What it's like to rewatch Homeland from the beginning in 2020

Variety

"What a strange thing to watch a show that prides itself on its ability to predict the future — with its much-publicized info-dump sessions with real CIA officers before the production of each season — feel so randomly off-tone now, less in what it didn’t predict (I hardly fault them for not having a global-pandemic storyline) and more for what it didn’t try to do," says Daniel D'Addario of his rewatch. "That Homeland was addicted to the Middle East as the wellspring of its conflict, with even its maybe-rogue U.S. president (played by Elizabeth Marvel, trying so hard to hit an escape velocity from the script) ultimately tripped up on issues pertaining to terrorism and national security, is tied back into Carrie’s prejudices and predilections. That those shape the show’s reality is its advertised virtue, and its original sin. And it’s what makes the show feel quite so random in what should be its victory lap."

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• Good riddance to Carrie Mathison's cross-body bags: "I like Carrie Mathison. I love Claire Danes. I detest cross-body purses," says Sarah Miller. "You see, I like a nice solid shoulder bag, a hobo, a doctor bag, a tote, like the deep green Prada Issa Rae carries in her first scene in The Photograph. That’s a bag, people. Good bags elevate the beauty of women onscreen and in person, whereas cross-body bags erase, with their placement on the body, all beauty, all sexuality, all sensuality, all grace, all style, all life. Cross-body bags cut the form in a half, and the purse itself is so silly-looking, so flimsy. Also, if all you need to carry are your phone and your debit card, why don’t you just put them in your pocket? And if you haven’t taken the trouble to wear something with pockets, but you have taken the trouble to go out and purchase this ridiculous little body pendant, then what, exactly, is your problem? When I told this to Katina LaKerr, the costumer designer who created Carrie’s look on Homeland, she just laughed." “Carrie is a superhero,” LaKerr said. “A cross-body bag is the only choice.” I didn’t argue. But that doesn’t mean I will let this go."
• How Homeland saved itself by getting rid of Brody