Confession (Homeland Rewatch S2.05-S2.08)

In his work, The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault wrote of confession and how the act of confession relates to overarching societal power structures. “The confession is a ritual of discourse in which the speaking subject is also the subject of the statement; it is also a ritual that unfolds within a power relationship, for one does not confess without the presence or virtual presence of a partner who is not simply the interlocutor but the authority who requires the confession, prescribes and appreciates it, and intervenes in order to judge, punish, forgive, console, and reconcile;”

(Home)Land of Women (Homeland Rewatch S2.01-S2.04)

Although I could go on in some detail about the interesting parallels of Brody and Carrie and their struggles in navigating the clash of their past and present lives, I was actually much more intrigued this week by the representation of and cooperation among women in these episodes. There appears to be a strong indication that a “community of women” can work together to get things done.

The Good Guys (Homeland Rewatch S1.9-S1.12)

If nothing else, the final four episodes of the first season effectively call into question which party (the terrorists or the USA) is actually standing on higher ground, the Americans or the terrorists? Is there much difference between them?

On Fidelity (Homeland Rewatch S1.E5-S1.E8)

A key theme within the show centers on the idea of fidelity. This theme manifests in three different but important ways: fidelity to marriage, fidelity to career, and fidelity to country. Interestingly, the show represents each of these different kinds of fidelity has competing factors whereby a hierarchy of fidelity emerges, placing fidelity to marriage firmly at the bottom and fidelity to country at the top.

Depicting a Tainted World (Homeland Rewatch S1.E1-S1.E4)

The events of 9/11 caused these notions to crumble and the post 9/11 America has become tainted by paranoia about the intention of “others,” harbors a consistent feeling of uncertainty about the world around us, and is being forced to redefine what it means to be American. The first episodes of Showtime’s Homeland are heavily playing to the aforementioned themes, right down to the opening sequence (first seen in episode two).

Homeland: A Rewatch Project

Over the course of the Spring 2017 semester, participants in the Homeland course will each be rewatching the show from the beginning (approximately four episodes per week) and blogging about each week’s rewatch progress. We will be attempting to not only engage deeply with the episodes and explore the show from a variety of critical academic angles but also engage with other scholars in the process.

The Small Screen Scholar

small screen, big ideas