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.

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.

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?

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