A Tale of Two Shows: Why Homeland Must Become 24 To Survive

IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ALL OF SEASON 2 OF HOMELAND DON'T READ THIS POST.

The mighty Emmy venerated "Homeland" had a really disappointing season because it has no idea of what kind of show it is. All the big shows on TV right now are extremely confident in what they're doing. "Walking Dead" is a rip-roaring horror adventure. "Boardwalk Empire" is a bloody historical drama. "Mad Men" & "Breaking Bad" are studies in masculinity & American identity. Shit, even "Game of Thrones" is kind of a fantasy parable of power and family. But "Homeland" like it's two main characters is in the middle of a massive identity crisis. It has no idea if it wants to be a smart dramatic dissection of the war on terrorism or if it wants to crackle and pop with "24" style counter-terrorism action and twists. Right now it's attempting to be both and it's coming apart at the seams like Carrie on wine,jazz,and pills bender.

I covered the ways that the show tries to make it "real world" in my last takedown of the show. I don't need to get into it again, but I feel bad I neglected to mention how the creators and their relentless drive for realism managed to anger the real life nations of Israel & Lebanon. Last night's attack from beyond the grave was further evidence of how far away the show has gotten from the real world.

I found the explosion last night, while certainly unexpected, to be completely ridiculous and reeking of the stench of a group of writers who had no idea what they were doing the whole season. The only way that an attack of that magnitude would be possible would be with extensive help on the inside, and as we all know, "Homeland" has been playing coy with it's mole-hunt for the past two seasons. It's obvious they have no idea who it is, it is not a "leak," but rather a "well" of story devices that writers can use to kind of explain necessary plot occurrences. In the "real world" drama-politics of the show, you really believe that at the VICE PRESIDENT'S FUNERAL, somebody could park a car on a sidewalk in front of a giant glass room full of important people and that no one would notice? Even by the shows already established rules, it was preposterous. Sure you might say it's only a TV show and I'm being nit-picky, but, again this is a show that links to the real world terrorism in it's opening credits and plot-lines so it doesn't get a free-pass. And you know what else it is? It is "24" shit, through and through.

You see, no matter how hard it tries, "Homeland" will never escape from the legacy of "24." It doesn't matter how many times Saul says the Hebrew prayer for the dead over a stunning sea of dead bodies or each well-written Abu-Nazir monologue about the nature of US Imperialism, as they say on that other show, "resistance is futile." With all plausibility out of the window now, the only way to save the show is to go full throttle with the "24" level madness. I'm all for it. I miss "24" every ticking second of each day. I hunger for the movie. And I think most people to do. When people talk about "Homeland," they talk about the crazy VP bunker scene last season, the brazen terrorist attack at the tailor's office, or the countless surveillance missions. No one says (at least anymore) says "Gosh I love Homeland for it's murky dissection of middle Eastern politics." I'd rather have a completely implausible well-acted espionage thriller, than a bumbling show failing to engage on any level. After all, we all need to pick a side sometime.

The Terrorist At Home: Why Homeland Praise Is Misplaced

"Homeland," returned to the airwaves with the vengeance on Sunday night. Now sporting a host of well deserved Emmy trophies for stars Damian Lewis, Claire Danes, and of course the top prize for best drama, and based off the massive ratings increase, everyone is hooked again. Understandably so, it's a fantastically thrilling piece of entertainment. And yet despite it's golden hardware and ripped from the headlines plots, it still resides in the shadow of the big daddy terrorism show of the 20th century - "24." Coming from Howard Gordon & Alex Gansa, the same creator's of the seminal real-time thriller, "Homeland" is billed as the more liberal, thoughtful, interesting follow up to the Jack Bauer power hour. As the New Yorker put it, "Homeland" is the "antidote to 24."

“24” was also a carrier for some terrible ideas, among them the notion that torture is the best and only way to get information; that Muslim faith and terrorist aims overlap by definition.

Whaaaaat? Between the Emmy wins, the prestige that cable brings, and decreased dependence on "24" famous torture scenes, everyone seems to be looking past all extreme right wing paranoia that, just like Sgt. Brody laying in wait in our government, has infiltrated this show. First things first, "Homeland" like "24" features Islamic terrorists hell-bent on destroying the United States. The man behind this jihad is Abu Nazir, our Bin-Laden substitute, a terrorist puppet master who has his paws in EVERYTHING around the world. As Sean T. Collins points out in his great write up on the show in Rolling Stone, here is Nazir's  organization so far:

A fully trained Marine sniper

A second fully trained Marine sniper, partner of the first one no less, presumed dead and smuggled back into the United States to live totally off the grid

Enough crowbar-wielding goons to successfully kidnap the first fully trained Marine sniper out of a supermarket parking lot

A college professor

The college professor's all-American daughter-of-an-oil-exec wife

Enough bomb-making, machine-gun-wielding agents across the Midwest to booby-trap a safehouse and go full ending-of-Scarface on a motel room where the college professor and his wife were hiding

A Saudi diplomat with full immunity and extensive goon access

A Saudi prince who may not be on the payroll per se but doesn't mind hugging the world's most wanted man

The Saudi prince's right-hand man, who takes breaks from his main gig as the prince's pimp to tap into an extensive network of jewelry fences, off-the-books money managers and limo-driving hitmen

A Gettysburg-based suicide-vest tailor

A reporter powerful enough to get high-ranking CIA officials to drop everything and run to meet her on demand

And last but not least, a freaking mole inside the CIA capable of tipping off surveillance targets, triggering suicide bombings and stealing the combinations to hidden office safes.

