"If I lose one more good part of me," she says in a voiceover, "I'll be – transformed." And suddenly, she is, as Megan Boone, who plays Liz, morphs into an animated version of her FBI profiler character in a Season 7 closer that jumps between live-action and graphic-novel-style video. The pilot suggests that Carlisle isn’t a nut or a lone assassin, but his motive for killing the president eventually has to be made clear.As Elizabeth Keen sits next to her comatose grandfather's bed, she thinks of all she's lost in terms of loved ones and her own psyche in Friday's season finale of NBC's "The Blacklist" (8 EDT/PDT). The president has to live or die, and Ellen has to triumph or fail. The lead characters in “Hostages” are enemies with a special connection, but the premise that pits them against each other is almost impossible to prolong. Fortunately, at least one character, her mentor, Saul (Mandy Patinkin), dances to a new tune. The Brody family dynamic isn’t the one that counts in this spy thriller, it’s Carrie’s dysfunctional C.I.A. The third season doesn’t just stretch credulity, it tries patience: Brody is not in the first two episodes - there isn’t even a scene foreshadowing his imminent return - and there are only so many times viewers can watch Carrie go off her medication or Brody’s teenage daughter, Dana (Morgan Saylor), act out. That formula can hold a viewer’s attention for only so long before it starts to feel forced. The conceit of the first season of “Homeland” was that Carrie (Claire Danes) alone suspects that the P.O.W.-turned-hero Brody (Damian Lewis) is a traitor by the end of the second season, only she believes he is innocent. It’s not just sexual tension that wears off after contact so does the piquancy of conflict. When a drama follows the collision course of two enemies of the opposite sex, sooner or later they have to consummate their love, or their hate. And subsequent seasons are more like movie sequels: even good ones rarely live up to the first, and the more there are, the more they strain to work. The best shows these days are more like movies than serials, with narrative arcs that sweep the action and the lead characters to a fixed conclusion. The first two episodes of Season 3 of “ Homeland” are disappointing, and that’s almost inevitable.Ĭonventional television shows are called series for a reason: whether it is “Bonanza” or “Law & Order: SVU,” these are serial dramas engineered to last, with replaceable characters and story lines that begin and end in under an hour. The many layers of feints and puzzles are compelling, but it’s hard to see how they can last more than a season or two. Spader chews the scenery, not human kidneys.) (The show also borrows a bit from “Silence of the Lambs,” but, in this case, Mr. track down his blacklist of master criminals, but on the condition that he deal only with Elizabeth. In the pilot, Reddington turns himself in and offers to help the F.B.I. agent, Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone), is paired with an unlikely partner: Raymond Reddington (James Spader), a former government agent turned criminal consigliere, who sells secrets and abets mobsters, thieves and terrorists worldwide. There is a murky conspiracy at the top, but even Ellen’s seemingly normal suburban husband and two children have secret agendas of their own. “Don’t think of it as killing the president,” Carlisle says. Carlisle then orders Ellen to make her most famous patient die on the operating table. agent, Duncan Carlisle (Dylan McDermott). Ellen Sanders, a surgeon whose family is taken captive by a rogue F.B.I. Each pivots on a heroine who is torn between confrontation and collusion with a male adversary.īoth are suspenseful and artfully layered, and both owe a debt to “Homeland.” But they also share at least one inherent weakness with that Showtime hit. 29, these shows are immersed in Washington intrigue. thriller on Showtime that begins a third season on Sept. Government secrets and betrayal are at the heart of two of the better new network dramas this season: “Hostages” on CBS, and “The Blacklist” on NBC, which both start on Monday. But it’s more likely the influence of “Homeland.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |