“Homeland” swept the Emmys.  President Obama says he’s  a fan.  We’ll talk to “Homeland” executive producer and director Michael Cuesta.

Damian Lewis on Homeland from “Marine One” (Tv.com)

Showtime’s breakout cable hit “Homeland” swept the Emmys this year.  Big wins for stars Claire Danes, as the bi-polar CIA agent up against a terror nightmare.  For Damian Lewis, as the U.S. Marine and longtime Al Qaeda captive now home and turned and scary.

It’s a psychological thriller that grabs our own national ambivalence about fear and paranoia and terror.  About truth and how dark it can get.

This hour, On Point: we talk with Homeland executive producer and director Michael Cuesta about what makes this high-wire show tick now.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Michael Cuesta, executive producer and director of Homeland. He was also an executive producer on the hit show Dexter.

From Tom’s Reading List

USA Today “Anyone who watched the Emmys knows this gloriously suspenseful spy series had a great first season — making history as Showtime’s first best-series winner while adding Emmys for stars Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, an extremely rare triple play. The good news is that Sunday’s premiere, written by the show’s Emmy-winning creators Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, starts its new season as brilliantly as it ended the last one.”

Chicago Tribune “Emmy winner “Homeland” opened to 1.7 million viewers for its first telecast Sunday and 2 million for the night, while “Dexter” hit a series record of 3 million viewers over a pair of showings.”

US News & World Report “So what did you think of the first episode? It certainly wasn’t “slow,” but I felt it had sort of a “Let’s catch everyone up and lay the foundation for Season 2″ feel to it. It did have some, heart-beating, sweaty-palms moments: particularly when Brody stole the target sites from Estes, and Carrie evaded her tail in Beirut. As some critics have pointed out, Season 1 could have ended with a big bang (literally) had Brody gone through with his suicide bomb and Carrie redeemed for her Brody-obsession.”

The New Yorker “There are still many gemlike elements in Season 3, like a scene in the second episode, in which Antoine—a formerly dissolute second-line musician who is now a sober family man, teaching music in a run-down public school—is alone in a classroom. When a music student walks in, Antoine begins to sing the call and response in “Marie Laveau,” relishing the comical rumble of his own low, growly voice.”

Video

Here’s the Showtime trailer for “Homeland.”