Homeland (Showtime 2011, Claire Danes, Mandy Patinkin)

Homeland is a psychological thriller starring Claire Danes (Carrie) as a CIA officer who believes that a returning war hero (Damian Lewis) has turned and is now plotting the next al-Qaeda attack on American soil. The one-hour drama also stars Mandy Patinkin as a veteran CIA Division Chief who is Carrie’s boss and mentor.

By the time of the second season Carrie is no longer with the Agency. The disgraced ex-officer is on the slow path to recovery, after her manic flight in season one nearly crashed Brody’s political career. It’s this fragile new existence that Carrie’s former colleagues Saul Berenson and David Estes (David Harewood) threaten to shatter, when they come to her door asking for help. Meanwhile, Brody is several months into his inaugural term as a freshman Congressman, and finds himself buffeted daily by competing agendas. With every lie he tells, the walls around him close in a little tighter, threatening to bring him down, along with his family and everything they’ve achieved since his return.

Season three opeeds during the aftermath of the horrific terror attack that decimated the U.S. intelligence apparatus, and prompted a global manhunt for the world’s most wanted terrorist – Nick Brody (Damian Lewis). As Carrie and Saul begin to pick up the pieces of their shattered professional and personal lives, they are swept up in the political and media firestorm surrounding the terror attack and the subsequent search for Brody’s whereabouts.

Season Four finds Carrie Mathison assigned to a new post, Chief of Station at the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. On the front lines of the war on terror, she is tasked with protecting US interests in the region from forces within the Taliban. Her mission pulls her into the complex dichotomy between international diplomacy and clandestine operations.

Season Five picks up two years after Carrie Mathison’s ill-fated tenure as Islamabad station chief. Struggling to reconcile her guilt and disillusionment with years of working on the front lines in the ‘war on terror, Carrie finds herself in self-imposed exile in Berlin, estranged from the CIA and working as the head of security for a German philanthropist.

Back on U.S. soil, Season Six focuses on the aftermath of a U.S. presidential election and the transition between election day and the inauguration for a president-elect, played by acclaimed stage and screen actress Elizabeth Marvel.

After she thwarted a terrorist attack in Berlin, season six picks up several months later and finds Carrie Mathison living in Brooklyn, New York. She has begun working at a foundation whose efforts are to provide aid to Muslims living in the U.S. Season six will tackle the after effects of the U.S. presidential election, with the entire season taking place between election day and the inauguration. It’s a strange, transitional time in the halls of government filled with anxiety and different competing interests, where a very fragile and complex transfer of power takes place between the outgoing president and the incoming president-elect.

At the end of last season, following an assassination attempt on her life, President Keane (Marvel) broke her promise to Carrie by arresting 200 members of the intelligence community without bringing charges against them, including Saul Berenson (Patinkin). As season seven begins, Carrie has left her job in the White House and moved back to D.C. and is living with her sister Maggie (Amy Hargreaves) to take on the Keane administration and secure the release of the 200.

production details
USA | Showtime | x55 minutes | Broadcast from 2 October 2011

Creators: Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon

cast
Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison
Mandy Patinkin as Saul Berenson
Elizabeth Marvel as Elizabeth Keane
Maury Sterling as Max
Jake Weber as Brett O’Keefe
Morgan Spector as Dante Allen
Nazanin Boniadi as Fara Sherazi
Damian Lewis as Brody
Sam Underwood as Leo Carras
Michael O’Keefe as John Redmond
Atheer Adel as Numan
Nina Hoss as Astrid
Melissa Benoist as Stacy Moore
Suraj Sharma as Aayan Ibrahim
Tracy Letts as Senator Andrew Lockhart
Rupert Friend as Peter Quinn
Miranda Otto as Allison Carr
John Getz as Joe Crocker
Sebastian Koch as Otto Düring
Linus Roache as David Wellington
Numan Acar as Haissam Haqqani
David Marciano as Virgil
Larry Pine as Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody