Homeland

The gamble is that other characters can hold our interest and move the ball forward while we wait for Carrie and Brody. Mission accomplished.

Foremost, getting Brody off-screen turns out to be an inspired move. In his absence, there's a new world order, or disorder, with a lot of people left to assemble the pieces, including Saul, Carrie, and most of all, Dana.

Nowhere in the media has the moral question of such [government-ordered] kills been explored with the texture and depth that Homeland brings to [just] one little scene Sunday.

The show has lost none of its expert knack for building suspense and tossing surprises.

As much as I love what Lewis and Patinkin—as well as Baccarin and Saylor—do here, Danes is what makes Homeland remarkable.

Bringing [Saul and Carrie] to the forefront and giving them a lot of scenes in the first two episodes has strengthened the series. The writing and acting in the first two episodes are exceptional. Let’s hope this continues, because it’s once again thrilling to watch this show.

The third-season premiere [of] Homeland delivers a strong episode that repairs much of the damage done last season to this excellent show.

Showing us the long-term impact of the attack on the lives of these characters, whose deep-seated motivations and fears have gradually been revealed to us over the last two seasons, allows Homeland to transcend its tendencies toward the hyperbolic and gives us a reason to suspend our disbelief.

Despite what feels like risky storytelling, Homeland is staying true to its characters, following through on its fireworks to examine the ashes as well. It’s hard to tell which way it’s going to go, but for its performances and sheer courage, it’s worth watching.

Some viewers may be dismayed to see so much more of Brody's sulky daughter, Dana (Morgan Saylor), or put off by another Carrie meltdown. But those are minor annoyances. Overall, the new Homeland looks to be back on track in marvelous ways.

The business of powerful men demonizing a strong, if suffering, heroic woman makes for layered drama. As usual, Danes throws mind, heart, and jittery chin into making Carrie feel real.... For now, Homeland sans Brody feels too safe, too conventional.

The slooowly-paced first two episodes offer enough action and intrigue to keep me riding a while longer.

The first two episodes of season 3 are reassuringly grounded in believable intrigue. [7 Oct 2013, p.49]

There's a lot to like in these first two episodes: Dana and Jessica's scenes have greater psychological weight than before, thanks to Brody's absent presence, though they do raise the uncomfortable question of how interested we need to be now that the family isn't directly connected to the show's central institution anymore (the Betty Draper problem on Mad Men). The episodes also give us a clear, at times unnerving sense of how hard it must be for somebody as gifted but volatile as Carrie to work in such a button-down environment, and how easy it must be to write her off as merely unstable or merely crazy.

Homeland has its own rebuilding to do, and while some may miss the faster pace of last season, these are dark times, and the show is better for dealing with that reality in uncompromising terms.

At moments, it’s like [Season 3 of] Homeland blew up not just CIA headquarters but season 2 itself. That is, it’s a version of what it might have been like if--as was apparently the original plan--Brody’s explosive vest did go off in that government shelter at the end of season 1. And it works, mostly, at least for the two hours of the season’s beginning.

Thankfully the greatest love story no one ever wanted to be a love story is not the focus of the first two episodes, which illustrate the power and punch Homeland can still muster when freed from its more Hallmark-ian tendencies.

Homeland is wearing a bit thin even while it nobly stays the course.

This new season of Homeland.... comes across at times like a newborn foal on wobbly legs.

These latest episodes represent a tentative first step toward seeing whether the show can re-ascend to those heights or, conversely, plummet into an abyss of implausibility. Like so much else pertaining to Homeland, at this point, it could go either way.

Homeland now stumbles through familiar territory, and the view the second time around isn’t half as compelling.