24 – Damian Lewis

Homeland: Damian Lewis adopts the patriot act, The Guardian, February 18, 2012

On February 18, 2012October 10, 2017 By Damianista Comments Off

Homeland: Damian Lewis adopts the patriot act

How the flame-haired Brit became the star of TV’s heir to 24

by David Stubbs, The Guardian, February 18, 2012

Damian Lewis and Claire Danes in Homeland. Photo: Michael Muller/Showtime

Survey Damian Lewis‘s CV and you’ll find he’s had a string of roles that required him to exude a certain kind of laconic, tight-lipped, battle-hardened maleness, holding it together as things fall apart. In 1999, he starred as a lieutenant in Warriors, a BBC production about British peacekeepers. He then crossed the Atlantic and starred first as Major Winters in Spielberg’s Band Of Brothers, and then in Life as Charlie Crews, a detective imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. Now, in new US drama Homeland, he’s playing Sergeant Nicholas Brody, a marine who, while held captive in Iraq, might have been turned by al-Qaida. It’s perhaps his most testing role to date, but one in which Lewis proves remarkably effective.

Continue reading Homeland: Damian Lewis adopts the patriot act, The Guardian, February 18, 2012

Inspiring Terror, The Sunday Times, February 5, 2011

On February 5, 2011October 10, 2017 By Damianista Comments Off

Inspiring Terror

by Stephen Armstrong, The Sunday Times, February 5, 2011

From the writers of 24, the American drama Homeland is a dark thriller with a top-notch cast and some pretty big questions, says Stephen Armstrong

You can understand a lot about America by watching its television, although the process can be as nerve-racking as observing an alcoholic parent and measuring the number of glasses consumed. If you watch carefully, you can register the state of health of the world’s most powerful nation.

Take the quantum shift between the multi season series 24, American television’s response to 9/ll in 2001, and the new hit serial Homeland, the first season of which ended in December. In 24, agent lack Bauer faced down terror by any means necessary. He beat, tortured, endured and raced towards certain victory, confident that, once the traitors were unmasked, all would be well. You don’t need a newspaper to connect the dots between a certain kind of muscular public opinion and the stuff it watches on TV. The uncertainties of the Obama years, however, have produced Homeland, a dark, paranoid thriller that is effectively an apology for 24. Continue reading Inspiring Terror, The Sunday Times, February 5, 2011