‘Saturday Night Live’ spoofs ‘Homeland’ with Anne Hathaway

I haven’t seen the rest of the Anne Hathaway episode of “Saturday Night Live” yet, but when I heard that she had played Claire Danes in a “Homeland” parody, I knew which sketch I was going to start with.

In Ryan McGee’s review of the episode, he says that while it’s a funny sketch (and I agree with him on the genius of Bill Hader as Saul), he didn’t like that it oversimplified Carrie Mathison, one of the most complex female characters on TV (and probably in TV history). I wasn’t as troubled. Yes, it’s a very broad portrayal, focusing on Carrie’s manic side and Danes’ tendency to cry with her mouth turned upside down, but I don’t know that it’s any broader than most “SNL” pop culture parody – particularly for a show that, despite what Mike Bloomberg might suggest, the bulk of the “SNL” audience has likely never heard of, let alone seen. In these instances (like one of my favorite examples of this, Quentin Tarantino’s “Welcome Back, Kotter”), you have to construct a sketch that will work both for people who know the subject and those who don’t.

Not a perfect parody – especially not compared to the one on “Suburgatory” earlier this week (embedded below the “SNL” sketch) – but good enough, and one that will likely force me to notice how small Damian Lewis’ mouth is when he talks, dammit. But I’m curious what both the “Homeland” fans and non-“Homeland” watchers made of this.

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