When I look at that weird, taut shaving-cut of a smile that Damian Lewis wears in Homeland, I wonder if it’s caused by the Emmy in his hip pocket, or if he’s just pleased to have found an American hit that has legs, even if it may not run and run.
Series Two of the critically acclaimed drama, starring Lewis as the repatriated marine and potential terrorist Nicholas Brody, debuted in America last weekend, soon after its triple-Emmy triumph, and begins on Channel 4 on Sunday. US reviews were favourable, and rightly so.
What can I tell you without spoiling the surprise? The first episode has a slow-burning start, measured but compelling, and is hectic at the end. The power dynamic between Brody and his sometime nemesis, sometime lover Carrie (Claire Danes) is reversed. He is a US senator being courted as a presidential running mate. She, expelled from the CIA and briefly institutionalised, is teaching English and pottering in her dad’s garden. Then figures reappear from both their pasts. Suddenly Carrie is back in harness and Brody is feeling the tug of conflicting loyalties like fish-hooks in his skin.
As in the first series, the cleverness of Homeland is in the brittle ambivalence of its two leads, and the way they are positioned between public duty and private affection. They are true believers with hearts full of doubt, their clear view of the big geopolitical issues clouded by little people who mean a lot. And as before, bold narrative strokes distract the viewer from implausibilities.
Personally, I doubt that Homeland’s blend of tension and triple-cross can be sustained over its planned seven-year arc, but it’s good for this season at least. The writing is taut and the performances — from the entire cast — as strong as ever.
And to be honest, the flash of dangerous excitement across Danes’s features when Carrie, alone and threatened, realises she is back in control of her tradecraft, is worth tuning in for on its own.
Homeland Series 2 starts Sunday, 9pm, Channel 4