I didn't have a problem with these larger than life villains in "24," because the whole show was preposterous, but in "Homeland," having a villain like that is irresponsible. Why? Because "Homeland," deals with issues like drone strikes, Iran-Israel relations, CIA legalities, and Brodie's Islamic faith so well, it's disappointing that they opt for the cartoonish villain. "24" never dealt with issues like that, it was too busy defusing bombs and kicking ass. But having the shadowy terrorist with the turban lurking in the background pulling the strings in "Homeland" is inconsistent with the rest of the dieas of the show, and the whole thing suffers.

But if Abu Nazir is the mastermind who lurks (mostly) overseas, Sgt. Brodie is his man on the ground in the U.S.A. Since the show first began, the central premise always reminded me of season four of "24," where your normal suburban neighbor is actually a bloodthirsty terrorist. In that season the Araz family including their teenage son actively planned terrorist attacks, tried to kill Jack Bauer, and of course murdered the all American teenage girl next door because she knew too much. This central concept of the "terrorist next door" was revisited again in season six with Ahmed Amar (played by Kal Penn of all people.) It is an effective story device that plays on our timeless fears of enemy infiltration, and it's no wonder that "Homeland" uses it as well, it's just slightly ironic that when "24" showed terrorists next door it was controversial and required Fox to release disclaimers before episodes, but when "Homeland" shows Islamic terrorists next door and infiltrating our government, it doesn't matter if the whole thing is Michelle Bachman inspired insanity, it's just gripping television.

"Homeland" is great television (even President Obama loves it), yet the path ahead for it is not easy. So far it's been more engaging politically than "24," but we'll see how long that lasts with more and more sleeper terrorists emerging from the woodwork. Things like that make realize that the reason we are flipping for it is because it's just "24" in different packaging.

Terrorism, 24, and Showtime's Excellent New Series "Homeland"

It's no secret that the good folks over at This LA Life loved the hell out of 24. For 8.5 seasons we got to see terrorist destroyer Jack Bauer save the by any means necessary, and when I say any means necessary I mean crazy torture, wild violence, and a whole lot of self sacrifice. Yet, when the show left the airwaves in 2009 it left partly because our national appetite for terrorist killing had dimmed with the election of Obama and the hope of change. Simply put, Bauer was banished to the Bush era past, the one full of Abu Ghraib torture, color coded attack alerts, and water boarding.

But the war against against terrorism didn't end with an election did it? With Bin Laden taken out in a daring raid, drone strikes continuing overseas, and shady Iranian bombing plots, the world of counter-terrorism is alive and well. So where's Jack Bauer? He's starring in a pseudo spiritual show about a magic child. It's all good though because now we have Showtime's Homeland, which could be the best show about terrorism that I've ever seen.

The core plot line focuses on CIA agent Carrie Matthieson (Claire Danes) as she investigates a terrorist threat to America. She believes a key component of the threat is Nicholas Brodie (Damian Lewis), an American POW who she thinks has gone full "Manchurian Candidate" after being helpt captive in Iraq for 9 years. The show focuses on both her investigation of the threat and Brodie's adjustment to his domestic life after being locked away for so many years.

24 worked because Jack Bauer  was so captivating. He was a terrorist hunter Jesus figure, saving our freedom but paying deep  personal costs for it. It's no surprise then that Homeland, which comes from 24 producers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa also features characters that are mentally damaged by the war of terrorism. Both Brodie and Carrie are not hiding from their peers, their jobs require them to be interacting with people on a daily basis, Brodie as a spokesperson for the Marines, and Claire as a lead analyst at the CIA. Internally though they both are seriously screwed up. Carrie is taking medication secretly for some psycho-disorder and we learn she forgets to eat and seemed to have a habit of screwing her superior officers. Brodie can't connect with his wife, has intense nightmares and hallucinations, and has secretly converted to Islam during his captivity, but hasn't told anybody. Everyone is processing the effects of terrorism on this show, which is captivating, because as nation we are doing the same.

And while it has all these deep themes working with it, the whole terrorist hunting plot is just as dope as it was in 24. There are dubious legal maneuvers, a mysterious network of villains, intense surveillance details, and plenty of secret allegiances. Since it's on Showtime the violence is more visceral, the language dirtier, and the themes even darker. Yet, even with all this show still feels realistic, and avoids the action movie violence that permeated 24. I mean, we're five episodes in and the body count is hovering at two! Two! At five episodes into 24 we'd be at at least 15!

As Americans we've always craved media during wartime as a way to understand. We hunger for fictional narratives to be applied them, and Homeland is a perfect example of it.  The opening credits feature audio, video, and photos from notable real life parts of the war against terrorism and features references to real life events, something 24 never really did.

And just how real life counter-terrorism politics have evolved, so has the methods on the show. In the most recent episode, the interrogation of a suspect who had been been snatched up in Pakistan and brought do the US under extraordinary rendition, seemed terrifyingly real. Carrie and her team subjected him to sleep deprivation, made promises about saving his family, and in a very un-24 moment, didn't lay a finger on him. The icing on this cake was Carrie's response to an inquiry if the suspect would be tortured Bauer style, her response: "We don't do that here."

It's a strange feeling because the 24 fan in me expected for Carrie to say that and then promptly go snap some fingers and start getting answers. But the key part of that line is the "here" part. Sure you won't do that "here", but maybe you'll do it somewhere else. Somewhere else that isn't in the news and exists in a gray area of counter-terrorism politics. And that is the area that Homeland thrives in. Leave Bauer and company where they belong, gone but not forgotten, somewhere in our patriotic past.