So, those of us who have stuck it out know by now that season 3 crashed and burned.  There was the laughably bad back and forth between Mrs. and Dana Brody, which only ended up serving as filler for the first 5 episodes.  There was the slightest glimpse of character development for Quinn and F. Murray Abraham, with threads of stories that ended up going nowhere.  And there was the Granddaddy of them all, Carrie doing nothing for an entire season besides being pregnant with Brody’s baby, and Brody spiraling into heroin addiction and eventually a merciful death at the end of an Iranian noose.

We realize we have a failed throwaway season.  It happens, even to above average shows.  The question that inevitably follows is, are we going anywhere?  Or, did episode 12 leave us with anything to look forward to?  Unfortunately, the answer seems to be a resounding no.  Carrie did her best (actually, was that her best?  Just trust Saul and the CIA, they’ll figure everything out?  The Carrie that I remember from previous seasons would have gone 100% off the grid with Brody as soon as they were together, leading him through the mountains into Afghanistan or Kurdish northern Iraq.  Instead she leads him to a questionable safehouse an hour out of Tehran and just waits to GET TO DA CHOPPAH?!?  Again, season 1 and season 2 went to great lengths to establish Carrie as an outsider skirting the edge of acceptable practice who went beyond mission parameters as soon as she could.  It seems like this season did everything it could to actively destroy all of that work.  So disappointing) to extract Brody from Iran after he went ahead with his contractually agreed to murder, but it wasn’t enough.

A further complaint: what ended up being Brody’s motivation to go through with the murder?  I understand why he would have failed to live up to his end of the bargain.  He finally arrived in a place that looked like it was prepared to show him some semblance of civility and respect, even if it was for executing a bombing that he probably didn’t have anything to do with.  Was it his love for Carrie?  Was it remembering how things ended with Dana?  I don’t think it was clear at all.  Perhaps the more interesting finale exists in a world in which Brody doesn’t murder Mr. Big Bad Guy, and Carrie is left holding the bag.  Also, shouldn’t we have expected off-her-meds Carrie to be a little more broken up about the death of the man she loved?  Drawing a memorial star in invisible ink is all the further she’s willing to go to mourn him?  Man they fucked up writing Carrie this season.

A final complaint that leads into the possible premise for next season.  I’m pretty sure we STILL don’t know who actually bombed CIA headquarters, and worse yet, no one involved in Saul’s super-op seems to care.  There’s an interesting way to tell that type of story, but again, the writers failed to tell it.  Have Saul be obsessed with pulling off the Brody mission, so much so that he’s unable to focus on anything else.  They didn’t do that, Saul was as lackadaisical as ever, to the point that he gave up on the mission several times and was resigned to his inevitable dismissal.  Or, show us that there are people within the CIA that are actively covering up who was responsible for the bombing, because they are connected.  They didn’t do that either, even though Quinn and F. Murray and Lockhart are all crying out to be involved in a story like that.

So, do we want this issue to be addressed in season 4?  Or do we want our hands, mouth, feet, face, etc. completely washed clean of this season and everything that preceded it?  Carrie is off to Istanbul to be station chief, abandoning her Brody-child quicker than if she was Peggy Olson in 1960.  I enjoy resolution and don’t usually like loose ends, especially after admiring the final 8 episodes of Breaking Bad, but I have to feel that there isn’t much left to be had from the major plot points from Homeland season 1-3.  I think I’d prefer a clean break, with Carrie waist deep in shit in Turkey chasing down a new threat and new scoundrel perps.

UNLESS they just want to pull out their dick and piss on everything, revealing that the Abu Nazir conspiracy reaches everywhere, and we are powerless to stop it.  One of the advantages that shows with 3 seasons of backstory usually have is that they don’t have to waste time with 3 episodes of introductions.  And Homeland can do that, if it has the balls to turn either Quinn, Abraham, Lockhart, or *gasp* Saul into the arch-nemesis in season 4.  It’s probably the better story if the creative team has the chops to pull it off, I just don’t see much evidence from this season showing me that they do.  That said, the 5 things I’d like to see next season:

1. The return of take-no-shit, get-shit-done Carrie.  I’ve had enough of weepy, failure Carrie.
2. Major events taking place during surprise episodes.  12 ep seasons tend to fall into predictable cycles.  I’d like to see something crazy happen in episode 4, or episode 8, when no one is looking for it.
3. A good guy is revealed to be a bad guy.  As described earlier, season 4 is primed for a turncoat.  Double agent stories are usually the best espionage fiction has to offer, I want some of that shit.
4. No Brody Bunch follow ups.  I don’t need to know what happened to them, I don’t want to know what happened to them, and I especially don’t want them dragged back into a story because they are “the only ones who might know something” about Brody.  Ship has sailed, let’s move on
5. Something batshit insane.  How about, Estes is still alive and has a personal vendetta against Carrie?  Or, Abu Nazir had other Marine recruites who were more dedicated to the cause, and they’ve infiltrated multiple government agencies?  What if Carrie’s baby is threatened and she blows up the US Embassy in Istanbul?  OMG CARRIE’S CRAZY DAD FROM MEET THE PARENTS IS A TERRORIST!!!  Season 4 is a long way off.  A man can dream.

