Spy thriller borders on Reality TV
It’s no coincidence popular drama mirrors what’s happening in D.C.
Homeland Season 7 debuts Sunday, Showcase/Super Channel
The gritty spy thriller Homeland has a way of incorporating very real elements — like the fake-news phenomenon, tension between a U.S. president and the intelligence community, and the war on terror — into its highdrama storylines. The show’s seventh and penultimate season looks like more of the same ripped-from-the-cable newscaptions action.
We chatted with showrunner, writer and producer Alex Gansa about how he (sometimes) nails the details of intelligencegathering, filming this season in Richmond, Va., and the things the show has in common with President Donald Trump.
Q What was in the news when the show was being written?
A Well, now you’re testing my memory — so much has happened, my God! It is astonishing. Not only terrifying that it’s all real, but terrifying to try to parallel on our show, and we’re worried that the news will outpace the story. We started to think about the season in late April. That’s when we take our annual field trip to Washington, D.C., and sit down with all our consultants and people in the intelligence community and a number of journalists.
In previous years, we’ve had people who work in the White House and State Department, although we weren’t privy to that this time around. Donald Trump had been president for a couple of months ... and North Korea was really on the table. North Korea doesn’t figure into our story this year, but there was a tremendous amount of concern about what the administration was planning on the North Korean Peninsula.
Q So how have current events found their way into the upcoming season?
A You have an embattled and isolated president believing that the “deep state” is against him. In our story, we have a president who feels the same way.
The main way is this antagonism between a newly elected president and the people that populate the government, the people who are there from one administration to the next. It’s that essential conflict between these two camps that has really influenced the show. And just how divided and polarized America is right now. When you find democracy split down the middle like that, it becomes a very vulnerable target for other countries who might want to weaken us. So that’s also become a big part of the story this season.
Q So is this season like Donald Trump’s fever dream?
A The show isn’t about the Trump administration at all.
It’s its own fiction. But part of the exciting thing about writing Homeland is we are writing the show in real time, more or less, so we can’t help but have what’s going on in the real world influence the story and the way we tell the story. When a big piece of news breaks, sometimes it can’t help but lend itself to the story. It’s fun to write. And we can educate people at some level about the internal dynamics of how Washington works.
Q You have lots of high-profile fans in the government, like former presidents Obama and Clinton and in the intelligence world. Does that make you feel pressure?
A It is a little intimidating to know that those people are watching. But we can’t help but get things wrong. The dramatic licence we have to take will be met with eye rolls from some of our consultants. But what is most rewarding to us is that we are confident that although we might not get the letter of this stuff right, we are most often getting the spirit of it right. That’s where we draw the line.
Q Why set this season in Washington?
A If Hillary Clinton won, would we be filming Homeland in D.C. now? I think not. There is some- thing compelling and, for some of us, disturbing about what’s happening to the country. If Hillary Clinton were president, it would be business as usual. It wouldn’t be this 24-hour news cycle where something crazy happens every day.
Q Do you ever imagine President Trump watching the show?
A Something tells me he’s not watching hour-long dramas. I may be wrong; if he was watching this show, that would be fantastic. When Obama watched the show we were all incredibly honoured. If (Trump) is, I’d love to have a conversation with him about it.
When you find democracy split down the middle like that, it becomes a very vulnerable target for other countries.