M-V-P! M-V-P!

With the Golden Globes last night, now is as good of a time as any to expand on my MVP nominations from the Year's End post.  Here's some additional information on the four most valuable characters from 2013:

MVP
The character who kills every scene and single handedly brings up the overall quality of the show.  The nominees are...

Raylan Givens
Justified
You run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole.  You run into assholes all day, you're the asshole"

“You run into an asshole in the morning: you ran into an asshole. You run into assholes all day: you’re the asshole.” – Raylan Givens. - See more at: http://brandnewcool.com/2013/01/08/hole-in-the-wall-favorite-moments-and-more-from-justified/#sthash.MSIoGZBj.dpuf

Always good for a quote about assholes.  For how he dealt with his father dying and his baby being on the way.  He showed ambition for the first time as well as considerable depth and incredible acting (think scene in front of the elevators).  Raylan doesn't fall into the anti-hero lead category that is on the verge of being cliche if more poorly formed versions pop up. He is a more traditional 'hero' albeit with deep flaws, yet still intensely likeable.  And tied together the best plot of 2013. 

Ygritte
Game of Thrones 
"You know nothing, Jon Snow"  
The refrain of the year.  She's hilarious and badass and incredibly astute.  Ygritte elevates the entire North of the Wall storyline in a way Tyrion did in Kings' Landing in Season Two.  Picking an MVP from the cast of Game of Thrones could prove an exercise in futility, but Ygritte made it surprisingly easy.


Saul Berenzen
Homeland
"When it's over it's over. Pull down the shades and go home."
The above quote could well be advice to Homeland as a series.  "The Maestro" had the opportunity and resources to implement his grand vision for moving forward United States foreign relations with a certain country, and it just so happened to settle an old score of his.  Audacious in his vision, yet till hardened enough to do what it took to accomplish the end game.  If Saul's not back next season, we can take comfort in the fact that he did get to play his opus on the grandest stage.

And the winner....

Jesse Pinkman
Breaking Bad 
"Can you just, uh, stop working me for, like, ten seconds straight? Stop jerking me around?

For being the soul and conscience of a show that turned the protagonist into Scarface and gave us a rooting interest we could all agree upon.  Put through the wringer and beat up worse than Ben was in Lost, we can all hope and pretend that he just sped out those gates* and kept driving all the way to Alaska. Even though Vince Gilligan in a GQ interview reminded us his fingerprints are all over that lab run by Jack and company.  

* As much closure as the finale brought, there's still unanswered questions (what happens to Jesse when two miles down the road, etc)  .  You can only do so much.  It's like the big bang theory... each answer begets a new question. It was unfair to knock Lost for the same things because each time they solved a mystery, the answer would inherently raise a new question. 

Year's End

I don't watch every show, but I watch a lot of shows.  Certainly more than your average Emmy or Golden Globe voter.  Here are my 2013 made up winners for my made up categories.

Biggest laugh
"I have decided to do a puzzle." - Winston
"All In"
New Girl
It took me longer to recover from this line than anything else on television.  I probably laughed for 5-10 minutes.  Out of context, it doesn't make much sense.  In context, I'm not sure it makes any more sense.

Favorite single episode
"Decoy"
Justified
The best western made since the Magnificent Seven.  Paired with "Get Drew" you have 90 minutes of a movie. 

Biggest and best single episode
"The Rains of Castamere"
Game of Thrones
So much is already said about this episode.  The only other contenders are probably a few episodes from Breaking Bad

Most important episode
"World War Zimmerman"
South Park
If you have 22 minutes and only 22 minutes to watch television from 2013, watch this episode.  And if you can only watch one scene, watch Mr. Garrison mediate between Token and Cartman.

Best insult
Both of these come from Veep, whose insult-laden, incompetent, self-interested Washington is a much more accurate representation than what we see on The West Wing

Furlong: What is it you move slower than?
Will: I move as slowly as a Mississippi detective investigating the murder of a young black man.
Veep "D.C"

Honorable mention:
"What are you laughing at, jolly green jizzface?" - Selena, Veep "The Vic Allen Dinner"

Best overall season (tie)
Justified
Season Four
This one's here as my favorite season.  Rather than introduce a new villain or big bad to take us from 1 to 13, we explore new avenues of marshalling with Raylan where he tries to solve a mystery, operating largely in the already established universe of Harlan, KY.  Other strengths include a side plot featured in the premiere then revisited mid-season, and Boyd's, largely separate until it wasn't anymore, storyline.

Breaking Bad
Season Five-B
This one's here as the, objectively, best season in television in 2013.  Barney Stinson says a good mix should be "all rise" (rather than rise and fall) and that's what this season did.  Gilligan put his foot on the gas, immediately bringing Walt and Hank to a head and then keeping it there through Walt literally slamming his foot on the gas and confessing in "To'hajiilee" until he regroups in "Granite State" and redeems himself to the extent possible in "Felina"

Worst overall season
Community
Season Four
Often when a show undergoes big creative changes, complaints can still be tempered with "it's not what it was but it's still better than most other shows."  That was not the case here, as Community, at best, attempted an impersonation of the real Community.  The darkest timeline was the one where we had to watch these episodes.