Episode 6/10

Season 3/10

The post Homeland S3E12 Review, “Marine One” appeared first on screensnark..

So, Homeland has actively begun to anger me.

Yes, this week’s episode was a nice follow up to last week’s episode for the percentage of the audience that enjoys Bruckheimer films, American cheese, and the smell of a locker room.  There’s something to be said for each of those things, I suppose, who am I to judge?  But none of those things was what made Homeland appointment TV for the first season and upper echelon viewing for the second.  I think those of us who have been watching from the beginning have largely moved on at this point.  We know it’s not coming back, so it’s probably best to not have any expectations, other than “it has to be better than Dexter Season 7, right?”  So here’s the question I’ve been asking myself; where did it go wrong?

I’d say that there’s one definitive answer.  From the outset of the show, everything was ancillary to Claire Danes and her quest.  The show was Carrie’s vehicle, and we were along for an intense and (literally) insane ride.  The peak moment for me was during season 1, when Estes, Saul, everyone knows that Carrie is batshit.  Carrie knows Carrie is batshit.  But through all of her bi-polar haze, and likely because of it, Carrie cracked the Brody enigma.  Even though she was nuts, Carrie the CIA superagent put the pieces together on a beautiful color-coded wall mural in her living room, and identified poster boy Brody as a sleeper double agent, when everyone else was giving him the Tom Brady treatment.

The showis  unique in its treatment of the spy thriller genre, both having it set in the present and not being afraid to tackle the American/Muslim war on terror subject matter that has gone largely ignored by major media, with the notable exception of 24 (even 24 handled the Muslim terrorist question with kid gloves, always being extremely careful to make sure that it was obvious to the viewer that “they’re not all terrorists”.  Even Zero Dark Thirty was relatively low risk, because everyone knows there’s a dead Osama payoff at the end.

But even more unique was the fact that the troubled but successful lead character was female.  Tony Soprano, has a dick.  Walter White, has a dick.  Don Draper, has a dick.  Jack Bauer, Jimmy McNaulty, Vic/Shane/Lem/Ronnie, dicks, dicks, dicks.  Carrie Matheson in my opinion is very close to being one-of-a-kind, in that she was a high profile lead character on a prestigious drama that in the history of television is almost 100% reserved for dudes.  And the fact that she was a woman wasn’t of central importance to the plot for most of the first season makes that even more impressive!  Yes, they had her fuck Brody, and that was a mistake.  They could have hinted at mutual sexual attraction and achieved the same, if not greater effect.  But goddamn, Carrie was a woman, she was leading a high concept dramatic TV show, and the story was red hot!

And what happened this season?  First, they impregnated Carrie.  Pregnancy is wonderful!  And yet, Carrie’s pregnancy has only been shown as either a hindrance to her operation, or evidence that women are too fragile to exist in the high pressure world of the CIA.  So they took a powerful female character and cut her off at the knees by planting Brody’s seed in her womb.  Nice job, Showtime, botched this one almost as bad as Harrison Morgan.

Second, Carrie really hasn’t done anything this entire season, except provide moral support to Brody.  It’s Saul’s operation, and Quinn could have filled in for Carrie in everything else she did, other than facilitating Javadi’s arrival in the US.  The show was fantastic when Carrie was on her own against the world, and it isn’t difficult to figure out why it sucks, when she’s been relegated to being Brody’s knocked up emotional crutch.  Sure, the best episodes of the season were the Brody-centric ones, but that’s because THEY DIDN’T GIVE CLAIRE FUCKING DANES ANYTHING TO DO.

So Brody killed his target, after theoretically toying with the idea of actually enjoying asylum in Iran.  He’s trapped in Iran’s Intelligence Director’s office with the body at his feet, and he needs Carrie to get him out.  Javadi aint’ helping, because he thinks Brody is ratting him out.  And somehow, Brody got ANOTHER GUY to spend time alone with him in an office.  The whole “leave us” routine just needs to be eliminated from all forms of media immediately.  You have guards so the ex-marine turned converted Muslim terrorist turned CIA asset doesn’t kill you with a conveniently placed waterford crystal and then hold a throw pillow over your face for 120 excruciating seconds!  Is this Austin Fucking Powers?!?

I can’t really take this shit any more.  Brody should die saving Carrie, and then Carrie should disappear for at least a full season, then come back part way through season 5 in some super secret blackest ops role.  This season, the twists are telegraphed, and the turns are for the sake of having turns.  There’s no masterplan, there’s no grand design.  Brody is back for viewers, the show is on because it’s popular.  I feel more than a little betrayed.

5/10 for the ep

2/10 for the season

The post Homeland S3E11 Review, “Big Man in Tehran” appeared first on screensnark..

I wrote about chaos in this week’s Walking Dead review, specifically about how cramming too much information into a 45 minute TV episode can mimic the chaotic situations that are developing on screen.  There is of course the danger of stuffing so much into an episode that it becomes impossible to follow, and this week’s installment of Homeland straddles the edge of TV sanity, coming precariously close to tipping over but in the end maintaining its balance.

