If you’ve somehow managed to avoid any exposure to Showtime’s charged thriller “Homeland” and were to happen across the trailer promoting its upcoming third season, it’d be easy to mistake the series for a melodramatic soap opera. Set to the Cinematic Orchestra’s “To Build a Home” (honestly, who picked this song?), the promo drips with melancholy and heavy-handed emotional triggers.
Homeland
C
September 29
HBO
The explosion at the end of the last season has set off a series of consequences, including a Senate hearing that has Saul looking as exasperated as ever and Carrie making her signature all-mushed-up sad face. Brody’s bloodied and bald, and his once-again-abandoned family is unraveling at the seams. Dana’s apparently giving sexting a whirl (a storyline I’m not looking forward to), and dabbling in Islam as well (a slightly more promising plot path).
“Homeland” isn’t just a post-9/11 spy series; the show expertly injects human experiences and emotions amid the bombs, moles and shootouts. At times, it looks closer to a family-centric drama than an action-thriller. That emotional drama is heightened in this trailer, and the tone crosses into downright schmaltzy territory that’s almost laughable.
Hopefully the promo is as misleading and over-embellished as most tend to be. Otherwise, we’re in for a whole lot of slow-mo, close-ups of hands and intense whispering this season.