I'm cautiously optimistic though about the return of Harmon-helmed shows in January.

Best death
Catelyn Stark
Game of Thrones

Tara Knowles  
Sons of Anarchy
(runner up)

Best new character to an existing show
Bob Benson
Mad Men
Did anyone provoke as much thought and discussion as this guy?

Honorable Mention:
Oleanna Redwyne, the Queen of Thorns
Game of Thrones

Best new show
I'd say House of Cards narrowly edges Ray Donovan, but living in DC, I'm biased.

Worst returning character
Carrie - Homeland
Started so well.  Then fell so far jeopardizing missions and assaulting expired ponies

Worst returning ensemble
Modern Family 
The Dunphy branch is largely excluded, but the Pritchard branches are nearly unwatchable.  "She's hot!  He's gay!  HAHAHA!"  Despite being a single camera quasi-mockumentary, this show most resembles one written with a laugh track in mind.

Best prop
Ben's Jumbo Mug
Veep

Best short term storyline
Carrie in the nuthous
Homeland

Worst short term storyline
Rehabbing Brody
Homeland
But it was necessary to do so to achieve the end result

Best season long storyline
A bag of money in a wall
Justified

Worst season long storyline
Phillip and Elizabeth's marital up and down
The Americans

Best character scene
Small council
"The Walk of Punishment"
Game of Thrones 

Honorable mention:
Constable Bob and Yolo
Justified

Best reality moment
Hayden throws down at Tribal Council on Survivor
They draw rocks for only the second time in nearly thirty seasons

Most surprising revelation (tie)
Carrie and Saul's nuthouse plan 
Homeland

Irene Adler is Moriarty
Elementary

Least surprising revelation
Ray was molested too
Ray Donovan

Redeemable moment in an unpleasant character
Pete giving Harry what for following the MLK assassination
"The Flood"
Mad Men

MVP
The character who kills every scene and single handedly brings up the overall quality of the show.  The nominees are...

Raylan Givens
Justified
You run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole.  You run into assholes all day, you're the asshole"

“You run into an asshole in the morning: you ran into an asshole. You run into assholes all day: you’re the asshole.” – Raylan Givens. - See more at: http://brandnewcool.com/2013/01/08/hole-in-the-wall-favorite-moments-and-more-from-justified/#sthash.MSIoGZBj.dpuf

Always good for a quote about assholes.  For how he dealt with his father dying and his baby being on the way.  He showed ambition for the first time as well as considerable depth and incredible acting (think scene in front of the elevators).  Raylan doesn't fall into the anti-hero lead category that is on the verge of being cliche if more poorly formed versions pop up. He is a more traditional 'hero' albeit with deep flaws, yet still intensely likeable.  And tied together the best plot of 2013. 

Ygritte
Game of Thrones 
"You know nothing, Jon Snow"  
The refrain of the year.  She's hilarious and badass and incredibly astute.  Ygritte elevates the entire North of the Wall storyline in a way Tyrion did in Kings' Landing in Season Two.  Picking an MVP from the cast of Game of Thrones could prove an exercise in futility, but Ygritte made it surprisingly easy.


Saul Berenzen
Homeland
"When it's over it's over. Pull down the shades and go home."
The above quote could well be advice to Homeland as a series.  "The Maestro" had the opportunity and resources to implement his grand vision for moving forward United States foreign relations with a certain country, and it just so happened to settle an old score of his.  Audacious in his vision, yet till hardened enough to do what it took to accomplish the end game.  If Saul's not back next season, we can take comfort in the fact that he did get to play his opus on the grandest stage.

And the winner....

Jesse Pinkman
Breaking Bad 
"Can you just, uh, stop working me for, like, ten seconds straight? Stop jerking me around?

For being the soul and conscience of a show that turned the protagonist into Scarface and gave us a rooting interest we could all agree upon.  Put through the wringer and beat up worse than Ben was in Lost, we can all hope and pretend that he just sped out those gates and kept driving all the way to Alaska.

And so, we close with HBO's annual year-end trailer.  No one does it better than them.

The Star - HL - Part 3

Homeland episode 3-12 "The Star" - Season Three Finale - Part Three
Aired Sunday December 15, 2013

This is Part 3 of 3, picking up loose strands that didn't fit into there others.  Part 1 discusses the Season Finale and the road there.  Part 2 looks at the season as a whole and what can happen with Season Four. 