I found myself remembering the brilliant 15-30 minute stretch of The Departed which saw the demise of several key characters.  There were so many unexpected twists that the viewer doesn’t even have time to process a major plot point before the next one occurs.  Let it be known, this episode of Homeland is no where near as effective as The Departed, but just the fact that it brought such a fantastic film to mind goes a long way toward showing that the direction of the series has improved drastically compared to the debacle that we were presented at the season’s start.

Brody’s insertion into Iran was a rollercoaster, going from clusterfuck to success to fubar to triumph in a matter of minutes.  The agents posing as al Qaeda operatives all reminded me immediately of the bearded guy from Zero Dark Thirty, and the writers did a good job of establishing them as individuals to be cared about in a short amount of time.  When one took a Magician bullet to the head at the climax of the episode, I legitimately felt for him.

There are still flaws too obvious to be ignored.  Saul sees his final mission begin to go belly up, so he bounces to have some reflection time at his desk?  What the fuck, Saul?  Carrie has basically been relegated to a passive piece of pregnant ass.  She’s serving as nothing but motivation for Brody, and her entire existence now seems to hinge on his success.  Yes, there should be some of that, but the first two seasons showed her as a troubled but capable savant.  Now, she’s just standing on the sidelines, Brody’s psychotic cheerleader.  It’s a little disgusting, but that’s what happens to strong female leads on TV shows.

This season has at least finally emerged from being unwatchably awful.  But even its highlights are feeling more and more like transitions.  While Majid Javadi is obviously a psychopath and a quite capable villain, he’s obviously not the endgame for the season, since he’s theoretically under CIA control.  Perhaps his cold blooded murder of Brody’s agent buddy at the end of the ep signifies that he might have figured out a way to get out from under Saul’s thumb.  Absent of that, I’d say we’re heading toward a transitional season finale, probably one that reveals to the viewer that there is a grand conspiracy featuring some combination of Jivadi, Senator Lockhart, Quinn, F. Murray Abraham, and the evil banker from a few eps back.  I think this also ends with Brody’s surprise death, probably shortly after he successfully takes out his target.

That might not make for the most satisfying end to season 3, but I’d say at this point it would be nice to see the losses cut, setting up an exciting and breakneck season 4.  Since this episode did a nice job of setting that up, I’ll rate it a little higher than I otherwise would have.  But goddamn, they have to give Carrie something to do, other than just yell, “ooooo Brody, I looooooooooooove you, ooooooooooooo”.

7/10

The post Homeland S3E10 Review, “Good Night” appeared first on screensnark..

Homeland, nearing the homestretch of the thus far abominable season 3, is trying so hard to get the creative wheels turning.  Brody and Carrie reunited, Dana with an actual scene to act in, a goddamn training montage!  In past seasons, this ninth episode of season 3 would have been a perfectly acceptable transition episode, leading from the season’s second act into the climactic third.  And as a stand alone installment, it’s not terrible either.

But when we’ve been presented with the below-average to downright bad television that we’ve seen this year, a transitional episode represents something else entirely.  Given this episode in that context, if I’ve only seen bad and then get a transition, how can I expect anything other than more bad?

First, Brody has returned from his Venezuelan dream getaway and has been weened off a full blown heroin habit quicker than Jack Bauer (also in a season 3!  Almost an impossible coincidence!  Where the hell is Chase, somebody get Jack an axe!).

No one kicks heroin like Jack Bauer.

The scenes showing Brody hallucinating as a result of the anti-withdrawal drugs he’s given are among the best this season has offered, both dramatic and visually powerful.  On the other hand, the scenes featuring Brody and Carrie are completely flat with none of the tension from previous seasons.  Without a major defibrillator, that relationship has been doomed by stripping both characters of all of their emotional potency.  It’s what happens when your two main characters are repeatedly devastated week after week and are never allowed to show any strength.  I’m sure this is why Carrie’s pregnancy was dropped in a few weeks ago, to give these scenes a little extra push, but I just don’t think it was all that effective.  One thing is certain: if Showtime saddles Carrie with a kid the same way they chained up Dexter, I’m going off the Homeland grid.  Harrison!!!

Saul’s constantly changing master plan is actually fairly interesting.  If it has been the main focus of the season from the get go, Brody would already be waist deep in Persian blood by now.  The plan is as follows:

1. Trap a high-level Iranian intelligence official into working for the CIA, because if he does not cooperate The US will inform the Iranian government that he has been skimming cash into a personal account to the tune of $50 million
2. Play him back into Iran in order to gain access to tightly held secrets, such as military readiness and nuclear proliferation
3. Nurse Brody back into health in order to release him to the Iranians, depending on his status as the Langley bomber to give him access to government officials
4. Have Brody assassinate the head of Iranian intelligence, then extract him from the country
5. Saul’s high-level official double agent would then be promoted by default to a top-3 spot in the government, allowing him to not only have access to information, but also to make policy favoring the US

Any number of problems could happen causing the above scenario to collapse into a ball of fire, but that is the beauty of the show.  Three or four middle season episodes showing this play out on the ground in Iran likely would have been must-watch TV, and even if executed poorly would have had to be better than five episodes of the Dana Brody hour, with some Carrie in the psyche ward thrown in.  The further development that Saul knows that the Senator has been spying on him, using Mira’s boytoy adds an additional layer, as now Saul has Lockhart by the balls and can twist as he sees fit.

