Homeland is a strong, ambiguous, and complex thriller that holds a mirror up to viewers, but it’s also walking a highwire that could potentially lead to a devastating fall.

It would be easy to write Showtime’s Homeland, which debuted to smashing ratings, off as a classic Cold War drama updated for the modern age; plucky, driven CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) believes the returning American hero, rescued prisoner of war, is not what he seems, turned by the Russians Al Qaeda and preparing an attack against the United States. It’s a story about pursuing the case against all odds, including opposition from superiors (who is loyal? who is a double agent?) set against a background of tight camera angles and almost no music at all. Dark. Gritty. Artfully stark.

Except for two things.

Intended as guides or not, the next generation of boys is learning how to be fathers, how to treat mothers, and what to expect of their children from shows like Doctor Who.

Every frame of Drive oozes class, bleeds cool.

Drive is slick. Spy Hunter slick. Every frame oozes class, bleeds cool. Newman cool, McQueen cool, O’Neal cool. Ryan Gosling is their heir apparent, a silent human machine, driving gloves and satin jacket. His ice-cold protagonist is a grease monkey in the morning, stuntman in the afternoon and getaway driver by night.

His mantra is Eastwood, “If I drive for you, you give me a time and place. I give you a five-minute window, anything happens in that five minutes and I’m yours no matter what. I don’t sit in while you’re running it down; I don’t carry a gun…I drive.”

Boardwalk Empire cuts to the heart of the idealised and romanticised era of gangsters, cronyism, and smuggling.

The critically acclaimed Boardwalk Empire returned for its second season this week with ‘21,’ which informed viewers that all was not well in Atlantic City, and set the stage for what looks like another smashing season of the hit HBO series. It was visually lush, laden with subtext, and deliciously scored; Boardwalk Empire is clearly determined to continue living up to the hype, which is considerable. Part of the season two promotions involved running, yes, a vintage subway on New York’s 2/3 line. Clearly, they’re breaking budget records if nothing else.

I foolishly consented to a Mad Men marathon over the weekend, forgetting that watching more than two episodes in a row tends to leave me in a state of deep depression and sensory overload due to the rich, layered complexity going on with this show.

If the Grey’s creative team does make the decision to terminate the non-traditional parenting relationship between Mark, Callie and Arizona, it represents a tremendous missed opportunity and a loss for queer representation on television.

Last week’s Grey’s Anatomy ended with a cliffhanger this viewer predicted at the very moment we saw Callie and Arizona in a car; crunching noises and the show’s classic fade to white, warning that one or more characters is probably about to die. We’re working up to that time of year where shows are starting to set up minor arcs to lead to end of season storylines, and this one promises to be a doozy in grand Grey’s Anatomy tradition.

Viewers have been following the Calzona, as some fans like to call it, relationship with much interest through its tempestuous twists and turns. Grey’s went out on a limb in the fifth season by daring to reorient a character viewers had interacted with as straight, and turning Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) into a bisexual character with the famous ‘glasses moment’ with Dr. Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith) in bed. First the show was praised for depicting bisexuality, and then it was slammed for Dr. Hahn’s abrupt departure, which smelled of gaywashing to some viewers.

Astute viewers may note parallels between the tarnish on the gilded age of Downton Abbey and our own class problems today.

UK import Downton Abbey wrapped up its stint on PBS last weekend, complete with an appeasing note to viewers already howling about the ending (gosh, I hope the outbreak of the First World War wasn’t a spoiler for anyone), noting that another season is in production and will hopefully be making its way here soon. Helmed by Julian Fellowes of Gosford Park fame, the show has made a big splash on both sides of the pond, and no wonder; it represents British drama at its best, such a brilliant distillation of art and culture that producers in the US didn’t dare attempt to produce a hamfisted ‘adaptation’ to sully the airwaves, instead going straight to the source.

Set in the tense years before the outbreak of World War I, Downton Abbey could fall into the trap of glamorising the golden age. It’s certainly set up to do so, with the drama revolving around the lives of the Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) and his family living in a great manor house, the titular character. And make no mistake, Downtown Abbey is a character in the drama, just as the costuming and setting also play vital roles.

“For the first time in human history we’ve produced something that has consequences for 100,000 years. What does that mean?”

Eminem is not a “good guy” in the traditional sense.

In a recent interview with Anderson Cooper, Eminem posed an interesting question: Why does he [Eminem] seem to be the focus of intense media scrutiny when it comes to his homophobic and sexist lyrics? Eminem wondered, is it be cause he’s white? That is, do people pay particular attention to his lyrics (as compared to other, black rappers) because he is white?

“I felt like I was being attacked…. was being singled out. I felt like, ‘Is it because of the color of my skin? Is it because of that that you’re paying more attention?’

Oliver Stone had a relatively quiet decade after his nuclear bomb directing style in his 90s movies.

Gordon Gekko has been lying low. Biding his time in sing-sing away from the dollars and the greed and the sub-prime madness; he’s been plotting his come back with a Machiavellian precision as cold blooded as his lizard namesake. After-all “Money Never Sleeps.”