I'm watching Homeland. It's incredibly racist--basically, a melange of every Islamophobic stereotype in existence, wrapped in a slick, high-budget, well-acted package. An actual substantive critique is still to come, but in addition to an amount of racism that risks serious damage to whatever TV I'm watching it on, the show is just filled with so many random moments of "WTF?" that I had to make a list. And this is just Season 1.
SPOILER ALERT. Although if it makes the show a bit funnier for you, then I say that's a win.
1. Apparently the entire show takes place in a parallel universe where the CIA can conduct operations within the borders of the United States and against US citizens. When someone (way late in the season) brings up the fact that, oh right, this is against the CIA's charter, the problem gets dismissed with a simple "Fuck the charter." Okay, then.
2. People who work for the CIA have no problem disclosing that fact to people they just met, like an executive at some random bank, and rarely seem to worry about having a cover story.
3. Carrie drives around Baghdad (which looks suspiciously like Amman oh snap, it's Jerusalem) with no translator, fixer or bodyguard.
4. Carrie has classified material in her apartment and conducts surveillance out of her apartment, in front of a glass patio door.
5. Carrie has struggled with bipolar disorder since college, yet is somehow able to keep it a secret from the CIA despite the fact that they interview your first grade teacher when you're applying for a job there.
6. Brody can be captured in Iraq, chill in Syria for a while, then wind up in Afghanistan, because, you know, the Middle East is one big terrorist underground railroad.
7. By the way, Saddam IS connected to Al Qaeda, enough to sell them a captured American POW. Somebody call the New York Times.
8. Brody comes to care deeply about a young boy who's the son of terrorist mastermind Abu Nazir, except apparently not deeply enough to learn how to correctly pronounce his name, which I can only assume is supposed to be Issa (Jesus in Arabic.) Aissa is not a name in Arabic.
9. For that matter, neither is Raqim. Was the intern really too busy to Google "Arabic baby names"?
10. Carrie can have (unprotected!) sex with a suspected terrorist in her car and manage to keep her job.
11. The CIA finds Aileen Faisel's mug shot because she was arrested at a G8 protest. From the global justice movement to international terrorism...
12. The CIA can extraordinarily render a prisoner from Pakistan to, like, somewhere in Virginia and no one bats an eye.
13. Carrie says "We don't torture," right before she and Saul torture a guy with sleep deprivation, sensory overload, extreme cold and threatening to let his family get killed.
14. Fuck diplomatic immunity! And warrants!
15. The organization Abu Nazir started is called the Islamic People's Liberation Army, apparently the world's first Marxist-Leninist-Islamist organization.
16. The look on Carrie's face when Brody tells her he's a Secret Muslim. Actually, everything involving Brody being a Secret Muslim.
17. Al Qaeda equated with the North in the US Civil War.
18. Random smackdowns of racists that are completely incidental to the plot (Brody and Carrie stomp a neo-Nazi in a bar; Walker shoots a guy with a Confederate flag sticker on his truck.) I mean, not that I have anything against stomping racists, but is this the show trying to prove how non-racist it is?
19. Terrorists are hiding at your local dry-cleaners, making ball-bearing-filled suicide bomber vests in the back.
20. Brody's martyr video, in which he reveals that he's the world's first liberal patriot suicide bomber. I thought this was all about revenge for Eye-sa? They can't quite make up their minds, can they?
21. After being nearly beaten to death and dumped in a grave, Walker becomes a terrorist apparently just cuz.
22. In a moment of backpedaling to explain why he didn't blow himself up, Brody comes up with a better terrorist master plot than terrorist mastermind Abu Nazir. See what happens when you have a Marine on your side?
Coming soon: Season 2.
SPOILER ALERT. Although if it makes the show a bit funnier for you, then I say that's a win.
1. Apparently the entire show takes place in a parallel universe where the CIA can conduct operations within the borders of the United States and against US citizens. When someone (way late in the season) brings up the fact that, oh right, this is against the CIA's charter, the problem gets dismissed with a simple "Fuck the charter." Okay, then.
2. People who work for the CIA have no problem disclosing that fact to people they just met, like an executive at some random bank, and rarely seem to worry about having a cover story.
3. Carrie drives around Baghdad (
4. Carrie has classified material in her apartment and conducts surveillance out of her apartment, in front of a glass patio door.
5. Carrie has struggled with bipolar disorder since college, yet is somehow able to keep it a secret from the CIA despite the fact that they interview your first grade teacher when you're applying for a job there.
6. Brody can be captured in Iraq, chill in Syria for a while, then wind up in Afghanistan, because, you know, the Middle East is one big terrorist underground railroad.
7. By the way, Saddam IS connected to Al Qaeda, enough to sell them a captured American POW. Somebody call the New York Times.
8. Brody comes to care deeply about a young boy who's the son of terrorist mastermind Abu Nazir, except apparently not deeply enough to learn how to correctly pronounce his name, which I can only assume is supposed to be Issa (Jesus in Arabic.) Aissa is not a name in Arabic.
9. For that matter, neither is Raqim. Was the intern really too busy to Google "Arabic baby names"?
10. Carrie can have (unprotected!) sex with a suspected terrorist in her car and manage to keep her job.
11. The CIA finds Aileen Faisel's mug shot because she was arrested at a G8 protest. From the global justice movement to international terrorism...
12. The CIA can extraordinarily render a prisoner from Pakistan to, like, somewhere in Virginia and no one bats an eye.
13. Carrie says "We don't torture," right before she and Saul torture a guy with sleep deprivation, sensory overload, extreme cold and threatening to let his family get killed.
14. Fuck diplomatic immunity! And warrants!
15. The organization Abu Nazir started is called the Islamic People's Liberation Army, apparently the world's first Marxist-Leninist-Islamist organization.
16. The look on Carrie's face when Brody tells her he's a Secret Muslim. Actually, everything involving Brody being a Secret Muslim.
17. Al Qaeda equated with the North in the US Civil War.
18. Random smackdowns of racists that are completely incidental to the plot (Brody and Carrie stomp a neo-Nazi in a bar; Walker shoots a guy with a Confederate flag sticker on his truck.) I mean, not that I have anything against stomping racists, but is this the show trying to prove how non-racist it is?
19. Terrorists are hiding at your local dry-cleaners, making ball-bearing-filled suicide bomber vests in the back.
20. Brody's martyr video, in which he reveals that he's the world's first liberal patriot suicide bomber. I thought this was all about revenge for Eye-sa? They can't quite make up their minds, can they?
21. After being nearly beaten to death and dumped in a grave, Walker becomes a terrorist apparently just cuz.
22. In a moment of backpedaling to explain why he didn't blow himself up, Brody comes up with a better terrorist master plot than terrorist mastermind Abu Nazir. See what happens when you have a Marine on your side?
Coming soon: Season 2.
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