Stacy Horn

I just watched the Homeland season finale, read a bunch of reviews, and here’s what I think.

What I liked: when Quinn refused to kill Brody and made sure no one else did, and all of his reasons for doing so. Such compassion and integrity. (Oh God, do I now have a crush on a trained assassin?) What I didn’t like: when all is said and done, I don’t like Brody and I’m with Saul, Carrie is the smartest and dumbest person ever. While I agree with Quinn, who hasn’t made a bad romantic choice, this is rather extreme.

That said, one of the more interesting things about Homeland is how Brody was portrayed. As many others have already pointed it, Brody is a bad guy but it isn’t all black and white. I personally think he’s definitely more bad guy (killing one of his military buddies, and then killing the Vice President with such intimate passion) but the point is the show didn’t make him a cartoon terrorist. For me the finale is a success because it sets us up to go deeply into the gray areas they have already established with this character.

If Brody really didn’t participate in that bombing, through the process of Carrie clearing his name, the show must now fully explore all those gray areas of his character and our war on terrorism. First, she must show how he became what he became. Yes, he was weakened by years of captivity and manipulated, and he’s shown weakness of character that must have been there all along, but how did we help make him the man he became? Then they must answer the question: is there any chance for redemption for Brody, beyond killing his character, which is the customary end for characters who have done something usually considered irredeemable, but are shown to be not all bad or truly remorseful. And since it would also be about redemption for us too really, the answer to that question is even more difficult and complicated.

The problem is, either Carrie is going to tell Saul what she did or he will figure it out and now Carrie is an enemy of the state, and I don’t see how that complication is going to add anything. It would be SO interesting to watch how anyone who doesn’t see the world in black and white is as demonized as the cartoon bad guys (if that is, in fact, what’s going to happen next season). To see her struggle to make a culture that is dead set against seeing the gray areas to see those gray areas would be so exciting! But if the CIA believes they have a reason for demonizing her—she aided a terrorist—it becomes a less subtle, less interesting battle for her and for me as a viewer. It would be much more compelling to watch them demonize her for being smart and having vision and then have her turn that around (hopefully), rather than for making such spectacularly bad choices in the name of love that they view her as a terrorist/accomplice. For that reason, I wish they had let Brody get away in some other way. I wish they had Carrie believe him and not kill him and just let him run out on his own.

Now she has to also prove her innocence. Maybe Quinn will be the first to come to believe her. But in the beginning, he’s going to feel responsible for all those deaths, which is going to be awful. After seeing him be so heroic, I don’t want to see him suffer! For that reason, maybe he will come after her harder than anyone else at first.

Also, Carrie doesn’t know Brody killed his friend, or killed the Vice President with such apparent conviction that this was okay. Maybe Brody had to convince himself that the Vice President was that evil it was in order to do it, (and he was no prize) but Brody is still more bad guy than good guy, which Carrie must eventually see. What then? Oh wow, I meant this to be a lot shorter review and I have to go now! I will probably have to edit this later.

Later: I wanted to add that I agree with people who say Brody is not in love with Carrie. His expressions of love are never convincing. And what was that about looking sad when she said she chose him? The writers specifically wrote in the mixed signals so it has to mean something.

My brother put Christmas lights on one of the trees uprooted by Hurricane Sandy. I wish my night shot had come out better but it didn’t.

It looks like Bleeck is not going to back-jump Finney into a drooling, shivering blob in the corner, with his paw up asking, “Have you considered meds?” Bleeck still does it (jumps on Finney’s back, wraps all his legs around Finney’s belly, clomps onto his neck and then will not let go) but he’s learning no and he’s doing it less. He’s doing everything Finney hates less, and Finney is finally getting that I understand that the kitten is insane and I’m on it, but the truth is, Finney is just mad that Bleeck is out-eviling him. The stories I could tell you about Finney (I no longer own any glassware.)

They don’t curl up together, but Bleeck wants to be wherever Finney is and Finney is tolerating it as long as Bleeck doesn’t try to curl up. Except Finney definitely has a “I’m just biding my time” expression here. “Soon this place will be back to mine, mine, all mine.”

Here, Bleeck got the lap space this time, but I’m pretty sure Finney pushed him out of it seconds after this picture was taken. Don’t feel bad for Bleeck, he gets plenty of lap time.

Nothing serious! But I woke up and Echo’s web server was down. Echo is the social network I run, and we also have a web server, which hosts this blog, among other things. When I called our host to fix it they brought both our machines down! The web server is now back up, but I’m in state, waiting for the machine that hosts the social network part to come back up.

Aaaaaaaand I just burned my breakfast/lunch. Terrific. This is not an apartment with a lot of back-up food. I’ll update later.

Update: Echo is completely back up, burnt food eaten.

I took this on my way to the best Christmas Eve party EVER. It snowed while I walked, and then turned to rain by the time I got there. But I was strolling in the snowfall for a few minutes!! It was great.

The musicians and some of the singers. I wasn’t kidding when I said this was a great party. It was such a wonderful group of people, every one of them open and friendly and interesting, and it was in an apartment that had that old New York feel which is almost entirely gone. I was so happy. The hosts were two sisters who lived in my building about twenty years ago and I ran into one of them on my roof last 4th of July. They’ve known my next door neighbors since they were children, so she was there to watch the fireworks.

The guy in the plaid lives in Vermont but he’s been coming down to Jane Street near me for the past 24 years to sell Christmas trees. That’s his son on the bass. Ohmygod, I just realized, the Christmas trees I posted the picture of other day were his! Here he is, on the far left!! Isn’t that funny? You take a picture of some random guy, and a couple of days later you’re sitting next to him, singing.

This is the penthouse view, taken last night during the best dinner party in New York City! (Thank you, Peter and Miguel!) I asked Peter if they sometimes dance around the apartment singing, “I just adore a Penthouse view …” (if you’re not a baby boomer, or boomer-ish, you probably don’t know the reference). My camera doesn’t do night shots very well, but this is the Empire State Building of course, all dressed up for Christmas.

I originally planned to lounge about watching Christmas tv all day, leaving the house only to pick up a Christmas present I ordered for someone, hopefully getting some fun pictures of Christmas Eve in the city along the way, and I might still do that, but I’m deciding.

What is everyone else doing today??

I meant to post about this yesterday, because there was an article in the Times about how Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol was going to air last night for the first time in decades. (Except I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it on TV within the last five years or so.) I love Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol and I watch it every year. I do have a couple of disagreements with the author of the article, though.

One, he thought the song Winter is Warm was the emotional core of the movie, and I don’t know. That was always a slow section for me as a child, although as an adult I appreciate the bittersweet beauty of it. And two, he went on about the humor of We’re Despicable section, which was never funny for me, then or now, and it goes on way too long. I love that I can fast forward through it these days.

For me the emotional core of the movie is the conflict and truth between the tragic All Alone in the World (my favorite song in the movie) and the redemptive The Lord’s Bright Blessing. I’d include The Winter is Warm and make it a tragic/redemptive triangle, but Belle is dropped in this adaptation. Dickens gives her a husband in the book, thank you, Dickens. In fact, why is Belle either dropped or ends up a spinster in movie (or animated) versions?

I learned that the animator Darrell Van Citters has actually written a book called Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol: The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special. I will have to take a look!

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Another nice thing about living in New York City: someone is always promoting something and you could just be walking along the street and someone hands you free stuff. The people in this picture gave me a candy cane and a truly lovely blank notebook. The day before, when I was walking home from the gym, I got a bottle of a something called NeuroBliss (which I haven’t tried yet).