Showtime has just announced that Season 4 of “Homeland” will premiere on Sunday, Oct. 5, with a double episode.
That’s assuming viewers still care.
If you gave up on “Homeland” because it was like a date who went from crazy-sexy-fun to simply crazy, do yourself a favor and check out “Prisoners of War,” aka “Hatufim,” the Israeli series that inspired it.
Lucky for us, all 24 episodes are on Hulu Plus.
It’s weird that “Homeland” went so off-the-rails, because “Prisoners of War” so perfectly balances breathless thriller, Middle East geopolitics and intense family drama.
Here are five excerpts to get newbies started.
A major difference between “Hatufim” and “Homeland” is in the very premise: In the original series there are two POWs, Nimrod and Uri, and they return home after a whopping 17 years in captivity — double what Brody endured in “Homeland.”
Life has left them behind: Nimrod’s son is a teenager; Uri’s fiancée married his brother.
And of course, there are brand new things like the Internet.
Nimrod’s oldest child, Dana — also the name of Brody’s sullen teenage daughter in “Homeland” — is now a snarky 19-year-old nymphomaniac with a daddy fixation.
This doesn’t help Nimrod’s alienation from family life. In this scene, she tries to bamboozle her shrink.
A military psychologist, Haim inspired the Claire Danes character in “Homeland” — except he’s mentally stable and doesn’t appear to be into jazz.
In charge of debriefing our two POWs, he realizes they have a secret code. “Homeland” borrowed this fun bit of business, but what “Hatufim” did with it is a lot more clever.
Another huge difference between “Homeland” and “Prisoners of War” is the presence of a third POW, Amiel, who’s assumed to be dead. His grieving sister, Yael, is overwhelmed by memories and is the series’ heartbreaking soul.
Here she visits the military liaison looking after the POWs’ families.
If Season 1 of “Prisoners of War” is more of a family drama, Season 2 is a full-on thriller packed with great action set-pieces.
Ever central is the question: What exactly happened to Amiel?