Posted On
Written By GingersnapComments Off on Homeland Series Finale Acknowledges Brody – April 26, 2020
Arm in Arm in Espionage: Series Finale Recap
by Bill Keveney | USA Today | April 26, 2020
When “Homeland” grabbed the public’s attention and six Emmys, including best drama series, for its spellbinding first season in 2011, the relationship between CIA super spy Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and military hero and suspected terrorist Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) took center stage.
Over eight seasons, many ups and some downs and the death of Brody in Season 3, the central dynamic shifted to Carrie, a brilliant operative struggling with mental illness, and her savvy CIA mentor, Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin).
That bond frayed at times, as Carrie broke every rule in the book twice, but never has it been as endangered as it was going into the series’ final episode, which aired Sunday, after Russian agent Yevgeny Gromov (Costa Ronin) gave Carrie only one way to secure the black box flight recorder, evidence that can prevent a possible nuclear war: “Kill Saul.”
Posted On
Written By GingersnapComments Off on Homeland Declassified: An Oral History of Never Told Tales – Jan 16, 2020
Battles, Backlash, CIA Meetings
by Michael O’Connell | Hollywood Reporter | January 16, 2019
Claire Danes, Mandy Patinkin, Damian Lewis and the creators of the era-defining Showtime drama — now entering its eighth and final season — reveal in The Hollywood Reporter’s oral history never-told tales of a show that smashed records, captivated presidents and predicted everything from terrorist attacks to Russian election hacks.
“What keeps you up at night?” That’s the question Homeland showrunner Alex Gansa annually posed to Washington insiders before putting fingers to keyboard on a season of his Emmy-winning Showtime drama.
What began as a slick spy thriller driven by a potent sexual chemistry, courtesy of leads Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, evolved into an exposé on the greatest dangers to an America that finally had some distance from 9/11. Threats from ISIS, the surveillance state and Russian interference punctuated clandestine meetings with the intelligence community — part of a yearly writers and cast symposium in D.C. affectionately dubbed “Spy Camp.”
The series, loosely developed from an Israeli format by Gansa and longtime collaborator Howard Gordon (24), became an instant and bona fide success when it premiered in 2011 to 2.8 million viewers and unanimous critical acclaim. Boasting a murderers’ row of writers, each a showrunner at one time, the drama catapulted Showtime and studio Fox 21 to an echelon of prestige TV they previously couldn’t reach. It swept its first Emmys (with six awards total) and those first seasons had both the Obamas and Clintons soliciting screeners.
Posted On
Written By GingersnapComments Off on All 109 Golden Globes Best TV Series Winners, Ranked From Worst to Best – Jan 5, 2019
The Brody Effect
by Janaki Jitchotvisut | Insider | January 4, 2019
Ranking TV series according to critical acclaim is bit different from movies — because there are multiple seasons, a show might appear more than once on this list. It also might have completely different ratings from season to season — among critics and fans alike. After all, isn’t half the fun of being a fan of a show arguing over which season is the best, and exactly where your favorite jumped the shark? Seasons of TV shows are rated individually on Rotten Tomatoes — but in some cases, no critical scores are listed for quite a few Golden Globes winners. These are listed in their own category and are not included in the rankings. Because the Golden Globes dates so far back, some TV shows do not have written critic reviews.
#19 – Homeland
Homeland Remained a Firm Favorite with Fans and Critics in its Second Year
Category: Drama
Year: 2013
Starred: Claire Danes, Mandy Patinkin, Damian Lewis
Tomatometer rating: Season two, which aired in 2012, is 95% certified fresh with 39 fresh and 2 rotten reviews
Matt Zoller Seitz wrote for Vulture:
“More than anything else, ‘Homeland’ is about trust. What makes people trust each other? Do we give people our trust for rational, defensible reasons or because they’re deceiving us, pushing our buttons, telling us what they know we want to hear? Can we trust the show’s main characters to do the right thing — to be ethical and patriotic and act in the country’s (and their own) best interest?”