All told, it’s just enough to keep me watching ep to ep until the end of the season, without the series falling into DVR Demon status.  I’m actually really looking forward to next week, because Brody put into play in rural Iran just outside of Tehran should make for compelling TV.  Unfortunately I have less faith that we will get a satisfying conclusion to the season, much less a cliffhanger that make sense and makes me lust for season 4.

6/10

The post Homeland S3E9 Review, “One Last Time” appeared first on screensnark..

It really isn’t that hard to inject intriguing plot developments into a TV show, especially one that has shown close to limitless promise in the past.  But with the third season of Homeland, it’s been as difficult as dragging an unwilling and unmedicated Carrie Matheson through the door of another institution.

Holy shit, this week, things happened!  An amazing concept.  After sludging through last week’s swamp of boring (how can an episode in which a rogue element of the CIA turns a murderous son of a bitch of a high level Iranian government official into a double agent be so mind-numbingly boring?), which was so nondescript and uneventful that I didn’t even think it merited writing about, just about anything would feel like a reprieve.  And the show’s creators finally delivered something resembling watchable television.  This show won fucking Emmys for chrissakes.  I shouldn’t have to wait to Ep8 of the new season to get decent storytelling.

We now know that the man who delivered the bomb to CIA headquarters in last season’s finale is not only American and still at large in the country, but is also connected in some way to the bank that Saul has tied to financing Iranian terrorist operations, including the bombing itself, and in the same episode that this is confirmed the bomber is murdered by the bankers.  All with the knowledge of our CIA freinds, who can’t intervene without blowing their recently placed spy in the Iranian government.  If that’s confusing, good, it’s supposed to be, and I love it.  But that on its own probably isn’t a big enough development to finally get this season’s ball (balls?) rolling.  It’s the multifaceted and impossible to completely follow or connect series of storylines that come with it that hearkens (do people actually say hearkens?) back to the previous seasons.  In no specific order:

1. Carrie is pregnant, finally sees a pediatrician, is still in the field for active and dangerous operations, and gets shot by Quinn with a high powered rifle trying to intervene against a direct order from F.Murray.  Oh, and she seems to think that the father is Brody.
2. The dude that Saul’s wife was fucking is also spying on her or him through their home computer and was probably put in place by an agency or other interested party, possibly by the Iranians, the terrorist bank, F. Murray, the Evil Senator, or maybe he’s just super jealous and wants to find a way to get her back.
3. Saul still seems to either be one step ahead of everything or one step behind everything, or completely playing a different game, since he set up an operation, has it in play, then skips town to go find Brody in Caracas and doesn’t seem to give a shit what happens.  And Brody is full blow junkie now, holy shit is he full blown junkie.  Awesome shot to close the episode.
4. Fara’s every move is being tracked by Saul, who must be super-paranoid, but is also proven to be correct.  I’d think the fact that this was thrown into the episode has to mean something in the big picture, but…

Why in the hell did it take so long to get here?  If the show dedicated that much time to the Jessica/Dana nonsense at the beginning of the season, and the entire storyline added absolutely nothing to the narrative, how am I supposed to now trust that Saul having Fara followed means anything at all?  The problem is that it doesn’t even seem like the Dana bullshit was a red-herring, it was just 100% filler because there was 47 minutes to fill and there were no new characters.

All of the pieces listed above could have been introduced three, four, five, even six episodes ago, and we might have actually gotten somewhere this season.  As it stands, I still don’t really feel like I can trust the show from week to week.  In the back of my mind, I still think that at the end of next week’s episode, there’s a good chance that I’m going to ask myself, “Still watching this?  Haven’t given up yet?”  At least they got back to the breakneck pace and seat-edge-ness that constantly took my breath away in season 1 and 2.  It’s still a bit of a parody of itself, but that’s a thousand times better than the Dana and Jessica Brody Hour.

That being said, doesn’t this play out with Saul tracking down Dana and bringing her to Caracas to coax Brody down off the Horse?  Please tell me that isn’t happening, Saul.  I’d rather spend an hour or so combing Mira’s rain forest bush.  C’mon, you know it’s thicker than Saul’s beard, you know it is!

7/10

The post Homeland S3E8 Review, “A Red Wheelbarrow” appeared first on screensnark..

At least they’re throwing in some WHAT THE FUCK moments.

I don’t need or want to understand everything that is happening at any given time when watching Homeland.  Part of the fun has always been trying (and inevitably failing) to understand motives, actions, even keeping straight who everyone is and who they’re affiliated with.  One of my favorite scenes from the show was when Carrie jumped out of the van in Damascus, or Tel Aviv, or wherever and took off running, trying to track down some random piece of evidence implicating someone in something.  The who and the why and the how were important at the time, but the details were difficult to pin down and were lost by the next episode.  And while the details were critical at the time, what stuck with me was knowing that I would be desperately afraid just being in that city, and Carrie was completely fearless running through an unknown locale from unknown attackers with no escape plan.  It was borderline ridiculous, but it skirted the line just enough to be breathtaking without being over the top.

