Homeland Season 3 *Spoilers*

vitani

Was checking Wikipedia to see if the actress who plays Fara was in anything else, as she seems familiar and found this utterly mental story about how she was Tom Cruise's girlfriend for two months, after being auditioned by Scientology leaders and told that she had been selected for a secret important mission. Original article is from Vanity Fair. Well worth a read: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2012/09/tom-cruise-scientology-marriage-katie-holmes

claypigeon777

So is Fara, the young Muslim American who is eager to prove her patriotism, going to become a replacement for Carrie?
Saul, a Jewish American who probably loves Israel as much as the U.S., is the boss who she has to win over?
Quinn is initially hyper-suspicious of Fara but that suspicion softens as she earns his professional respect, their friendship grows and they fall in love? Is Carrie's persecution Saul's plan to lure Brody back to the U.S.?
Is Dar Adal a traitor and the real mastermind of the attack on the CIA and he is manipulating Saul into persecuting Carrie because she is the only one who can stop him?

beazee

vitani wrote: »

Was checking Wikipedia to see if the actress who plays Fara was in anything else, as she seems familiar

and found this: "In February 2011, she debuted as Nora, a love interest for Neil Patrick Harris's character Barney Stinson, on the sixth season of the hit CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazanin_Boniadi

claypigeon777

beazee wrote: »

and found this: "In February 2011, she debuted as Nora, a love interest for Neil Patrick Harris's character Barney Stinson, on the sixth season of the hit CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazanin_Boniadi

She was also recruited by the Church of Scientology to be Tom Cruise's girlfriend. After their "relationship" ended she was punished and forced to clean toilets with a toothbrush and dig ditches at night at their facility in Florida.

Weird.

Boniadi is also heavily involved in campaigns against the Iranian regime and her character in homeland is involved in intelligence operations against Iranian terrorists.

recipio

We got enough lip pouting and eyebrow raising from Carrie in the first episode - face it, she's as daft as a brush.
A Muslim CIA analyist is beyond belief and Dana is becoming a grade A sourpuss. God, I hope it moves on.

MagicMarker

recipio wrote: »

A Muslim CIA analyist is beyond belief...

It is?

claypigeon777

recipio wrote: »

We got enough lip pouting and eyebrow raising from Carrie in the first episode - face it, she's as daft as a brush.
A Muslim CIA analyist is beyond belief and Dana is becoming a grade A sourpuss. God, I hope it moves on.

Why would a Muslim CIA analyst be beyond belief? American intelligence agencies could presumably use them to infiltrate the Middle East, they speak the language, they know the customs, languages, the Islamic faith, they have contacts and they can fit in if they are on a deep cover mission to recruit informants and gather intelligence. I would image that many of the special forces units helping the FSA are of Muslim American background.
During the Cold War Russian-Americans or Americans of Eastern European background were heavily recruited to keep tabs on the Soviets.

recipio

MagicMarker wrote: »

It is?

Perhaps I should have said a practicing muslim.Asking a young inexperienced Muslim to investigate an atrocity by a fellow Muslim just stretches things too far for me. Bit like asking a priest to investigate paedophilia in the catholic Church.

Temaz

recipio wrote: »

Perhaps I should have said a practicing muslim.Asking a young inexperienced Muslim to investigate an atrocity by a fellow Muslim just stretches things too far for me. Bit like asking a priest to investigate paedophilia in the catholic Church.

I'm sure plenty of Catholics have investigated the church scandal.

snausages

So they had sex in everybody else's bed clothes then? Yuck.

recipio

snausages wrote: »

So they had sex in everybody else's bed clothes then? Yuck.

You missed the open washing machine door - they pulled out bedclothes in their ( ahem ) frenzy. At least that's how I read it. Actually since Brodie's wife stopped stripping there hasn't been enough sex. More please.!

TwoShedsJackson

recipio wrote: »

Perhaps I should have said a practicing muslim.Asking a young inexperienced Muslim to investigate an atrocity by a fellow Muslim just stretches things too far for me. Bit like asking a priest to investigate paedophilia in the catholic Church.

