CARRIE ON: Claire Danes returns for the third season of Showtime’s “Homeland,” premiering next month. Series co-star Damian Lewis (above) won’t be back until the third episode. (Kent Smith)
CARRIE ON: Claire Danes returns for the third season of Showtime’s “Homeland,” premiering next month. Series co-star Damian Lewis (inset) won’t be back until the third episode. (
)
The Season 3 premiere of “Homeland,” set for Sunday, Sept. 29, is very much a day of reckoning.
The show’s writers wisely do damage control after the ludicrous plotting of Season 2’s final episodes, several of which seemed to derail Showtime’s Emmy-winning terrorism drama.
The collateral damage to the CIA, the family of Congressman Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) and the relationship between Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and her greatest — and probably only — advocate, Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin), are the focus of the season premiere.
But there’s more. Where was Carrie for 14 hours after the bombing that killed more than 200 Americans, including the head of the CIA (David Harewood)? As loyal fans will remember, she was driving to Canada so her terrorist boyfriend, Brody (Lewis), could flee the country — even though she knew he killed the vice president (Jamey Sheridan).
In the season opener, a very nervous Carrie faces a Congressional inquiry, led by the stern Sen. Andrew Lockhart (Tony winner Tracy Letts), and lies through her teeth. He doesn’t believe a word she says and asks her, “Just what are you smoking, Miss Mathison?”
Viewers may wonder what the show’s producers were smoking when they decided that Lewis would not appear in the season’s first two episodes.
“It was strictly a function of the story and where the story was taking us,” executive producer Alex Gansa told reporters recently. “Whether there’s a backlash or not [from viewers] is completely out of our control.”
Lewis seemed fine with Brody being out of the scene, as the character is literally on the lam. “He’s disappeared into a network of a tunnel system, an exfiltration procedure which Carrie has effected, and he’s the most wanted criminal in the world,” Lewis says.
While Brody is off-camera, his daughter Dana (Morgan Saylor) will receive more screen time than usual — in a storyline that deals with the desperation she felt after the bombing and her father’s disappearance. “Morgan is a constantly surprising actress and she’s flourished into a young woman,” says Lewis.
“Homeland” has experienced personnel changes — some tragic — since the Season 2 finale. Executive producer Henry Bromell, who wrote the amazing, Emmy-nominated “Q &A” episode, died, and his fellow producer, Meredith Stiehm, left to work on FX’s “The Bridge.” Not surprisingly, “Homeland” copped 11 Emmy nominations last month, including one for guest star Rupert Friend (who plays CIA wild card Peter Quinn).
With its frantic pace and the intense demands on its stars, many people wonder if Danes and Lewis are ready to call it a day. “I keep thinking, no way can they go further. Their imaginations must be tapped out,” Danes says. “And every season is just that much bolder and braver and surprising.”