Homeland Season 3 – date, time, channel

Your DVR and/or remote control are going to get quite a workout this Sunday, Sept. 29, TV fans. Of course, there is the series finale of Breaking Bad. There are also a number of season premieres, as well, notably among the FOX animated shows. But one of TV’s other acclaimed and very popular dramas, Homeland, is also back that night, and it will be interesting to see how it fares against Breaking BadHomeland Season 3 premieres Sept. 29 at 9pm ET/PT on Showtime (ahead of Showtime’s excellent new drama Masters of Sex).

Homeland has been a pop-culture phenomenon in its own right, ending its second season with its highest ratings ever (over 7.5 million viewers). It’s also a critical favorite, and just last week won three of its 11 nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards, including Claire Danes’ second win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Carrie Mathison.

homeland season 3

Based on the first episode of Homeland Season 3, it looks like Claire Danes might have a good shot at another nomination, too, as Carrie takes center stage in the wake of last season’s bombing at Langley. Carrie is called before a Senate committee, and goes off her lithium, leading to some intense scenes and powerful acting from Danes.

Claire Danes told reporters at a recent press conference about Homeland Season 3, “Carrie is always sitting on, you know, her own personal ticking bomb, and it’s just an impossible dilemma because she is not great on the meds and she’s even worse off of them. But there’s a really great sweet spot, you know, in the middle of those two states that she’s always trying to land on where she’s, you know, exceptionally high performing, and we get to enjoy her process of finding that balance. It’s pretty bleak in the beginning [of the season]. She’s gone off her meds for all sorts of reasons which, you know, I think she believes strongly in. Yeah. But it’s always a little precarious.”

Saul (Mandy Patinkin), Jessica (Morena Baccarin) and Dana (Morgan Saylor) also figure prominently in the first episode. One person who doesn’t — and who doesn’t appear in the first two episodes, at least, though he certainly is discussed — is Brody (Damian Lewis). At the press conference, co-executive producer Alex Gansa explained why (but wouldn’t say exactly when Brody would make his first appearance).

“The decision to not have Brody in the first two episodes was strictly a function of the story and where the story was taking us, and so much was transpiring on the ground in Washington that Brody’s ‑‑ you know, his flight from America just made it impossible to include that storyline in the first couple of episodes. And whether there’s [audience] backlash or not is completely out of our control.”

Damian Lewis reiterated those thoughts to reporters.

“It is a function of the story that we don’t see Brody,” Lewis said. “Brody is on the lam. You know, he’s disappeared into a network of a tunnel system, an exfiltration procedure which Carrie has effected, and he’s the most wanted criminal in the world, arguably, at this point. So he has to lay low. And I think, when you do see Brody, I think the ‑‑ hopefully, which will be of interest to the audience, is what state will he be in?  Is he, you know ‑‑ is he swanning around a yacht off the Côte d’Azure, surrounded by a bevy of Russian beauties or ‑‑ that was the pitch I plugged in ‑‑ or, you know, is he hidden away, you know, securely somewhere, or is he lost? But I hope that when we ‑‑ when you do see Brody for the first time, it will be ‑‑ it will be interesting.”

Homeland Season 3 airs Sundays at 9pm ET/PT on Showtime beginning Sept. 29.

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Homeland Season 3, Episode 2 photo: Kent Smith/Showtime