History Series / Homeland

** The CIA, in particular an aspiring VP Walden, was responsible for a drone strike that killed [[spoiler: 83 children including Abu Nazir's son Issa who Brody loved like his own son]], just because they were sure Abu Nazir was in the area an though the collateral was worth it and they got away with it. This sets up Brody's revenge plan.

* GovernmentConspiracy: A group of government officials conspires to discredit [[spoiler: and then assassinate]] the President elect in season six.

The show premiered in October 2011 and has won [[UsefulNotes/GoldenGlobeAward Golden Globes]] and [[UsefulNotes/EmmyAward Emmys]] for best series and best main actors (both Danes and Lewis) in the drama category. In April 2018, Claire Danes [[https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/19/entertainment/claire-danes-homeland-season-8/index.html confirmed that the eighth season is the final season]] which was released on February 9, 2020.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: the only way Brody can have some sort of intimacy with his wife, because of his time as a POW. Carrie has a ''very'' awkward moment when she sees that.

** Brody [[spoiler: among other things: he sleeps on the floor to avoid assaulting his wife in his sleep, cowers in a corner of his bedroom all day after slipping into an AngstComa and has [[ADateWithRosiePalms intimacy issues]] due to his time as a POW.]]

* PlayingAgainstType: Melissa Benoist, an actress associated with goody two shoes roles on 'Glee' and 'Supergirl' makes an early career appearance as a wanton party girl having a naked audition to be part of a sheikh's harem.

* PostNineElevenTerrorismMovie: The show can absolutely be renamed, ''American Foreign Policy in a Post 9/11 World: The Series.'' From Carrie's obsession being because she did not stop the New York and Washington attacks to drone strikes in Al Qaeda and ISIS to 4chan social media cyber war against foreign and domestic terror.

* IdiotPlot: [[invoked]] Roya tasks Brody, a high-value public face with top access to American government secrets, to pick up a sleeper terrorist in the middle of nowhere -- one whom they already know has blown his cover and may be under surveillance -- and move him to a new location. The stupidity of this plot is recognized in universe as Brody calls out Roya for it the next time they meet.

* IdiotPlot: Roya tasks Brody, a high-value public face with top access to American government secrets, to pick up a sleeper terrorist in the middle of nowhere -- one whom they already know has blown his cover and may be under surveillance -- and move him to a new location. The stupidity of this plot is recognized in universe as Brody calls out Roya for it the next time they meet.

''Homeland'' (2011-2020) is a [[PsychologicalThriller psychological]] SpyDrama loosely based off the Israeli series ''[[Series/PrisonersOfWar Hatufim]]'' (literally "Abductees", English title ''Prisoners of War'') sharing an executive producer, co-developed by Gideon Raff, Alex Gansa and Alex Bererson, produced by Creator/{{Showtime}} and set during UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror.

The show premiered in October 2011 and has won Golden Globes and Emmys for best series and best main actors (both Danes and Lewis) in the drama category. In April 2018, Claire Danes [[https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/19/entertainment/claire-danes-homeland-season-8/index.html confirmed that the eighth season is the final season]] which was released on February 9, 2020.

* ScaryBlackMan: [[spoiler: Tom Walker]]

-->'''Peter:''' Why don't you tell me just what it is you're doing in there?
-->'''Carrie:''' I'm recruiting someone.
-->'''Peter:''' Really? 'Cause to me, it looks like [[{{Ephebophile}} you're fucking a child]].
-->'''Carrie:''' [[IDidWhatIHadToDo I had two days! I had to move fast.]]
-->'''Peter:''' [[MoralEventHorizon Is there no line, Carrie? Is there no fucking line?]]

* SocietyMarchesOn and TechnologyMarchesOn: Brody is unfamiliar with Vitamin Water while grocery shopping. He refers to a "video called Website/YouTube".

* RealityEnsues: Carrie tries to pull the Good Cop persona on Roya, Brody's terrorist supervisor.
-->'''Roya:''' Have you ever had someone who somehow takes over your life, pulls you in. Makes you do things ... that you know are wrong, but you can't help yourself? Do you have anyone like that?
-->'''Carrie:''' Yes.
-->'''Roya:''' [[DefiedTrope Well, I’ve never been that stupid, you idiot whore!]] You think you understand me? ''You think this is some [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] game?''

