The Event was bad, lost a lot of viewers and got cancelled in the US, so C4 were probably right to move it to a late slot to burn off the remaining episodes. Be grateful they showed them at all, some shows just disappear altogether.
Homeland is a success and already has a second season commissioned, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Coming to Sky arts in May!

I disagree about the writing, pure fantasy ...I dont want to offend anyone but I really dont think of this show as "intelligent drama" ...its not!...its can be just as cheesy as 24 but thinks its soo much better and deeper.

The best way to enjoy this show is to just switch off your mind and go with the flow....

Certainly a first in that I don't think I've seen anyone casually wash their bits before in a mainstream drama.

Will watch another ep or two before making up my mind.

Regards

Mark

I couldn't concentrate on what was being said in the opening scene because I was distracted by the bird driving the car while on the phone. Most annoying and distracting. And then she just leaves her car in a traffic jam.

Hi allie, yep I really enjoyed this too - the key's going to be how they can keep the ambiguity going with Brodie's character and Carrie's obsession. Promising beginning.


Hi RP, I've not seen Claire Danes in anything before either- very strong performance from her - looks like she's hanging by a thread mentally.


Phew! That's a relief, we won't be fighting over the remote in this household next Sunday night


took me by surprise too!

Your defensive response confirms I've touched a nerve. I also watch any rt show going so clearly not of the calibre required to be hood winked by this particular emperor's new clothes.

Enjoy the con.

I watched the show at US pace (don't worry, i wont post spoilers! I'm not a douche) and i didn't get that vibe from it at all, infact i think that it took quite a lot of people (the creators included) by surprise when it started getting awards and increasing it's ratings week on week. Channel 4 may have been marketing it as "the best thing ever" due to all the award wins, but in the US it built its audience on positive reviews of the pilot and then strong word of mouth, which it wouldn't have done if it was "the emperors new clothes of drama" as you so hilariously put it. If it was the "emperors new clothes of drama" it would have died a death like the glowingly reviewed 'Lone Star' from last season.

It's a very good show, and the positive comments about it and the awards it's received are all well deserved (even if i personally would have given Best Drama to Game of Thrones Homeland would have been my runner up though).

Also, for the record, i feel that Claire Danes seems to walk away with all the glory in terms of the acting praise, but for me personally i felt that Damien Lewis delivered the superior performance, he really was fantastic in my opinion, especially as the season goes on.

High class hokum. Don't question it; just hop aboard and enjoy the ride. For instance, don't ask why, out of all the places in the US, he conveniently lives in Washington!

Excellent completely hooked ......trying hard to resist from downloading it.

The sight of a work of art trodden under the foot of barbarians and vandals really should touch any civilized man's nerves.

Now now MT, play nice. Homeland clearly isn't up to the high standards of Corrie and Hollyoaks!

Indeed. It's hardly a case of "Emperor's New Clothes".

I recommended Temple Grandin which Claire won a Golden Globe last year.
And she was great in 'Baz Luhrmann's' Romeo & Juliet.

Anyone else find themselves sort of wishing the Damien character had been Jack Bauer? Would have been interesting... comes home from being held hostage, is he a traitor, isn't he. Not to knock Damien Lewis, he is excellent.. thought he was great in Band of Brothers.

I really liked The Event!

Thank you 4OD for the download.

It's a keeper !

Morena Baccarin is super hot.

V nice.

He's actually playing "The Birdie Song" in his mind which kept him sane in prison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz6iENNnf08

i think its highpoint as "intelligent drama" was the pilot.

Hi, new to this thread, just wanted to say initially that I loved the first episode. Wouldn't it be great to be the cryptologist working on that finger twitching? I'll have to keep watching if only to see whether those finger movements mean anything! I'm already totally hooked!

I've been prejudiced against Damien Lewis for a few years, ever since I read that he was dating Sex and the City star Kristin Davis (Charlotte) and then unceremoniously dumped her! But I know that shouldn't blind me to his obvious acting talents. Who remembers seeing him in the remake of The Forsyte Saga about ten years ago? He was great as the cold-hearted, emotionally repressed Soames.


May I take this opportunity to plug an ITV series aired several years ago which is similarly, like Homeland, based on real events, and is very gritty and harrowing - but totally gripping, yet didn't get the attention I feel it deserved.

Sex Traffic - available on Amazon - is about two Moldovan girls trafficked into Britain to work as prostitutes. John Simm is in it , with two amazing Romanian actresses.

It had me so angry I got onto one of the charities listed at the end, and made a donation. I still can't watch it without getting furious.


Anyway, that has nothing to do with Homeland. I just feel it should have reached a wider audience and that the kind of people who enjoy Homeland might enjoy Sex Traffic, too.

Thanks for that. I'll give "Hatufim" a look when it
arrives there.

Aside from having the Iraq & Afghanistan wars as backstory, Homeland isn't based on real events. It is a fictional drama. The only thing it is based on is another fictional drama from Israel.

OK, I take your point. I suppose it would have been more accurate for me to describe it as set against a factual backdrop.

The programme I mentioned, Sex Traffic, is similarly not actually based on specific events, come to think of it, just an authentic background of sex trafficking.

Cracking episode, glad they had some 'reveals' (finger signals, beating scene) as the tip off from the prisoner in Baghdad would have looked pretty ambiguous.

Ads didn't bother me as I recorded it on TiVo and FF'd through them.

This whole 'friend or foe' thing is a bit of an unwanted distraction for me, I thought it was a given he had definitely been 'turned'. So now its a case of him either being a brainwashed terrorist or what, a deep cover CIA agent?

To a previous poster, the 'rape' is a bit of a grey area. She was obviously in pain and was disturbed by it but I don't think she herself would recognise it as rape, bearing in mind the terror and frustration her husband has been through. It's part of the plot, to add more distrust to the character of Brody.

The last time I saw Danes was in T3: Rise of the Machines. She looked very different in this and it took me half an hour to confirm to myself it was actually her!

Looking forward to the next episode. The Iraq war, the insurgency and kidnappings in post-war Iraq is fascinating to me so this show has me hooked already.

Sorry, I've not got the intelligence needed by those that post in the US TV forum of DS, so much more cerebral than the likes of me in the intelectual back yard that is the UK TV shows forum


I've been informed I'm intellectually challenged on here but I won't let that prevent me from explaining what emperor's new clothes means: It means that if there is a conflict between what you see and what somebody tells you that you are seeing, trust your own eyes. I trust mine which tell me Homeland isn't all that.