• This season sure had its share of moments of characters reflecting upon their reflection in the mirror.  Brody does it once more at the safe house
• A surprisingly easy escape to the safe house, no? All so Carrie can tell Brody about the baby.  
• A show I once loved for plotting has moved away from that by leaps and bounds in order to get the characters they want together so they can have the conversations they want them to have and make the decisions they want them to make.
• Saul ending his tenure and heading to Ramstein brings to mind President Carter heading from the Reagan inauguration to Ramstein to meet the hostages.  They were released a few minutes after noon on January 21, 1980 just to spite Carter
• If he had Robert Redford plan the extraction on his last day it may have gone better for Brody
• No opening or on-screen credits, unless my DVR missed them.  We jumped right into the tension that Homeland does well even when it's at its worst.  
• The lack of Showtime promos or other sound cutting into the credits makes a huge difference.  When you watch shows like these on DVD you can sit and contemplate a few minutes at the end, like the Sopranos did.  AMC and Showtime tend to jump right in and Harrison Bergeron your mind just when it's coming to grips with some heavy stuff.  It's part of the reason Matthew Weiner makes his promos so incongruous...he's required to make them but hates them so much, preferring instead to simply play the music they picked out so carefully and shelled out money for.  It's ketchup on a nice steak when some Masters of Sex promo blares out immediately following an assassination on Homeland.
• In the same vein as the tension that we feel when Brody is trying to cross the border or escape post-assassination, a strength of the show is holding back a clear explanation of the character's feelings, motives and plans.  But when Saul laid out his plan to us for reasons unknown, it detracted a great deal from the remaining episodes.  Ultimately everything went as planned with little detour.  Next season, tell us "spoiler alert!"
• With that said, it speaks to the quality of the acting and direction when Brody's border crossing or his escape is as exciting as it is
• As annoying as Carrie and Brody have been, there's still an investment watching them
• That said, after all this time, I still do not really understand the connection between them
• Even in the safe house, Carrie is working Brody like she would any other asset, convincing him he did the right thing because of the atrocities committed by his victim

The Star - HL - Part 2

Homeland episode 3-12 "The Star" - Season Three Finale - Part Two

Aired Sunday December 15, 2013

This is part 2 of the raw data for this post.  Read part 1 from yesterday and Part 3 on Thursday.

So there it is.  A frustrating character's story ends, which also ends the most frustrating relationship on the show.  If the show made a major mistake it was revealing its hand too early and forgoing the suspense that comes with them knowing more than us.  Look at how well it worked in Season One and in the first four episodes of Season Three.  

Brody's death is the only outcome from the season I could have accepted and still taken the show as high quality drama.   With the Brody family relegated from the main cast and a change of scenery for Carrie, the show can get a major reboot next season.  Ideally, the show will be populated by new, strong characters in Istanbul rather than simply giving new titles to existing characters, like Alias did every year.  Carrie being in a leadership role presents new opportunities as well, especially if she employs Saul as a contractor which would bring a whole new dynamic to their relationship.
Not only does Brody's death end his story*, but it will hopefully free Carrie from what causes her most obnoxious behavior.  That can only fully happen if Carrie gives Brody's Terror Baby ** up for adoption.  If TB is with her dad or another relative, then there's the chance she'll still be in contact.  Otherwise, TB is a daily reminder of Terror Dad and I don't think we can take Carrie raising Brody's offspring. I've mostly pretended this story didn't exist because pregnancy is one of those things a show will do if they don't have any other ideas.

* I look at it more as putting an end to this nonsense.

** There appears to be some debate about whether TB really is a TB, or belongs to that Cycle Bro.  I believe TB is TB.  It's the whole reason Carrie kept it, because she's still hung up on Brody and wanted a piece of him.  In the safe house, she's hesitant to tell him about it, and I don't think she's using it as a ploy to keep his spirits up.  Rather, the spy in her justifies the assassination by listing the atrocities their target committees.  Only later does she shift into Carrie's personal life mode and tell him about the baby.

Homeland still has all the elements that compose high quality drama.  The acting and direction is still it's strongest point.  The season had a story and focus with a beginning, middle and end.  It has individual episodes that stick out both for the good ("Good Night") and for worse ("One Last Time").  It contrasts with Boardwalk Empire, which ran concurrently each week a few channels over.  Boardwalk is always good but rarely great, while Homeland has a lower floor, but arguably a higher ceiling.

With cases like Javadi and Lockhart, Homeland brings the characters along, allowing your opinion of them to change over the course of the season.  I always knew barring something terrible that I'd return to watching Homeland in 2014, but it was a question of if I'd do so grudgingly or eagerly.  With Istanbul on the horizon and no Brody, I'd say cautiously eager.  Depends how much Quinn is around.

 

The Star - HL - Part 1

Homeland episode 3-12 "The Star" - Season Three Finale
Aired Sunday December 15, 2013

Written by Gansa and Meredith Stiehm who also penned last season's finale

This is part 1 of 3.  Part 2 will discuss the season as a whole and what's down the pike.  Part 3 will pick up the loose strands.  

Brody's swan song bluntly states the case for redemption.  In a Walter White-esque farewell, Brody redeems himself to the maximum extent possible * (however much that is), dying as a tool of the country he once served and betrayed (and murdered the vice president of).

* Cases like these almost always rely on the now despised character dying in a heroic act.  Because of how far they've done gone, it's the only path back.

I say "as a tool of" rather than "in service of" because Brody's motivations never appeared to be of a rediscovered patriotism or desire serve his country, but as an opportunity to for him to repair his own image in the eyes of a small group of people, and to himself.

With all the pieces laid out, I'd say there were two main stories this year.  One was to accomplish a mission of opening Iran via a highly placed asset.  The other was to tell the end of Brody's story via his participation in that mission, allowing him an iota of redemption should he successfully complete it.


