FRIEND OR FOE? "HOMELAND"

War hero or terrorist? CIA agents Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin) are out to answer that question about Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) in HOMELAND. Image: SHOWTIME.

The return of an American serviceman after being missing believed dead for eight years in Iraq should be a momentous relief, not only for his friends and fellow servicemen but also to his beloved wife and family, right? Well, things are definitely not quite what they appear to be in 24/THE X-FILES writers/producers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa's excellent and disturbing new psychological thriller series HOMELAND (based on a prior Israeli TV series called Hatufim (Prisoners of War) created by Gideon Ralf), and currently airing to critical success on SHOWTIME in the US: a programme which I hope comes to the UK's CHANNEL FOUR in the not too distant future. Upon his return to his home soil, Nicholas Brody (played by popular BAND OF BROTHERS star Damien Lewis)-at first looking every inch a true example of a brave and noble soldier- is unaware that his every move and word are being monitored 24/7 by CIA special agent Carrie Mathison, a brooding and intense, but highly intelligent and instinctive young woman, well played by ROMEO AND JULIET's Claire Danes. Mathison herself is a secretive person, and not unlike the man she's now surveying in many ways, with her own unique type of hidden personality disorder. Betraying certain signs and irrational actions that hint that he may have been converted to the enemy cause by his captors, Mathison is determined to discover if he is indeed a terrorist pawn-the ultimate recipient of Stockholm Syndrome, perhaps?- to be used against his own people/way of life at the right time and place in Washington D.C. by a ruthless terrorist- Abu Nazir (a chilling Navid Negahban)- once seemingly underground and unlocatable until Brody's emergence from captivity, and whom she wants revenge on for dark atrocities he committed in 2001.

Aiding but also occasionally frustrating and hindering Carrie in her dedicated mission is CRIMINAL MINDS versatile actor/singer Mandy Patinkin as her cautious current boss/mentor, Saul Berenson, and UK actor David Harewood as her mistrusting CIA senior manager, David Estes, co-ordinating the continuing war on terror, of whom he has no great love or trust in Carrie or her theories anymore after a previous Iraq-based disaster went wrong on her watch. On the other side of the story, serviceman Brody is well played by BAND OF BROTHERS ever popular Damian Lewis, who brings subtlety, confusion, and emotional fragility tinged with mystery alongside sometimes eerily violent controlled menace at the moments where he is seen to be cracking up-both in the past (in Iraq) and now. Is he just a broken, emotionally ravaged man trying to get his life back with his loving family (including his wife Jessica (played by V's Morena Baccarin-not seen as the ultimate baddie here, and playing a more vulnerable mother-hen type figure trying to hold things together than I've seen her before)), or is he truly the ultimate enemy aggressor- the worst nightmare scenario - to the United States and its people?

One of the intriguing US posters for the new series with Danes and Lewis.

Trailer: Homeland - Homeland Extended Trailer - YouTube

Stylishly made by a team who know how to generate quiet but building suspense and tension, and so far proving compulsive viewing, Homeland, with its twelve episodes of additional multiple strands and interesting characters linked to the main story, plus its menacing shades of the classic book/movie The Manchurian Candidate in a very real and fragile world, will surely keep viewers guessing right to the end-not just in this run but in its recently commissioned second season, set for US transmission next year.