TV Series: 'Homeland' is back with a bang

14 November 2014 - 02:07 By Yolisa Mkele
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INCORRIGIBLE: Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) takes centre stage in the fourth season of 'Homeland'
INCORRIGIBLE: Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) takes centre stage in the fourth season of 'Homeland'
Image: JOE ALBLAS/SHOWTIME/MCT

The last we saw of Homeland's Carrie Mathison, played by Claire Danes, she was hijab-clad on the wrong side of a fence as her lover-cum-terrorist drew his last breaths dangling from an executioner's noose.

The dramatic death of Nicholas Brody, played by Damian Lewis, seemed to herald the end of the series. But Carrie is back in season 4 to battle the forces of global terror in a show that even has US President Barack Obama riveted. One theme is how Mathison, a bipolar globe-trotting CIA station chief with a penchant for making poor life choices, will deal with motherhood.

Initial indications are that she is more comfortable launching drone strikes on Pakistani terrorists than going home to deal with a mewling bundle of joy. Some seemingly solid intelligence leads her to plan a strike on a known practitioner of terror, which kills scores of women and children.

The resulting rage leads to the mobbing of a CIA agent in Pakistan. He is beaten to death in the street as phone-wielding spectators upload every moment to YouTube. Fearing a political backlash, CIA director Senator Andrew Lockhart (Tracy Letts), recalls Mathison. But he underestimates the lengths to which she will go to serve her country (and avoid her progeny).

The idea of Homeland without Brody seemed, at first, as odd as Game of Thrones without Ned Stark. Many would argue it should have gone out on a high instead of potentially getting stale.

But the latest season suggests that the show's creators, Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, have not yet run out of ideas. It's enough to keep Obama's mind off those pesky Republicans for now.

  • Catch season 4 of 'Homeland' on M-Net (DStv 101) on Wednesdays at 10.30pm
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