48HOMELAND

Aired: SHOWTIME, 2011-Present

Homeland is a more humanist and psychologically disturbing version of 24, a show on which co-creators Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa were writers. If 24, which debuted soon after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, represented the hardline zeitgeist approach to counter-terrorism work, Homeland's view is different. "Even on 24 we met with interrogators who would insist that the way that you got the most actionable intelligence from people was to establish a human connection," Gansa said. At the center of this is "an unreliable narrator and an ambiguous protagonist." The protagonist is a kidnapped U.S. Marine returning home as a sleeper Islamic militant, and the unreliable narrator is a mentally ill CIA agent trying to expose him before he carries out his deadly mission. The pilot was influenced by the Israeli TV series Prisoners of War, created by Gideon Raff, who is also an executive producer on Homeland.