HAHAHAHA, Fucking Homeland!


SPOILERS


So I was looking for an image to explain one of the few bits I liked about this shitshow and got a "where did we leave our characters?" content-mill spew:

Carrie:
Where she left off: The CIA placed her on administrative leave, which Saul said meant her days with the agency were over, and her work was discredited to the point that no one believed her crazywall's worth of color-coded evidence. She pieced together that Brody really is a terrorist and tried to plead with his daughter Dana, but that just landed her in jail. Disgraced, desperate, and unemployed, she decided to undergo electroconvulsive therapy to treat her bipolar disorder. And then, just before the first shock that would jangle her short-term memory, she remembered how Brody had once cried out "Issa" (the name of terrorist mastermind Abu Nazir's late son, killed in an American drone attack) in his sleep. She was just about to connect the dots that Issa's death had radicalized Brody when zap. But maybe she'll remember?

HAHAHAHAHAHA Can you FUCKING imagine something more at home in a lower-ranked Dallas episode? "OMG I hope it wasn't all a DREEEEEAAAAAM!"

OMG! I just watched season 2 episode 12. I liked Walter up to this point now I I hate his fucking guts and hope he chokes on his own vomit because thats what he let happen to that poor girl! Argh!!!!!!! I don't know if i even want to watch this shit anymore I am so fucking angry now!

Oh yeah and some other shows I thoroughly enjoyed:

recnt:
Community
old:
Battlestar Galactica
Firefly
Misfits
The Tribe
X-Files

The guy in Homeland was the star of Life. I loved his Zen ex-con / rich detective character. I used to think I prefered gritty realism over pretty much anything. That was until I watched The Road. As a life long fan of all things post-apocalyptic The Road was pretty much the turning point when for the first time I realized even I (who I didn't think I had any standards) actually have my limits.

I don't do depressing or completely nihilistic. Real life as I have experienced it or atleast witnessed first-hand if not directly experienced has served me my fill of gritty realism and hopelessness and depression and futility and nihilism. I've had quite enough of it.

So for me to consider anything 'entertainment' it must have a pretty strong fun factor to it. Even if it's insane scarey-psychotic funhouse/thrill-ride kind of fun. Or perhaps a more all encompassing term for it would be energy. Whether its negative or positive energy I feed on it like a psychic vampire. If I am going to live vicariously through some fictional characters role-playing with each other all I ask is that they remind me what it means to be alive. I don't want to be reminded of how dead inside I've become in my 40 years.

I'm only on the second season of Breaking Bad right now and it definitely has been worth watching so far. It has completely drawn me in and I feel compelled to see it through to the very last episode no matter what happens because I have all sorts of ideas and theories about what I think is going to happen in the long run and I can't wait to see what other kinds of seemingly impossible to get out of situations they can get themselves into and then back out of again. Will they continue just barely surviving as they have been or will they finally come out on top for once so that their struggle is no longer about survival so much as maintaining the flimsy empire of cards they've haphazardly constructed?

Breaking Bad has just the right balance of edge of your seat anxiety followed by measured doses of tension breaking climax. It's fun in an exciting, scarey roller-coaster kind of way, but only because it lets you off after fairly short but exhilarating rides. Some may get sick but I'm one of the many who run to get back in line for another ride.

HAving said that I wouldn't put it at the top of my list of all time favorite TV shows. Of the more recent shows I've watched some I would rank higher follow:

Chuck
Life
Reaper
Supernatural

..not necessarily in that order - but I certainly enjoyed them a hell of a lot more than I am Breaking Bad. Except when Supernatural became all about Lucifer and angels it become a lot less fun to me. I think I had the most fun watching Chuck if I had to choose one. I guess I'm a true nerd so I identified more with his character than any others. Perhaps thats another important factor. How well do we personally identify with the main characters we watch?

Prove me wrong. I got bored 1/3 of the way through Season 2. Give me an episode to watch.

It's an on-going narrative, so unfortunately we can't just throw out an episode for you to watch like it was The Honeymooners. =(

Understood. I will download the first episode of this "Homeworld" show.

That's funny, it's usually hard to find someone saying something negative about something on the internet. But we found it! Right here in our own back--

I have seen three episodes of Homeland, the first two, and the last, and there is no way in the universe I think anyone could watch any of those and think the Wire is better. At least the first season. The Wire has no fucking ART to it. It's GRITTY AND REALISTIC AND THEY SAY FUCK A LOT. And maybe it gets more artistic as the show goes on, but Homeland and Breaking Bad have really raised the bar on that so high at this point that I'm guessing even the most artistic Wire episode will be found wanting.

Prove me wrong. I got bored 1/3 of the way through Season 2. Give me an episode to watch.

Yeah, that sounds like a show that is greater than the Wire.