First off, the CIA has practicing Muslims working for it. Did you see Zero Dark Thirty?

Second, assuming no priest could investigate Paedophilia in the Church automatically assumes they are all dishonest and/or paedophiles. I'm sure I don't have to point out how that's not a great starting point for an opinion.

Same things goes for a Muslim investigating something carried out by a Muslim - they are not automatically in favour of or sympathetic too the person they are after simply because they belong to a similar ethnic or religious grouping.

FloatingVoter

Had to watch episode two in three installments - other thinks like dishes to be washed, nose to pick, paint to watch dry kept distracting me.
Epic fail - I don't know what the viewing figures are for this season but I'd imagine this will be its last.

snausages

FloatingVoter wrote: »

Had to watch episode two in three installments - other thinks like dishes to be washed, nose to pick, paint to watch dry kept distracting me.
Epic fail - I don't know what the viewing figures are for this season but I'd imagine this will be its last.

I haven't even finished it yet. I really need something better than Homeland to tune into every week. Will Walking Dead season 4 be that show I wonder? (lol)

Patty O Furniture

Saw it last nite on RTE2, While Carrie's getting Electro Shock Therapy, i think the whole show should get it, to shake it up a bit. Even Quinn knows something's wrong & wants to leave as well

But there maybe a change soon

the announcer after the opening credits had mentioned that ''Brody's coming back next week, & not even the US know that yet''

Patty O Furniture

snausages wrote: »

I haven't even finished it yet. I really need something better than Homeland to tune into every week. Will Walking Dead season 4 be that show I wonder? (lol)

Even the walking dead know what direction they're going :P

recipio

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

First off, the CIA has practicing Muslims working for it. Did you see Zero Dark Thirty?

Second, assuming no priest could investigate Paedophilia in the Church automatically assumes they are all dishonest and/or paedophiles. I'm sure I don't have to point out how that's not a great starting point for an opinion.

Same things goes for a Muslim investigating something carried out by a Muslim - they are not automatically in favour of or sympathetic too the person they are after simply because they belong to a similar ethnic or religious grouping.

Eh......we're talking about a TV show not the real world. Lighten up.

tipptom

They could write Carrie and Dana out of the next episode and it wouldn't bother me, I'm kinda over this,nearly time to move on.
Then they go and give Quinn emotions when his character was fine the way it was,this better shake itself up with something major like Sauls wife and her Jihadi mates launching an attack on Washinton,which would be nice.

Shane St.

As someone already said I hate that they drag these American shows out. I always think it's better to leave you wanting more than the other way around. If this had been a one season show it would have been excellent. No idea how they are going to bring Brody back into it without it seeming completely ridiculous.

donnacha

Patty O Furniture wrote: »

Saw it last nite on RTE2, While Carrie's getting Electro Shock Therapy, i think the whole show should get it, to shake it up a bit. Even Quinn knows something's wrong & wants to leave as well

But there maybe a change soon

the announcer after the opening credits had mentioned that ''Brody's coming back next week, & not even the US know that yet''

The copy I got from my american cousins had a preview of next weeks episode and

it confirms what the RTE announcer said

TwoShedsJackson

recipio wrote: »

Eh......we're talking about a TV show not the real world. Lighten up.

You were the one complaining about it not being realistic

FloatingVoter

As far as I can remember, Damien Lewis told Graham Norton and 10 million other people months ago that he wouldn't show up until episode three.

seligehgit

Pretty good review of episode 1,bit late I know
http://metro.co.uk/2013/10/06/homeland-series-3-episode-1-tin-man-is-down-4130784/

pickarooney

beazee wrote: »

and found this: "In February 2011, she debuted as Nora, a love interest for Neil Patrick Harris's character Barney Stinson, on the sixth season of the hit CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazanin_Boniadi

That was annoying me. I knew I'd seen her before.

