TV highlights: Homeland’s last hurrah and the belles of Belgravia

Over the years, Homeland has been one of the most consistently entertaining series in this new golden age of television.

By HANNAH BROWN
Claire Danes in 'Homeland' (photo credit: SIFEDDINE ELAMINE/2019 SHOWTIME HOMELAND/COURTESY OF YES)
Claire Danes in 'Homeland'
(photo credit: SIFEDDINE ELAMINE/2019 SHOWTIME HOMELAND/COURTESY OF YES)
Homeland, which runs on YesEdge, came to an end earlier this week after an eight-season run, in an episode titled “Prisoners of War,” a nod to the Israeli series from which it was adapted.
Although a preview of the finale was not available at press time, it was fairly clear where it was headed from the action this entire season, as bipolar former CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) ran a jagged course between her mentor, Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin), now the US national security adviser, and a Russian agent, Yevgeny (Costa Ronin), who was her captor when she was held in Moscow. Her focus was on helping Saul broker a peace deal between the US and the Taliban (a storyline echoed by recent US efforts to make a similar deal).
Some of the harshest Taliban characters unexpectedly softened, wowed by Saul’s impassioned speeches about not losing any more lives in an endless conflict. But Homeland isn’t really at its best without interesting bad guys, and the show has fought to overcome this problem by introducing a spineless new American president (Sam Trammell of True Blood) and a treacherous Afghan leader (Israeli-Arab actor Mohammad Bakri). Carrie is at her best playing against an adversary who is as complicated, flawed and interesting as she is, and she has lacked such a villain since the demise several seasons ago of Brody (Damian Lewis), the former POW who was turned by his terrorist captors.
Over the years, Homeland has been one of the most consistently entertaining series in this new golden age of television. Its realistic portrayal of bipolar disorder was groundbreaking, and Carrie was a brilliant, fearless and often frustrating character, a heroine who has taken her place alongside The Sopranos’ Tony, Breaking Bad’s Walter White and Mad Men’s Don Draper in the new TV pantheon. She will be missed.
Downton Abbey fans will be excited to see Belgravia, a new six-part series written by Downton creator Julian Fellowes and based on his novel. It will start showing in Israel on Sundays on HOT 3 at 8:45 p.m. on May 3 and on HOT VOD, as well as on YesVOD from May 3 and on the Quarantine Channel (YesEdge) for seniors starting on May 8 at 8:30 p.m. It is set in London on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo and tells the story of two older women, one nouveau riche and one a noblewoman, played by Tamsin Greig (Episodes) and Harriet Walter, and their involvement in the love lives of some 20-somethings, one of whom is an illegitimate child whose identity has been kept hidden.
Sports fans deprived of any new games to watch will have something to argue about with the Netflix series The Last Dance, about Michael Jordan and the glory days of the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s. There are lots of entertaining clips of the Bulls playing, as well as interviews aimed at finding out why and how that era came to an end.
Natalie Wood’s untimely drowning death under mysterious circumstances is the focus of much of the new HBO documentary about her life and career, Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind, which will be available May 6 on Cellcom TV and on YesVOD and Sting TV (and will be broadcast on YesDocu on May 9 at 10:30 p.m.).
This documentary features interviews with key people in Wood’s life, including her widower, Robert Wagner, to whom she was married twice, and her daughters.
Far more interesting than the sections on her death are the parts about her career. Born to a family of Russian immigrants, Wood became a child star in such high-profile films as the Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street, and was the sole support of her entire family when she was still a youngster. It shows how she went after roles in Rebel without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass, West Side Story and other classics and started taking roles in edgier projects in the 1970s. The sections on her romances with ladies’ man Warren Beatty and the much older director Nicholas Ray are gossipy fun.


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