Homeland: Series 1 - 3Homeland is an American drama-thriller television series developed by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa based on the

Israeli series Hatufim created by Gideon Raff - 2011

Production Company

Teakwood Lane Productions

Cherry Pie Productions

Keshet Broadcasting

Fox 21 Showtime Networks

Directors:Michael Cuesta - 8 episodesClark Johnson - 4 episodes

Lesli Linka Glatter - 4 episodesGuy Ferland - 3 episodes

Daniel Attias - 2 episodes Jeffery Nachmonoff - 2 episodes

All other directors only directed 1 episode each

Writers:Henry Bromell - 5 episodes Alexander Cary - 5 episodesAlex Gansa - 36 episodes

Howard Gordon - 36 episodesChip Johannesson - 10 episodes

Gideon Raff - 36 episodes Meredith Stiehm - 5 episodes

Carrie Mathison, played by Claire Danes

A CIA case officer - Counter-terrorism Center

Suffers from Bipolar disease

Nicholas Brody, played by Damian Lewis

An ex-U.S marine sergeant

Has been secretly turned over to Al Qaeda

Saul Berenson, played by Mandy Patinkin

CIA’s Middle-East Division Chief

He’s Carrie’s mentor

David Estes, played by David Harewood

Director of CIA’s CT Center

Had an affair with Carrie which stopped his marriage

Genre and Story linesHomeland is a unique and compelling drama thriller

It is shown around the world to high viewing figures e.g. Series 2 premiered in the UK to 1.73m viewers, rising to 2.07m for one episode

It is famously known to be President Obama’s favourite TV programme

There are multiple, fast-moving story lines, of which the main one is Carrie’s relentless quest to expose and destroy terrorist networks in the Middle East who want to attack the USA

The storyline is full of complicated love interests - Carrie and Brody, Brody’s wife and his best friend Mike, Brodie’s daughter and her boyfriend

Above all, the storyline is characterised by uncertainty - you can never be 100% sure what is really going on!

Themes and Representation The most important theme of Homeland is secrecy. Many things are hidden eg. Carrie’s bipolar disorder, Brody’s conversion to Islam

Carrie evokes a lot of sympathy because she is often misunderstood and wrongly blamed

Brody is also a complex character because he has been brutally tortured and could not go through with his suicide mission for Al Quaeda

In the third series, the impact on Brody’s family of the CIA bomb, including his daughter’s attempted suicide, is very interesting

Editing techniques and camera anglesHomeland is mainly filmed in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Israel

The pace is fast; scenes are usually short and longer scenes have fast editing between camera angles to create momentum and excitement

Carrie’s solo scenes are shot in an interesting way, to create the effect of ‘being inside her head’. When she is in a panic, there is a lot of fast editing and different camera angles. However, when she is reflecting, there are fewer camera angle variations and transitions

Camera angles are used to create the feeling of being an observer, which is an important theme as people often are under surveillance

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