Mrs Fox

copperhead wrote: »

i also have a feeling that saul is dodgey out and that he's the terriost kingpin

That bit from season 1 where he avoided then almost failed the polygraph is still at the back of my head. I'd watch out for that beardyman.

sassyj

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

First off, the CIA has practicing Muslims working for it. Did you see Zero Dark Thirty?

Second, assuming no priest could investigate Paedophilia in the Church automatically assumes they are all dishonest and/or paedophiles. I'm sure I don't have to point out how that's not a great starting point for an opinion.

Same things goes for a Muslim investigating something carried out by a Muslim - they are not automatically in favour of or sympathetic too the person they are after simply because they belong to a similar ethnic or religious grouping.

Yeah I found the scene with Saul's outburst quite ignorant, was the equivalent of associating Irish people with the IRA imo. The show has gone to the dogs, it's boring. I'll give it another episode or 2 and if there isn't a huge improvement I'm out.

recipio

sassyj wrote: »

Yeah I found the scene with Saul's outburst quite ignorant, was the equivalent of associating Irish people with the IRA imo. The show has gone to the dogs, it's boring. I'll give it another episode or 2 and if there isn't a huge improvement I'm out.

Well.....I thought the scene was set with Quinn and Saul staring in disbelief for about 10 secs at the new Muslim analyist. The writers obviously want to create a frissonbetween her and Saul - a Jew.
I just can't buy that the CIA would bounce staff around in such a careless manner - like Saul, the head of the investigation, never knew she was coming. ?!
A little more gritty reality and less soap opera would help.

clairefontaine

sassyj wrote: »

Yeah I found the scene with Saul's outburst quite ignorant, was the equivalent of associating Irish people with the IRA imo. The show has gone to the dogs, it's boring. I'll give it another episode or 2 and if there isn't a huge improvement I'm out.

I read that as him pushing her buttons to get her to work harder.

Seriously though is you had an Irish person working for MI5 walking in with a black beret on, you an expect some blowback.

serfboard

recipio wrote: »

Saul, the head of the investigation

Is Saul now the head of the CIA, or, if not, do we know who is? If he is the head, why is he doing this investigation himself?

sassyj

clairefontaine wrote: »

I read that as him pushing her buttons to get her to work harder.

Seriously though is you had an Irish person working for MI5 walking in with a black beret on, you an expect some blowback.

I wouldn't consider wearing a head scarf political though, it's a religious observance.
I just didn't buy it, where I work there are people of different nationalities and seeing women in head scarves is part of the landscape, and that's in Ireland. Saul and Peter gawping at her when she walked in like an alien had landed was stupid.

clairefontaine

sassyj wrote: »

I wouldn't consider wearing a head scarf political though, it's a religious observance.
I just didn't buy it, where I work there are people of different nationalities and seeing women in head scarves is part of the landscape, and that's in Ireland. Saul and Peter gawping at her when she walked in like an alien had landed was stupid.

You're country isn't under the threat of jihad.

These things gain significance.

FloatingVoter

Nah.. in an environment like Saul is in multicultural differences do not matter. People have been around too much at that level. Turning up wearing a "Bin Laden's a ride" t-shirt might be breaching office etiquette - but as an above poster intimated, the intelligence community is used to using Russians against communism, Germans (Nazis even, Von Braun take a bow) against Nazis, Irish against Irish.
For somebody as experienced as Saul to be insulted by a scarf is unbelievable. I could see him ticking off a junior for saying something - but not the man saying it himself.
It is a sign of a show thats drowning when even the writers don't understand who the characters are. I'll lay money Mandy Patinkin said something similar before the take if he still gives a toss.

tipptom

clairefontaine wrote: »

You're country isn't under the threat of jihad.

These things gain significance.

