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[Bunta]

This Laura-argument for not telling the authorities, when you've had a sarin-demo on television with a threat of an attack happening in the next 24 hours, is fucking stupid.

Yes, it's hilarious how stupid her argument is.

 

[Zaph]

I don't get the "Dar so dumb duh" train: It's pretty evident he knows, he just doesn't want to believe it because it's an enormous political defeat.

Allison still rationalizing that she's not actually hurting the US when she blew up a plane six episodes ago is hilarious, though.

You know that thing Dar did during this episode where he said something foolish in front of Carrie and Saul, then said what he really thinks in front of just Saul moments later? It's taken 10 episodes to get there.

"Dumb Dar" still showed up this episode too. Only 24 hours after being so convinced Saul might be a traitor that he's being prepared to ship him back to Langley (which may as well be a life long prison sentence), he tells Saul that him and Etai are off the hook because Ivan confirmed the plane story. But then Dar tells Saul that he also suspects Alison and Ivan are lying. How does Dar know he's not getting played again? It's so easy to run circles around him and make him doubt his most loyal colleague.

Also, the plane thing. Ivan confirmed the story to Dar, so why isn't he asking Alison why her "top informant" didn't tell her the SVR is about to blow up their big play for Syria? Or if he couldn't get the information to her in time, why not afterwards? You know, when Alison was running around (pretending) to get proof it was Saul/Israel for Dar?

 

[kirblar]

Dar wants to bury Allison in the beauracracy rather than deal with the fallout of this going public. Hes probbly not wrong.

 

[Saty]

Lemme get it straight, you have a top agent under arrest with a mountain of alleged evidence to go through, but you LET HER GO?! She shouldn't be seeing the sight of day until the investigation is completed! Dar fucking shares with Allison new intel even though he recognizes there are stuff that currently unexplained and he takes her to talk with Ivan!! Where Allison can make how many head signal she needs. AND he lets her walk freely outside - surely, if you have any slight suspicion Allison was indeed a mole for the Russains the past 12 years, then surely you'd think she might have ways to communicate if you let her out in the public!!! Cue the Russian agent walking the dog and putting of the cig which is probably code for 'everything under control'.

http://webm.host/d78e0/vid.webm

Utter trash.

 

[Aureon]

Lemme get it straight, you have a top agent under arrest with a mountain of alleged evidence to go through, but you LET HER GO?! She shouldn't be seeing the sight of day until the investigation is completed! Dar fucking shares with Allison new intel even though he recognizes there are stuff that currently unexplained and he takes her to talk with Ivan!! Where Allison can make how many head signal she needs. AND he lets her walk freely outside - surely, if you have any slight suspicion Allison was indeed a mole for the Russains the past 12 years, then surely you'd think she might have ways to communicate if you let her out in the public!!! Cue the Russian agent walking the dog and putting of the cig which is probably code for 'everything under control'.

http://webm.host/d78e0/vid.webm

Utter trash.

Nobody cares about russians right now. T'sall about isis.

 

[stn]

This season started off strong. I thought we'd have more action and suspense with Quinn's assassin role. Since then...

-Too much "coincidence" used to build drama
-Too much stupidity on behalf of the characters
-Quinn's story has sucked ever since he got injured

Still watchable but definitely digressed in quality rather quickly.

 

[DerZuhälter]

Yeah thought it was pretty surprising and poor of them to be directly referencing the Paris attacks in the show.

This so much. Extremely low.
But what do you expect from these dumbwitted producers.
A buddy of my girlfriend works for a subsection of the BND, and told us that the shows producers actually called and asked what kind of vans/cars would be used by BND if they'd kidnap someone.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Yeah thought it was pretty surprising and poor of them to be directly referencing the Paris attacks in the show.

Um... why? Is it OK for them to reference 9/11 because it was a longer time ago? I don't get it.

 

[Squalor]

I hope these last two episodes are the end of Plotland.

