I finally got around to watching the pilot episode for Showtime's new drama/thriller series Homeland.  The show centers around Carrie Mathison/Anderson (Claire Danes), a CIA officer who suspects that the army Sergeant recently rescued from Iraq, one Nicolas Brody (Damien Lewis) has been turned during his eight year captivity and is planning an attack on US soil. The series has been greenlit for a full season, be warned - there are spoilers ahead for the episode.

It's a concept which plugs straight into the heart of a nation's experiences, concerns and fears.  Whilst terrorism is the least effective form of warfare (it tends to inspire defiance, strength and many noble traits in the people who have been attacked), it is a very real and constant threat in our current societies.  The insidious nature of the acts and the often civilian targets make it something that has the potential to hang over all our heads. Homeland takes this one step further, making the enemy not just a group of far away radicals or a Sleeper Cell, instead it gives the (potential) enemy an American face in Brody.

The cast is nothing short of fantastic, along with Danes and Lewis (sounds like an 80s cop buddy partnership), we also have Morena Baccarin (Firefly, V) as Brody's wife Jessica, Mandy Patinkin (Princess Bride, Dead Like Me, Criminal Minds) as Saul (Carrie's mento figure), David Harewood (Robin Hood, The Vice) and David Marciano (The Shield, Due South) amongst others.

The pilot unfolds in a manner that is reminiscent of The Shield's opening pilot, the punch comes in the last few moments (almost literally) and until then much of the episode is spent setting up the premise and introducing the characters.  It doesn't have the massive left turn that The Shield achieves, instead providing a huge indicator of guilt via flashbacks, but the result is similar - you're left in little doubt about Brody's Guilt/Innocence by the end of it.  I say little because this show, if it is going to run for any length of time, is probably going to be very twisty and turny.

However I do have concerns about Homeland, I'm going to watch it as I enjoy watching shows with bad people, and there is no doubt that both Anderson (Danes) and Brody (Lewis) are not decent people, not by any stretch of the imagination.  Anderson has severe mental problems that are only tempered by her brilliance, Brody is a suspected terrorist - even Jessica (Baccarin) is not without sin as she has been seeing Brody's friend Mike (Diego Klattenhoff) during the eight years that Brody has been MIA.  Make no mistake, this is a show about people with personal issues or political agendas.  It has the potential to take more turns and loops than the average season of 24 used to.

This is the problem, I'm not sure how far the concept can go, either Brody is going to turn out to be a 100% genuine threat to America and have to be dealt with, or he is going to be involved in a series of agent/double agent/is he/isn't he fake outs that if handled incorrectly will turn out terrible.  I'm interested in watching to see where this goes, but I can see myself dropping the show rapidly if it doesn't manage to click with me.  The cast is good, but the writing and plotting is going to be key here, especially if the show is going to run for more than a single season; but the writing team does not entirely fill me with confidence we have Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon and Gideon Raff.  The good news is that Gansa and Gordon have worked together for a long time, the bad news is they worked on the later part of 24, you know - the bit where the show jumped the shark repeatedly?  Gideon Raff was associated with 'Prisoners of War' the series that Homeland is based on, but I can find little information about that series on the web at this time. Raff's other work seems highly inconsistent.

It's enough to raise concerns, but the proof is in the pudding (so to speak) and as such I'm going to follow Homeland each week, at least until I've had enough - hopefully for the whole run.

For alternative takes on this have a look at Rob Buckley's review and Dan Owen's review.
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I'm not really sure what to make of Nurse Jackie, Showtime's latest addition to a growing stable of programming. It's a thirty minute hospital comedy drama starring Edie Falco and based around her as the titular nurse - instead of being focused on doctors like the umpteen other drama, comedy and comedy-drama hospital shows. I watched the pilot episode and hadn't really formed an opinion, so I then watched the second episode and still didn't really form a serious opinion. The hour of watching passed by pleasantly enough, neither episode seemed to drag, but by the end of it I was left feeling an hour of my life lighter but none the wiser as to how good the show actually is.

I think the big problem I had is there was no real big punch to either episode, things just kind of happened, some were mildly amusing, nothing was really shocking and the characters are sort of very one dimensional. Of course, this early on in a shows run it's difficult to break the characters down into complex individuals, especially the non-titular ones. My notes about the characters run down as follows; gay male nurse, newbie nurse, British doctor and best friend, problematic young doctor seeking attention, another gay nurse, Jackie's affair doctor, Jackie and her family (husband plus two daughters). That's about as far as I could distinguish them, Jackie herself has a quite a bit going for her on the complexity front, but nothing I haven't seen before elsewhere.

Likewise Jackie isn't doesn't seem to have anything unique about her; she's a drug taking, straight talking, philandering, seen it all before nurse with a heart of gold. Who gets through her days on a mixture of cynicism and prescription drugs. You could almost call her a mixture of House, Cox and Gray in a nurses uniform. But, I also found that she's a bit of a success in some aspects because I didn't automatically judge her negatively which we find out she's married and cheating on her husband. It's good when a character can do bad things without automatically being hated. Some of my very favourite shows have exactly that happening.

Visually the show is quite stunning, there are some great moments, especially the 'cracking the pill' sequence from the pilot episode, a shot of which I've decided to include here.

But it really doesn't do the whole sequence justice. Likewise the opening credits, which first make their appearance in the second episode, are very striking to watch - but I found the theme tune chosen annoying. It was at odds with the appearance of the shows credits, it's rather pushy/aggressive when the credits are more sort of broken window glass in mid flight in style.

Over the pilot and second episode we're treated to multiple drug related scenes, two boob grabs, a deceased biker, fake organ donations, a flushed ear with diplomatic immunity, an affair, a kitchen floor romp in fruity pebbles, the diplomatic ear unflushing itself, newbie nurse throwing up twice and a mother who took her son's safety helmet off him in order to get better skateboarding shots. An eclectic mix of drugs, sex and death - which might well be enough to keep the show interesting, especially if there turns out to be several long term plots built up, a solid sense of time and stronger comedy in future episodes.

Right now I'd call it a mix of House, Gray's Anatomy, Green Wing and Weeds. Which means it might do quite well as it's positioned on Showtime's line up right after Weeds and has several elements in common the show. It's these elements which have one thinking I should keep an eye on this show, Weeds is something I grew to love greatly - in part because of the W.W.V.M.D? A scene which inspired me to go have a T-Shirt made. And in part because of the mix of great camera work, funny moments and ongoing drama. But unlike Weeds, which has several gripping and often funny characters, at the moment only Jackie herself is interesting here.

This is a show which bears watching and might grow into something special as time progresses.

For some additional takes on Nurse Jackie I'd like to recommend Rob Buckley's review over at The Medium is Not Enough and Memles over at Cultural Learnings. Because it's always good to get a second or third opinion on something and Memles makes some interesting comparisons between the structure of the pilot and Mad Men's pilot.

footnote: Eve Best's performance as Dr. Elenor O'Hara is pretty good in this, but her accent is that strange percuiliar creature which seems to exist only when the English are placed in an area surrounded by Americans. It's almost exactly the same accent as the one Tara Summers had in Boston Legal.
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