Homeland has returned for its seventh run in what is expected to be its penultimate season with many of its former fans either feigning indifference, shrugging their shoulders or displaying downright hostility that a programme should have dared to last this long after its supposed heyday.

Quite when Homeland's imperial phase was is a moot point but most agree it occurred sometime around series one when troubled CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Clare Danes) bumped into captured war hero turned traitor Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) setting off a whole heap of sexual shenanigans made all the more trick when Muslim-convert Brody was arrested and framed for planting a bomb which blew up most of Carrie's colleagues.

Since then we've seen Carrie travel the world in her quest to hunt down terrorists and atone for her perceived failure to spot that 9/11 was about to happen. Most critics have toned down their initial praise from the days when President Obama called Homeland his favourite show and since then it hasn't exactly helped that his replacement in the White House has been making security pronouncements that make Homeland's far-fetched stories seem relatively sane.

In reality Homeland has actually kept up a pretty strong quality control throughout its myriad versions with Danes a constant beacon of fine (if famously overwrought) acting.

The premier of this seventh season picks up after the closing moments of season six following the calamitous fallout from the assassination attempt on US president Keane (Elizabeth Marvel) who then betrayed Carrie by arresting 200 members of the intelligence community including Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin).

Despite now being out of the loop and staying in suburban bliss with her sister, Carrie cannot help getting her hands dirty once more when she hears from a CIA source that Keane and the administration have nothing on her former colleagues and that what the President is doing is tantamount to treason - a point emphasised when he see her anger at the decision not to execute her would be assassin.

For fans it's great watching Carrie get all secret service again: the best scene of this opening episode sees her employing a deliciously devious spy tactic in a hotel lobby in order to avoid some CIA goons and when we see her donning a wig and popping her gun in her satchel again we can enjoy it almost as much as she is.