Everything and everyone is acting in service to this ridiculous plot.

Who is this Dar Adal? His actions are absurd and antithetical to his characterization from previous seasons except maybe the end of last season. Conveniences are running rampant.

Let it die.

 

[Zaph]

Um... why? Is it OK for them to reference 9/11 because it was a longer time ago? I don't get it.

If you have to ADR in the reference, then yes, it may be too soon and comes across exploitative to up 'ripped from the headlines' ante.

 

[Saty]

Common guys, unless i'm completely wrong, this episode wasn't written, shot and produced last month. I think they mean the January attacks, which on the other hand weren't in a scale that would invite the comparison? Could they have shot this scene separately last month and added it in? Dunno.

 

[sangreal]

"Let's send full tactical teams to investigate 14 possible terror sites, for the other one it'll just be us two, Carrie! We can bond over killing terrorists!"

The old lady walking her beautiful dog was Putin, he is very hands on when it comes to his double agents.

not to mention Carrie is a private citizen

 

[Deku Tree]

Did anyone yet dissect the scene where Allison puts out a smoke on her shoes soul and the older woman across the street pats her dog three times? Allison giving a signal to the Russians?

 

[sangreal]

Did anyone yet dissect the scene where Allison puts out a smoke on her shoes soul and the older woman across the street pats her dog three times?

I mean, it was obviously some signal for her russian handlers, but who knows what it meant

Allison always looks so suspect when she is smoking

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

We have to protect him! who cares about the terrorist threat! I'm a journalist!

lol pathetic. Also the Allison ridiculousness is straight up out of hand now. The writers don't even know how to untangle her web of lies so they're just forgetting certain things happened.

Still entertaining enough though.

 

[BeforeU]

lol lot of stupid shit in this episode as well, I think this entire season has been the stupidest. One can only enjoy if they shut off part of their brain. but whatever, I still like it.

Did anyone yet dissect the scene where Allison puts out a smoke on her shoes soul and the older woman across the street pats her dog three times?

Yeah, the fuck was that? seemed so random

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

AVclub had a funny comment about that annoying ass person:

I swear sometimes I want to leap through the screen and throttle Laura Sutton. This week she’s urging Otto During to keep one of the Plotsenzee prisoners out of police custody even though he could have material information pertaining to the Sarin attack. She even uses 9/11 and the subsequent wars as justification, making her pretty much the most awful character in a season populated by the same people who gassed Quinn.

 

[chalkitdown1]

I never noticed this was already airing, last season was really great (except for the ending) is this on the same level?

Not even close. It's verging on average to bad mostly.

For me it's S1 > S4 (minus the finale) > First half of S2 > Second half of S3 > S5 >>>>>> second half of S2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> first half of S3.

 

[firehawk12]

This season started off strong. I thought we'd have more action and suspense with Quinn's assassin role. Since then...

-Too much "coincidence" used to build drama
-Too much stupidity on behalf of the characters
-Quinn's story has sucked ever since he got injured

Still watchable but definitely digressed in quality rather quickly.

This is 24 all over again. It's just demanding that we take it seriously because there isn't Jack Bauer doing stupid shit all the time.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

‘Homeland’ Season 5, Episode 10: An Intelligence Expert Weighs In

Allison's explanation that she was recruiting Ivan (instead of the other way around) completely defies logic.

The CIA is a secret organization, but it’s still a bureaucracy. Even in a bureaucracy, someone at this level would be reported higher. Allison puts the blame on the dead guy, saying he didn’t report it, but that doesn’t seem likely. If you’re recruiting a high-level agent from the SVR, someone we now know was one of the leaders of the U.S.-Russian chemical-weapons negotiations, it would have gone higher.

This would be something that the station chief himself, if he hadn’t died, would’ve been in big, big trouble for not reporting higher. So, that argument is problematic. And Saul seems to know that. He seems to be making that argument.

