Overview: Carrie Mathison (Golden Glober winner Claire Danes), a brilliant but volatile CIA agent, suspects that a rescued American POW may not be what he seems. Is Marine Sgt. Nicholas Brody_(Damian Lewis) a war hero...or an Al Qaeda sleeper agent plotting a spectacular terrorist attack on U.S. soil?

Blu ray Verdict: Wow! Yup, that was my first impression of the very first episode! Wow! And there it is again for the second. I think you know where this is ehaded for 'Homeland is, simply put, INCREDIBLE in all that has gone into it, and the suspenseful story that is being told along the way.

I have been a HUGE fan of Lewis since his unjustly-cancelled TV series 'Life' was taken from our prime time viewing schedule. Danes has never set my world alight, in truth, but she's ok in a non-descript way, I guess. That's "in general," of course, because here she steps up the acting job ten fold and gives the best on screen character persona I've ever witnessed from her.

The story reveals itself as thus: Carrie Mathison (Danes) is a CIA operations officers working in Iraq. She has an asset in prison who is about to be executed. He has information she wants. He tells her she can't help him now. Carrie convinces him she can help keep his family safe.

He tells her that an American prisoner of war had been turned by Al-Qaeda. During a Delta Force raid, Nicholas Brody (Lewis), a U.S. Marine Sergeant, is rescued. He has been a prisoner of war for eight years. Jessica Brody (Morena Baccarin) and his two children, Chris and Dana had suspected he'd been killed. Nicholas' best friend and fellow Marine, Mike, also thought him dead so eventually began a relationship with Jessica.

OK, I know, but stay with me here as it does get more credible! Carrie is convinced Nicholas is part of a sleeper cell, waiting to carry out another terrorist attack on American soil. But her bosses are not so sure, and as they pull the strings, well, she is assigned the under-the-radar duty of babysitting him - until he does something to threaten the US (or not, as the case may be!)

Fun Fact: Even though we live in sensitive times, and the 11th aniversary of 9/11 has just been and gone, 'Homeland's pilot episode received 1.08 million viewers, becoming Showtime's highest-rated drama premiere in eight years! Indeed, at the 69th Golden Globe Awards Claire Danes won Best Actress in a Drama Series. And 'Homeland' also won Best New Series from the Writers Guild of America Awards 2011.

And so, in closing, sure you are trying to continually figure out if Nicholas really is the bad guy, or perhaps some kind of double agent deep under cover is playing them all, but that's what makes this kind of show work. Trust me, this is 100% the show you need to watch this Fall on DVD or Blu ray. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs, and has been remastered into a crisp Blu ray production.

Disc 1:
Pilot
Grace
Clean Skin
Semper Fi
Blind Spot
Deleted Scenes

Disc 2:
The Good Soldier
The Weekend
Achilles Heel
Crossfire
Deleted Scenes

Disc 3:
Representative Brody
The Vest
Marine One
Deleted Scenes
Under Surveillance - Making Homeland
The Visit: A Prologue to Season 2