This episode, while still being dragged a bit by the same issues that plagued its predecessors, had several moments that left me in the dust, which I enjoyed.  The show can’t always be breakneck, which is understandable, since it would eventually derail completely.  But the times when it steps on the gas can make for the fantastic entertainment that were the show’s hallmark for much of the first two seasons.

Of course most of the good shit from this episode centered around Saul’s op, and how it went, terribly, awfully, dreadfully wrong.  Holy shit did Saul think he knew everything, and man did it blow up in his face, like C4 in a Nicky Brody SUV.  The Magician (this Persian dude is the Magician, right?  I think so) seems to be back on his heels when Carrie hits him with “the CIA is totally on your ass dude, and Saul has got you by the balls” play.  As we get deeper into the episode, it begins to come out that there is far more backstory between Saul and Mr. Magic than he previously let on, and as much as he wants everyone to believe that this isn’t revenge, it sure as hell looks like it.

So the Magician fails to follow the path Saul has painstakingly laid out for him, deviating from the scheduled meeting spot with Carrie and instead heading to his ex-wife’s house.  Saul extradited the ex-wife from Iran after the fall of the Shah, but Saul, how the hell don’t you know where she lives at now?!?!?  Especially since it’s like five blocks from Carrie’s meeting spot with the Magician!  Saul has let this Mira situation get to him, he’s definitely not bringing his A game.  And it was a little convenient that the ex-wife was living so close, but I guess I’ll let it slide.  At this point it’s clear that the Magician must have known that this was possibly how all of this would play out.  But damn, the dude is brutal!  Silenced pistol to the head of the nanny, then multiple broken bottle stabs to his ex-wife’s neck.  That is one sliced up aorta.  So Saul got his asset, but his entire world is crumbling around him, and I think there’s something bigger around the corner.

F. Murray (I have no idea what his character’s name is, and I think F. Murray would be a fine name for his character) is pulling some shady shit with the senator who is about to take over as CIA director (it seems a little fishy that the nomination confirmation would be a slam dunk, since that doesn’t really happen anymore in Washington, and this would be a controversial nomination no matter what, but whatever).  It definitely seems like he’s on his way to cutting Saul completely out of the agency, but it isn’t clear if he knows exactly what Saul is up to.  I think it would be a great turn for the show if Mr. Evil CIA Director, working with F. Murray, cut Saul completely off with his team, without the knowledge that they had the Magician.  Or maybe the senator is working WITH the Magician?  Homeland has never been shy about throwing in implausible scenarios and then running with them, I say they go for it.

Two other things to address, the first is simple.  Dana Brody wants to change her last name to Jessica’s maiden name.  Couldn’t we just have done this in episode one?  Did we really have to go through five episodes of unbearable Dana-being-angsty-on-the-run-with-angsty-teen-boy filler?  The answer is fuck no, we didn’t.  I feel betrayed.  Like Nick Brody betraying his country betrayed.  Anyway, Dana is out, she’s moving on, hopefully to better written dialogue and a somewhat compelling story arc.  I could see her as a young terrorist.  What happened to the suicide vest?  Not that she should blow herself up, it was just really fashionable.

The other is…holy shit wait for it…Carrie is pregnant!  And she’s crazy, so she is peeing on a pregnancy test every day, for what looks like about 2-3 months!  So what’s the timeline here, when did the explosion take place.  Because I’m pretty sure it might have been about 2-3 months ago.  And when was the last time she fucked Brody.  Because…I’d say maybe 2-3 months ago?!?  We’re gonna have a Brody Baby!!!  I mean, probably.  Because Carrie has been known to fuck like lots of random dudes and stuff, so it could be some random guy.  But it’s Homeland, so I’d say it’s definitely Brody.  Or Abu Nazir.  Or Saul.  If it’s Mike I’m out.

One last question, no one figured out that Carrie was pregnant when she was in the institution?  Guess we can’t cover all the bases.  Anyway, less Brody family drama, more fast-paced borderline ridiculous spy drama.  I like it.  Next episode cut off Saul, Carrie, Quinn, and Fara, reveal a connection between Senator Andy and the Magician and F. Murray, then sprinkle in some bald ginger Brody, and we’ll be good to go for the rest of Season 3.  But they won’t really do that, will they?

7/10

The post Homeland S3E6 Review, “Still Positive” appeared first on screensnark..

Goddamn, this show has some gut-wrenching emotional moments!

After the first few episodes, it was already becoming clear that we weren’t dealing with a show that was only going to point out sexual absurdities and chronicle the scientific component of the sexual revolution.  While both of those elements are certainly present in the overall makeup of the show, it’s been clear since early on that the real meat of the show comes from the interpersonal relationships constantly evolving between Bill-Ginny-Libby-Ethan.  And holy fuck did that shit blow up this week.