The Operation
While everyone at Langley thinks all is lost with Brody's assassination mission, Brody is nonchalantly murdering the head of the Revolutionary Guard*.  He's apparently entered the cheat code for unlimited time to complete the mission and soon after walks out and escapes one step ahead of the law.  Immediately, his escape and the accomplishment of the overall mission are in conflict with each other to the extent where they are nearly mutually exclusive.  Javadi  needs Brody to solidify his position with the Iranian government, the penultimate step in this cavalcade of whatever.  All while the clock ticks (and what would this show be without a ticking clock) on Saul's CIA administration.

In what has to stem more from his support of Carrie than his rational thought about the mission, Saul commences with Brody's extraction until Dar and CIA-Gene Kranz run it up the flag pole and get Lockhart installed as director a few hours ahead of time.  They scrap the mission and give Javadi what he needs to look like a hero in Iran.

The original inner line segment of this mission seem intent on jeopardizing it (until a literal or figurative bullet is put through them) while Lockhart, the critic, does what's necessary in the end.  While Carrie and Saul didn't give a second thought to covering up Javadi's murder-icious encounter with his ex-wife, they doesn't want to help him do exactly what he's there to do. 

So, they aren't at the CIA safe house even long enough to check the chore chart and see who was supposed to stock the fridge and clean up before Javadi's there taking Brody into custody.

Unfortunately for Brody, someone ripped out everything in their copy of the Sixth Amendment after the part about a speedy and public trial....which he technically gets.  Definitely the speedy part.  No waiting for Monday morning arraignments for your drunken Friday night fight here.  The rest of it, about a jury and laws, not so much.  He's executed in gruesome fashion.  I guess he technically is hanging there, by a noose, but it's all just a really roundabout way of strangling him.  There's no Seth Bullock to help him with the drop. Brutal. 


Saul
Saul is on his way out the door and does the token packing up of his desk, but not without placing Javadi where he can accomplish what Saul intended all along, opening Iran.  I imagine he gets a pension bump for his time as acting director, so it's off to consulting land where you get paid a lot more for doing less.  Saul's earned it after all.  I don't believe Dar's correct when he states that Saul misses it.  I imagine after living that life for decades it is impossible to banish it from your mind, but enough's enough.  Saul goes so far as to echo last year's MVPeter Quinn* wondering what in the ever loving fuck are they even doing?

* And what happened with that storyline?  Is he quitting or not?

He's either living or spending time in what I will say is Cuba because Saul is wearing the official "Americans in Cuba in a movie" hat.  Having eaten shit and been forced to play the political game not as a result of his normal career advancement but as a result of the worst act of terrorism since forever* I imagine he's had his fill.  Saul acted like a director who was mid-level CIA management with unlimited resources while rebuilding from the inside.  It wasn't a stop on his political tour or a resume line as he pondered national office.  It was the culmination of a lifer who got to put into practice his wildest dreams because there was finally no one there to hassle him.


* Because when counting acts of terrorism against the United States it's always "acts of terror since (but not including) 9/11

Saul Berensen Vaccuum Repair Co. or whatever he is calling his intelligence consulting bit is primed to contract for Carrie in Turkey or Lockhart at Langley, lending his Old School expertise. Maybe he can hire Max and Virgil.


Carrie
The lady who didn't connect being pregnant with having a kid is the youngest station chief in CIA history.  Luckily, she is not teaching biology or health or common sense.  She's off to Turkey where among other things she'll keep an eye on Javadi.  Which is kind of hilarious considering the nature of their first encounter.

Carrie wants the titular star for Brody, which makes no sense because Brody was an agent/asset.  Lockhart states, correctly, Brody was not an employee which is one of the biggest criteria for getting a star.  I imagine there are lots of assets who don't make it out alive.  They're recruited, often via blackmail, for unsavory reasons.  Look at Javadi.  If he bites it, does he get a star?  Obviously not.

Lockhart is the voice of reason here.  Maybe that's how we're supposed to view it, discounting the justness of giving Brody a star and focus on Carrie's perspective of the question.  In her mind, memorializing is justified, Brody is to mourned, and she's sad her guy is gone.  And as corny as it was to Sharpie in a star, the stillness of it with the end credits was moving.  So for this moment I'll without my typical Carrie judging and look at it from her point of view*.  

Lockhart
The guy on the side of progress and technology can be the good guy or the bad guy, depending on how they change throughout the story and what "old ways" they are up against.  If they go against ignorance, group think and tradition for the sake of tradition (Moneyball) they're the good guys.  If they are cold and want to blow up the game without first learning where things stand (Up in the Air) it's a bad thing. Lockhart wanted to largely do away with the old ways of HUMINT, replacing much of their work with drones and putting him at odds with Saul's assessment of what was needed.  He opposed or would have opposed nearly every aspect of Saul's plan.  Rather than flesh him out at the start and have him present a credible alternative though, he was simply an opposing force to Saul who sandbagged him on the hunting trip about who was going to be director.

For a guy who started out as a cartoonish mean girl of a source of conflict, he deserves credit.  He became a grudging but willing supporter of the Iran mission and allowed whatever needed to happen to happen.  One could argue he was selfishly motivated and came around only because he was powerless to stop it and would inherit it regardless, thereby attaching his reputation to the mission's fate.  But at least he is a competent and rational actor who can recognize what's needed and adapt. 

