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Homeland: Season 3 - |Pledge Allegiance|

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S

Sectorseven

Member
RukusProvider said:
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.
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At this point the best he can hope for is getting trapped in an alternate future, like that chick on Heroes.
 
L

LordCanti

Member
How have I never heard the term "Backup Mike" before? Genius.

Chris is going to star in an upcoming show called Sleeper. It won't air on any networks and it will never been seen by anyone.

Until he finally. Goes. Offfffffffffffffffffff.
 
D

D4Danger

Unconfirmed Member
I assume they're going to look for the real bomber next season? They just kinda forgot about that lawyer.

Saying that the bomber mole is probably be the guy Lockhart told Carrie to keep in Istanbul or some dumb shit.
 
B

Blader

Member
D4Danger said:
I assume they're going to look for the real bomber next season? They just kinda forgot about that lawyer.

Saying that the bomber is probably be the guy Lockhart told Carrie to keep in Istanbul or some dumb shit.
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The real bomber is dead. The lawyer killed him in his hotel room.
 
B

Blader

Member
Frost_Ace said:
Holy shit, he's on full hate mode lol
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I think critics this year were trying way too hard. Not that the show doesn't have plenty of room for criticism, but some of the remarks and especially the pithy "oh Homeland, nice try" attitude feel like an undeserved overreaction.

I think the show ended up rebounding nicely (or nicely enough) this year. The time for shitting on the writers' every breath was last year, and I feel like some - smelling blood in the water and missing their chance to be harsh last season - were overdoing it this season to compensate.
 
A

AuthenticM

Member
Good finale. Wasn't perfect, but I guess it had to be this way as the love story between the two characters had been present since the first season. The middle of the episode was a bit too slow and uneventful. That last scene, though; beautiful. The last shot would have been perfect for a series finale. I guess Showtime has their bases covered if they don't renew the show. We'll see what happens.

Am I the only one who thought the music from the last scene and credits felt very Mirror's Edge-y ? I could swear it was composed by Solar Fields. Beautiful.
 
R

RukusProvider

Banned
breakfuss said:
I felt absolutely nothing at the execution. I mean, zilch. Mostly forgot about it a few minutes later.
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Brody was just a shell of a man by the time he was executed. If anything, it's a relief for Brody that he was finally going to die.

If season 4 doesn't have the bear in it as a main character, it'll be hard for me to maintain interest.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Cornballer said:
- NYT: Damian Lewis on the Season Finale of ‘Homeland’
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He's very coy about what comes next, saying he doesn't know, but does let on that he was told Brody would be dying back in March and that it freed him up to do other things.

Band of Brothers was basically what got me into steadily watching TV dramas back when that premiered, so I'm excited for whatever he does next. Looks like his next immediate project is a Werner Herzog movie.
 
F

Frost_Ace

Member
Blader said:
I think critics this year were trying way too hard. Not that the show doesn't have plenty of room for criticism, but some of the remarks and especially the pithy "oh Homeland, nice try" attitude feel like an undeserved overreaction.

I think the show ended up rebounding nicely (or nicely enough) this year. The time for shitting on the writers' every breath was last year, and I feel like some - smelling blood in the water and missing their chance to be harsh last season - were overdoing it this season to compensate.
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Agreed, not that I particularly liked the season but the second half has been entertaining enough.
 
D

dead souls

Member
Frost_Ace said:
Agreed, not that I particularly liked the season but the second half has been entertaining enough.
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Critics are still over-correcting for the fact that most of them didn't really slam the truly awful back half of season two.

I've found television criticism to be pretty useless over the course of 2013 anyway. Tons of shows that don't deserve any praise getting boosted and tons of worthy stuff getting ignored.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
- Sepinwall interview with Gansa

A couple highlights:
I don't how much, if at all, you've been paying attention to the reaction to this season, but one of the trends I've noticed is a lot of frustration bordering on anger at a lot of what Carrie has done, and her insubordination with Saul and with Lockhart. What kind of job do you feel you did with Carrie this year?

Alex Gansa: First of all, I am and have been blissfully ignorant. I have not read anything this season in terms of reviews. I really just think it's best to let the work stand on its own and speak for itself. If I would say one thing about it, I would say that Carrie was extremely effective as an intelligence officer this season. I mean, look at what she and Saul pulled off. Whether she was insubordinate or not, my god, a rapproachment between these two countries that had not spoken for close to 35 years, they pulled it off and they pulled it off together.



They did pull it off together, but one of them is in the CIA and one of them is not. Lockhart, throughout the year, was depicted as being fairly contemptuous of Carrie, even more, it seemed to me, than he felt about Saul. What is it that allows her to stay and get this choice promotion, while Saul is out in the private sector?