First, the big shit.  I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more emotionally jarring moment on TV than when Bill Masters had to deliver his own stillborn baby.  Of course there have been more impactful moments on other shows, but those involved characters that the audience had invested several years in.  And not only is it completely fucked up that he had to do it, but his personality doesn’t allow him to ever show any sign of weakness or vulnerability.  So here is Bill Masters, who by all rights should be completely devastated, but instead is bottling up everything, so much so that his wreck of a wife wants nothing to do with him.  Yes, he’s behaving completely like a child by the end of the episode when he asks Ginny to close her eyes so that he can cry.  But this is obviously a dude who has been so fucked up by his parents that he almost never allows himself any type of release, and the pressure that builds up in someone who is confronted with losing a child that he seems to believe he was indirectly responsible for killing is almost unimaginable.  I feels for the guy.

I also loved the visual stimuli provided by blood in this episode.  We first see blood on the sheets after Ethan realizes that he has inadvertently taken gayboy-soliciting provost Beau Bridges’ daughter’s virginity.  I’d like to know who in society is continuing to perpetuate the myth that men want to take a girl’s virginity, and it was nice to see Ethan’s realistic reaction when confronted with the situation.  This blood serves as a counterpoint to the blood that Bill is shocked to see on the back of Libby’s dress when it becomes clear that she’s likely having a miscarriage.  The way that the blood was used to tie in sex with life, death, innocence and loss was at once very obvious and at the same time sublime.  I don’t think it was an accident that the stains were roughly the same size.

I was less than thrilled with the treatment of Ginny in this episode.  Children can be beyond cruel and by their very nature are capable of doing far more damage to someone’s psyche than any adult can do, and Ginny’s son drops some fucking bombs on her with his apparent hatred of her and his desire to go live with his dad.  But my interest in Ginny isn’t to see her as the Damsel waiting to be rescued by Ethan’s White Knight.  That’s a story that’s been told far too many times, and I know we haven’t seen a lot of her yet, but I just don’t believe that Virginia Johnson is the type of woman that would cry on the shoulder of a man that punched her in the face because she refused to fall in love with him.  I’m far more interested in seeing a Ginny that is dealing with the taboo of being a divorced single mother during a time when that stigma was far more troublesome than it is now, and I want to see her thrive in the role.  TV’s historical representation of prominent women can only really be described as shameful, and I just don’t need to see another broken woman scooped up and saved by a troubled but persistent and faux-courageous man.

I certainly feel that over the next couple of weeks we will be seeing further into Bill’s past, since his relationship with his mother is so obviously destructive and is causing the deep rift between him and Libby.  The sleepwalking was a nice touch, especially since the first time Bill was shown doing it the audience had no clue what was going on.  I do feel that while what Libby was going through and has gone through over the course of the series has been hideous, her treatment of Bill has been altogether unfair, especially in this episode.  It’s clear that this is who Bill is, and who he’s been for all of his adult life.  To expect him to change is a mistake many women would make, but it’s still a mistake.  Crises rarely bring about drastic changes in people, they instead usually serve to drive people back to who they really are.  Bill Masters is emotionally repressed and underdeveloped, with a massive comfort zone in the rigid formality of science.  To expect a different response from him when confronted with terrible circumstances is more than a bit foolish.  It does beg the question, why are these two married to begin with?  It’s a question that I’m reasonably confident we’ll get an answer to over the coming seasons.

This episode only served to strengthen my affection for this show.  It’s progressing at a fairly deliberate pace, but everything doesn’t have to sprint headlong into the future to have merit.  There are some tweaks that need to be made, and at least one potential show killer that needs to be addressed as described above.  But the first five chapters of what on a few different levels feels like a visual novel have given me faith that there’s real quality on the horizon here, and I’m excited for next week.

8/10

The post Masters of Sex S1E5 Review, “Catherine” appeared first on screensnark..

I’m not going to let Homeland off the hook completely.  There’s still plenty to be pissed about, and the show is nowhere near what it was at the end of the first season, or in the middle of the second season.  But they hit the Season 3 reset button at the last available second where something decent might actually still be salvageable.  One request!  No more shots of Carrie staring at herself in the mirror, Showtime!  You’ve done it at least a dozen times now.  Your obsession is getting weird.

Something finally happened with Carrie!  Yes, she’s off her meds again, yes, somehow she hasn’t been picked up for questioning regarding her involvement in the CIA Headquarters bombing, but she’s out of the institution, and something actually happened to her!  She got black bagged (which I suggested should happen, when?  In episode 2?  Yes, I believe so) after being strip searched, and was taken to a rendezvous with who I presume is the Magician.  Could the head of Iranian intelligence simply drive into the US across the Canadian border?  I guess so.  But now he’s here, and he’s a grinder eating, wisecracking, son of a bitch.

The show should tread lightly with its portrayal of Persian/Muslim villains.  The risk of offending the Muslim American community put completely aside, modern television and film is full of A) The faceless, personality-less evil Arab hellbent on bringing down the Great Satan (Abu Nazir fits this to some degree) and B) The devout Muslim who secretly covets the American lifestyle and lets his jealousy feed his violence.  We’ve already been presented with the Magician obviously enjoying the hell out of some decidedly American cuisine, he’s cruising around in a western car, and he’s making jokes about Carrie’s physical fitness and yoga participation.  This dude needs fleshed out a bit, or else I have no understanding why, in a world full of hundreds of millions of people, he’s the one who saw fit to load up Nick Brody’s SUV with a hundred pounds of C4 and turn the CIA into a crater.  I’m happy with the character so far, but now I need some backstory, and what we’ve been provided with so far has been pretty thin.  At least with Nazir we got to see the murder of his son, something that not only ignited him but fueled Brody’s turn as well.

