How Obama's Iran deal screwed up Homeland's third season

Saul Berenson's grand scheme to assassinate an Iranian official as part of a CIA-orchestrated coup has been bettered by a simpler real-life option: Diplomacy

Obama, Homeland
(Image credit: (Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images, Kent Smith/SHOWTIME))

In a press conference less than 24 hours before Homeland aired the ninth episode of its uneven, Iran-focused third season, President Obama took the podium to offer a brief statement about a breakthrough deal on Iran's nuclear program. The president described a diplomacy that had "opened up a new path toward a world that is more secure — a future in which we can verify that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful and that it cannot build a nuclear weapon. For the first time in nearly a decade, we have halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear program, and key parts of the program will be rolled back."

That announcement comes at a strange time for Homeland, which has built a big following by depicting a harrowing post-9/11 political landscape that feels eerily plausible. And the show's third season has been all about Iran. Homeland's vision of the U.S.-Iran relationship shares at least one compelling similarity to real life: The Western world is obsessed with whatever nuclear enrichment might be afoot. But otherwise, the events of this past weekend showcased a sharp contrast between Homeland's fiction and the facts of real-life U.S. diplomacy.

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John Hendel writes about technology and media policy on Capitol Hill for Communications Daily. He has published articles for The Atlantic, The Millions, Splitsider, and elsewhere.