member
I agree with others that this could have easily been the series finale (much like Fringe's 3rd season finale, actually).

It'll be interesting to see where they go from here, now that Brody is out of the picture.
 
F

foxtrot3d

Banned
mysterj said:
I feel weird out by the "he shipped kids by the thousands to landmine" line, is really racist unless it has real world context.
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Well there is, during the Iran-Iraq war Ayatollah Khomeni convinced many young men to run straight into minefields with nothing on them except a Quran strapped to their chests. They were told the Quran would protect them and the mines would not harm them. This was done as a quick and easy way to clear minefields for the military. It's one of the well-known horrors of that war.

However, I find it super stupid that we have to be told how evil Ackbari is after he is killed when for all purposes Javadi is shown to be the true evil man in Iran.
 
M

mysterj

Neo Member
foxtrot3d said:
Well there is, during the Iran-Iraq war Ayatollah Khomeni convinced many young men to run straight into minefields with nothing on them except a Quran strapped to their chests. They were told the Quran would protect them and the mines would not harm them. This was done as a quick and easy way to clear minefields for the military. It's one of the well-known horrors of that war.

However, I find it super stupid that we have to be told how evil Ackbari is after he is killed when for all purposes Javadi is shown to be the true evil man in Iran.
Click to expand...

I think I found the context for it, they are called the Basij. They weren't forced or chained, and most volunteers are adults. But okay, I guess there is some tangential connection in the real world for that line.
 
S

Saty

Member
Solid finale and much better season than the previous one.

But i do have to go back to my pet peeve of 'Brody'. How am i to buy Brody is Carrie's love of her life when she doesn't fucking address him by his first name a single time and in the most intimate situations? Ludicrous. This reached new lows in the finale when at the hanging she tries to climb the fence and screams 'Brody, Brody!'. WTF. It totally took me out of the scene.
Your love of your life, the father of your daughter, in his dying moments and you still don't call him by his first name?! Freaking bizzar. What's the the fuck is the problem to scream 'Nicholas, Nick'? People don't refer to their loved ones by their last name. It's one of the most bewildering things i ever saw on TV.

But what to expect in a series where Abu Nazir's widow shortens his name to 'Nazir', showing the writers' lack of understanding of such namings.
 
W

Wozzly

special needs, sexual needs
So with Brody gone, and the actresses that play Jessica and Dana having less of a role in the next season can only mean one thing: the existence of Chris.

Chris finds out about what happened to his dad in Iran and swears to avenge his death. So by playing military shooters and wearing shirts while swimming in pools he turns into a one man army that takes down Javadi.

Meanwhile, Carrie does something to fuck it up.
 
T

The Silver

Member
So have they addressed the fact that Chris is essentially a ghost in the Brody house?

Like I'm starting to think he might actually be some sort of spirit or a ghostly metaphor for Brody's lost innocence.

Yeah that must be it.
 
R

rockman zx

Member
I hope next season has zero baby BS, zero romance BS and zero baggage from previous seasons. Clean start and make the show about spy and political stuff.
 
T

Tugatrix

Member
Wozzly said:
So with Brody gone, and the actresses that play Jessica and Dana having less of a role in the next season can only mean one thing: the existence of Chris.

Chris finds out about what happened to his dad in Iran and swears to avenge his death. So by playing military shooters and wearing shirts while swimming in pools he turns into a one man army that takes down Javadi.

Meanwhile, Carrie does something to fuck it up.
Click to expand...

and he will also change is name to Jack Bauer
 
J

Jake.

Member
just watched, amazing episode. i'm glad the brody execution wasn't drawn out throughout the episode and was relatively quick. perfect (never thought i'd say that about homeland) final 5 minutes as well.
 
R

robertsan21

Member
Zeliard said:
I agree with others that this could have easily been the series finale (much like Fringe's 3rd season finale, actually).

It'll be interesting to see where they go from here, now that Brody is out of the picture.
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Is there going to be a new season?

I thought this was it?
 
D

Deku Tree

Member
Cornballer said:
Once more for the new page:

- Sepinwall's review
- Onion A|V Club review
- Jace Lacob's review for Buzzfeed
- THR: 'Homeland' Finale Prompts Big Changes, On and Off Screen
- THR: Does 'Homeland' Need Brody?
- Maureen Ryan on the finale and this season
- THR: Shaun Toub on Javadi's Next Moves and the Season 3 Finale
- Warming Glow: ‘Homeland’ Season 3 Finale GIF Highlights
- Alyssa Rosenberg's review
Click to expand...

I feel like many of these reviews don't really "get" what the writers were going for and the compromises they had to make. I am not saying the writing is perfect, far from it. But if you are going to hate on the show then at least try to understand what the writers are doing. That's what I think.
 
R

RukusProvider

Banned
Is Chris a brown belt yet? What happened to his karate career? Back up Mike used to take him but even stop caring after a while.

At this point, if Chris doesn't turn out to be a sleeper agent, I'd be shocked, poor kid.
 
R

RedNumberFive

Banned
I think I'm going to treat this as the series finale and cancel Showtime. Dexter had already soured me enough on the channel, and this seems like the logical place to jump out.
 
K

KarmaCow

Member
I am interested in what they could possible do after that out of pure curiosity but that is definitely good place to drop the series.
 
K

kurahador

Member
Man that final scene and ending credit music, perfection.

Would've love to see a montage of Brody's family moving on in life, still what a great finale. Could've easily been a series finale.
 
F

Frost_Ace

Member
Good finale.

I feel sad for Brody, I certainly don't feel like he was a hero, but I pitied him nonetheless. :(

Great final scene BTW, very moving.
 
D

dead souls

Member
RedNumberFive said:
I think I'm going to treat this as the series finale and cancel Showtime. Dexter had already soured me enough on the channel, and this seems like the logical place to jump out.
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Team Vernia said:
I'll be joining you. I'm very disappointed in Showtime this year.
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Wow, this is completely crazy talk. In 2013 Showtime aired great seasons of Shameless, The Borgias, Homeland and Masters of Sex. The only things of creative note that HBO aired were Enlightened and Treme.

Showtime was easily the premium channel of 2013 as far as I'm concerned.
 
J

jstevenson

Sailor Stevenson
Well, it took two seasons, but they finally did what they should've in Season 1. Hopeful this can allow them to refocus for Season 4, though, honestly, if Saul isn't around I'll be bummed.

Some folks were complaining about the illogical facts going on. I get that to a certain extent, but the original "plan" was to assassinate the dude and have Mossad agents get Brody out immediately.

The ad-hoc nature of what happened left time for the manhunt and allowed the Pres to get involved. And Saul has been finding out a lot after the fact while in his office.

I'm with ya'll on the unbelievable execution scene with Carrie on the fence. Fit Carrie's character... though I didn't believe the mob (she did get knocked down though by the guard)

Finally, on the whole wall thing, Brody could've had an anonymous star. Many of the stars don't have names for security reasons.

I guess i'm normally ok with Carrie doing crazy shit, since it's well established she's crazy. I do think the show suffers though when it tries to stretch to cover up her craziness and allow it without blowing operations.

Still, ultimately hopeful this can allow them to get back on track. parts of this season were pretty good
 
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