The second season premiere of Homeland, Showtime's jangly good espionage thriller, premieres next month, and to get us all excited they've released a rather artsy new teaser showing us some new footage.

Like, why does Claire Danes have two different hair colors? And why the contacts? Does it have something to do with her electroshock or did she just want a new look? It's probably the latter, right? This show is mostly about makeovers. And, hey, just what anti-American, flag-burning country is Mandy Patinkin in? Is it Brooklyn? It's Brooklyn, isn't it. Mostly though we're a little confused by the Social Network-esque eerie choral music that's used throughout. That's not exactly this show, is it? Don't get us wrong, it's a solid and exciting series, but it's not high art, certainly. Ah, well. They can do what they want. We were going to watch no matter what.

On the other hand, we'd been on the fence about continuing on with the network's Dexter, until a dreary and uninteresting season was rescued in the literal final moments of the finale. Now we're totally hooked again, and boy does the new teaser trailer make us eager for the show to come back. What's gonna happen with Deb?? She's going investigating and could, finally, uncover all of Dexter's secret stabbings.

The true reward of sticking with a show with a knotty mythology like Dexter's is when the show does callbacks that make the world feel rich and complete, and from the looks of this trailer, this whole season is going to be a callback, reaching all the way back to some first season business. That's great! We are still a little nervous that Deb and Dexter might start doing it at some point, as was vaguely hinted at last season, but other than that, Dexter is once again something to look forward to. Well done, Showtime. Well teased on both accounts.

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Richard Lawson