If you’re a Showtime subscriber, the end of 2016 just got a little less dark: The network has just made the “Homeland” Season 6 premiere available on all its streaming and on-demand platforms a full 16 days before the linear premiere.
Season 6 picks up several months after Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) thwarted a terrorist attack in Berlin, with Carrie living in Brooklyn and working at a foundation that provides aid to Muslims living in the U.S. The season will tackle the after-effects of the U.S. presidential election, which in the “Homeland” universe ended with a woman elected to the office for the first time in the country’s history. The entire season will take place between election day and the inauguration — a strange, transitional time in the halls of government, filled with anxiety and different competing interests, where a very fragile and complex transfer of power takes place between the outgoing president and the incoming president-elect. And, yes, Quinn (Rupert Friend) is alive.
Showtime has been in the habit of making series and season openers available to subscribers — and occasionally to non-subscribers, via YouTube — before the official premiere date. “Billions,” “Shameless,” “The Affair,” and “Masters of Sex” have all received similar treatment, as has “Homeland” itself.
For those who are looking to delay gratification (or to cut back on the wait between episodes 1 and 2), the official linear premiere is Jan. 15 at 9 p.m.
