User Reviews

Almost three months have passed since the bombing at the CIA left over two hundred people dead and life is not easy for the characters who remain. Carrie is being grilled by a senate committee and it would appear that somebody at the CIA is happy for her to take as much of the blame for what happened as possible; the Brody family are finding it difficult now that ex-hero, ex-congressman Nicolas Brody is the most wanted man since Osama bin Laden and the CIA needs a successful mission to detract from the mess they are in. The last of these sees new CIA Director Saul Berenson ordering the assassination of six people that the CIA believes were connected to the attack.

This was a pretty solid start to the third series; it was more about dealing with the aftermath of the previous series than setting up the action that is sure to follow. It was a brave move to entirely omit fugitive Brody from the episode, after the brief recap, I think it worked though; we just have to accept that he is out there somewhere and whether he will return good or bad must remain a mystery for now. One couldn't help but feel sorry for his family who are both dealing with him being wanted for terrorism and daughter Dana's attempted suicide; these problems were well handled. While I'm sure things will improve for Carrie in the long run things just go from bad to worse for her here; Claire Danes does a fine job showing her getting more and more manic as she sees herself being betrayed. There isn't a huge amount of action but what there is is fairly exciting. Overall I thought this was a good opening episode which left be keen to see the rest of the series.

Season 3 opening episode was mainly underwhelming. I am glad I am watching the whole 8 series in a go, one episode per day, because if I had follow it at the time, I'd probably given up with this.

This takes place some two months after the unexpected tragedy of the previous episode (just a day earlier for me). Carrie is going through the grinder of an investigation and lying a lot. Saul is the reluctant boss ordering the assassination of 6 people responsible for the attack. So far, so good.

Unfortunately the episode takes a turn for the soap opera, not surprisingly with Dana, one of the most insufferable teenage characters in a TV world populated with angry, self-centered, spoiled teenagers. Dana attempted suicide, but was saved - and who cares, I'd like to add. She also has a new boyfriend (seriously, Dana's sex life? What's got to do with anything? Just like the stupid Finn's plot)

I can do without Brody's family, but at least one third of the episode is about them. No Mike in sight and no explanation, shame because he was the only character in that plotline I found interesting.

To make matters worse, this episode ends on the travelled road of Carrie being very publicly discredited by Saul because of her illness and her ill-advised romance with Brody. Been there, done that...