This episode also saw the complete bottoming out of Saul, something that was pretty unexpected.  We’ve been set up to believe that Saul was ascending to the top of the CIA, and that he’d reconciled with his wife, but both of those Persian rugs were swept out from under him in a matter of ten minutes or so.  First, he’s blindsided when he finds out that some non-spy bureaucrat is going to take over the agency, and Saul’s reaction is very and appropriately Carrie-esque.  Having him respond to a situation the exact way that we would expect Carrie to was a nice touch, even if his swan song of a soliloquy to the new director was given in a decidedly calmer manner than what we’ve seen from un-iodine’d Carrie.  It was also quite telling that Saul, confronted with his wife obviously cheating on him, goes upstairs, sulks, then starts working the op with Quinn.  So now, all three of the main characters have reached their bottom, and Homeland would do well to understand that the audience could use a turn or two of some well-earned redemption.  And that Saul is one duckhunting ass motherfucker.

We get the return of actual likable characters.  Virgil, Max, and Quinn are back to support the main Carrie plot, and it’s a welcome return, as Virgil and Max bring the geniality that is countered by Quinn’s stoicism and grit.  Quinn’s character still has more plot device to it than depth, so I would really like to see him revealed as a double or triple agent this season to shake things up, even if it doesn’t make any sense.  When his connection to F. Murray was teased last season it was intriguing, and it’s gone exactly nowhere, a giant red flag that the writing team doesn’t really know what it’s doing with him.

We can all rejoice that the Dana/Leo/Jessica Triangle of Bore has come to a close.  What was the purpose?  Nothing happened!  They wasted hours of screentime having Dana run away, having Jessica worry, having Mike do nothing, and having Leo serve no purpose.  I actually can’t believe that Showtime execs let this garbage air.  And to cap it all off, Jessica goes to Carrie for help?  The crazy CIA operative that her traitor terrorist fugitive husband was fucking?!?!?  Come the fuck on!!! No fucking way!!!  And not only that, but Carrie jeopardized an active operation working to catch the motherfucker that blew up the CIA, that could get her killed, to help Jessica SmallTits Brody?  At least it’s finally over.  Please God let it be over.

The show has a direction.  It’s all that we can ask for at this point.  There’s an op being run, and only Saul and Quinn know about it, but how is Saul going to keep everything in play when he’s presumably out at the CIA?  It’s a fun set up, for the first time this season outside of Brody’s penthouse villa of doom.  I’m betting we get some Brody action in the next week or two, and not the disgusting Jessica/Dana kind.  No, we want some head shaved, lily-white heroin-shooting ginger-ass Brody, and we want it SOON.  Make that shit happen, Showtime.

7/10

The post Homeland S3E5 Review, “The Yoga Play” appeared first on screensnark..

Season Ones can be fascinating to watch, because even the worst, low concept garbage can show glimpses of potential.  Masters of Sex is hardly that, as there is a creative vision here that is almost a prerequisite for a show to get greenlit in the 21st century premium cable landscape.  Even Hung had enough to get three seasons.  Episode 4 seems to be the moment for me where Masters has shown that it has that little something extra that elevates it over some of its more mundane yet glamorous contemporaries.

This episode finally showed some growth for young, up and cumming Dr. Ethan Haas, who heretofore has only been an unrepentant horndog, other than his violent outburst toward and unhealthy obsession with Ginny.  Now we see him drunk and acting like a child, until he is rejected for the fifth or sixth time.  This seems to bring about some clarity in him, and we get to see his calm inner sociopath.  Showing him so absolutely hammered that he pukes outside the operating room, yet presumably still goes through with performing the surgery was a brilliant touch.  The 60s, yes they were different, but not all of the differences were as wonderful as some might like to remember.  It finally seems to have gotten through to him that Ginny doesn’t want to be in love with him.

But it’s still completely unclear who, if anyone, Ginny does want to be with.  It’s certainly the mystery of this first season.  Here her ex-husband and father of her children is introduced, and he ends up worming his way not only into her bedroom, but also into the sex study as an “anonymous” participant.  Ginny’s still fucking him, but obviously regards him with near the lowest form of distaste.  She definitely wants nothing to do with Ethan, but is she enjoying toying with him a little too much?  She also seems to have a thing for Bill, but it almost seems to be more of a quest to seek out fatherly affection than anything else.  What does this woman want?  I have a feeling we might not find out until the final episode of the season.

More importantly, did women and relationships like this actually exist in the 60s?  We have a tendency to treat the relatively recent past like it was the stone age.  So when a show begins to explore the complexity of sexual relationships, it seems somewhat difficult to believe that people faced many of the same issues and misunderstandings that people do now.  Until this episode, I kept thinking that the show was primarily focused on the study of human sexuality.  But the show’s actual focus seems to be on the sexual and personal relationships of these five or six people, which seems to be infinitely more interesting.

