Homeland season 7 episode 1 review: It feels we're no longer watching the same Carrie Mathison

*Minor spoilers below*

(Showtime)

It’s somewhat unfair that Homeland has become a series maligned for still being on the air four years after it should have ended for the simple reason it's actually remained rather decent.

However, while the series' reinvention following the departure of Damian Lewis may have led to two of the decade's most exciting seasons of television (trust us), the series has bolshily staggered back on the air with a dramatic sideways stride that emphasises its relevance with as much subtlety as a travelling circus.

Rather than shedding its feathers like the previous three outings, Homeland season 7 is a direct continuation picking up months after the climactic events which saw beloved character Peter Quinn bow out in a hail of bullets as General McClendon (Robert Knepper) led an assassination attempt on the life of President-elect Keane (Elizabeth Marvel).

The turn of events may boast a welcome similarity to 70s conspiracy, but Keane's characterisation feels more a convenient opportunity for the writers to transform the straight-laced leader we met last season into a vindictive borderline fascist in an attempt to procure relevance in a post-Trump world (Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon made no secret of the fact they had to change track after Clinton lost the election).

In fact, Keane has undergone such a drastic personality change in the space of 13 episodes that it'd be no surprise if we're treated to a midseason flashback episode showing her embroiled in a ridiculous Face/Off style plot twist with Dar Adal (F. Murray Abraham) or other such shady government officials that comprise the furniture of this series.

There's a lot going on elsewhere: Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin) is behind bars following Keane's imprisonment of 200 members of the intelligence community while the unbearable right-wing media man Brett O'Keefe (Jake Weber) is on the run spouting his anti-Keane sentiments in whichever anonymous building he can.

Fortunately, weighing Homeland with an air of watchable familiarity is Claire Danes who returns once again as Carrie Mathison. When we first see her, she's running - not from terrorists or bullets but on a treadmill in her sister's home in Washington. Any sense that our protagonist is far from her hyper-manic ways, however, is put to bed when mere minutes later she's grabbing a gun from a wardrobe and donning her trademark grey blazer before setting to her day's work of uncovering a government conspiracy that only she seems convinced is actually happening.

So far, so very Homeland - which was never really a problem until now. As an ever-paranoid Carrie runs frantically from room to room, sets up shady backroom meetings with notable figures and illicitly spies on government officials, the episode smacks with the feeling that plausibility is finally wearing thin: it almost feels we're no longer watching the same Carrie who fell in love with Brody, got kidnapped by the world's most dangerous terrorist or, just last season, served as an advisor to the President of the United States of America.

This sense is aided by the scepticism displayed by those around her, namely sister Maggie (Amy Hargreaves). "The country is in freefall and tearing itself apart," Carrie protests as her sister questions her mental state, a frustrating fallback for every Homeland character at one stage or another. Once a successful device to rabble rouse viewers' hopes that Carrie proves everyone wrong, it now feels like a cheaper trick than ever.

Still, Homeland's opener packs enough tension and intrigue to keep the attention of committed folk which, for a series on its seventh run - with an eighth final outing seemingly confirmed - deserves some kudos. If the twists keep rolling, this particular batch of episodes has the potential to be the most entertaining if ultimately throwaway ones yet.

Homeland returns to Channel 4 on 18 February, 9pm

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