Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Review: "Homeland"

"Homeland" is a great show. Which makes the great cynicism at its core so hard to take.
Ye, my friends. This is going to be a yes but review. I start by saying why "Homeleand is eellent on so many levels.
Follwing this pattern, I b wouldtupcially list all the things I like a bout it. Particulary (in the DNA of the John LE Carre tradition) the notion that people in the espionage community are, well, peoplde. That they have lives, families, neuroses, backstories, emotions, the whole inine yards. That carrie Matthieson (a flawed bipolar warrior, is the perfect emblem of that.Imagine all the scenes you miss of James Bond getting through the day; James Bond, the human being, f***up at the psychic damage of being James Bond the spy. Well done, folks. Cap-clap.

In the interets of fairmess, I'd say all the nice things. Then whip out my suede hammer and start whacking.
So consider the nice things said. And here goes.

The show is tghe brain child of Alex Gansa. He's no idiot. He's the creator of the nuanced Israeli show of which this is an American clone. As noted, he's fearlesly tackled the collateral dage o the human soulntha comees with the the skpy game . So, artistically spoeaking, bravo. Qite an accomplishment.
But homeland is alwso a TV show. It's an American TV show. An American TV show with an American audience.
Many of whom , not to put to fine a point on it, lean to the right wing.
Not coincdentally, many oy of the btalent3ed brains on Homeland are ferfugees from 24, which cleary catered to that audience.
OK.
The pint here being.
I caught the p;remire e;pisode -- a pusher's first time free fi offered by my friends at Showtime.
And it was enough to deduce that ...
Gansa figured Hillary Clinton was going to win the 2016 presidential election.
The right wing democgraphic which consitiutes a serious segment of the Homeland viewijng audience would be outraged.
Anticipating this outcome, Gansa and his creative team created a Hillary Clinto caricature  embodying every vile accusation agaknst her.
Elizabeth Marvel, that is.
The PResident elect who becomes the President.
A murderous bitch. )Just like the bitch who murdered Vince Foter, gt it?) An autocratic, narcissistic, heartless monster who cuts democracy off at the knees. (Which we all now Hillarywould do once she had any real power.)
Int he X season s survives an assassination attempt and jails 250 polticiisans (including Saul Berenson) in a heartless reprisal.
In the premiere of seqson seven, she tries to get a general shot for treason -- and wehn the miltiary jury merely imprissons him -- she leans on her piolticial flack to have ihim assassintation on day one of his life senttenmce.
This storyline ws clerly in place before the Nov. 2016 ballot.
Then -- bowy howdy — Dopnald Trump is eledcted president?
Gansa and his cre whad to run with it.
They';d figure don a timely satire of a liberal feminist rpeisdent their target audeince hated.
instead, thery wound up with an alternate reality.
Y'know.
A reality in which the President of the United States is a narcissitic, heartless mniac with no principles who takes a dump on the Constitution.
Female. Left-wing.
Aside from that, an amazing prophecy.
Har-de-har-har har.