Pinback, take your Homeworld and stream it up YOUR ASS. I demand you finish The Wire. I am still in no position to make demands.

I got like 9 episodes into Homeland and it went from setting up so many interesting ideas to just completely ignoring them for a straight good/evil set up liberally sprinkled with impossible TV bullshit that I let the last 2 episodes sit on my PC for months before admitting to myself that I just did not want to watch this show.

I really liked that one dude in the show "Life" on NBC. I haven't seen Homeland, though.

This is the wrong discussion to be having, anyway.

The correct discussion is:

Breaking Bad vs. Homeland

I missed most of Homeland season 1, but I did see the finale, which was extraordinary. Never before has watching how it ends made me want to watch everything leading up to it, but I am now, and there can be no question that Homeland is the second best TV show there is.

Anyone? Anyone seen it?

It just gets so good, season 2. Trust me, it is much better than 1. I HAVE WATCHED EVERYTHING YOU TOLD ME TO DAMMIT.

I liked GoT okay. Don't see the "magic" of The Wire. Didn't PULL ME IN. Coulda watched the next episode, or coulda not. Either way.

I think BB ruined TV, because everything is pretty terrible in comparison.

If Pinback is incapable of enjoying Game of Thrones, why would he even give The Wire a chance?

Come on. You seriously can't have given up on THE BEST SEASON OF TV EVER already? Humor me here.

I think this thread might be over. We're two episodes into Season 2 now, and I like it a lot, Kathy thinks it's boring, but the point is, it's so dry and drab and lifeless compared to BB that I don't think there's any real comparison.

"THERE'S NO MUSIC IN THE WIRE EXCEPT FOR THE OPENING AND CLOSING CREDITS! THAT'S HOW GRITTY AND REALISTIC IT IS!!"

Fine. I get it. Gritty and realistic. I like it a lot, too! I will watch all the episodes. And perhaps this just comes back to personal taste, but the worst episode of BB had more artistic, electric flair to it than the best episode I've seen of the Wire.

So maybe that's it. If you like artistic, electric flair, you'll end up on the BB side. If you like gritty realism and people saying motherfucker and nigga every three seconds, you're a The Wire guy.

Me, I can't believe it's so close in the court of public opinion. Maybe it's just that The Wire is a perfectly cooked steak, and BB is a perfectly cooked burrito with lots of cilantro and hot sauce.

You know I love that vibrancy, that brightness of flavor, that hot sauce.

I'll take the burrito, please.

ROUND 4: SEASON TWO, EPISODE ONE

The Wire: This is more like it! Same kinda gritty feel, but with a much <s>whiter</s> more interesting cast and a more interesting backdrop (the "docks"), with more established characters and more, dare I say it, artistry? I even noticed a couple really cool camera angles in there! Way to go, David Simon! And the three Likeable Black Guys (Stringer, Avon, Bunk) made quality appearances. Alright!

BB: Begins with the ultimate cold-start mind-fuck, and a teddy bear with half his face blown off. I don't remember what happens the rest of the episode, but I do remember (don't read this, Flack) that the cold open eventually ends up being a total misdirect by the end of the season.

WINNER (AND I'M MAINLY DOING THIS BECAUSE I THINK THIS IS THE ONLY CHANCE THE WIRE HAS OF WINNING ANY OF THESE ROUNDS, AND I'M STARTING TO FEEL BAD FOR IT): THE WIRE!!

ROUND 3: SEASON ONE

Well, we just finished Season One of the Nigga Mothafucka Show. What do you want me to say? It is a cop show. It is a very good cop show! I will watch more of this, this "Wire". By the time the last episode ended, I was actually starting to be able to figure out who all the characters were and what the hell they were talking about. It is very well done!

Where The Wire concerns itself with attempting to portray a dark realism, almost documentary-style, Breaking Bad exults in a joyous, playful artistry to the proceedings. Two completely different approaches to television. Is The Wire the best version of its own style? Perhaps, we'll see where Season Two takes us.

But not once did the credits roll on that show leaving me with the kind of live-wire, exuberant satisfaction with which even your average episode of BB (is there such a thing?) leaves its mark.

Admit it, how many times were you just left giddy and exhausted when you saw that black screen with

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Vince Gilligan

It's just a show that revels in its abandon, and manages to make you laugh, cringe, and shit your pants the whole way along.

The Wire in contrast is clinical, and while perhaps just as, if not more exacting in its attention to detail than BB, when the black screen rolls at the end, I've felt appreciation plenty of times, but never that electricity. Was never left with that amazed, dopey grin on my face.

WINNER: BREAKING BAD

Yes, there are black people in it. If you hate black people, just wait a few episodes. There are good and bad ones, you fucking simpleton fuck.

I'm watching it. I'm enjoying it. I'm expecting great things. But you can't tell me you were totally drawn in by the first three episodes. Nigga mothafucka.