'State of Independence' - Homeland, Season Two

Homeland

Season Two

Episode Three

'State of Independence' - 6.0

'Hey Friend. Remember that vest you gave me? About that: prepare to be chased through the woods, thrown down onto a star picket and then have your neck snapped. Ready?'

Normally when I write my reviews I do them immediately after I watch whatever the hell it is that I'm watching, give my brain a night's rest then post them at some point the day after. That's fine, I guess, but I saw 'State of Independence' last night, wrote half a review, got pissed and went bed. Instead of continuing on from where I left off I have opted to start it anew, but this time writing it with the intention of posting it straight up to the blog.

Therefore, the time and date that it says this was posted at is the point that I actually finished. This allows me to something I haven't had a good opportunity to do so far; actually comment on how the blog is coming along.

As I've said before, I'm not actually a professional reviewer, I've had no training outside school, nothing like that. You could probably discern that pretty damn quick, and no one out there would be the first to tell me I sucked at it. I kind of do. It doesn't bother me, but if you find it grating then feel free to find someone else.

I've only been posting reviews here for two weeks, so I wouldn't be hanging out for some sort of sudden improvement. I'm sure it will happen eventually, but it may take many a review. In fact, since I posted my first review to this blog I've only actually written eleven new posts, with the others all being written up to four months ago.

'State of Independence' is my first - and possibly only - review posted somewhat 'live'. There is nearly no better drama to choose to write about, as Homeland is regarded as one of the last few years greatest gifts to the world of television. Yet, this episode was... sub-par.

I can't shout at it for being not-too-bad, but these average episodes are always the hardest to discuss, simply because all you can say was that '[insert aspect here] was alright' or 'fine' or 'average'. Even though I despise any episode that scores below about a 3.0, anything above that and below 7.0 are difficult to talk to talk about. I mean, why did 'State of Independence' not sit right with me?

How much backlash can I get if I say I didn't like the performances? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can see that this is Homeland, possibly the greatest showcase of acting talent this side of Mystic River, but that prevailing notion of untouchable actors leaves room for terrific failings. What I'm saying is that when we come to expect nothing but the best, if we get just a little less it seems like a lot.

The two best moments belonged to Claire Danes and Morena Baccarin, with the former playing her character's suicide attempt with supreme subtlety and completely dialogue free. Baccarin has the honour of being ushered up on stage before a room filled with extras and forced to act like she's shy. She stammers and fumbles, pauses and gesticulates wildly. Yes, absolutely stereotypical idea of stage fright, but she did incredibly well and I was swept up in her awkward but beautiful impromptu speech.

I appreciated that Saul managed to get the SD card back into America and within an arm's reach of the CIA, as at the very start there was a horrid moment that looked as if we'd have the proof of Brody's defection taken by the Lebanese government. Lucky for us Saul kept the real one hidden in a safer location, as I would've been immeasurably aggravated by the nullifying of this fantastic twist. By the end of the episode, Saul's appeared at Carrie's door and given her the emotional realisation that she was right all along. She's still nuts though, because she had tried to kill herself only about an hour before hand.

I'm not sure how I felt about Brody's subplot tonight, as it was fundamentally flawed from the beginning. Why would Abu Nazir threaten one of his most important operative's position like that? It was insane, and I didn't believe, even though the eventual pay off was satisfying. Brody killed the tailor from 'The Vest'! Because, you know, we had to mention him again, I guess. I do like that I think the show is trying to make his actions less and less justifiable, as he could have tried harder to save the poor guy's life, instead of just snapping his neck. There is this sense that Brody will end up being in enemy territory by the end of this season, with the entire force of the American government after him while he tries to evade the most powerful organisation on the planet, in a country where everyone knows who he is.

That, or the mole will destroy the evidence. That would irritate me less than had some random event caused Brody to be let off the hook, but I'm thinking that it would still be highly disappointing. Though I'm not saying that it couldn't be done well, we have built up the mole quite considerably.

Theories are theories, here in Australia Homeland airs nearly three weeks after the same episode airs in the States, so I'm sure I could sort out fact from hypothesis by checking my sources. Maybe, depends how slow the storyline moves from here on out, I'm assuming they don't slow the entire thing to a crawl to push back Brody's approaching destruction further and further.

'State of Independence' is an almost unfortunate choice to be my first review written on the blog, as for the most part I was actually dissatisfied by the week's offering. Considering how many views I get a day (it's around about thirty, on average. Some days I have none) it's not like that many will read this anyhow. If you are one of the lucky ones, feel free to give your opinion below.