#3 – Homeland
Homeland Made for Compelling Viewing from the Start
Category: Drama
Year: 2012
Starred: Claire Danes, Mandy Patinkin, Damian Lewis
Tomatometer rating: Season one, which aired in 2011, is 100% certified fresh with 30 fresh and 0 rotten reviews
Adam Sweeting wrote for the Arts Desk, “The amount of information packed into this pilot episode, which still managed to sustain an urgent dramatic pace while creating a shivery sense of foreboding, is a testament to the quality of the writing and performances”
Posted On
Written By Site AdministratorComments Off on Damian Lewis: “The Homeland Writers are Desperate to kill Brody”, The Guardian, October 12, 2013
Damian Lewis: ‘The Homeland writers are desperate to kill Brody’
As Homeland returns to our screens, the actor talks about failure, family, being caned at school – and his future on the hit TV show
Damian Lewis: ‘I worried I would be one of those fruity, over-the-top actors who start playing wizards when they’re 50.’ Photograph: Andrew Woffinden for the Guardian. Click on image for full portrait
Posted On
Written By Site AdministratorComments Off on Damian Lewis Interview: Eton, Homeland And Obama – Esquire, September 28, 2013
Jay Z, Daft Punk, and Obama
by Johnny Davis | Esquire | September 28, 2013
Confident, charismatic and charming: Damian Lewis’ success is easy to understand
Damian Lewis strides into the Esquire photo shoot fizzing with confidence and charm. “Sorry I’m late,” he announces. “I’ve been bombing down the M4.” He has come from the Hay Festival where he and his wife, the actress Helen McCrory, read aloud selections from the Romantic poets Byron, Keats and Shelley. “We slept in a proper gypsy caravan, futon on the floor,” he enthuses. “Great way to do it.”
Tall and athletically built the person The Sunday Times once described as “the upmarket ginger actor” is a big man, but his presence is overwhelming. He flirts with the studio staff. He commandeers the stereo. He inspects the clothes the fashion team has bought along for him to wear. “Ah! We’re doing ties, are we?”
Posted On
Written By Site AdministratorComments Off on Damian Lewis: Bringing the Fight back home, Sydney Morning Herald, January 12, 2012
Bringing the fight back home
Hero or terrorist? Andrew Murfett talks to the star of Homeland.
By Andrew Murfett
THE premise is intriguing. A United States marine, missing in action for eight years and presumed dead, is rescued from a terrorist compound. He has been held hostage by al-Qaeda for all that time.
Posted On
Written By mokulenComments Off on ‘Homeland’ Star Dishes on Charlotte – Oct 5, 2011
Hiking, Swimming, and Southern Cooking
by Staff | Charlotte Observer | October 5, 2011
During a day of filming at a cabin on Lake Norman, Lewis took a few minutes to talk about the show and Charlotte.
Q. How are you enjoying Charlotte?
I’d never been to the state before, so it’s been a novelty. We’re staying in a great neighborhood in SouthEnd, and I’ve gone out of Charlotte and I’ve seen the countryside, and I’ve been to see some music here. I’ve got my belly full of some of your Southern cooking.
Q. How are your kids adjusting?
I have two small children, 3 and 4 years old. They love it. They learned to swim here.
Q. Tell me about your character, Sgt. Brody.
Brody is a U.S. Marine sergeant who went missing in action shortly after enlisting. He’s lost in Iraq, presumed dead, and then they find him having been a prisoner of war in an al-Qaida cell. … That’s the premise of the story – whether he is or isn’t a threat, and if he is, whether she’ll (Danes’ character) catch him in time.
Q. It’s interesting that the director included flashbacks with Brody. What do you think they add to the show?
Flashbacks used well are very powerful and certainly in a show like this, a mystery and a thriller. They can illuminate, obfuscate or create an ambiguity. You see Brody committing an atrocity he’s forced to do. It has a huge psychological impact on him. It helps you understand his character a little better after he returns home.
Q. What’s it like playing an American? You’re very convincing.
Thank you. I’ve played Americans a lot. The first time was in “Band of Brothers,” and I was very conscious of Americanisms, and concentrated hard to have an authenticity. When I’m at work, I speak in an American accent all the time, not just when I’m on set. When I leave the house, I become an American and I stay that way all day. It’s sort of become part of me.
Q. How do you like working with Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin?
She’s a sweetheart. She’s smart, funny, talented and a really good cook. I love talking to (Patinkin) about old theater stories. He’s invited me hiking a couple of times, and I get to hear his whole repertoire in the mountains as we go walking along.
