The Co[h]en Brothers Appreciate: Homeland

Where some brothers played video games together, we watched television. It’s been a long time since Baseball Tonight and the Simpsons signalled the end of the weekend, back in those dark days before we conned mom into getting HBO and Showtime (thank god for streaming on xfinity!). We’re no longer in the same house, but we’re still watching and appreciating TV.

Elder: I remember when I first decided I loved TV. I think I was a freshman in high school, 2001. It’s when Alias and 24 came out at the same time. You were a big 24 fan, right?

Younger: Yeah, once I got to junior year and could keep myself awake past 8:00 pm I recognized 24 was dope. It had everything: gratuitous violence, babes, sweet gadgets, weird Chloe O’Brian, and more gratuitous violence. You never jumped on that bandwagon.  

Elder: Yeah. I loved the idea, but there was too much growling and pulling out fingernails, some serious Gitmo foreshadowing. I really loved Alias for a while though. Besides The Simpsons, we never really watched the same shows growing up. You swore by Survivor (seriously... how can you still watch Jeff Probst explain the rules to the stand-on-a-pole-in-the-water challenge?) and I kept falling for JJ Abrams’ traps, year after year after year. (Fuck you Revolution, even I learn eventually).

Younger: Survivor is the shit. I can’t wait to be cast. I will be on that show. And, I will win that show. It will be a dominating performance. I refuse to allow you to trash it. Second, yea, I mean per usual you were spot-on about 24. One season was all I needed to know exactly what it was all about. Once a nuke exploded in LA, and Jack still managed to save the day, I was over it. I think the decline of 24 and Alias really left a spy-shaped void in our lives and put us into tv limbo for a while. Until David Simon...

Elder: Oh the glory of The Wire (more on that later, but thanks for turning me onto that) and don’t forget Lost (you’re welcome and I’m sorry?). But yeah, I think you’re right. Now we’ve got Homeland and all is right in the world. I made you watch that right?

Younger: You sure did! I had just started teaching and was literally grading papers 24/7, and every time we spoke you yelled at me and told me to get my butt on megavideo and watch (thank god for illegal streaming!).

Elder: It’s so good! You get to live out your righteous liberalism and I’m just so excited every week that Mandy Patinkin in back on TV. When Dead Like Me ended I was crushed. I love Homeland for so many reasons, but one of them is that Patinkin’s Saul is an intelligence gatherer the same way his grim reaper was a soul gatherer. And in both shows he has to manage willful, unbalanced blondes. Symmetry rocks.

Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison and Mandy Patinkin as Saul Berenson

Younger: Saul is for sure the glue of the show. He is Carrie’s counterbalance, her xanax, such a calming influence (is that sad that Saul calms me?). Seriously, when Saul shows up you feel like things will be alright. I think what I appreciate most about the show is that unlike 24, I love that both the white guys and the Arab terrorists are evil. Essentially, VP Walden is Abu Nazir. They are equal in their awfulness. Whereas 24 was unbelievable in its blind racism (especially in its later seasons), I really appreciate Homeland for its lack of jingoism. In fact I probably hate Walden more than I hate Nazir because Nazir at least is fighting for poor little Isa! Walden is just in pursuit of political power, what a dick!

Elder: Wow, way to get all deep and political, make me feel like an asshole. But it’s true; it’s like the way The West Wing was the ideal presidency for blue staters. Homeland is a liberal’s 24.

Younger: Absolutely, but at the same time I don’t think the show is liberal propaganda. It’s not Maddow (or Sorkin) or O’Reilly, it’s like CNN if CNN didn’t totally suck. You know what I mean? I appreciate that it isn’t either right or left wing hoopla. It feels real in that regard, almost pragmatic. Like the decisions made by Estes or Saul or Walden could be the choices some amalgam of Barack and Dubya would make. They’re Jed Bartlet’s choices!

Elder: Definitely. You’ve got post 9/11 fear-mongering but also the consequences of it, like drone strikes on children and I think the show does a good job thinking about veterans. Also, it’s almost respectful of the source of terrorism. It successfully says what ABC’s Last Resort, Republicans and Dem’s can’t: that we’ve made a mess in the Middle East.

Younger: I totally feel like that is one of the underlying messages: we fucked up! Wowza. But, at the same time, the Homeland gurus totally understand that they can’t get too preachy so even though Brody and Carrie are more complicated than Jack Bauer, they know we want some Jack Bauer moments.

Elder: Yes!  Brody can snap a neck like Bauer anyday, though he’s a little more emotional about it.

Younger: Truth, but he doesn’t bite necks like Keifer. He is Bauer 2.0 remodeled for the Obama presidency.

Elder: I’d like to go on record as appreciating the lack of biting. So I could go on for days about things I appreciate about Homeland (naked Inara/Morena Baccarin, Dana exploding at Quaker meeting, the fact that Carrie lives with her dad at least sometimes) but I think another thing I really appreciate about Homeland is that so often the the viewer knows so much more than the characters, and not in a sitcom-y way.

Younger: YES! The twists aren't just that something unexpected happens, but that the characters finds out something we've known for weeks.

Elder: Saul finding that tape of Brody in the second episode this season = awesome. It’s like we’re finally on the same page.

Younger: At the same time, there are still so many things we don’t know. Why did Saul fail that lie detector test. Remember that?!?

Elder: Yes! What was that about? Will that come back?

Younger: It better! I think about that every episode. Saul is the ultimate mystery.

Elder: I haven't thought about that in so long, I hope the writers don't leave us hanging.

Younger: If that was a 'mistake' I’ll cry. I keep waiting for Saul to be bad.

Elder: No! He can't be bad! I’ve already professed my Patinkin love! I could deal with Estes being bad, but that'd be too predictable.

Younger: He is British! They’re always shifty. All good shows have devilish Brits. Stringer Bell. Check. Desmond. Check. Damn, I’m out of Brits.

Elder: Nice list...you sound like Rick Perry.  I didn’t know Estes was British! Brody’s British too, they’ve already got a shifty Brit!

Younger: Good point. So they got two, you know it is trouble. I think these next few Homeland episodes will be huge--either the show will establish itself as a powerhouse or it could also fall into the 24/Alias trap and get ridiculous. Here’s to hoping for the former.

Elder: Only one way to find out.

The Co[h]en Brothers co-habitate in Cambridge, Massachusetts several times throughout the year. When together, they appreciate cranberry juice, The Boston Red Sox, and their sister who is way cooler than both of them.