Bringing it all back - Homeland

"Homeland" so far (3 episodes) is one of the best and most promising Showtime enterprises ever - the lot is really engaging and manages to stay just on the near side of credibility. Clare Danes in the lead is terrific as a CIA agent based in DC with no personal life, a slew of problems (including some drug addiction), a need to prove herself to herself (making up for a botched case in which she missed a vital piece of evidence) and to her mentor (a grumbly older CIA operative who begrudgingly gives Danes advice but is a bit of a malcontent - played by the highly mannered Mandy Patinkin) - Danes has eyes on a returned Marine POW whom she believes to be a "turned" prisoner passing some kind of secret messages to a stateside terrorist group - we believe she's right, based on some clues, but there are so many possibilities for double-crosses and double-agents it's hard to know if she's seeing the whole picture. She has set up a rather elaborate surveillance mechanism on the Marine's home, and therefore watches way more of their domestic troubles than she cares to, or needs to - and as for us, we're following both a domestic psychodrama (the Marine's wife had been pretty deeply involved with his best buddy, when they both assumed that he was missing or dead) and in his internal psychic problems (weird sexual hangups following years of captivity) - but there are things we see that she doesn't, including his use of a Muslim prayer mat. Of course my suspicion is that somehow he hasn't been turned but he's trying to get access to a sleeper cell in order to expose it. Anyway, plenty of tension and lots to keep us interested and to keep us guessing, without too much gratuitous sex or violence - very smart series so far (based on an Israeli series, which I'm betting was as good or better - the originals usually are).