Homeland Season 3: What is Going On? Other Stuff TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been attempting to get familiar with some of the new shows and attempts to keep other shows fresh and exciting. I'm going to give my two cents on a few things and will cover Homeland and The City of Life and Death in more detail. New Shows: Mom on CBS with Anna Faris has been entertaining thus far. It's another Chuck Lorre show that's been pretty solid. Anna Faris is a very young mother of two who has her own teenage daughter who is also now pregnant. Faris' mother had her when she was a teen as well and now she's back in the picture. It's a really solid set of characters with the exception of the teenage daughter, who I am fairly saddened by her efforts. Faris is excellent, Badger from Breaking Bad has a limited but hilarious role as Faris' second child's father. The grandmother played by Allison Janney is very solid as well. I recommend checking it out. Hello Ladies- A solid effort from HBO following the comical dating stories and life of a tall, goofy-looking Englishman played by Stephen Merchant. You'll notice some other characters, but they aren't famous by any stretch. The strength is in Merchant and his character, who is just plain funny. He's got some good one liners, but he's just funny enough to carry it. He tries way too hard, gets walked all over, and deals with it in hilarious ways. I haven't watched any other shows like the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Robin Williams/ Sarah Michelle Geller's new show. The City of Life and Death follows a gruesome historical tale often referred to as "The Rape of Nanking". In 1937 on the eve of World War II the Japanese took over China. The capital city was then Nanking and the horrors are numerous. This movie depicts the fall of the city and some of the more brutal aspects of the takeover. It's shot in beautiful black and white and parallels Schindler's List in that respect. It's the same awful feeling where you essentially feel like everyone is going to die and their lives are as expendable as ants. There are numerous rapes and horrors that are depicted throughout including a moment where at a church run by a German, who has favor since Japan was still trying to be friendly with Hitler, the Japanese commander instructs everyone there that they will be taking 100 women to the front lines to please the Japanese troops. Your heart drops as a few women volunteer to be sex slaves, a life as brutal as any imaginable. It's a Japanese and subtitled, but the story, acting, and cinematography are top notch. It's very heartbreaking and tough, but like Schindler's List it has a realism and feel that's unmatched in most film. Bottom Line: 7.8 out of 10. It's brutal, so I can't recommend it unless you enjoyed Schindler's List and can stomach it. Homeland Season 3: It's been pretty awful watching Homeland this season. Claire Danes' "Carrie", the smartest women in the room, can't seem to pull her shit together enough to not seem completely bat-shit crazy all the time. She's compulsive and essentially stupid this season and it's bothering the shit out of me. Her psychiatric condition is being used as a huge plot point and it's brutal. She pulled it together all of Season 2 and most of Season 1, but NOW since she's off her medication she blows up in public and constantly fucks up. Why can't she hold ANYTHING together? The lack of Damien Lewis (Brody) and his replacement with his family is also painful. His daughter is not a main character and her essentially taking on a leading role is bullshit. I don't give a fuck what happens to her and the fact she's getting a lot of screen time is fucking the show up in my opinion. Thank God the gold standard of Mandy Patinkin is still killing it as Saul and his moments are the best. It better get it's shit together soon so I can continue to actually want to watch it and not feel like I owe it to the show for it's previous efforts. It's consistently comes to my attention that Claire Danes constantly just throws her "lost puppy dog eyes" look, as I call it, all the time and it passes as excellent acting. I'm not sure it isn't, but seriously, she throws the same look at the camera 50% of the time. Save me Damian Lewis, save me.