Homecoming

So often, us viewers unpack a mystery box TV show like this one, only to find it empty inside. Homecoming manages to add layers of meaning and complexity even as its secrets are revealed. It’s the carefully wrapped TV gift that keeps on giving.

Visually and thematically, it plays like a lean, focused distillation of Esmail’s other series. It has the cool tone, the paranoia, the visual flourishes, the mind-bending revelations. But these effects are concentrated on a single, intricate story, laid out in 10 swift and magnetic episodes. In this case, less is very much more.

This second season may not be as ambitious as the first, but it is very satisfying as a bingeable work of suspense. Seven episodes may seem like a random number, but it’s exactly the number needed to tell the story being told, and I appreciate the commitment to keeping it lean, especially in this age of hashtag–Releasing Snyder Cuts.

Roberts and James have abundant chemistry, which is crucial for a thriller built so much on two people just talking. The plot is intentionally slow to start, so the early episodes lean heavily on atmosphere and on how likable Heidi and Walter are together. Roberts and James more than deliver the latter, while Esmail is all over the former.

After one episode, the jury’s still out on whether Season 2 will live up to Season 1’s story and style. But Monáe is definitely good enough to carry the season, and the story may end up going in unexpected directions.

Everyone's cobwebbed in a way-too-busy plot that replaces simmering office park absurdity with dystopian triple-reverses. [Jun 2020, p.88]

Though the episodes only run a half-hour each, Homecoming moves at a glacial pace. It finds its groove about four episodes in, and then loses it again.

Probably only for die hard fans of Mr. Robot. Kind of boring, a lot of interesting experimentation but Sam Esmail's writing feels like a presence that this show lacks. It's a bit anticlimactic but nothing terrible. It's fine.

(Mauro Lanari) "The Pelican Brief" (Pakula '93) transferred to MKULTRA area. Perhaps the tension rises only in the 6th episode, both for the twist that not surprisingly involves the verses of one or more pelicans, and for a soundtrack instrumental piece that echoes the magnificent "Main Theme" by David Shire in "The Conversation".

This Amazon series got off to a big start last season with Julia Roberts headlining. Her character was employed by an organization that works with vets to wipe their minds clean from the traumas of war. Roberts has departed, leaving Janelle Monáe as the big name. After waking up stranded in the middle of a lake, her journey leads to a more in-depth investigation of the crucial chemical and the dangers it triggers. The first season moved slowly, even with the gradual revelations, there was never much dramatic tension…just lots of dialogue. Ditto this time around. Although there's an undercurrent of potential tragedy, the lack of much conflict and profusion of talk keeps it from ever being more than a mildly interesting drama.

The story creates a certain suspense that hooks the viewer and motivates them to watch the following episodes. I watched the first 4 episodes, it's not a very lively series full of twists and turns, the pace of the narration is rather slow. The riddles scattered here and there push the viewer to wonder: what could have happened to the heroine (Julia Roberts) to cause her to have such amnesia? I also wonder what could have happened to the soldiers undergoing re-education, including one who disappeared without a trace, which worries his friend and fellow soldier. I say that the scenario lacks coherence and interest, all like the reactions of the characters. Julia Roberts' performance is disappointing. In fact, we don't understand much until episode 5. At the end of season 1, when we discover the whole plot, we say to ourselves: "All that for that?!" If you have time to waste watch this series!

A sad waste of acting talent. The ending has no payoff. A trip to the Tampa Tribune office is one obvious thought. It’s a shame because they had a decent core idea, but the pace was so slow the writer was apparently too exhausted to craft an ending.