Another thing with that story that rubbed me the wrong way, was the fact that if the Russian government and the SVR knew that the barrels of the sarin-gas precursor were stolen from northern Syria, even they wouldn’t keep this knowledge to themselves. As tense as things are between the U.S. and Russia, there are certain things that we share on the intelligence side: It’s stuff about terrorism, and it’s stuff about weapons of mass destruction. The SVR has a dog in this fight. If we find out about [the sarin] after one of our cities gets hit, that’s the worst thing that can possibly happen to [the Russians]. So we come together on certain issues – even with our potential adversaries.

This is really good analysis of chasing down the building and cross-checking the different potential places with the tile, along with where the terrorist leader, Bibi, bought cellphones. I liked seeing that. However, again, this is Carrie working on her own, and she’s not an analyst, she’s an operations officer. It doesn’t mean she’s stupid, but it just means this is not her training. This is not a one-man or one-woman situation. If they thought there was going to be a sarin attack in Berlin, there would be armies of analysts working on this, not just one dude with a computer. There would be people using supercomputers, back at Langley and Fort Meade and the NSA and everywhere else trying to track this stuff down. It wouldn’t just be some algorithm that the Joint Special Operations Command used in Afghanistan. So, again, this idea of the lone wolf – in this case, it’s the lone-wolf CIA operations person, vs. teamwork. True, it’s not that interesting to see people sitting at cubicles typing at computers – you want it to be a main character, you want it to be Carrie. But it’s not realistic.

More at the link.

 

[NeoGiff]

Common guys, unless i'm completely wrong, this episode wasn't written, shot and produced last month. I think they mean the January attacks, which on the other hand weren't in a scale that would invite the comparison? Could they have shot this scene separately last month and added it in? Dunno.

No, they've just used ADR to insert a line from Alison referencing the recent Paris attacks. While she's saying the line, the shot is very blatant;y focused on Dar, and her voice sounds slightly different than the lines that came before.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

Did anyone yet dissect the scene where Allison puts out a smoke on her shoes soul and the older woman across the street pats her dog three times? Allison giving a signal to the Russians?

That HAD to be something. Maybe the Russians checking in, maybe they plan to extract her. I figured it's significance would be explained this episode, but I suppose they're saving it for later.

 

[pj]

AVclub had a funny comment about that annoying ass person:

What she said worked against her stance. "You know what happened last time there was a big attack? The government violated everyone's rights and started a couple wars and wasted trillions of dollars."

So let's not hand over this guy because he might prevent that from happening again

?????????????????????

 

[Squalor]

Laura Sutton is one of the worst characters I've seen on television in the last few years.

I swear her character description must have been nothing more than "annoying, shrill female."

They could have written her to be all about liberty and personal freedoms without making her so fucking detestable. I just want to reach through my television and slap her. I wish someone in the show would.

 

[spindoctor]

How come Carrie has forgotten that she actually called up Allison when the plane was blowing up? She already knows who gave the kill order against her but doesn't mention it...

 

[Aureon]

How come Carrie has forgotten that she actually called up Allison when the plane was blowing up? She already knows who gave the kill order against her but doesn't mention it...

She doesn't know Allison picked up that phone - it was a burner phone, and all allison said was "Da?"

 

[rtcn63]

With Laura, I can't help but think the writers didn't like Snowden and his ilk and really wanted people to know it.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Homeland has been renewed for a 6th season.

 

[Tugatrix]

She doesn't know Allison picked up that phone - it was a burner phone, and all allison said was "Da?"

if a friend of yours answered on any phone you would recognize the voice everywhere

 

[Squalor]

if a friend of yours answered on any phone you would recognize the voice everywhere

Uh, she answered in a foreign language.

They hadn't spoken in a while. Carrie was under much duress and stress at the time.

Nah, pretty sure you're wrong.

Homeland has been renewed for a 6th season.

God. Fucking. Dammit.

Well, I'm out. These two episodes are it for me. Can't even make myself pretend to hate-watch this show anymore. I'm done.

