Homeland (season 4)


The fourth season of the American television drama series Homeland premiered on October 5, 2014, and concluded on December 21, 2014, on Showtime, consisting of 12 episodes. The series started as a loosely based variation of the two-season run of the Israeli television series Hatufim created by Gideon Raff and is developed for American television by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa. The fourth season was released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 8, 2015, and became available for streaming on Hulu on August 1, 2016.

Cast and characters

Main

Plot

In the fourth season, Carrie is working as a CIA station chief in Kabul, Afghanistan. Pakistan station chief Sandy Bachman tips Carrie about the location of terrorist target Haissam Haqqani in Pakistan. Carrie orders an air strike, supposedly killing Haqqani, and 40 civilians are killed as a wedding was taking place at his location. A survivor of the air strike, Aayan Ibrahim, after losing his family, returns to medical college where his friend uploads the wedding video from Aayan's phone. This causes uproar and Sandy Bachman is attacked in the streets of Islamabad by an angry mob, after his picture somehow finds its way onto local TV. Carrie and Peter Quinn try to rescue him, but Bachman is dragged from the car and killed, while Carrie and Quinn barely escape. They are recalled to the U.S. by CIA Director Lockhart. Carrie contacts another agent who reveals Sandy was trading state secrets in exchange for target info and Lockhart was aware of it. Carrie blackmails Lockhart to send her back as the new station chief in Islamabad, Pakistan. There, Carrie sets up another secret base with Max and Fara and convinces Quinn to join. Saul arrives at the embassy to oversee private security. Carrie asks Fara to recruit Aayan but she fails to do so as Aayan is too scared. Carrie then makes contact with Aayan offering help, to smuggle him out to London. Fara later follows Aayan to a mosque where it is revealed that Haqqani is alive and being helped by his nephew Aayan with stolen medicines.
Meanwhile, ISI official Tasneem Qureishi contacts the ambassador's husband, Dennis Boyd, revealing the latter as the source of Sandy, by stealing info from his wife, Martha. Tasneem forces Dennis to continue working for her. Aayan confesses to Carrie that Haqqani is still alive. In a staged attack set up by Carrie and her people, Aayan flees the safehouse and makes contact with Haqqani. Carrie monitors Aayan via drone leading them to Haqqani. Dennis gives info about Aayan to Tasneem who alerts Haqqani. Haqqani's men have kidnapped Saul and Haqqani meets Aayan in the mountains where Saul is shown captive. Haqqani blames Aayan for the drone tracking him and kills Aayan. Carrie, out of anger, orders a strike but Quinn intervenes. Haqqani demands five prisoners to be released in exchange for Saul. Lockhart arrives at the embassy to manage the situation. Saul escapes from captivity and calls Carrie who leads him to a nearby town for extraction, but he is later surrounded with Haqqani's men and Saul is recaptured. Lockhart agrees to the terms of the prisoner exchange. At the embassy, Dennis is caught as the leak and imprisoned. Saul is successfully exchanged, despite not wanting the deal to go through.
On their way back to the embassy Carrie's convoy is hit with RPGs by Haqqani's men. Haqqani infiltrates the embassy by a hidden tunnel and kills several people. Threatening to kill more people, Haqqani demands the list of informants, which Lockhart eventually gives up. However, Haqqani kills Fara, and Quinn attacks, forcing Haqqani to retreat and escape. The convoy gets help from the Pakistani military after a delay. The White House cuts relations with Pakistan and orders an evacuation of the remaining embassy personnel. Quinn escapes the embassy and plans on killing Haqqani. Carrie stays behind to find him. During a rally of Haqqani, Carrie forces Quinn to abort his plan on killing him and discovers Dar Adal in Haqqani's car. Back in the U.S., Carrie reunites with her estranged mother. Quinn accepts a dangerous assassination mission in Syria. Later, Carrie confronts Dar Adal who reveals Saul as a supporter of a deal made with Haqqani, to take him off the CIA kill list, in exchange for the only video evidence of Saul in Haqqani's custody. Carrie leaves in anger and confusion.

Production

On October 22, 2013, Homeland was renewed for a fourth season, consisting of 12 episodes. Production and filming for the fourth season began in June 2014, shifting production to Cape Town, South Africa. Executive producers for the fourth season are Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Gideon Raff, Alexander Cary, Chip Johannessen, Meredith Stiehm, Avi Nir, and Ran Telem.

Casting

, who had a recurring role in the third season as Fara Sherazi, was promoted to series regular for the fourth season. Several actors were cast for the fourth season in June 2014, including new series regular Laila Robins, as well as Corey Stoll, Suraj Sharma, Raza Jaffrey, and Michael O'Keefe, who all have recurring roles. In July 2014, Nimrat Kaur, Mark Moses and Art Malik were additionally cast in recurring roles.

Reception

Critical response

The fourth season has received generally positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic, it has a score of 74 out of 100, based on 22 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season received an 82% rating based on 49 reviews with an average rating of 8.0/10. The critical consensus reads "Homeland is back on top, with a renewed energy and focus not seen since its first season." Verne Gay of Newsday gave the season premiere an "A+" grade and wrote that the show "feels as fresh, important and relevant as yesterday's news -- or tomorrow's news. A bracing, intelligent start." Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe noted it has improved over its previous seasons, and wrote, "The rebooted Homeland promises to be an engaging, streamlined CIA thriller with a few big ideas about America and the war on terrorism." Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times also noted the series improvement and wrote, "Early episodes are strong, if not as shattering as the inaugural season." The season finale was well-received, with Rotten Tomatoes giving the episode a 100% rating based on 12 critic reviews, saying "Subverting expectations, "Long Time Coming" makes for a smart, sharp, and satisfyingly subdued finale for an excellent season of Homeland."

Accolades

For the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards, the cast was nominated for Best Drama Ensemble, Claire Danes was nominated for Best Drama Actress, and the series was nominated for Best Stunt Team. For the 72nd Golden Globe Awards, Danes was nominated for Best Actress – Television Series Drama. For the 67th Directors Guild of America Awards, Lesli Linka Glatter won for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series for the episode "From A to B and Back Again", and Dan Attias received a nomination in the same category for directing "13 Hours in Islamabad". For the 5th Critics' Choice Television Awards, the series was nominated for Best Drama Series and Mandy Patinkin was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
For the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards, the series received five nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series, Claire Danes for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, F. Murray Abraham for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, and Lesli Linka Glatter for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for "From A to B and Back Again".

Criticisms

Laura Durkay of The Washington Post criticized the show for perpetuating cultural stereotypes and Islamophobia.
According to media reports, Pakistani officials were unhappy over the depiction of Pakistan in the fourth season. Nadeem Hotiana, spokesperson of Pakistan Embassy, said, "Maligning a country that has been a close partner and ally of the US is a disservice not only to the security interests of the US, but also to the people of the US." A source was quoted as saying, "Islamabad is a quiet, picturesque city with beautiful mountains and lush greenery. In Homeland, it’s portrayed as a grimy hellhole and war zone where shootouts and bombs go off with dead bodies scattered around. Nothing is further from the truth." The alleged Islamabad scenes were filmed in Cape Town, South Africa. The officials also lashed out at "absurd" portrayal of terrorist treatment in Pakistan, saying, "Repeated insinuations that an intelligence agency of Pakistan is complicit in protecting the terrorists at the expense of innocent Pakistani civilians is not only absurd but also an insult to the ultimate sacrifices of the thousands of Pakistani security personnel in the war against terrorism."