Alex Gansa: Very rarely do you find an acting director of the CIA stay on as a depuity after his tenure. It's simply a matter of you don't want somebody in a deputy's position who has sat in a chair himself. That's a dangerous situation for any new director to be in. Obviously, a new director wants to put his own people in place. That's what Lockhart has chosen to do. Moreover, some very harsh words were exchanged between Saul and Lockhart all season long. I think if I were Lockhart and I came into that situation, that would be the first person to go in my book. On the other side, I think Lockhart understood Carrie's value on the ground. It was her actions that actually kept Brody alive long enough to carry out the mission against Akbari, which accrues to Lockhart's credit. Even though he was pushing in the other direction, he gets the benefit of her decision on the ground, and rewards her for it.



You end the season with Carrie about to give birth to Brody's baby, and off to this plum posting in Istanbul, while Saul is off working on his own. How much of that was specifically designed to set things up for season 4 versus just where you felt the story of season 3 led?

Alex Gansa: I think it's much more the latter. We don't really have much of a sense of what season 4 is yet, except insofar as watching Carrie actually doing what she was trained to do, which is being a case officer in a foreign capital somewhere, feels like an interesting place to reset and reboot the show. I couldn't tell you now if that's where we're going to be. Are we going to be in Istanbul or are we going to be in New York or are we going to be in Washington next year? Right now, all that's up for grabs.



Finally, a couple of extant plot questions. Who moved Brody's car before the Langley bombing?

Alex Gansa: The man killed in the motel earlier this season.



And how did Saul both find Brody in the Tower of David and convince Carrie's friend to give Brody up to him?

Alex Gansa: Carrie lied to Saul about where she was after the bombing, and Saul knew very well that she must have been the one who got him to the border. So Saul did his research, did his legwork, followed up on all her contacts and wound up knowing where Brody was, and then waited for the opportune moment to use Brody to fulfill this last part of the operation. But he needed to know a few things before he did that. The first thing he needed to know was whether Brody moved the car himself, because if Brody actually participated in the bombing, Saul would have known definitively that Brody was untrustworthy and could not be relied upon to carrie out this mission in Iran. So he had to find out from Javadi whether that was indeed the case or not. Once he found that out, he went down with the power of the United States behind him and said, 'You have two choices: either I bring an army in to bring him out, or I pay you 10 million and you turn him over to me quietly.' And El Nino, being the smart businessman he is, chose the latter.
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K

kingkitty

Member
Best episode of the season. Maybe one of the most depressing episodes too? It was hard for Brody to survive at this point, so I wasn't shocked at his death. But it was effective. Carrie slowly realizing there's nothing she can do to help him. Brody accepting his death. Watching Brody slowly die.

I was waiting for the show to go crazy and have some explosion occur that saves Brody in the nick of time. If this was Season 2, I think that might have just happened. But it didn't here, thankfully Season 3 has mellowed out a little bit.

And if Carrie can just keep her baby out of sight and out of mind, I'm genuinely excited to see what direction Season 4 will take us.
 
D

Dysun

Member
Felt like a series finale, not sure where they go from here. If this was it for the show I would leave feeling very satisfied
 
M

maharg

idspispopd
So I hear Brody's dead and his family have been downgraded for the next season, so maybe I'll come back and give the show a chance when it comes back for season four.

Found this gem when I searched the thread:

AuthenticM said:
Is Maharg scared of losing his cool card by coming here and saying something positive about the show ? ;)
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Nope. Just wasn't watching so wasn't posting, just like I said. But the show finally doing what it should have had the guts to do in S1 makes me interested again.
 
Angry Fork

Angry Fork

Member
1. Thought finale was great. I hated S1 finale and thought he should have blew himself up, but now I feel like this death is much better honestly. This season made my dislike of S1 finale worth it to me. And thinking about the fact that this kind of thing likely happens dozens of times per year, and Obama is a-okay with it/orders strikes, assassinations etc., makes the dread much worse. I'll miss Brody and was genuinely sad at his death.

2. The people calling this show the worst thing ever are lame as shit. Yea Season 2 was a step down from 1 in a lot of ways but nothing near the vitriol I've seen, and people seem to have carried the rage over to 3 regardless of whether it's justified or not. It's like once a show does something wrong it can never come back for some people, ridiculous.

3. I'm angry that Carrie and Quinn are still there. Why? I don't understand. Surely Carrie see's through the bullshit CIA patriot 'mericuh stories by now? Why would you willingly be part of such a hideous organization? I get that that's what she's good at but that's not a good enough reason. Will the writers get into whether or not Carrie thinks Brody's ''sacrifice'' was for the greater good of the country or w/e bs? Does she agree with that? If not then wouldn't that affect your opinion of the CIA? I can't see her ever going rogue terrorist but I don't know why she wants to help an organization that ruins so many lives.

And Quinn was the one with the guiltiest conscience this season but he hasn't done anything about it. They just sort of swept that under the rug. It's weird that Saul, the biggest hardliner this season who didn't act like season 1/2 Saul at all, is the only one with the common sense to never want to come back to this place. I wish Quinn would turn into some Snowden type guy next season that would be cool.
 
F

Frost_Ace

Member
dead souls said:
Critics are still over-correcting for the fact that most of them didn't really slam the truly awful back half of season two.