I see they've also renewed The Affair. Everything is going so well right now. Two seasons with this story would be perfect. I see Showtime isn't content to let even one show end before they drag it out and ruin it (except for maybe cancelling The United States of Tara). Thanks a lot, Showtime.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

God. Fucking. Dammit.

Well, I'm out. These two episodes are it for me. Can't even make myself pretend to hate-watch this show anymore. I'm done.

I mean, it was never not going to be renewed. It's Showtime's flagship show.

 

[The Dutch Slayer]

AVclub had a funny comment about that annoying ass person:

bwhahahah so true man she is so so so bad.

 

[Dysun]

Homeland has been renewed for a 6th season.

Cool, it's always a good watch even if it strays into 24 land too often

 

[Aureon]

if a friend of yours answered on any phone you would recognize the voice everywhere

Through phone noise, and in a foreign language?
I barely get it's them when they use a different phone.

 

[Immortal Technique]

I've had friends call me that I didn't immediately recognize. And they were speaking English. And people I would reasonably expect to hear from.

To recognize someone from one word on a cell phone in a foreign language, when you're not expecting a familiar person, that would have to be one incredibly distinctive voice.

 

[dead souls]

I mean, it was never not going to be renewed. It's Showtime's flagship show.

Exactly. It's probably staying on until Danes wants out.

I'll never understand why people get so mad at Showtime for acting like any other network and renewing shows that are performing well for them.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Exactly. It's probably staying on until Danes wants out.

I'll never understand why people get so mad at Showtime for acting like any other network and renewing shows that are performing well for them.

Yeah, people should save their ire for when Showtime prematurely cancels one of their shows

Spoiler

RIP The Borgias

 

[chalkitdown1]

Sleeper Cell and Brotherhood

 

[CoolOff]

Sleeper Cell was fucking awesome.

 

[Immortal Technique]

I see they've also renewed The Affair. Everything is going so well right now. Two seasons with this story would be perfect. I see Showtime isn't content to let even one show end before they drag it out and ruin it (except for maybe cancelling The United States of Tara). Thanks a lot, Showtime.

I'm curious what networks you think would shut down The Affair after two seasons.

 

[dead souls]

I'm curious what networks you think would shut down The Affair after two seasons.

Exactly. A superb cast, mostly great reviews, passable ratings. Why not keep it on?

Yeah, people should save their ire for when Showtime prematurely cancels one of their shows

Spoiler

RIP The Borgias

I almost mentioned The Borgias in my post. If only "Showtime runs every show into the ground" was true in its case. I still miss it.

 

[Dysun]

Sleeper Cell was really good

 

[chalkitdown1]

Ironically, Sleeper Cell is one show that probably should have ended after 2 seasons, there wasn't really any place for it to go after the end of season 2 without completely changing the premise. I just wish they knew about the cancellation ahead of time so they could give it a proper ending.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Ironically, Sleeper Cell is one show that probably should have ended after 2 seasons, there wasn't really any place for it to go after the end of season 2 without completely changing the premise. I just wish they knew about the cancellation ahead of time so they could give it a proper ending.

I like to think of the season 2 finale as the proper ending

 

[harSon]

Sleeper Cell was so good.

Spoiler

My boy Darwin went next level with eye for an eye, and hit homeboy's wife with a fucking guided missile

That and Traitor are probably two of my favorite tv shows/films that touch on the War on Terror.

 

[chalkitdown1]

I like to think of the season 2 finale as the proper ending

I would have liked it if we had heard a gunshot from the child soldier to make it less ambiguous about what happened.

 

[Persona7]

How many episodes does this season have left?

 

[Niraj]

How many episodes does this season have left?

Two more

 

[Persona7]

Two more

thanks

 

[Tugatrix]

Ok grant it may not be easy to identify a person voice, but we are talking about spies who are trained for this kind of things, also Carrie knew that had to be someone related to Saul, so what other female might that be? Yeah Allison