Homeland: Season 1

A bipolar CIA agent, hiding her mental condition from her coworkers and superiors, suspects that a recently rescued American prisoner of war has been indoctrinated into a terrorist organization during his time in captivity. Where the nation sees a war hero, she sees a suspicious character and a potential terrorist. Meanwhile, said war hero and potential terrorist struggles to return to civilian life and to his family. His wife's been banging another guy for years now and he barely recognizes his own children. Is his occasionally odd behavior a sign of his intentions to commit heinous acts of terrorism, or is it an understandable byproduct of his remarkable journey through hell and back? Back at the CIA, our heroine is absolutely convinced that this guy is a terrorist, and wants anyone at all to just hear her out. She's abrasive and domineering, though, and short on allies at the workplace. No one believes her. Should they, or is her manic suspicion just a sign of the obsessive nature that comes with her condition after all? Oh, and to complicate the matter just a bit, the CIA agent begins to develop an attraction to the war hero, and before long the two of them meet in person and begin a relationship of sorts.

This is the basic premise of the first season of Homeland, the show that took award season by storm last year with all kinds of buzz and acclaim and accolades. In less capable hands, the plot I've just described would come across as flimsy and convoluted. The easy way to stretch the mystery into a full season would be with a series of various psych-outs. The cheap way to do it would be with an ever-deepening web of conspiracies. But Homeland did things the honest way, and more impressively, it worked. It worked beautifully. There are twists to be had, for sure, and plenty of episodes end on great little moments where we the audience are given new pieces of information about what happened to the war hero during his time as a prisoner of war, but the show manages to string together twelve episodes in a row without any bait-and-switch techniques or "just kidding" misdirects. This kind of crap plagued 24, especially in its later seasons, and helped undermine that show's integrity (along with all kinds of physical impossibilities and plot holes, to be sure). Homeland, on the other hand, feels about as honest as a show about the CIA and terrorism possibly could. Anchored by two phenomenal lead performances from Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, this show just churns along confidently, dropping the occasional information nugget along the way and resisting the urge to reveal too much too soon (or to reveal non-truths disguised as answers only to pull back the curtain a few episodes later). It is both character-driven and plot-driven in a way that so few other shows are. Even though Homeland reveals the answer to the "is he a terrorist or isn't he" question with several episodes left in the season, those final few episodes are just as tense and suspense-laden as the first few.

I really, really enjoyed the first season of Homeland and I'll be sure to catch up on the second before the third one premieres next fall.