I've found television criticism to be pretty useless over the course of 2013 anyway. Tons of shows that don't deserve any praise getting boosted and tons of worthy stuff getting ignored.
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Eh, the criticism is valid but at this point some of them should just try to enjoy the show for what it is.

The complaint I agree with Greenwald the most is that the show really lost sight of its characters. We get minimal psychological insight into them, and they feel flat.

In Breaking Bad which is the show with the most similar structure, the writers always advanced the plot (at times very quickly like in the last season) but they always had time to step back and let us know who these people were, what they thought, what they wanted. Homeland is so lost in its plot machinations that it feels like people doing stuff randomly.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
It's funny how the Masters of Sex showrunner has a very clear idea of what their season 2 looks like, in terms of the cast, the story, what kinds of time jumps will happen and when. Then Gansa has absolutely no clue except Carrie and Saul will still be present.

Alex Gansa: First of all, I am and have been blissfully ignorant. I have not read anything this season in terms of reviews. I really just think it's best to let the work stand on its own and speak for itself. If I would say one thing about it, I would say that Carrie was extremely effective as an intelligence officer this season. I mean, look at what she and Saul pulled off. Whether she was insubordinate or not, my god, a rapproachment between these two countries that had not spoken for close to 35 years, they pulled it off and they pulled it off together.
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P7InH2U.gif


Carrie was an extremely effective intelligence officer this season? Excuse while I try not to double over in laughter.

That's some mind-numbingly stupid justifications for all the wrenches Carrie was constantly throwing into the mix, and the countless times she blatantly attempted to sabotage CIA ops or instigate an international crisis in order to protect her baby daddy. "Well it all magically worked out, therefore she must be brilliant." Nah.

Next season Carrie and Saul will solve the Israel/Palestine conflict, probably by killing people.
 
B

Blader

Member
"What she and Saul pulled off"? It was all Saul's plan. Carrie's involvement amounted to semi-treasonous insubordination.
 
D

Deleted member 325805

Unconfirmed Member
Dysun said:
Felt like a series finale, not sure where they go from here. If this was it for the show I would leave feeling very satisfied
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That's how I feel, I kinda wish there wasn't another season.
 
RangersFan

RangersFan

Member
Damn too bad the networks in America got to milk the shit out of shows because that would have served as a great series finale.
 
S

sangreal

Member
her insubordination was so ingrained in her character this season that she couldn't even obey Brody's dying wish. In fact, she had to yell his name to make sure he knew she was defying him
 
L

LordCanti

Member
sangreal said:
her insubordination was so ingrained in her character this season that she couldn't even obey Brody's dying wish. In fact, she had to yell his name to make sure he knew she was defying him
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"Imma have my dramatic moment muthafucka; You ain't denying me this!"
 
A

AngmarsKing701

Member
Decent series finale with some serious WTF moments. Carrie gets promoted to be the youngest station chief in CIA history? How? There's taking calculated risks and being rewarded, and then there's taking stupid risks that should get you fired. Have they forgotten she's unstable? Let's put her in charge of one of the most important roles in intelligence!
 
B

Baron Aloha

A Shining Example
Dan said:
It's funny how the Masters of Sex showrunner has a very clear idea of what their season 2 looks like, in terms of the cast, the story, what kinds of time jumps will happen and when. Then Gansa has absolutely no clue except Carrie and Saul will still be present.
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I'd imagine it is much easier writing a show based on actual people and events as is the case with Masters of Sex than it is writing something completely original.
 
R

reilo

learning some important life lessons from magical Negroes
How the fuck was Carrie even let back into Langley let al made a fucking Station Chief? That was the most implausible thing of many the writers had concocted the last two seasons.
 
H

hokey1

Member
I think next season will be Carrie, Quinn, and Saul in Istanbul. Carrie was told she could hand pick her team. The writers probably think that having Carrie in charge over Saul will bring some dramatic tension to the show. I am probably wrong.
 
F

foxtrot3d

Banned
hokey1 said:
I think next season will be Carrie, Quinn, and Saul in Istanbul. Carrie was told she could hand pick her team. The writers probably think that having Carrie in charge over Saul will bring some dramatic tension to the show. I am probably wrong.
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I really don't see why Saul would come back into the CIA in any type of lesser position, the only thing that made somewhat sense in the finale was that Saul did not stay in the CIA. Lockhart simply could not keep him on, you can never keep on a guy who once sat in the big chair. Now, why Saul had to be forced into retirement rather than being promoted up to an even senior position like Director of National Intelligence or National Security Advisor beats me, but if he comes back working under Carrie then things will just be beyond stupid.

Second, how are they gonna have a show where Carrie is the Station Chief? Do they know what a Station Chief does? Carrie would be responsible for all intelligence operations and the operatives in that country, she'd essentially be what Saul was. You know what that means? It means she can't be running off in the field doing shit, she has to sit behind a desk and order other people to do stuff. Also, can you imagine a worse boss that the mentally unstable Carrie, jeez I feel sorry for her subordinates already.
 
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