Homeland: Season 3 (2013-2013)
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Reviews Counted: 27
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 2
As the stakes get higher, Homeland remains a roller coaster ride of tension, and Claire Danes is riveting in one of the best written thrillers on television.
Average Rating: 9/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 1
As the stakes get higher, Homeland remains a roller coaster ride of tension, and Claire Danes is riveting in one of the best written thrillers on television.
Season Info
A troubled CIA operative worries that a rescued marine, a longtime POW, may be an enemy agent with a connection to Al Qaeda and part of a plan to commit a terrorist act on U.S. soil.
Network: Showtime
Premiere Date: Sep 29, 2013
Cast
-
Claire Danes
Carrie Mathison -
Damian Lewis
Nicholas Brody -
Mandy Patinkin
Saul Berenson -
Morena Baccarin
Jessica Brody -
David Harewood
David Estes -
Diego Klattenhoff
Capt. Mike Faber -
Morgan Saylor
Dana Brody -
Jackson Pace
Chris Brody -
Rupert Friend
Peter Quinn -
F Murray Abraham
Dar Adal -
Sarita Choudhury
Mira -
-
Tracy Letts
Sen. Andrew Lockhart -
-
Martin Donovan
Leland Bennett
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Episodes
Tin Man Is Down
Season 3 begins with Brody remaining at large, while Carrie is called to testify before a senate committee investigating the terrorist bombing in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, Saul takes command at the CIA; and the Brody family deal with a tragic occurrence.
Uh... Oh... Ah...
Saul attempts to track down those responsible for the Langley attack and recruits an unlikely expert to follow the money trail. Meanwhile, Quinn takes matters into his own hands; Carrie learns who is really on her side; and the Brody family turn to therapy to mend their broken household.
Tower of David
Brody returns to his faith for guidance in an unexpected way when he finds himself facing increasingly desperate straits. Back in the U.S., Carrie struggles to connect with Saul when a mysterious man offers to help her but at a significant cost.
Game On
Carrie meets a new client over breakfast and learns that the crippled CIA can still exercise power when needed. Meanwhile, Dana runs away and Jessica seeks the police's help in finding her; and Saul follows the money trail to an unexpected location.
The Yoga Play
Critic Reviews for Homeland: Season 3
Homeland now stumbles through familiar territory, and the view the second time around isn't half as compelling.
Not only does Claire Danes reaffirm her Emmy win with a magnificent performance in each episode, Mandy Patinkin continues to deliver some of the best work of his career as Saul and remains, until proved otherwise, the new anchor of this series.
I'm only being honest when I say that Homeland is wearing a bit thin even while it nobly stays the course.
[Claire Danes] floods "Homeland" with ecstasy; she makes it all personal.
The result of that change of focus is a return that's quieter than the tone Homeland set when it left us but just as intense, and -- when Danes is on screen -- just as emotionally wrenching.
Smart, watchable and extremely well cast, Homeland's creative roller-coaster ride ultimately illustrates the gap between a popcorn show like 24 and the tougher-to-execute hairpin turns of a Breaking Bad.
I hope the rest of the season lives up to the promise of these episodes, but watching Homeland has made me paranoid.
It seems that one needs to enter this third season of Showtime's Homeland fully aware that the series has long since deviated from its (relatively) realistic approach in Season 1.
It will be good when we get Carrie and Brody back in the lineup. Till then, the game is going just fine.
The return of Homeland would have been excitement enough, even with Damian Lewis' Brody in the wind (and off our screens) for a bit.
Homeland has its own rebuilding to do, and while some may miss the faster pace of last season, these are dark times, and the show is better for dealing with that reality in uncompromising terms.
The drama is clearly trying to reinvent itself this season, and the question hanging over the proceedings is whether it's adjusted its course in a wise and productive manner or fallen down a rabbit hole.
The trajectory doesn't exactly shoot upward in the first two episodes of Season 3. But that's almost inevitable. This is the kind of story that almost works best as a one-season proposition.
Strong start. (Here's hoping it stays that way.)
Sure, it's all more outlandish than the show was in its more restrained, more believable first season, but it's still the best TV thriller airing today so I'm willing to go along for the ride.
It's a solid episode - tentative in spots, but in a way that feels appropriate to where all the characters find themselves at this point.
Carrie's isolation and frustration at being unable to defend herself or find the real culprits is searing, and the viewer feels as caged as she does.
The show has lost none of its expert knack for building suspense and tossing surprises.
It's a weird, ungainly piece of television that, nonetheless, possesses moments of real and raw power.
Even though it's in its third season, a time when a lot of acclaimed series begin to show cracks, 'Homeland' just keeps getting deeper, richer and better.
Was it the most exciting hour ever? No. What it did, though, was give me confidence that the writers have a better plan for where the main story is going this season.
The return of Homeland that reminded me of the deeper ways in which these fictional series are raising issues and asking questions about Washington that even journalism isn't.
The producers appear to have made a concerted effort to dial down the action and Carrie and Brodie's romance, and refocus on the agent and her mentor.
As the show carefully regroups and reboots, I hope it finds its old discernment as well as new nerve.
Homeland's third season kicked off with a lot of broken people and a damaged nucleus, but I believe the intrigue and tight storytelling that made the first season such a phenomenon is still in place.
The personal stakes for almost every character are higher than ever, and tension hums below the surface of each scene.
The first episode of season three lags in some areas, but it manages to cram a whole lot of story, duplicity, and action (mostly offscreen) into a single hour of television, which is good enough for me.
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