Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing 3 Body Problem; Black Doves; Bosch; Citadel; Criminal Minds; Dark Matter; Dexter: Original Sin; Dune: Prophecy; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; House of the Dragon; Luther; Outlander; Presumed Innocent; Reacher; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Surface; The: Ark, Day of the Jackal, Diplomat, Last of Us, Way Home; You +books, films, music, podcasts, politics

George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Homeland 6.1:With a Madam President-Elect

And I thought I'd round out the 2016 year of television reviews here on Infinite Regress with a review of Homeland 6.1, courtesy of Showtime on Demand.

Given what's going on in Turkey right now with the terrorist attack in an Istanbul night club - in our reality, not on the fictional television screen, to be clear - it's never been more disconcerting to watch a drama series about spies and terrorism. But under the ethical imperative not to let terrorism change our lives, if we can help it, I watched Homeland 6.1 anyway.

But this episode would have been disconcerting, in any case, since it features the first woman President-elect - i.e., what would have happened if Hillary had won the election. (This season, and certainly this episode, of Homeland was produced prior to our election.) Interestingly, in a bold plot move, the President-elect, who was hawkish in her campaign rhetoric, wants to deescalate American military presence abroad, and she's not too happy about the CIA here at home, either.

This has the making of good narrative tension this season, with Dar moving to actively (covertly, for now) opposing the President-elect, and Saul, unsurprisingly, being a little more moderate. Carrie at this point knows nothing of this. She has her hands full with two things:

Quinn, not doing as well as he would like in rehab, acting out, and ending up in Carrie's New York City apartment. This will no doubt serve in good stead, and likely save her and her daughter's life, when terrorists do come a calling in New York.
Carrie is also helping defend a guy arrested for terrorist activities. We've seen him make pro-terrorist videos - not calling for attack on the US, but glorifying terrorists attacks in the past. The question arises: should what he was doing be protected under our First Amendment? It's an interesting gambit for Carrie.

So we have some provocative cards on the table for Season 6. I'm looking forward to more - and to stories at least somewhat at a distance from what's actually happening in our world.