1. HOMELAND
The best new series of the year is Showtime's twisty nail-biter of a psychological thriller, an emotionally intense cat-and-mouse game between two damaged souls: Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody, a Marine POW who may have been turned by terrorists during eight years in Iraqi captivity, and Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, the unstable CIA analyst who breaks all the rules to get under his skin — and at times under the sheets. (Bringing new meaning to undercover agent). The actors are as electrifying as the storytelling in this taut tale of homeland insecurity, which also features a marvelously restrained Mandy Patinkin as Carrie's melancholy mentor and a revelatory Morena Baccarin as Brody's understandably conflicted wife. Homeland comes from the veteran producers of 24, who have lost none of their knack for sustained suspense, but within this more realistic framework have been able to concoct a thoughtful and gripping meditation on the human toll of the war on terror.
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The new fall TV lineup is full of trends — fairy tales, manly men, etc.— but there's one we just can't get behind. What's with all the guys sporting long hair and scruffy beards?
Fall Preview: Get scoop on all the new and returning shows
Don't get us wrong: The look works for Sean Bean and his period piece brethren on Game of Thrones. Sadly, we can't say the same about Two and a Half Men's Ashton Kutcher or Chris D'Elia from NBC's Whitney. Even the usually clean-cut Luke Wilson is hopping on the bandwagon on HBO's Enlightened.
Add fall shows to your Watchlist and never miss an episode
What do you think? ...
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Send questions to askmatt@tvguidemagazine.com and follow me on Twitter!
Question: [From Twitter] I'm wondering if holding shows like Smash, Good Christian Belles, Awake, etc, to midseason might backfire. If the most promising shows don't debut until 2012, who's to say more viewers won't flee to cable between now and then? — Dennis
Matt Roush: A good and fair question, and one that I imagine may dog the networks as the TCA critics' tour gets underway over these next two weeks. I can't remember a season when the anticipation for midseason replacements has so upstaged the fall ...
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In its first-season finale, Game of Thrones tied up its loose ends as well as a sprawling fantasy epic could be expected to. More importantly, it left us wanting more by introducing us to Daenerys Targaryen's little ... friends. We bid our spoiler-filled goodbyes below.
TVGuide.com's Hanh Nguyen is an avid scripted-TV watcher, a horror-avoider and someone who's read George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire book series, on which HBO's Game of Thrones is based. Colleague Rich Juzwiak rarely watches scripted television, is a gorehound and became alerted to Martin's existence just recently, as he started researching this new swords-and-sandals (well, boots) series. He knows nothing of these sorcerers (if that is indeed what they are), while Hanh is something of an expert (read: fantasy/sci-fi nerd). Each week, he'll try to make sense of this crazy new show by enlisting Hanh's expertise. It may turn out to be a test of tolerance: in this case, the Games begin after the TV is off...
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