* NotSoDifferent:

* AnyoneCanDie: Main Characters -- [[spoiler: David Estes, Abu Nazir, Vice President Walden, Nicholas Brody, Peter Quinn.]] Recurring Characters -- [[spoiler:Cynthia Walden, Finn Walden, Tom Walker, Aileen Morgan, Raqim Faisel, Elizabeth Gaines, Lynn Reed, Fara Sherazi, Astrid.]] And a host of lesser characters that get killed off in droves.

* LoveDodecahedron: Carrie/Brody/Jessica/Mike. It's a constant [[YourCheatingHeart source of friction and awkwardness]].

** Brody, despite being a prominent, unique public face and asset, is tasked with [[spoiler: an ill-conceived petty errand by Abu Nazir's organization: the relocation of a bomb-maker. It goes awry.]] Deconstructed, as he gets increasingly frustrated at being palmed off with jobs that would be better left to other people.

''Homeland'' (2011-2020) is a [[PsychologicalThriller psychological]] SpyDrama loosely based off the Israeli series ''[[Series/PrisonersOfWar Hatufim]]'' (literally "Abductees", English title ''Prisoners of War'') sharing an executive producer, co-developed by Gideon Raff, Alex Gansa and Alex Bererson, produced by Creator/{{Showtime}} and set during TheWarOnTerror.

* SpyFiction: Gritty and dramatic [[TheWarOnTerror post 9/11]] variety centered on the UsefulNotes/{{CIA}}'s anti-terrorism efforts.

* AbortedArc: TheMole in the CIA arc has never been fully followed.

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: When she gets manic flights, Carrie can speak in word salad (a.k.a. schizophasia). As occurs with schizophasia, the words she uses are connected on a semantic level. Carrie's ravings have a morphological connection too: she's very fond of alliterations. [[spoiler: It goes even further, when it turns out that [[IncrediblyLamePun Carrie's Colour Coding]] is connected through pseudorhyme to different phases in Abu Nazir's life: in yellow, he lay fallow, purple indicates his purpose. When arranged as a colour spectrum, this forms a time line, so in a case of fridge brilliance, Carrie made a connection between the chronology and the chromatology, again words with a very similar morphology.]]

* ArmorPiercingQuestion and VillainousBSOD:

* ArtisticTitle: The show's opening credits feature some memorable imagery. Set over light jazz, they imply an origin story for Carrie Mathison, watching news broadcasts of terrorist attacks against the United States when she was younger, along with images of young Carrie wearing a lion costume, and shots of a topiary maze with of her and Brody, implying the complex nature of their "relationship".

* TheBadGuyWins:
** At the end of Season 1. [[spoiler: Even though the original suicide vest plan failed, Brody's public image is still intact as a War Hero, his election as a Congressman all but guaranteed with the Vice President's help, and he's still working with Abu Nazir. Carrie - who has had her career, reputation and emotions wrecked by Brody - ends season one at rock-bottom, undergoing electric shock therapy to help with her disorder.]]
** Season 2 wraps [[spoiler:with a car bomb exploding during Vice-President Walden's memorial service, killing David Estes, Cynthia Walden, Finn Walden, several high-ranking Cabinet officials and over 200 others. Al-Qaeda takes responsibility for the attack and implicates Brody, who insists on innocence. His family is shocked, especially Dana, who stuck up for him under questioning from the FBI. Saul is left as the ranking CIA counter-terrorism officer (and possibly head of the entire agency), while Carrie and Brody split up...for the time being.]]
** Season 3 has more of a BittersweetEnding. [[spoiler:Brody succeeds with killing the head of the Revolutionary Guard and gains a small measure of redemption, but he and Carrie are left at the mercy of the Iranian authorities after being betrayed by Senator Lockhart. Carrie is forced to watch as Brody is hanged in public, now carrying their child.]]
** Season 4 continues the trend. [[spoiler:The entire season sees the CIA being regularly outmaneuvered by their counterparts in the ISI, ultimately ending with a highly successful attack on the U.S. embassy in Islamabad by [[BigBad Haqqani]]. Haqqani gets practically everything he wants and the CIA makes a deal with him that leaves him safe from U.S. retaliation. The entire season is a shut-out victory for the bad guys, with not even a hint of bittersweetness.]]