Bill Masters is equally fascinating in this episode.  He’s obviously a sexual deviant, who would be shocked and appalled to be called a sexual deviant.  He’s equally enthralled with Ginny, but has the ability to successfully disguise it where Ethan doesn’t.  He’s also still very childish when it comes to sex, so when he discovers that Ginny’s ex-husband participated in the study, of course he brings him back in for an interview, in order to get some subtle insight toward eventually pleasing her genitalia.  But it’s pretty fucking creepy when he is obviously rewinding and re-listening repeatedly to a dude talking about how he gets his ex-wife off.  Bill needs a release, sooner rather than later.

It still isn’t as intriguing as its cousin Mad Men, but few shows in the history of television are.  After the barrage of fantastic TV that we’ve been hit with over the past decade and a half, it’s inevitable that we begin comparing each show to the best of the best.  Masters will never reach that level.  But this week it managed to surprise me and exceed my expectations.  I thought that I knew the direction for this show, and I’m pleasantly surprised to find out that I was wrong.  It probably doesn’t have enough impact to ever become one of my favorite shows, but there’s enough meat on this bone, enough layers to this onion, to keep me cumming back for more.

8/10

The post Masters of Sex S1E4 Review, “Thank You For Coming” appeared first on screensnark..

Is there any way to kindly and gently say, “worst episode of the series so far”?

The first two episodes of this season were spiraling downward to this.  Then, with the third installment, we had a reprieve, with Brody returning to reach his own personal rock bottom, which was mirrored by Carrie’s.  There was an enticing plotline, interesting new characters, fantastic visual storytelling, and a completely uncertain future for Brody.  Sure, Carrie was STILL in the fucking institution.  But we saw multiple rays of hope that the creators at least had some type of vision for the remainder of the season and the series.

And then it all came crashing down in episode four.  I seriously don’t know how much more of this crap I can take.  The runaway teen garbage with Dana and the concerned parent bullshit with Jessica serves no discernible purpose, is completely overacted, and has cheap throwaway dialogue that would be better suited on The Secret Life of the American Teenager.  AND THEY BROUGHT BACK MIKE?!?!?  WHAT THE FUCK, HOMELAND?!?!?  I THOUGHT WE WERE AT LEAST DONE WITH FUCKING MIKE!!!!  Am I really supposed to believe that Mike is going to stick around after it’s been exposed that he was having an affair with a social pariah that is married to public terrorist #1?  Was the pussy that good, Mike?

Set aside for a moment that the plot, acting, and dialogue are awful.  The showrunners have already asked me to believe that bi-polar and off her meds Carrie, who was sexually involved with the Nick Brody that is being personally blamed for blowing up CIA headquarters and killing 200+ people, has not been taken into government custody.  She testified before the committee investigating the incident, and then her boss basically implicated her and said that she was lying, but whatever.  Now, I’m also supposed to believe that a 16 year old kid vaguely suspected in killing his brother as part of a suicide pact can just walk right out of a mental institution, hop in a car with his girlfriend and drive off in a stolen car, and no one can find them for days?  Enough of this shit.  For the good of the show, kill off Brody’s family.  Just take off and nuke the entire site from orbit.  It’s the only way to be sure.

The leftovers here are pretty boring.  The spy stuff with Saul and Fara should be exciting, but it’s almost intentionally dry.  I don’t understand the lack of emotion, whether it be acted or written that way.  That storyline has it’s problems, but if it was the main focus of this episode, it would still be a drastic improvement.  Also, Carrie, out on parole from her stay at the nuthouse, goes to the house of random dude that she fucked, fucks him again, and steals all of his cash.  It’s just a completely needless scene.  Why not have her meet with Quinn at a safehouse or something?  Instead, no Pete Quinn?  So Quinn had multiple arcs going.  He was going to quit the CIA if they didn’t stick up for Carrie.  He killed a kid, and felt bad about it.  He confronted Mr. Bad Banker that is funding terrorists, and threatened to kill him.  And then he disappears for an episode?  Giant fucking red flag that the writers and producers have no clue what they’re doing.

The cliffhanger is that Saul and Carrie planned her institutionalization all along as a way to get her recruited into the Magician’s clandestine activities.  This seems like a giant stretch, since Saul/Carrie had no way of knowing if the terrorists would even reach out to her, or that they even knew who she was.  Yes, all of the shit between Saul and Carrie was publicized, but I don’t buy it.  And then, they aren’t at all suspicious of Carrie?  Yes, she’s a down and out CIA operative, but she’s still a CIA operative!  I see where this is going, and I’m not exactly intrigued.

Short conclusion here.  I’m sure there are people out there who have seen the Emmys and the glowing reviews and are thinking, “shit, I’ve got to binge watch Homeland so I can get caught up before the end of Season 3!”  Based on what we’ve seen so far in season 3, I’d say don’t bother.  Watch Season 1, then watch Season 2.  And then just pretend that that’s the end.  You’ll only be disappointed with everything that follows.

3/10

The post Homeland S3E4 Review, “Game On” appeared first on screensnark..