Read part 2 manana and part 3 on Jueves.

Big Man in Tehran - HE

Homeland episode 3-11 "Big Man in Tehran"
Aired Sunday December 8, 2013

Written by Gansa and Gordon

Directed by Daniel Minahan.  Of Game of Thrones "A Golden Crown" which is when I realized it was a different kind of show

Brody, a man we know to be of dubious loyalty, is hailed as a hero and determined by governmental high ups to be a piece in their grand plans.  Unbeknown to said government officials, Brody has been put through the rigmarole by the other side and given a secret mission to complete once he is close enough to the government officials trying to exploit him for their personal and national interests.  The mission culminates when Brody, alone with the target, watches the light go out of his eyes.

Essentially, the second go-round of Brody as CIA agent is the exact process and mission that terrorist and frequent Skyper Abu Nazir put him through.  Second verse, same as the first.

You could even argue this plot has been done 2 1/2 to three times counting the events of "Q&A" through the capture of Nazir.

We continue playing out Saul's master plan, laid out several episodes ago.  While there are several hiccups along the way, the result is ultimately the original stated goal.  Still holding off judgement until we see the end result next week, but why would the show take such care to set us up for 3 and 99/100s episodes, with the big reveal at the end of episode four, while at the end of the season lay out the plan ahead of time and simply watch it play out.

In contrast, think about The Wire Season Four.  They don't tell us that Namond is going to wind up fostering with Bunny.  In fact, Colvin doesn't appear until episode three, when he's working as hotel security.  His first change in jobs doesn't put him in contact with Namon either.  He goes from the hotel to the UMD study.  Initially study focuses on 18 year olds, but changes to 14 year olds which is Namon's age (and telling us a story about juveniles in the meantime).  It's a lot more reward to have it slowly connect and revealed to us like a puzzle than to have the ingredient and result told to us in advance, like reading a recipe before baking a cake.

The first four episodes were expertly done.  Like one of those pictures where you see an old or young lady depending on if your eye goes to the white or dark space, the first four can be viewed differently depending on if it's the first or second viewing.  Maybe this is one of those times where television is particularly unsuited to episode by episode write ups.  I hope so.

• Bite it hard, Carrie!
• Carrie tries to wreck another mission.  Keep at it, you idiot.  
• We have Mira's paramour in play still.  Did not check back in with him after Saul touched base.  Doop be do.

Good Night - HL

Homeland episode 3-10 "Good Night"

Written by Alexander Cary
According to IMDB and Wikipedia, this guy is Scottish nobility and carries the name Plantaganet (holy crap!). He was also a member of the Scots Guard (not Scotchgard, that is something else).  One of the most interesting writer bios I can remember.

Directed by Keith Gordon
Directed A Midnight Clear, which is a great WWII movie that is uber sad but still a great Christmas watch.  I will gladly lend you the DVD.


If last week's purpose was to build a bridge, this episode was also building a bridge, but from the other side of the river.

The entire episode is dedicated to inserting Brody into Iran under the guise of him seeking political asylum.  At first, all is well as Brody bonds with his special forces sherpas, but then it all goes pear shaped.

While last week left a bad taste in my mouth, the high point was certainly the introduction of the special forces guys who are tasked with drying Brody out and then being his running buddies through the forest.  Between their weird camaraderie* with Brody, their humor, stoicism under fire, as well as their general courage, competence and way of doing things, they a team I'd like to see deployed on several other shows.  Despite the short time they've had onscreen the last two episodes, you really root for them to get out of this mission alive.

*At least it's written believably, and not in that fake way where it's obviously written with the intent of creating rapport, via lame jokes, name calling, laughing too hard and punching each other on the arm

Bite it hard, Carrie!

Carrie's shrillness and grossness continue on in this episode.  For someone who sure complained a lot to Saul about how she was treated while they executed the plan they agreed upon, she doesn't have much concern for the other military personnel involved.  Sure, the point of the op is to get Brody across from the safe lands of Iraq* into hostile Iran, so reporting on Brody's status is essentially the same as reporting on the mission's success/failure...but when she reports the outcome to Saul, she does not mention the fact that one of the Americans is taken prisoner.  Obviously Saul is going to find this out so I don't see any strategy in Carrie withholding this information...the only explanation is that she is still so hung up on Brody she has tunnel vision when it comes to him.

* When Iraq is the friendliest of the two territories, you are in some stuff

 The equine cruelty I find in this show's treatment of Brody-Carrie far exceeds any complaints people had about Luck.

With two episodes remaining it feels more like less is giong to happen this season than I originally thought.  Two episodes dedicated to bridgebuilding can sure fill up some time.  Saul outlined the plan with Brody and we've spent close to the last two hours seeing that plan in effect.  There are conflicts and starts and stops along the road there, but essentially things are exactly as Saul laid them out.  There are no turns or detours.  Being that Saul told us everything that's going to happen, seeing all they play out near exact as he planned is not the most exciting thing in the world.