* BittersweetEnding:
** Season 3: Javadi is successfully placed as the chief of the Iranian Republican Guard, talks with Iran improve to the point that they make a deal to allow UN inspectors to watch their nuclear program and Saul leaves the CIA on a high note... but Brody is hanged without official recognition of what he did, and Carrie is left heartbroken and pregnant with a baby she doubts she'll be able to take care of.
** [[spoiler:Season 8:Carrie becomes Saul's new spy in Russia, but unfortunately, for that to happen, she will be considered a traitor until the end of her life by everyone, including her own family, and will never be able to see her daughter again.]]

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Anyone wondering why Carrie still has a job gets their answer when she single-handedly pulls off an impressive bit of data analysis. Although the fact that [[spoiler:she goes dangerously loopy in the process and nearly blows her own operation leaves the question open.]]

* TheChainsOfCommanding: The war on terror is is a very DirtyBusiness full of hard decissions, which takes a toll on the ones who have to face difficult choices and live by them.

* CynicismCatalyst[=/=]CreateYourOwnVillain:
** The death of [[spoiler: his pupil Issa in a drone attack is what pushes Brody over the edge and sets him in the path of revenge against the Vice President.]]

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu - There is no other way to really describe the Season 2 Finale. [[spoiler: Abu Nazir succeeded in launching a terrorist attack against]] ''[[spoiler: the Central Intelligence Agency, and crippled its organization.]]''

* GenreDeconstruction: It deconstructs the counter-terrorism thriller. Rather than action heroes or superspies the CIA protagonists are more like academics and bureaucrats. For the most part, the terrorists are not portrayed as monsters; some are sympathetic and most, while clearly villains, nevertheless have motivations one can understand. Any use of violence to fight terrorism most often kills civilians more than terrorists, at times creating more terrorists; and a fair amount of time is spent exploring the motivations of the terrorists and how/why they chose this life. Finally, the CIA leadership and politicians are more interested in appearing tough on terror than actually being effective. There are a few protagonists that are truly committed to protecting the nation, but at least as many are committed to keeping themselves covered and looking tough more than to actual security.

* GoodIsNotNice: The CIA officers. They might help secure your country, but they're not exactly people you want to be friends with.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: The whole show is full of it. On one side is the CIA and the US government, who are repeatedly shown bending and breaking their own rules. This is often shown to put lives at risk. On the other side is a war hero who suffered years of torture by Al-Qaeda, [[spoiler:and has been turned into a WellIntentionedExtremist after witnessing the murder and (subsequent cover-up) of 83 children in a US drone strike]]. When Abu Nazir is directly involved it becomes BlackAndGreyMorality as he has a prior history of [[ItsPersonal non-personal]] killings in several spots around the globe and the American operatives, despite their flaws, try to draw a clear line between warfare and terrorism and don't condone the actions of their Vice President.

* ILetGwenStacyDie: [[spoiler: Carrie's callgirl contact, Reed.]] Carrie doesn't handle the death well and considers herself at least partially responsible for it [[spoiler: especially since she promised Reed (non-existent) protection beforehand]]. She also seems to treat 9/11 as a whole this way.

* InvulnerableKnuckles: Averted. Brody uses a bag of ice to deal with his swollen knuckles after delivering a pretty vicious beatdown to Mike. He also points to his bruised knuckles after decking a Neo-Nazi not long afterwards.

* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Done to [[spoiler: Brody by Peter Quinn]] as a part of a GoodCopBadCop routine. Subverted in that it's only meant as a setup for [[spoiler: a gentler personal interrogation done by Carrie]] and not for immediate results; [[spoiler:Carrie and Saul]] are shocked when it happens and quite genuinely drag him bodily from the room, and afterwards wonder whether his flip-out was really 100% theatre [[HairTriggerTemper or not]]. The usage of the trope has an added meta-interest as Howard Gordon and other writers of the show also worked on ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]'', where Jack Bauer mastered it.

