Homeland: Season 7, Episode 1 “Enemy of the State” (C)
Once upon a time, this was the best series on television, dethroning “Mad Men” at the Emmys and producing two incredible initial seasons. After that, however, it lost much of its quality and hasn’t been able to regain it since. Last season was lamentable, and instead of rebooting things as it’s done for the past few years, season seven is starting off as a direct continuation of events as they stood. It’s supposed to be immensely relevant, portraying the era of an anti-press government rule where crazy things happen and everyone is powerless is stop them. Yet it hardly works at all, since Linus Roache’s David Wellington briefs President Keane out in the open and advises her to consider the implications of what she’s done, which hardly seems believable considering our current real-life situation and the many, many people who might try and fail to influence the president’s opinions and actions. Carrie has a source who can testify about what Wellington is doing on Keane’s orders but he refuses to talk, and Dylan Baker’s senator is losing patience. Wellington wants to offer Saul a national security adviser position after he’s been detained for a while, and all he wants is direct access to a president that he doesn’t realize won’t listen to a thing he says since she’s gone off the deep end herself, advocating and potentially arranging for the death of her traitorous general. In order to get Wellington’s house bugged, Carrie continues to cross lines, employing her compliant niece’s assistance, and suddenly the likes of Brett O’Keefe are renegade heroes? I don’t buy it, and I’m going to need to see some glimmer of quality from this show in the coming weeks to stick with it.
