‘Homeland’ season 6: Show boss on specific threat facing Carrie, Saul, and America

If there is one thing that “Homeland” has managed to do over the years, it is remain incredibly relevant to things going on in present-day America. At times, the similarities are often eerie and prophetic, and there is a certain awareness of that among the show’s executive producers. Moving forward with the series, we get the sense that they want to do so delicately, and not in some ways implant an idea that could come to fruition. Think of this mostly as being smart.

In speaking about this subject specifically — while also detailing some of his own particular plans — show executive producer Alex Gansa passed along the following message to Entertainment Weekly:

“Last season, world events tragically caught up to the story we were telling,” Gansa says. “We knew we were going to New York and back to the United States. And didn’t want to dramatize any threats to the United States — and to New York specifically — that don’t actually exist. That was our first karmic principle this year. We’re not going to posit that there are vast ISIS or Al Qaeda cells or networks in the United States like there are in Europe, because according to all our intelligence officers, there aren’t any.

“The threat we’re facing right now are these do-it-yourself self-radicalized individuals — and that’s a very different risk than another plot like 9/11. So we made a very conscious choice to not tell a ‘New York threatened by suitcase nuclear bomb’ story. We just weren’t going to do that. The thriller exists in a much more psychological way this year, and we’re curious to see how people respond to it.”

While maybe there will be some people out there looking for a grander sort of story than a “psychological” one, this is the sort of care that we wish some other showrunners out there would take at the moment. While art is art and should hence not be limited by its surroundings, at the same time we’re in an era where sensitivity is needed and we’re not sure anyone would appreciate seeing a story about threats that aren’t there in reality, and ones that could become threats because of them being put out further into the universe.

This new season is going to premiere in the new year, and will feature Claire Danes’ character trying to help Muslims in America working outside of any government agency. You can read more about the show over at the link here. (Photo: Showtime.)