I think if a manager had said that to a worker in the work place in real life,he could find himself in a bit of hot water.

vitani

FloatingVoter wrote: »

Nah.. in an environment like Saul is in multicultural differences do not matter. People have been around too much at that level. Turning up wearing a "Bin Laden's a ride" t-shirt might be breaching office etiquette - but as an above poster intimated, the intelligence community is used to using Russians against communism, Germans (Nazis even, Von Braun take a bow) against Nazis, Irish against Irish.
For somebody as experienced as Saul to be insulted by a scarf is unbelievable. I could see him ticking off a junior for saying something - but not the man saying it himself.
It is a sign of a show thats drowning when even the writers don't understand who the characters are. I'll lay money Mandy Patinkin said something similar before the take if he still gives a toss.

It depends where they take his character, for me. Last season, I'd agree. Saul never had a problem with Islam. But I think it's possible that he could have been insulted by it after the explosion - he's just lost nearly every single person he's worked with for god knows how many years, and he's now shouldered with responsibility that he doesn't really want to take on. He found himself ordering executions the previous week which seemed to go against his moral code. It would take an exceptional person not to feel different after all of that.

recipio

If I worked for the CIA I'm imagine paranoia would be a daily obsession. Would you trust a new Muslim operative straight off.? I'd want her frisked and x-rayed and would read her dossier ten times regardless of what's on her cv. I suspect Carrie will have that attitude when she puts in the ( inevietable ) return

tipptom

recipio wrote: »

If I worked for the CIA I'm imagine paranoia would be a daily obsession. Would you trust a new Muslim operative straight off.? I'd want her frisked and x-rayed and would read her dossier ten times regardless of what's on her cv. I suspect Carrie will have that attitude when she puts in the ( inevietable ) return

Yes,you may well carry that paranoia but it would be very unprofessional and serious lack of disicipline to practically blurt it right out to the person.

TwoShedsJackson

recipio wrote: »

If I worked for the CIA I'm imagine paranoia would be a daily obsession. Would you trust a new Muslim operative straight off.? I'd want her frisked and x-rayed and would read her dossier ten times regardless of what's on her cv. I suspect Carrie will have that attitude when she puts in the ( inevietable ) return

You don't get a job in the CIA without an exhaustive background check so what you should probably do is assume the recruiters/hirers/interviewers know what they're doing and wouldn't have given the job to her if she was suspect - then get on with your own job.

expectationlost

lesus christ

FloatingVoter

expectationlost wrote: »

lesus christ

He applied for the CIA job, but Saul felt the bathrobe and the carrying of the cross thing was a bit anti-muslim. He's regretting it now he's seen the headscarf.

clairefontaine

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

You don't get a job in the CIA without an exhaustive background check so what you should probably do is assume the recruiters/hirers/interviewers know what they're doing and wouldn't have given the job to her if she was suspect - then get on with your own job.

You mean like they did to Roya and Brody?

PropJoe10

Was this weeks episode any better? Not sure if I will bother but interested to hear opinions.

clairefontaine

Nope. Dreadful.

AdamD

Can't stand characters like that doctor, completely overacting everything with that stupid voice they put on to try and make everything they say sound important. See it so often in American tv shows, really really annoys me.

Frank Grimes

PropJoe10 wrote: »

Was this weeks episode any better? Not sure if I will bother but interested to hear opinions.

No, I thought it was even worse than the last two.

TwoShedsJackson

clairefontaine wrote: »

You mean like they did to Roya and Brody?

Neither of whom worked for the CIA at any point in the show.

PropJoe10

Oh well, guess thats me out then. It'll be a relief not to have to listen to Dana Brody whining on anymore!

clairefontaine

AdamD wrote: »

Can't stand characters like that doctor, completely overacting everything with that stupid voice they put on to try and make everything they say sound important. See it so often in American tv shows, really really annoys me.

That doctor is like something they picked up in the Chelsea district of Manhattan.

expectationlost

he so should have blown himself up in the last ep of season 1

we don't know yet how they are going to bring this round, how carrie is connected to these guys and the reason why brody is still useful but he still should have went boom

FloatingVoter

So we now have a show about a mental patient in DC with father issues and a confused bloke on heroin living in some weird tenement in Caracas. Perhaps its the TV version of Adam and Paula.

clairefontaine

Perhaps the writers for Dexter have taken over.

How did this show get so so so bad?