Reason Writers Watching TV: Peter Suderman on Homeland in The Washington Times
Reason Associate Editor compares Showtime's new war-on-terror procedural, Homeland, with its predecessor, 24, in today's Washington Times:
Osama bin Laden is dead. But TV's war on terrorism — long identified with "24" — didn't die with him. Instead, it has changed with the times, reflecting a decade-long shift in the public mood about the costs and consequences of how America pursues terrorists. The vehicle for this evolution is Showtime's "Homeland."
Like "24," the new series is a terrorism thriller that chronicles a high-stakes hunt for an elusive terrorist mastermind suspected to be planning some sort of attack. But where "24" captured the Bush-era zeal for revenge with a combination of vicarious violent thrills and absolute moral certainty, "Homeland" offers a far less enthusiastic, far more ambiguous picture of an uncertain campaign against an uncertain enemy — and a security infrastructure that is often as invasive as it is effective.