As much as I like show along with other American dramas it's more like advertisement for products some times.

This week we had an undercover CIA operation in Lebanon with brand new looking shiny black GMC trucks.

Then we have the security conscious CIA using Skype to contact an agent in the field. Would the CIA actually use Skype even if the chances of getting hacked are minimal ?

I guess this season the cell/mobile phone changed to Nokia as Said doesn't seem to have his Iphone 4S.

I guess we'll find out how Brody's back went from his garage to Lebanon and just by chance managed to get picked up Carrie.

It's fun to watch but as other have commented the story are getting more far fetched as the series goes on.

Brody's back? Do you mean bag?

The bag Carrie picked up belonged to someone who lived in the house. In season 1 Brody recorded the suicide video onto the memory stick. He left the stick at the dead drop - pulled out the brick in the wall to hide it. Then chalked the drop to show there was something to pick up. Somebody picked up the video and got it to Abu Nazir. Abu Nazir sewed it into the bag to hide it.

Some of that is to do with American English being more commercialized than British English. Americans tend to use brand names rather than product, so for example "Kleenex" is used as tissue. So "Skype" might be used as a verb for video conferencing online, even if their not actually using Skype.

Why can't the Americans use shiny American trucks? No relying on the Chinese, apparently they cheat the US economy...

Nobody had an iPhone or a Nokia, Nokia just pay C4 money to sponsor their drama output.

Several FMs have said this about the Pentagon. ie no phones allowed. Is this true? Does that apply to visitors. As in tourists. But people who work there are allowed them. Presumably Brody has some sort of security clearance to gain access to such a sensitive area.

PS
Saul uses WMP Classic on his laptop.

He's a congressman and a former Marine, he'll have passed several background checks and have a reasonable clearance.

Obama has a blackberry, the first president to be allowed one. Maybe the CIA have softened their stance on them?

I spotted that, also noticed they scrubbed the file name (from the MPC-HE window) out in post....

The Chinese do some very good knock offs. And not just American gear either.

http://cache.jalopnik.com/assets/ima...3/Geely_GE.jpg

Nice. Loving the title, Geely GE

I was referring to the recent spat between the US and China, who launch complaints about each others trade practices with the UN.

Perhaps a little too topical, I should spend my time picking holes in every minute detail like everyone else, because apparently Fiction has a different meaning these days...

Am loving series 2 so far, the only thing I don't like - and i know this isn't going to be very popular - Is Brody's daughter, Dana.
I hope they aren't going to keep giving her a part in every episode!

Maybe they dropped a clanger with the file name. It said Damian Lewis - Brody Suicide video - Showtime.... And they only picked it up in post?

Yes it is true, and the same applies in this country with MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. No one is allowed to take their mobile into the building, not workers, not guests.
In fact one of the Homeland producers has been picked up on this error and apologised for it in an American tv guide this week.

Q: Would Brody really be able to text a terrorist in a situation room in the Pentagon, as he did in Episode 2?

A: "You caught us!" says executive producer Howard Gordon. "Cell phones wouldn't be allowed in there. It's not just that - they don't allow cell phones inside the C.I.A., either. We are forced to take liberties now and then."

sorry but have to get one last grumble in

When you are pulling off a once in a lifetime stunt like Walker and Brody were planning......

You do not, i stress do not, depend on breaking into a car, hide in the footwell, hope to get past CIA security of a street, and then get into the drivers apartment to organise the sniper post. And the night before the event???

That is plain amateurish. The whole thing could have gone totally off kilter at every step.

You rent the apartment and set up the sniper post.

Just saying.

The writers could not set up a shootout in a drunken wildwest saloon.

Brilliant episode this week, and didn't see that ending coming.

Got me shouting "stupid bitch" at the TV again, when she went running into the flats. You know the show is going well when that happens.

The first episode was decent, but the second really took it up a notch.

That's just reminded me, what was the original house near the airport for? I know it looked onto the presidents landing base but what would Brody's role have been? Also sorry for raking over series one

It was actually Skype they used to call Saul in Lebanon, They even the had logo on screen for all to see .

My point was it was meant to a covert operation in a Hezbullah controlled area and they choose a black GMC truck. I would thought they wanted a care which blended in more with what is still a war torn country.

The season 1 finale cleary shows Saul using an Iphone but somehow this season their missing, I guess Samsung, Nokia or Motorola paid for the product placement

Was it a decoy? After all, that one wouldn't have needed Brody and the final target was a much bigger one.

If indeed some are allowed, I would expect all communication, voice or text, to be recorded, in real life.

Perhaps May 1 will come back to haunt Brody.

Except, (just to put a spanner in the works) it may have been an alternative tape, planted for Saul to see which clears Brody completely.

Who knows?

And the planters predicted that a mad ex CIA woman would randomly enter this apartment and pick out randomly a bag and few papers to take with her?

That would take the biscuit.

Never understood the significance of Saul and his domestic situation with the middle eastern woman. She got a lot of airplay in earlier episodes and then disappeared.

Is she involved in the whole thing?

I think she was Indian rather than middle eastern wasn't she?

I know, it's scary how good these guys are

What if the phone wasn't Brody's but was given to him, say, by the lady who keeps bothering him? It wouldn't therefore be traced back to him.

Ah, yes. Thanks It's starting to come back to me now.

Is the vest still in Brody's house?

dont think we ever found out how he disposed of the vest