Homeland Recap: Look at you, Homeland. Look. At. You.
I skipped last week’s recap of the show because I felt that the show, or that episode of the show, had become redundant. Relax, I didn’t say that it’d become bad or mediocre – it was still a fine episode – but that this Dana Brody storyline had become much bigger than it needed to be, especially when it started out so ridiculous. What I’m reading online is that many people agree; that Dana’s storyline has really brought down this otherwise incredible season of television. Sure, I can see that and the SNL spoof really made that obvious to me. But while it’s so preposterous and so much time has been spent on this storyline, it’s also incredibly layered, intriguing and emotional. But enough about Dana Brody.
This episode started off with Mr. & Mrs. Brody in a yelling match. It’s so rare when these two characters face their true emotions head on that when it actually does happen – which is often enough considering the state of their relationship – it’s so raw and startling, at least for me. This fight was the trigger for what was to follow.
But Daniel Lewis is magnetic as Brody, right? With each passing episode we find more and more to be drawn to this character. There’s always a new layer of his disturbing character being revealed, and it’s all thanks to Lewis’ amazing performance. The scene when Carrie picks him up off the floor in the house? That, for me was everything for this entire episode but, more in particular, the storyline between Brody and her. Brody, thought seemingly more together than Carrie, is on the floor, he’s done, he’s running on empty and Carrie is always there to pick him up and convince him that she’s got this and it’s going somewhere.
And then came that scene. There seems to always be a particularly notable scene during every episode of Homeland this year. You are going through countless ones in your head as you read this. Yes, that one counts too, but the scene I’m talking about was the one where Carrie & Brody had sex and EVERYONE listened in. Amazing on so many levels. I couldn’t look away.
The brilliant thing about this show is that it feels very cinematic even in such a limiting field like television. It’s never small or cheap, but acts like this big blockbuster. The final 20 minutes of this episode were more thrilling than half of the movies released this year and all of The Bourne Legacy. The show isn’t limited by its smaller landscape and, in fact, it’s adapted to it and made it bigger than it is. It’s exciting. Homeland has made television just as exciting as film, if not more. And as exciting as Homeland is, it’s also an incredibly intoxicating mess that verges on being claustrophobic. Because the show acts so big on such a small scale, there a moments when it’s all very much.
My problem with the show (which is only another thing I kind of admire about it) is that it’s starting to spill over with characters and, personally, I’m ready for a couple to die, and I think that’s coming. I’m ready.