For example if you tell us you're going to have your army attack Casterly Rock, you can instead subvert expectations by killing everyone.   

One possibility of what's to come next is a half cocked redemption of Brody who went from too scared to complete the mission to completing the mission despite orders to abort.  After extended bonding, he helped saved one of our special forces friends make it out injured, but alive.  He digs deep and finds his way across the border to complete the mission* all while working in concert with his military brethren.  After his buddy gets his head blowed off by Javadi, I wonder how close he'll stay to the original mission parameters.  Brody could do an entirely different kind of damage to the United States by unseating or killing Javadi. 
 
* Note that Carrie is all about the mission in this episode when Brody and the mission are intertwined , but nearly blew the whole operation on the off chance she could clear (the completely irrelevant) Brody as the CIA bomber question.

Maybe it's a Walter White-esque level of redemption * before he eats it, or maybe Gansa and Gordon are simply drawing out Brody's life so Showtime has a flagship. 

* Redemption to the extent possible, relative to how deep of a hole he's dug himself

One Last Time - HL

Homeland episode 3-09 "One Last Time"

Written by Barbara Hall

Directed by Jeremy Reiner

I suppose there are two options after having Saul retrieve Brody (and I'm not sure if Saul knew where he was the entire time, if those are "his" people in Caracas, or if he found out some other way).  Option 1 is gloss over Brody's rehab via time jump in order to get on with the next steps of the story.  Option 2, which they took, is to dedicate an episode to Brody's rehab in the vein of Rocky.  Perhaps it was the execution, but this episode fell the flattest of perhaps the entire series.  It made me a temporary Homeland nihilist, thinking there is no purpose to anything that happens on the show.

For example, the story about Saul's home being bugged is going to be infuriating if that's all there is to it.  The show put an end date to Saul's tenure as acting director.  I understand inserting a ticking clock can be necessary and is often used to create drama.  These are the people who brought you -24- after all, which literally had a ticking clock at every commercial break.  But to seemingly arbitrarily move that deadline makes us question why it was there in the first place?  To create meaningless conflict between Saul and Lockhart?

Saul knows all apparently, and as I mentioned, it's not clear to me how he knew about Brody.  Perhaps Saul is being set up to have an enormous Carrie-CIA bomber level failure at the end of the season?  Will the show be re-booted again for Season Three, and will that re-boot stick?  Or will it be more like the re-boots on Alias where they kept changing the name of the organization but essentially kept all the other parts the same?

Carrie, infuriatingly, is still stuck on Brody and proving Brody's innocence.  I thought the show had moved past the Carrie-Brody dynamic and onto other things like a new villain and the re-building of the CIA, along with Saul becoming a part of This Town,  and Mira and Quinn's respective doubting of their own actions.  And maybe Carrie finally quits yo-yoing between insanity and whatever one level removed from insanity is, becoming competent for a longer stretch of time (like Tommy Gavin or Andy Sipowicz and their alcoholism).

But no, let's get a few more whacks at Seabiscuit's corpse.

Bullet time:

• Max and Virgil's PKE Meter made me chuckle.  But pretty much everything they do makes me chuckle.  And I shouldn't knock it consider an anonymizer turned out to be a real thing
• No coincidence this weak episode featured little of Peter Quinn, MVP
• Whoa, how about Brody ripping the chair apart to stab his arm?  Not the cry for help like Dana, that guy was going for it.
• This show works let a network show a lot of the time.  One is the on-screen credits during the opening minutes.  It always gives something away with guest stars.  When they flash that Chris Chalk (Tom Walker) is returning, it takes away from Brody's hallucinations.  Run them at the end.
• Oh!  Now that I look at his IMDB page, I am realizing that he is both Gary Cooper on Newsroom and played the fugitive Jody Adair for two episodes on the recent season of Justified.  Awesome!
• Justified, Justified, Justified.

A Red Wheelbarrow - HL

Homeland episode 3-08 "A Red Wheelbarrow"

Written by Alex Gansa (big dog on the show) and James Yoshimura (of Homicide)

Directed by Seith Mann who directed a few episodes of Elementary which is one of my favorite shows on right now and one of the few CBS  shows I've latched onto since the early days of How I Met Your Mother

