Charismatic Carrie

Good news about the new season of ‘Homeland’.

By HANNAH BROWN
Updated: FEBRUARY 22, 2018 18:03
A scene from Homeland (photo credit: COURTESY YES)
A scene from Homeland
(photo credit: COURTESY YES)
Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), everyone’s favorite bipolar former CIA agent, is back on the seventh season of Homeland, and the good news is that this first episode has brought back everything that made the show a success.
After a lackluster sixth season that focused on the ascension of a singularly colorless character as the new American president (Elizabeth Marvel) and the horribly maimed Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend) and his inevitable downward spiral, Season Seven looks as if it will be about Carrie and everything that makes her so memorable: her bravery, her dedication and, on occasion, her craziness. And when Carrie gets wound up, there’s enormous suspense to see what she will do next.
In the aftermath of the armed attack against President Keane at the end of the last season, there has been a suspension of civil liberties in the US as she has tried to find and punish the conspirators. Carrie is back living with her sister, while Saul (Mandy Patinkin) is in federal prison, caught up in President Keane’s sweep.
For the first time in many seasons, Carrie dons a disguise as she tries to persuade a former colleague from Kabul to testify before a senate panel about the president’s abuse of power. Max (Maury Sterling), one half of Carrie’s personal rogue surveillance team, is back, planting cameras in the home of the president’s righthand man (Linus Roche).
There’s a subplot about a right-wing talk show host on the run who is a savage critic of the president and expects to get arrested at any moment, but what is great here is seeing Carrie be Carrie again. There is a nice argument she has with her long-suffering sister, Maggie (Amy Hargreaves). Maggie can be forgiven for saying, “There’s a vast government conspiracy, and you’re the only one who can bring it to light, I know.” To which Carrie replies, “I’m on my meds.”
Now you can return to that spot on the edge of your seat where we all used to sit when watching the show.
Homeland can be seen on YES VOD and on YES Edge on Mondays at 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.