Homeland's first season has been a bit up and down in my eyes, with an uneven first half where events slowly unfold, until the resolution in The Weekend, where everything seems to have changed. The new pacing gives us a more exciting and action-packed sequence, and Crossfire is the best yet.
Carrie's current investigating into the 'accidental' shooting of two Muslim worshipers in a Mosque, does seem to be stretching out the story a little too much. Evidently the writers are trying to show us the complications between two different American organistations, who's policies vary. Whilst these scenes do provide us with evidence that Tom Walker had visited this mosque, there was nothing very engaging about this storyline whatsoever.
On the other hand, seeing Tom Walker wandering the woods alone is intriguing. And him meeting a suspicious hunter in the woods just gives us more to play with. Little did we know that Walker had known about the man's suspicions all along, and shooting him in the end was quite a surprise decision. The question now is, how is he going to drive the truck out of the woods without being seen.
The most engaging part of the episode was Sergeant Brody's flashbacks to the time when he was in Iraq three years beforehand, in the house of Abu Nazir. Whilst lightly showing us some implications where Brody could still be in league with Nazir, it's also a traumatising experience where we see Brody grow a friendship with a boy called Isa, before he is callously taken away by a bomb attack on the town. Damian Lewis provides a heartfelt performance in this sequence, where he realises he's lost one of his only friends in the world.
This show has shown that it can cover a number of opinions and perspectives on this conflict. The use of false propaganda from the American government just shows that there are two sides to any story. Seeing into the eyes of one of our own and understanding what America does as well, is enough to make us think that both sides are perhaps at fault.
Overall, definitely a massive improvement on the first half of the series, where I'm starting to understand the full implements of all the events that are unfolding. I just hope I can delve a little deeper into the world of Carrie Mathieson's past to understand a little more about her failures and her guilty memories.
8.5/10
Carrie's current investigating into the 'accidental' shooting of two Muslim worshipers in a Mosque, does seem to be stretching out the story a little too much. Evidently the writers are trying to show us the complications between two different American organistations, who's policies vary. Whilst these scenes do provide us with evidence that Tom Walker had visited this mosque, there was nothing very engaging about this storyline whatsoever.
On the other hand, seeing Tom Walker wandering the woods alone is intriguing. And him meeting a suspicious hunter in the woods just gives us more to play with. Little did we know that Walker had known about the man's suspicions all along, and shooting him in the end was quite a surprise decision. The question now is, how is he going to drive the truck out of the woods without being seen.
The most engaging part of the episode was Sergeant Brody's flashbacks to the time when he was in Iraq three years beforehand, in the house of Abu Nazir. Whilst lightly showing us some implications where Brody could still be in league with Nazir, it's also a traumatising experience where we see Brody grow a friendship with a boy called Isa, before he is callously taken away by a bomb attack on the town. Damian Lewis provides a heartfelt performance in this sequence, where he realises he's lost one of his only friends in the world.
This show has shown that it can cover a number of opinions and perspectives on this conflict. The use of false propaganda from the American government just shows that there are two sides to any story. Seeing into the eyes of one of our own and understanding what America does as well, is enough to make us think that both sides are perhaps at fault.
Overall, definitely a massive improvement on the first half of the series, where I'm starting to understand the full implements of all the events that are unfolding. I just hope I can delve a little deeper into the world of Carrie Mathieson's past to understand a little more about her failures and her guilty memories.
8.5/10
