Homeland – Pilot
Though this new show from the makers of 24 opens with an adrenalin fueled rush through the streets of Iraq to stop a possible terrorist attack on American soil it is not, in nearly any way like it’s predecessor. It is really the subsequent scene – set ten months later, making this action something of a prologue – that best sums up what makes Homeland the best pilot of the year (to date). Claire Dane’s character, Carie Mathison, rushes to get ready for work in all the usual ways: she takes off her pajamas, swallows back a pill, brushes her teeth, wipes between her legs and throws on some office attire. That penultimate move is a revolutionary one as far as my recall is concerned, such an adult one but it is also, quite obviously, an everyday for most real women; and this is exactly what separates Carie and Homeland from both 24 and nearly every other show that has debuted this season, they feel real.