• Saul is enjoying life with his terrible wife
• When his terrible wife ends things with her manstress, she comments that it's sudden, much like Jess says Dana's leaving is sudden
• I wonder why we're spending time of this.  Perhaps to see Saul happy only to have it taken away...
• But then this jabroni installs a listening device, a fake mouse, in Saul's home.  So his relationship was to get into Saul's house?  Or he was recruited to do so once someone found this guy who had a relationship with Saul's wife?  Also, why is he sneaking in now to do it?  He's been there before.  Why start a relationship to get a bug close by if it turns out they were installing it the same way anyone could, without having such a relationship. 
• This makes no sense because Saul doesn't do any spy stuff from his home, nor is it likely they think they can get some blackmail material on Saul via this device. 
• I guess the alternative is that he's crazy jealous spurned ex-manstress who wants to spy on his girlfriend and her husband from a personal motivation
• The senator apparently un-Lockhart'ed the conference room door.  I wonder if Saul's secretary had to call a Lockhart-smith
• No one can accuse Saul of thinking small
• Did Javadi try and succeed to create dischord between Carrie and Saul?  Did he pick up on the one nerve (Brody) that could set Carrie off, not trusting Saul & Co.?
• Dar and Bennet meet at the Occidental, or at least there's a shot of the outside of the restaurant
• Carrie acts fake pissed with Bennett's associate
• So Carrie's 13 week pregnant, or a trimester in, with her terror baby
• Sometimes the exposition kills me.  Fara knows what the IG is.  Also, we know this guy, who Estes used to keep Saul in a room with a lie detector test
• Except here this guy has a totally valid point about Fara jeopardizing things
• The surveillance guy I'm a fan of from "Tin Man is Down" is back.  He mentions lawyer Franklin (apparently not Franklin of Franklin & Bash) is using an anonymity, which sounds like a made up device from CSI or Hawaii Five O, made from the same people who make the computers that "enhance" images (enhance-o-zizer?  bass-o-matic?).  But apparently this is a thing
• The bomber is in USA and he is.....CHRIS BRODY!   Just kidding.  He is actually......SOME GUY!  Here is my though process in real time from those minutes of the show
• It's just some guy
• Is he going to kill him?
• Yes.
• Bigger picture, Carrie, WTF
• Carrie dont fucking do it
• dont fucking do it
• dont do it.
• dont
• fucking
• do
• it
• QUINN THIS IS WHAT MVPS GET PAID FOR!
• winged her!
• M-V-P!  M-V-P!
• If we learned anything from Breaking Bad...this body disposal is not going to go well.  You need a giant tupperware thing from Sam's Club
• Saul had to go away
• He takes a diplomatic car somewhere
• Is he in Caracas?
• Is he in CARACAS?!
• I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS WHY DO YOU DO THIS I JUST WATCHED THREE STRAIGHT EPISODES AND NOW I HAVE TO WAIT DARN YOU ALL TO HECK!
• Ideally Saul flies back with Brody and the doctor and they meet up with Detective Megatron and have a jolly old Homicide mini reunion
• They have the strings screeching up in the sound track and a cut to black/credits.  Should have ended with one of these

Gerontion - HL

Homeland Episode 3-07 "Geronition"

Written by Chip Johannsen

Directed by Carl Franklin

• Gerontion is a T.S. Elliot poem which I would normally read except that I have three of these episodes piled up, plus Boardwalk, plus shows I don't even write about so just check out Wikipedia if you're interested
• Literally returning to the scene of the crime the homicide detectives are going over Farida's body.  Except this is no ordinary homicide detective.  It's Meldrick Lewis of the Baltimore Police Department!
• Previously linked this scene of his.  Here's another one from an early episode that dealt with an assisted suicide being investigated as a Homicide
• James Yoshimura, a producer on this show and Homicide, has to be the link between these Homicide folks showing up on Homeland.  
• That or there are two rooms locate dnext to each other because they are next to each other alphabeticall, and the actors keep going into the wrong one
• This is awesome
• This is really awesome
• IMDB says the character is named Calvin Johnson so we will alternate between calling him Meldrick and calling him Detective Megatron
• Javadi's question about how the murder is covered up seems like sincere curiousity about the how intelligence works in the United States.  Like, if there were an intelligence conference at a convention center and people came from all sorts of intelligence communities there could be a working group or breakout session called "Murder: How is it covered up?" where everyone could compare notes
• Saul and Javadi's interview plays a lot like this season's version of "Q&A"
• Because Carrie's pregnant, she has morning sickness and acted motherly toward the screaming kid.  I mean, no one else put it in the playpen so it wouldn't wander over dead bodies.
• Lockhart is the guy who wants the new technologies to replace old school HUMINT, but he is also stuck in the old way of thinking where "you hit us we hit you, rawr, revenge!" without looking at the bigger picture.
• Compare to Lockhart wanting to change, discussing with Dar Adal
• At first it's kind of the opposite of Moneyball where the character we are supposed to sympathize with is of the new school and needs to get it past these crotchety old men stuck in the past.  But then we look deeper into it and Lockhart really just lacks a vision and a grasp of the entire picture and long game like Saul is trying to play.  So they disagree not only on tactics but on overall strategy and goals.
• Quinn proposes the exact solution that the cops want and that Carrie was going to take to them.  Or maybe she telepathically got him to say that.
• Fara's going to kill Javadi with scissors.  Maybe Carrie told her a war story about chasing down Abu Nazir with a pipe
• Javadi immediately starts probing Carrie when they are in the car together.  He's a spy and he can't or won't turn it off
• Who moved the bomb?
• Have you done anything but make things worse?
• Peter Quinn's been questioning things all season (if this damage is justified for the greater good)  since he shot that kid and about now he's really ready to hang up the sniper rifle
• Line of the season, Saul to Lockhart "No....Make me."

Still Positive - HL

Homeland episode 3-06 "Still Positive"

Written by Alexander Cary, an executive producer on the show

Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, who is just working non-stop lately


When I last watched television two weeks ago, Carrie was quickly carted off to a meeting with the new Abu Nazir...Javadi (Iran CIA #2).  This will be fun, I have three episodes on the DVR here so I get to watch a quarter of the season back to back to back.  However these posts are likely going to be short and bulleted.

