It’s hard to believe that we have, so far, only seen 46 episodes of Homeland. By the time season 4 drew to a close earlier this year, we had watched Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) go from being an intelligence officer trying to prove a theory about a rescued U.S Marine, to being an absentee parent running the Islamabad CIA station during arguably the darkest fictional period in its difficult fictional history.
We’ve seen stunning action set-pieces, high drama, and epic, sweeping romance. The show has encompassed complex political issues and intrigue on a global scale, while equally – and successfully – focusing on intimate family drama. This is that rarest of beasts – a television drama series that earns every single one of its stripes.
So, after a brutal season finale, and having licked our wounds and re-grouped, we begin to look toward season five, the plot of which is described as follows:
“Struggling to reconcile her guilt and disillusionment with years of working on the front lines in the ‘war on terror’, Carrie (Claire Danes) finds herself in a self-imposed exile in Berlin, estranged from the CIA and working as the head of security for a German philanthropist.
This is the thing that makes Homeland stand head and shoulders above its closest competition. The show is fearless in terms of what it will tackle, and how it will change things up. Its original premise – the suspicious return of U.S Marine Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis), after eight years incarceration in an Al Qaeda prison – fuelled three seasons, including several assassination plots and the bombing of CIA headquarters in Washington.
Brody met a shocking, unfortunate end, and season four found Carrie leading the charge in Islamabad. The 12 episodes of that season pulled no punches, and saw the writers, directors and producers ward off scepticism with strong scripts and even stronger performances from the cast. This was a show transformed, but its ending left some giant questions on the table.
The new teaser draws us in by simultaneously taking us back to the very beginning – to the relationship between Carrie and Saul (Mandy Patinkin) – while whisking us two years hence, with Carrie no longer even in the CIA. But the heart of the show is right there in Saul’s words, as he talks about “keeping America safe.” She might be in Berlin, but for Carrie, it will always be about the Homeland. How will these talented storytellers meet the challenge this time? Suddenly the fall broadcast of season 5 seems an awfully long way off.