Homeland - The Complete Season 1 - DVD

Movie: After her husband Brody (Damian Lewis) was pronounced dead while deployed in Iraq eight years ago, Jessica (Morena Baccarin) has slowly begun to accept her loss. For the past year, she has been in a relationship with Mike (Diego Klattenhoff), an old Marine buddy of Brody's, but she is still keeping it a secret from her two children, Dana (Morgan Saylor) and Chris (Jackson Pace). But just as she decides to end the secrecy, she receives shocking news: Brody has been found alive and freed during the storming of a terrorist camp. Torn between joy and fear, Jessica tries everything to make her husband's return to his old life as easy and pleasant as possible. But this proves to be much more difficult than Jessica first believes. For all those years in captivity have changed Brody. So much so that at some moments she barely recognizes him.

While Brody is being hailed as a hero across the country, CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) is hot on his heels. For ten months ago, while on assignment in Iraq, she had received information that terrorists had managed to turn a U.S. soldier. Carrie is convinced that Brody is that soldier. Although even her mentor Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin) does not believe in Carrie's conspiracy theory, the agent, feared for her unconventional methods, is determined to prove at any cost that Brody poses a serious threat. With the help of wiretap specialist Virgil (David Marciano), Carrie delves into the soldier's life, which has unexpected consequences when she meets him in person...

Homeland is based on the Israeli series Hatufim - In the Skin of the Enemy. However, only the initial idea was adapted for the US adaptation. Series developers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, who have worked together on series such as The X-Files and 24, have given their version of the suspenseful story a character all its own, achieved by the excellent drawing of the main characters alone. Manic-depressive agent Carrie Mathison, played superbly by Claire Danes, is a perfect example of how genius and madness are indeed often close. True, she tries to suppress her illness with medication. But the more she encounters resistance from her superiors and the deeper she gets into her hunt for evidence that Brody is a sleeper agent, the more the madness seems to take hold of her. This makes this character extremely interesting and her relationship with other characters, most especially Brody, extremely intriguing.

Damian Lewis (Life) as a supposed terrorist, Mandy Patinkin (Criminal Minds) as Carrie's mentor or Morena Baccarin (Firefly, V) as a wife in an emotional dilemma make the series a real treat on an acting level. The sophisticated dramaturgy reinforces this in an impressive way. The story is grippingly told, leads the viewer a little astray again and again and provides some moments of nerve-wracking tension, especially towards the end of the season. Some critics accused the series of a very one-sided enemy image, which on closer inspection can not be fully understood. Of course, Homeland also plays with some currently somewhat overused clichés. But the enemy is not only Islamist terrorists. Rather, the US government, the intelligence services and other groups are not the shining heroes they would like to appear. And this is precisely the strength of the series: it is never entirely clear where the greatest danger is coming from and who is manipulating whom and with what.

To accuse the series of being too one-sided is thus just as wrong as to accuse it of unnecessary scaremongering. After all, Homeland is not a documentary, but a fictional entertainment series, a suspenseful thriller whose most important task is to captivate the viewer. The fact that this is done in a very clever way and, apart from a few short stretches in the middle of the season, almost continuously, speaks of the high quality of the series. Thus, in the end, the positive overall impression can triumph over minor weaknesses and dramaturgical criticisms, so that the 1st season can be said with a clear conscience: Homeland is television entertainment at a very high level. After Game of Thrones, another example of how TV series no longer need to hide behind expensive cinema productions in terms of quality, and in many cases are now even superior to them. Absolutely worth seeing!!!

Picture + Sound: The image of the DVD presents the series in very good quality. The sharpness of the picture allows especially in the brighter outdoor scenes even smaller details to be seen well and has little loss of quality even in dark moments. The matching of the contrasts and the atmospheric colouring also support the positive overall impression of the visual realisation. For a TV production, this is more than satisfactory. The same goes for the sound, which as a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix reproduces the dialogue clearly understandable and also repeatedly with smaller ambient noises and good sound effects for movement in the surround channels. Good!

Extras: As a bonus, the season box has some cut scenes (about 13 min) to three episodes and a prologue to the second season (about 4 min) to offer. In addition, there is a fairly extensive Making of (approx. 33 min.), in which creators and actors talk about the various aspects of the production. In addition, there is an audio commentary on the episode The Suspicion, which Claire Danes, Damian Lewis, Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa recorded together. A very entertaining and informative commentary, with optional German subtitles available. Good!

Conclusion: The first season of Homeland is sophisticated TV entertainment of the particularly exciting kind. Although the series is strictly only a remake, it has a character all its own, which is achieved by the sophisticated dramaturgy and the interestingly drawn characters. Despite some small lengths, a consistently exciting and excellently acted season, whose finale makes the wait for season 2 a real test of patience. A series with high addiction potential and therefore especially on DVD: absolutely recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp