Is Homeland the new 24?

I watched the first episode of Homeland the other week and everyone I’ve spoke to about it has asked the same question ‘so is this the new 24?’

And if the first episode is anything to go by I’m going to say NO. Homeland will not be the new 24. It will be better.

Ok so I highly doubt that Claire Danes will travel to Africa and break a mans neck with her thighs (Jack Bauer Redemption) and she probably wont kill 267 people in 8 years (that’s the actual amount of people Jack killed by the way) She probably wont kill her best friend, survive 4 years in a Chinese prison, be inches away from a nuclear explosion and develop a heroin problem. So no it wont be the new 24 and it wont be better then 24. But when you put it like that what is?

On first inspection Homeland seems like the sensible 24. For one it’s only 12 episodes long so it doesn’t have to fit a load of unnecessary story lines into one series. It also has better actors. Now I’m not saying Keither Sutherland was a bad actor but lets face it Claire Danes and Damian Lewis are remarkably better (the main reason being that they don’t speak in a whisper/shout voice) and it looks exciting! Not as exciting as 24, but the first episode had more twist and turns then 4 seasons of True Blood. I was on the edge of my seat immediately. There was none of this settling in and getting to know the characters nonsense, it was full on from the get go and after two years of not having 24 I instantly felt like I needed this show in my life.

I’ve only watched one episode of Homeland and I’ve seen all 8 seasons of 24 so it has a long way to go until it can be put in the same class as 24, but I’m expecting big things.