* SpyFiction: "Stale Beer Flavored"; gritty and dramatic [[TheWarOnTerror post 9/11]] variety centered on the UsefulNotes/{{CIA}}'s anti-terrorism efforts.

* StockholmSyndrome: The reason Carrie believes Brody is a TurnCoat or ManchurianAgent.
* StringTheory: In the first season's 11th episode (The Vest), Saul can only make sense of Carrie's various notes, documents and pieces of information after he applies them in an orderly way to a wall that connects all of the bits in a spatial fashion. There are no strings, though, so this might belong to a (existing?) higher-ranking trope of "external thinking", expressed through spatial arrangements of information.

* TooDumbToLive: Saul really picks up the idiot ball in "About a Boy." Having spotted Farhad Ghazi at the airport, Saul phones Quinn to let him know that Ghazi is on line for a plane to South Africa. Then Saul sees Ghazi going into a restroom, followed by two suspicious-looking men who then immediately leave. Now, the one thing Saul knows about Ghazi is that he works for the ISI and that arranged the murder of the previous CIA station chief in Islamabad. So what does Saul do? Does he wait for Ghazi to come out of the restroom, knowing that the restroom cannot possibly have another exit? No. Instead, he walks into the restroom, out of sight of any witnesses, where Ghazi and his men then drug and kidnap Saul.

* UnfortunateNames[=/=]MeaningfulName: Richard Johnson (Dick Johnson), a member of the House of Representatives who is involved in a sex scandal. [[InUniverse Jessica and Brody find it hilarious.]]
* VillainProtagonist:
** Brody is an Islamic terrorist, kills people, cheats on his wife, etc., etc.
** Allison, introduced in season 5 is close to being the main viewpoint character (with the normal protagonists playing a HeroAntagonist role) and is a DoubleAgent for Russia who is party to murders, plays the rest of the cast against each other, and attempts to evade discovery and capture.
*** As with Brody, she's a (villain) {{Tritagonist}} with Carrie the main protagonist and Saul remaining the {{Deuteragonist}}.
* VillainHasAPoint: [[spoiler: Abu Nazir is the mastermind behind the deaths of untold civilians in terrorist bombings, and he's hypocritical in saying so, but in the aftermath of a botched drone strike that kills 83 children, including his young son, at a nearby school, he's got a point that the Americans have innocent blood on their hands too, and especially as they refuse to admit they did anything wrong.]]

* [[spoiler:BittersweetEnding: Javadi is successfully placed as the chief of the Iranian Republican Guard, talks with Iran improve to the point that they make a deal to allow UN inspectors to watch their nuclear program and Saul leaves the CIA on a high note... but Brody is hanged without official recognition of what he did, and Carrie is left heartbroken and pregnant with a baby she doubts she'll be able to take care of.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Carrie becomes Saul's new spy in Russia, but unfortunately, for that to happen, she will be considered a traitor until the end of her life by everyone, including her own family, and will never be able to see her daughter again.]]

''Homeland'' (2011-) is a [[PsychologicalThriller psychological]] SpyDrama loosely based off the Israeli series ''[[Series/PrisonersOfWar Hatufim]]'' (literally "Abductees", English title ''Prisoners of War'') sharing an executive producer, co-developed by Gideon Raff, Alex Gansa and Alex Bererson, produced by Creator/{{Showtime}} and set during TheWarOnTerror.

The show premiered in October 2011 and has won Golden Globes and Emmys for best series and best main actors (both Danes and Lewis) in the drama category. It has just concluded its seventh season. In April 2018, Claire Danes [[https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/19/entertainment/claire-danes-homeland-season-8/index.html confirmed that the eighth season is the final season]] which will be released of February 9, 2020.

* HistoryRepeats: The show begins with Carrie investigating a recently-freed captive whom she suspects has been compromised by his captors. The final season has another recently-freed captive coming under the same suspicion -- only this time, [[DramaticIrony it's Carrie herself]].

* SleepDeprivationTorture: The series has an interrogation scene where a prisoner has been deprived of sleep with sporadic Death Metal blasts.