Showtime’s dramatic thriller Homeland was a mixed bag in its third season, mining extremely tense scenes from a storyline that treaded through unnecessary waters. Thankfully, Fox 21 and Showtime are taking the series to an all-new location for Season 4, and production is set to commence this summer in Cape Town, South Africa, which will serve as the Middle East, despite all of its bottom southness. There are spoilers ahead for those who haven’t yet caught up to the shocking Season 3 finale, so you might want to let the CIA get a hold of this story and redact all the information you’re not allowed to know just yet.
Having filmed its last three seasons in Charlotte, NC, the award-winning Homeland is heading out into the field to give Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) a chance to prove herself yet again as a dependable point woman for the agency that just can’t make up its mind about what to do with her. When we last saw Carrie, she was 8-months pregnant for Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis), who was publicly hanged before her eyes. The episode was kind of a downer, to say the least, but a necessary one to move this story forward.
Post-maternity-leave Carrie will be serving as the CIA station chief in their Turkey headquarters, where dangerous people are around every corner, and she won’t be able to run home to her dad anymore. (R.I.P. James Rebhorn.) It’s confirmed that Mandy Patinkin will be back as the rage-controlling Saul Berenson, and Rupert Friend will continue being one of the smoothest heroes on TV as Peter Quinn. Nazanin Boniadi, the Iranian-British actress who came in as the “what’s her story?” analyst Fara Sherazi in Season 3, was recently promoted to a regular cast member, so she’ll probably serve as Saul’s information center for a while.
Homeland has been a surefire awards magnet since it began, sweeping the 2012 Emmys and taking home Outstanding Lead Actress (Danes) and Outstanding Writing in a Drama (Henry Bromell) in 2013. As well, the show and its cast and crew have been the recipients of Golden Globes, AFI Awards, Edgar Awards and even a Peabody in 2011. Something tells me putting Carrie’s bi-polar shitkicking personality back into the war zone is going to create even more acclaimed drama. It’s strange how much I miss having her make every situation imaginable at least twenty percent more uncomfortable.
The series will begin shooting in Cape Town in mid-June, and will continue through November, with Season 4 presumably beginning in its usual spot of late-September/early-October. Now let’s have a moment of silence for Nicholas Brody.
