Riveting dramas return

The brilliant series Homeland returns to South African screens this week.

It wasn't that long ago that the gripping Emmy Award-winning drama's first season came to an end, leaving viewers hanging after the mystery deepened.

Early on things seemed pretty clear: Iraq vet and former war prisoner Sergeant Nicholas Brody (played by Damian Lewis) had been "turned" and was now on a terrorist mission against his own country.

It was simply a matter of difficult and neurotic CIA agent Carrie Mathison (brilliantly portrayed by Claire Danes) exposing him for what he was.

But as the season progressed, Carrie's demons surfaced, while Brody became a national hero.

Carrie's obsession with exposing him consumed her so much that she let her guard down. Big mistake.

By the end of the season she had been convinced of Brody's "innocence" and her reputation was worse off than before, with everyone thinking she was crazy (which, let's be honest, she sort of is).

As season two begins, we wonder if Carrie will remember Brody's meeting with al-Qaeda chief Abu Nazir, or that Brody's teenage daughter talked him out of carrying out a suicide bombing?

With Brody now in congress, making him even more dangerously powerful, it will only become more difficult to bring him down.

We can't wait to see how it all unfolds.

Another great show which recently returned to our screens is Boardwalk Empire.

The mobster drama, set in Prohibition-era Atlantic City, resumed its third season minus its main character, Jimmy Darmody (played by Michael Pitt).

Jimmy's death was at the hands of the downright dirty Nucky Thompson (the wonderful Steve Buscemi), who had shot him in the face.

A new character has joined this season, gangster Gyp Rosetti (played by Bobby Cannavale), who seems bad to the bone.

Jimmy may be dead, but it looks like the show will do just fine without him.

• 'Boardwalk Empire' on Tuesdays M-Net Series (114) at 10.30pm, and 'Homeland' from Wednesday on M-Net (channel 101) at 9.30pm