Homeland: The Complete Fifth Season

Showtime's espionage series centering on bi-polar CIA officer Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) has won critical plaudits and numerous awards since its 2011 debut. In this fifth season—set a couple of years after the last—Carrie has left the agency and is living in Berlin with her daughter by the late Nicholas Brody, as well as a new boyfriend (Alexander Fehling), while working security for a rich philanthropist named Düring (Sebastian Koch). A hack on CIA computers in Berlin brings Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin), the head of the agency's European operations, to the city to investigate, while an abortive attack on Düring at a Lebanese refugee camp proves to actually have been aimed at Carrie, who goes off her meds in an effort to puzzle out who might be after her. The narrative threads converge in a chain of dark twists and turns that also involve CIA operative Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend), Berlin CIA station chief Allison Carr (Miranda Otto), CIA head Dar Adal (F. Murray Abraham), American investigative reporter Laura Sutton (Sarah Sokolovic) and a host of hackers, jihadists, and Russian agents, leading to a hectic finale centering on an imminent terrorist attack. This set continues the series' tradition of portraying spycraft in the modern age as a brutal business filled with double and triple crosses, serving up sharp writing, crisp direction, and stellar acting, especially from the remarkable Danes. Compiling all 12 episodes from the 2015 fifth season, extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)