After spending almost four years in an Italian prison, Amanda Knox is free, her murder conviction overturned. Amanda’s happy. Her family is overjoyed.
And the producers of Homeland are thrilled.
Didn’t connect those dots? Let me do it for you, because it was my first TV-obsessed thought after hearing the verdict.
Homeland premiered last night on Showtime. It follows the story of Marine Sgt. Nicholas Brody, who returns home after being held eight years in enemy territory. He’s given a hero’s welcome by everyone except rogue CIA agent Carrie Mathison, who believes Brody was turned and is now working for Al Qaeda.
That’s just the first episode, guys.
Now, Amanda Knox is no American hero. Her lawyers contend she is just a young woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time (although she was found guilty of slander against police and a barman she falsely accused in the crime).
But I’m more concerned about her time in jail. Like the Marine hero of Homeland, Amanda spent years confined in a foreign prison. What did that do to her spirit? To her loyalties?
She may not have been turned by a foreign country — Italy and the US were pretty friendly the last time I checked — but other forces could have ‘turned’ this impressionable, imprisoned youth.
Okay…not likely. But these are just the kind of comparisons that Showtime executives are hoping viewers will make to keep their series timely and top-of-mind.
At least, until the next Amanda Knox movie is produced.
The Sticky Egg 
Schooled
The film centers on a Christian boarding school in the Dominican Republic that advertised itself as a rehab center for troubled US teens. The filmmaker, an evangelical school student, was allowed complete access to the teens there and, during production, uncovers disturbing information about the school’s “behavior modification program.” She also learns that some students had been kidnapped from their homes with their parents’ full knowledge and permission.
Her commitment to the project eventually morphs into a determination to help these abused teenagers — one in particular who wants to leave the school where he is essentially being held prisoner.
This story is heartbreaking and, I learned, just one case among thousands around the world.
It is a must-see.
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Posted in Children, Commentary, Education, Entertainment, Humor, Movies, Religion, Travel
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