Season 4 of Homeland is back and needs a bit of a pick me up after a previously disappointing dip in Season 3. What started out as a must-watch show that had everybody talking, including, apparently, President Obama, limped into a third season that put a lot of fans off with Slate critic commenting that she didn’t care to watch Homeland again because she had "lost faith in its ability to be coherent".

Claire Danes
Claire Danes has won two Emmy's for Best Actress for her role in Homeland

The criticism, and the show’s exclusion from Best Drama category at the most recent Emmys, was a far cry from its Emmy win during its first year.

So Season 4 has a lot to do to regain the greatness that it first had and, indeed, shake off the instability of its recent past - not unlike bipolar C.I.A officer, Carrie Mathison, played by Claire Danes.

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Fortunately, it seems much has changed in this new Homeland and Carrie is firmly back at the front as C.I.A station chief in Kabul where there is a war going on with drones, bombs, violence, protests, mobs and immense power.

Of course, it’s not all straightforward and Carrie has a reminder of her torrid union with Brody in the form of a daughter, although she is successfully ignoring that having left the baby girl back in the US with her sister. There’s also the matter of our heroine’s psychological illness which continues to simmer in the background as viewers watch Carrie struggle with a concoction of drugs.

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However, ultimately, it seems the audience is back on the front line with strikes on terrorists, demands that send people to their deaths and a war with an enemy living and operating in the midst of innocent civilians.

Homeland has been given an energized spirit - let’s just hope it’s done enough to keep the loyal fans that remember just how good it used to be.