Flashback (Homeland Rewatch S5.05-S5.08)

There has been quite a bit of discussion in class regarding the “feel” of this season of Homeland. I think that many of my classmates and I agree that season five has felt almost like a complete reboot of the show. It is different from the first four seasons in a number of ways, including (but not limited to) its European location, a far more politically savvy plot, and a whole new set of international threats beyond those from the Middle East. In addition to all of that, we have our three primary protagonists, Carrie, Saul, and Quinn operating largely within their own narrative arcs.

All the Little Children (Homeland Rewatch S5.01-S5.04)

While last season of Homeland seemed to try and push all mention of home life and children to the side so Carrie could live her exciting life as a station chief in the middle of a war zone, season five is pushing the exact opposite agenda. Now that Carrie has flipped her switch from an emotionally turned off, hesitant mother to a figure of devout maternity, every fiber of the Homeland narrative in the first episodes of season five seems to be driving home just how much Carrie’s role as a mother is raising the stakes.

Homeland and Modernist Poetry (Homeland Rewatch S3.05-S3.08)

The thing that struck me the most about this middle batch of episodes in Homeland’s season 3 where two titles that were references to modernist poetry. I admit that this might not resonate with just anyone, and I fancy myself more of a media scholar these days, but with my roots in English Literature, this two episode sequence stood out to me immediately. So, this week I would like to look a bit at these two episodes (Season 3, episodes 7 & 8) and talk a bit about how they might relate to the poems they reference and the movements out of which these poems come.

The Mother Type (Homeland Rewatch S3.01-S3.04)

Although I admit that I have spent quite a lot of time focusing on the women of Homeland during my time writing through this Homeland rewatch project, I think it is important to understand how a show like this one deals with a strong female lead protagonist and how this protagonist aligns not only with other women in media, but also with other women within the show. As a result, I will be taking up this topic again this week as it relates to the strong comparisons that are coming up between both Carrie and Jessica in the first episode of the third season.

Is this Feminist? (Homeland Rewatch S2.09-S2.12)

For women in film, the conflict that emerges between family and career often come to a head, disallowing a female protagonist from having the best of both worlds. This has often been the case for Carrie and, with Brody finally leaving his family, Carrie is presented with the option to choose a “normal” family life with the man she has come to love. However, it is made clear that choosing Brody means abandoning the career with which she has been so unabashedly faithful.

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.

The Small Screen Scholar

small screen, big ideas

CIA