Considering how used we are to seeing fictional incarnations of the FBI, the NCIS, CSI, CTU and the KLF* getting things hideously arse about face, it’s quite refreshing to find the CIA’s Counterterrorism Centre handling things pretty competently in Homeland.

Despite the fact that Carrie Matheson is such a maverick she should be flying an F14A Tomcat (although given how freely she mixes her under-the-counter anti-psychotic meds with trainloads of liquor, even putting her in charge of a lawnmower might be a bit risky), Saul Berenson may or may not be a treacherous mole, and boss David Estes is so grumpy he uses a polygraph test as an excuse to put on his best bulldog-licking-piss-off-a-thistle face and bitch about his ex-wife, they get the job done.

Admittedly, they don’t actually catch fugitive academic Raqim Faisel, but they have twigged that it’s his girlfriend, Aileen Morgan, who wears the trousers of terror in their relationship. ‘I’m a victim of your fabulousness,’ Raqim gushes at her, but in fact he’s about to become the victim of their mysterious superiors.

Having survived a bombing at Forrest Gump’s house, the professor eventually succumbs to a hideously efficient drive-by shooting. Aileen survives, but it won’t be long before Carrie is on her tail – providing, that is, she’s not jumping on Sergeant Brody’s instead.

Yes, to the surprise of hardly anyone – and signposted by Jessica Brody getting her kit off again after spending a whole episode fully-dressed last week – Carrie ends up cracking on with the man she thinks has gone rogue after a memorial for Brody’s fallen comrade-in-arms Tom Walker ends in a fistfight: first between Mike Faber and fellow marine Lauder Wakefield (whose propensity for trouble is flagged up during the service, when he noisily drops his crutches as Brody tries to deliver a eulogy) and then between Mike and Brody himself.

An evening of straight Jack Daniels later and the man who may be a home-grown threat to national security is jumping Carrie’s bones in her car without even bothering to close the door first.

The relationship between Claire Danes and Damien Lewis is rapidly becoming the highlight of this superb series – not just because of their characters’ brief but breathy backseat bonk; there’s a natural chemistry between them that resonates in every scene and makes one wonder how Carrie will ever end up arresting Brody when they get on so well – but Mandy Patinkin’s performance is equally deserving of praise.

Whether Saul Berenson is good, bad or just simply very tired of it all, his second polygraph test – which he successfully passes shortly after his wife Mira says she wants to leave him – is a masterpiece of melancholy weariness. It also shows the best way to pass a lie-detector is to get dumped beforehand. If only Moe Syzlak had known.

This week’s big Homeland question: How did Brody pass his polygraph test with such consummate ease? Yes, he was forewarned by a drunken Carrie what it was all about and there’s no guarantee that he actually gave Afsal Hamid the razorblade which the terrorist used to kill himself in the first place, but he’s definitely cheated on his wife. Doggers in his local bar’s car park can attest to that.

This week’s not-so-big Homeland question: Are all US Marines so well-versed in hip hop?

* Yes, even the KLF. They might not have been fictional but ‘Fuck the Millennium’ was a horrible mistake.

Aired at 9pm on Sunday 25th March 2012 on Channel 4.

> Buy the Season 1 boxset on Amazon.

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