Every one of the eight reviews is positive, and they agree on why. The praise clusters on the two leads: Claire Danes as the bipolar CIA analyst Carrie Mathison and Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody, the returned prisoner of war who may or may not have been turned. Almost all the critics measure the series against 24 and find it the quieter, more cerebral programme, trading that show’s certainties for moral shades of grey. The pilot’s unanswered questions, about Brody’s loyalties and Carrie’s grip, are counted as strengths rather than evasions.
The spread is narrow and the reservations are mild. The Independent thinks the talk of its intelligence relative to 24 is overstated, and the Evening Standard, reviewing the second series, wonders whether the tension and twists can be kept up for long. The British notices that arrive later tend to sit a little cooler than the American ones that greeted the pilot.