The eighth and final season of the American spy thriller television drama seriesHomeland premiered on February 9, 2020, and concluded on April 26, 2020, on Showtime, consisting of 12 episodes.
Plot
Saul Berenson, the National Security Advisor for newly inaugurated President Ralph Warner, is assigned to negotiate peace with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Carrie Mathison is still struggling to recover from her brutal treatment as a prisoner in Russia, but Saul wants to take her to Afghanistan, feeling her knowledge and experience there are essential.
Cast and characters
Main
Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a former CIA case officer and station chief
The eighth season was ordered back-to-back with season 7 in August 2016. In April 2018, Claire Danes confirmed that season 8 would be the last, and Showtime officially confirmed the final season in August. In April 2018, showrunner Alex Gansa stated his plans for the final season, "Season 8 will be overseas somewhere. We get to play a story with larger national stakes in season 7 and we'll go back to a smaller intelligence-based season in 8." He also stated, "We're going to start fresh in season 8 and probably do a fairly big time jump between 7 and 8 and put any Trump parallels behind us" and "We'll tell a very contained story, hopefully in Israel." In January 2019, it was confirmed that the final season will take place in Afghanistan, with filming beginning in February in Morocco. The season was originally planned to debut in June 2019, however, it was delayed until late 2019 "because of production demands of our international locations", per Showtime co-president Gary Levine. In August 2019, Showtime delayed the premiere again to February 2020; Levine stated, "Homeland is an ambitious series — especially in its final season. Alex wants to go out proudly, and that has involved production in multiple countries at times and in places that have some issues. It just takes time." He added, "There have been no missteps. It's been a relatively smooth process. But it's a very ambitious production schedule and it has taken more time than we ."
Reception
Early reviews for the eighth season have been generally positive. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an approval rating of 85% based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 7.27/10. The site's critical consensus is, "Homeland returns to form with a tautly thrilling final season that fittingly finishes the job Carrie Mathison started all those years ago." On Metacritic, the season has a score of 71 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Robert Rorke of the New York Post wrote, "The first three episodes are a bit clunky, with Carrie's familiar pattern of alienating nearly everyone she meets kicking in again – and then Episode 4 comes along and Homeland finds its groove." Ben Travers of IndieWire gave it a "B+" grade and praised the performances of Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin, as well as the direction by Lesli Linka Glatter for "for her beautifully staged and tensely cut action sequences".
