Homeland...Okay

So with my sad dismissal of The Blacklist show, and the fact that it's currently mid-season right now anyway, I started watching Homeland. It's okay. So Far. I like the main character. Of course, the MC is a woman, but at least I don't have to suffer through multiple scenes of her beating up men.

Actually, there hasn't been a single scene where she beats up a man. (Unlike the impossible depiction of Lizzy Keene beating up men a couple times in Blacklist. Or that ridiculously impossible-to-believe Shaw chick beating up men in every episode of POI.)

But that doesn't mean that the character Carrie in Homeland isn't a hero. In fact I think she's a great hero. One thing of note is that the writers of the show have made her into a very flawed individual. Imagine that. A flawed female hero. She's bipolar, and single, with the realization that she will always be single, and her attempt at preventing that has actually jeopardized her job and career.


Pretty good stuff there. But flawed as she is, she's still a hero. I'm watching the final episode of season one tonight, so I hope my appreciation of the show is not ruined. I do have some criticism of the show, however. First, I find it hard to believe that a U.S. Marine who has a loving wife, and two kids, (a son and a daughter who are still teens,) would agree to become a suicide bomber for radical Muslim terrorists.

I mean the guy has a beautiful wife who loves him. Two great kids who need him. And a promising career ahead of him in politics. Add to that that the American public loves him and you have a recipe for a great American life that supersedes any American dream anyone could have.

Yet the guy seems to be fully cooperating in a terrorist plan to put on a "bomber vest" and blow himself up in an act of terror. I happen to know from my own research when I wrote my book The Vase, which involved radical Muslim terrorists, that radical Muslims convince youngsters who don't know any better, or even mentally retarded people to carry out these "bomber jacket" or "bomber vest" suicide missions. How else might someone be willing blow him/herself up?

So the fact that this guy is a fully grown man, seemingly in full control of his mental faculties, and with everything a man might want in life, just doesn't make any sense that he'd become a suicide bomber. Sure he was captured by radical terrorists for 8 years, tortured and manipulated. Sure the little Arab boy to whom he was charged to teach English and then bonded with was a cute little boy with an adorable accent. And sure the explosion that killed the little tyke was as tragic as you can get. But still. I don't buy it.

But again, I haven't seen the last episode of season one yet. As a matter of fact, I'm getting ready to see it right now, since my wife is calling me to come down and watch it with her.

So I'll get back to you tomorrow.