• The dark humor of a CIA stakeout "You took a taxi to a CIA safe house?!"
• Heading in the direction of Germantown, MD...if truckstops are what they are looking for then they should take 270 to 70 and get off at Breezewood, PA, the Las Vegas of truck stops 
• Hey CIA team, I can follow Google maps too!
• Actually, after Google maps came out my Intelligence professor said that was basically the technology they'd been using ten years before at the CIA
• Saul's wife is awful and she keeps beating this dead horse even though Saul wants it to lie there.  You don't get to leave your husband, cheat on him and then set the terms of who is mad about it, how mad, and what specific aspects to be mad bout.  The way she keeps bringing it up is to hear him say it's all okay in order to make herself feel better about her behavior
• Carrie is doing pretty well  on this polygraph considering that she flushed all her meds
• Clandestine  means hiding the actual operation, covert means hiding the hand of the United States (or whatever country) in the involvement of the operation
• One of the strengths of Homeland is whatever the opposite of dramatic irony is (have been searching for a term for this but have been unsuccessful.  It is some combination of suspense and unreliable narration.)  We're unclear as the viewer whether what is happening is according to plan and how much the characters know.  For example, at the time of the polygraph we're not sure if Carrie is ad libbing or if the plan was for her to blackmail him into coming in
• Turns out the answer is "sort of"
• Saul tried to get Dr. Sanjay Gupta out of Iran but failed
• These guys driving Carrie to the middle of no where has an Adrianna and Silvio feel to it
• On the "Still Positive" episode title, Carrie is pregnant, but Morena Baccarin is the one who looks pregnant in this episode
• Google says she announced her pregnancy in May and had a boy on October 22.
• I was surprised Jess Brody is still Jess Brody, given that even Skyler White changed her name.  But Dana's going to change her name now in what is hopefully the fine point on her storyline this season
• Close caption says the new name is "Lazaro"
• She pronounces it LAZ-a-ro but the clerk mispronounces it la-ZAR-o.  Now Dana has the joy of constantly dealing with people mispronouncing her name, which is only slightly better than being Nick Brody's daughter
• I can't decide what is the most inappropriate thing this (public employee) clerk did, commenting about her mom/dad, asking if he can pray for her or saying "God Bless"
• Sometimes in Homeland things have to be extreme or nothing.  Like Dana trying to kill herself and later running away with a kid who likely murdered his brother.  But the name change is a good way to show the aftermath caused by Brody on his family without going to eleven
• In a way the whole season is tied to the 12/12 bombing at the end of Season Two, whether it be the aftermath at the CIA, the revenge operation, or how the Brody family is being treated.
• Does Carrie has some California roots because she called it "The 270" instead of "270"
• There's no exit 1 unless you are talking about the spur
• Exits 1A and 1B though are for Bethesda and Rockville
• Maybe Carrie inadvertently flushed her birth control when she flushed the rest of her meds.  Whoops!
• Actually, it's not that cyclist guy.  Her doctor says she's 13 weeks along, but Carrie's not been willing to accept reality.  It's Brody's apparently.  Congrats Nick!
• I originally though she was stockpiling the tests for some future caper, not having the slightest idea of what that could be.  Then I wondered if she was stockpiling urine like fellow crazy Howard Hughes, except instead of mason jars, really tiny amounts absorbed by pregnancy tests.
• That is disgusting 
• Pregnancy storylines are rarely interesting, come out of nowhere and almost always a result of the well running dry. Also, I'm on Season Three of Dexter and I don't really need another one of these.
• Justified has manged to not let Winona's pregnancy become a hinderance because 1) it largely motivated Raylan's actions and career ambitions in Season Four and 2) Time passes so slowly in Harlan, it hardly matters.  Season Four was about two weeks in television land
• Also, so often a character is given a pregnancy simply so the writers have something to take away and manufacture some sympathy
• I want to work at the CIA and not wear a tie
• You can tell this is fiction because of the expected speedy confirmation.  In real life Senator Keith Olbermann employed several illegal immigrants to do his lawn, thus creating a political problem holing everything up
• Javadi shot his daughter in law in the face IN THE FAAACEE!
• Not quite evening them up, Saul nails him with the palm of his hand in the face.  IN THE FAAAACE! 
• Two murders in about two minutes for Javadi.  In cold blood.  I'm surprised there was no dog at the house for him to kick
• Homeland is generally not graphically violent.  The murders I can remember seeing up close have been bloodless (Veep, The Tailor).  While other victims are taken out from a distance or as part of a larger threat that we do not see the gory details of.
• They are all very matter of fact about glossing over the murder.  Get the murder weapon and follow the procedure.
• I wonder who designed the SOP for the CIA on murder ignoring
• "There's a lot of blood."  "It's a bloodbath" - Peter Quinn lacking poetry in describing the scene
• This episode was 48 minutes long with the credits and previouslies.  Most of the episodes have been in the 40-s, which is basically network length.  
• Sons of Anarchy has been running 90 minutes each week with commericials and it is too long