James Delingpole James Delingpole

All-pervading PC

issue 13 October 2012

Do not read this review if you haven’t seen the first series of Homeland.

Because I’m a lazy bastard I have recently taken to farming out my TV criticism responsibilities to Twitter. The other day, for example, I Tweeted the vexed question: ‘Should I get Homeland series one box set — or is it meh?’

‘Meh’, by the way — for those of you unfamiliar with modern yoofspeak — is the current fashionable term for ‘bland’, ‘so-so’, ‘so what?’, ‘neither here nor there’, ‘can’t be bothered’. Well, I say ‘fashionable’, though in fact it has been around since at least 1992 when Lisa first deployed it on an episode of The Simpsons.

The replies ranged from ones telling me that it was gripping, compulsive and essential viewing, to ones telling me it was irritatingly PC, a bit plodding and really not worth the effort.

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