Great drama grounded on uncomfortable political reality

Its interrogation scenes, which are illuminating and taut, confirm 'Homeland' as being firmly of the Obama era, writes SHANE HEGARTY

IF YOU MISSED the opening episode of Homelandon RTÉ2 last night, when it was flung mercilessly against the Late Late Show, then try and catch it before next week. In a culture which is continually insisting that the latest US programme is Your New Favourite Drama, this really is Your New Favourite Drama.

It features Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a CIA agent who believes that Damian Lewis’s marine (Sgt Nicholas Brody) has been turned by al-Queda during his eight years as a POW. It is a thriller, clearly, with the is-he-or-isn’t-he element given several extra levels by how Mathison is bipolar and haunted with paranoia that it is personal, but also related to her role in a post 9/11 agency afraid of being caught out again. But its strength comes through character development, which is painstaking and detailed and repeatedly rewards attentiveness.

Thrills don’t come cheap; every twist is earned. Each detail seems to have importance, with minor scenes or apparently throwaway lines proving vital in later episodes.

Those Irish who have watched it, through whatever, er, measures and, ahem, means made for a small but giddy online community during its run on US network Showtime before Christmas. In many ways, these are the ones who had the purest experience, watching it reveal itself slowly each week while wholly blind to what would happen next, untainted by friends chipping in with the box set-era standard lines "Have you reached episode seven yet? No? Is Richie still alive? Yes? Oh, just wait until you see what happens next. . ." Homeland's most obvious reference point is 24, in part because two of its senior producers are veterans of that show. 24was a seminal series in that – from its second series – it mirrored the American response to the 9/11 attacks. It was kneejerk, muscular, armed to the teeth, and willing to do what was necessary to halt attacks that were always imminent. Across its series, it committed itself to an unapologetic take on torture and interrogation in which the means always justified the end.

Jack Bauer was given licence to shoot people in the knees, threaten their families and, in one memorable scene, bring a guy’s head to work (but leaving the rest of his body elsewhere). And when he was tortured – even killed (briefly) – he reacted TO his beating with a John Wayne-esque wipe of a bloody lip. Then he’d kill them all in some brilliant and brutal fashion.

This was the genius of the concept: a few hours to him was a couple of months to the viewer. Recovery could be quick and lasting. Yet vengeance surged through every minute.

Homelandtakes many of those same themes – interrogation, torture, guilt, religion, paranoia, heroism, political manipulation, and most of all, the surveillance society – and examines them in a way that is reflective of the US a decade after 9/11, at the tail end of two chastening wars. Its torture scenes are not just graphic, Brody's scars are visible, physically and mentally. His are not the only ones. Carrie Mathison and Mandy Patinkin's excellent Saul are agents in a CIA haunted by its biggest failure. "Everyone missed something that day," Saul tells Carrie early on.

There is little certainty, and its agents operate in a complex legal and moral landscape. Its interrogation scenes, which are illuminating and taut, confirm Homelandas being firmly of the Obama era. 24may have anticipated a black president, but it was a entirely a Bush-period piece.

Homelandalso stands aside from 24in one important detail: it names names – or countries at least. 24spent one series passing bits of paper from character to character as they talked about "these three countries". Another series just made countries up. Homelandhas no such reticence, and instead grounds itself in uncomfortable political reality. It was always unlikely to get a prime time slot on Saudi Arabian television, but it makes sure to close off that avenue altogether.

There have been other war on terror dramas. Generation Killfollowed marines into Iraq, as did the less successful Over There. The Sopranoscan lay claim to being the most subtle of the early ones, weaving 9/11 peculiar cultural shockwaves through its narrative.

But Homeland's most interesting companion series is one set in a very different war: Band of Brothers. Set in the second World War, Damian Lewis played a captain leading a US company from D-Day to Germany, and represented an epitome of the Greatest Generation: moral, clear of purpose, fighting a just war. Perhaps the casting of Lewis in Homelandhad nothing to do with his previous role, but it makes a fascinating counterpoint in a drama in which every detail, every decision has consequences.

shegarty@irishtimes.com

Twitter: @shanehegarty