Homecoming is remarkable. This is compulsive viewing, nearly impossible to stop thinking about once started. Because it’s the rare 30-minute drama, the temptation to binge will be hovering over you from the get-go.
Evoking everything from Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, David Fincher’s The Game, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, and The Manchurian Candidate (both the Frankenheimer and the Demme) and filled with the same sense of intrigue that the first season of Lost provided, this psychological political thriller centers on a social worker (Julia Roberts – utterly superb) who works at a center which specializes in helping PTSD-afflicted war vets adjust to home life once they’ve returned from the battlefield.
She develops a close relationship with one of the young soldiers (Stephan James – terrific all throughout) while dealing with her sketchy boss (Bobby Cannavale – perfectly slippery), with an ace supporting cast including Shea Wigham (LOVE HIM), Sissy Spacek, Alex Karpovsky, Dermott Mulroney, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and SMILF herself Frankie Shaw providing excellent turns.
Every episode was stylishly directed by Sam Esmail (the creator of Mr. Robot), and the series was based on a podcast and developed for Amazon Studios by Eli Horowitz and Micah Bloomberg, who wrote or co-wrote many of the episodes.
Formally daring (mixed-aspect rations and split-screens galore!), intelligently crafted, visually engrossing, and narratively layered beyond belief, this is one of the best seasons of television programming I’ve seen in years.
I’ve no clue what will occur in Season Two, but I can’t wait to find out. If he were still with us today, Alfred Hitchcock would be doing cartwheels over this television program – and my guess is that Steven Soderbergh is be a HUGE fan.
This is one of those shows where if someone spoils ANY of it for you as you’re watching, that person should be cut down at the knees and left to flail-about for days on-end with no promise of help coming their way. Currently streaming on Amazon Prime, Homecoming is masterful storytelling.
Review by Nick Clement
Summary
Alfred Hitchcock would be doing cartwheels over this television program – and my guess is that Steven Soderbergh is be a HUGE fan.
