"Homeland" returns with a reset for season 4

Like iPhones and operating systems, "Homeland" is coming back this weekend with a new (and, hopefully, improved) model.

The show's fourth season arrives Sunday night with a two-hour premiere, coming after two seasons that attracted their fair share of criticism.

Season 3 ended with the show -- finally, some likely sighed -- killing off Nicolas Brody (Damian Lewis), whose ever-shifting allegiances (with increasingly murky motives) had tested the goodwill many critics and viewers gave the show from its inception. Others had also grown tired of the storylines involving Brody's family, including his moody teenage daughter, Dana (Morgan Saylor) -- who will also be gone with this new season's arrival.

So now, with season 4, "Homeland" is looking to press the reset button. It picks up with Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) as the CIA station chief in Kabul, having left the infant daughter she conceived with Brody back in the States with her sister. Carrie's racked up success overseeing drone attacks (so many that she's earned the nickname "The Drone Queen"), but then one of those missions goes terribly wrong and civilians end up dead.

Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend) is back, as is Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin) -- the latter now working in the private sector but still intersecting with the CIA and Carrie. There are also newcomers to the cast, including "House of Cards" actor Corey Stoll as a station chief in Islamabad, Laila Robbins ("In Treatment") as the United States Ambassador to Pakistan and Suraj Sharma ("Life of Pi") as a young Pakistani medical student who crosses paths with Carrie.

Reviews of the new season have so far been promising -- which should make fans even more excited to settle back in with "Homeland" again. You can watch a preview below, and tune in when it premieres Oct. 5 at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime.