“Homecoming” Returns for an Unlikely, Clever, and Mostly Successful Second Season
By: Richard Lebeau
Tags: Television, Feminism, Military, Society, Streaming

The Origin of Homecoming

Three years after becoming a Hollywood power player thanks to the debut of his Emmy-winning cult series Mr. Robot, Sam Esmail created an ambitious follow-up series, Homecoming. Presumably due to a combination of Esmail’s increased profile and the money thrown at the project by streaming giant Amazon Prime, the show attracted an absolutely astonishing cast, which included the series debuts of Oscar-winning Hollywood legends Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman, Erin Brockovich) and Sissy Spacek (Carrie, Coal Miner’s Daughter), two-time Emmy winner Bobby Cannavale (Boardwalk Empire, Will & Grace), Oscar nominee Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets and Lies, Without a Trace), well-respected character actors Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire, True Detective), and Dermot Mulroney (Young Guns, My Best Friend’s Wedding), and recent Hollywood breakouts Stephen James (Race, If Beale Street Could Talk), Hong Chau (Downsizing, Watchmen), and Frankie Shaw (SMILF, Mr. Robot).

But as one familiar with Mr. Robot might suspect, this was hardly your typical all-star prestige project. Rather it was immensely complicated and cerebral. It was utterly singular in many aspects, including its source material (perhaps he first high profile series based on a podcast of the same name by Eli Horowitz and Micah Bloomberg), its format (it’s a half hour drama series, an extreme rarity), and its bold visual style (which should have made it a frontrunner for several of the Creative Arts Emmys). The show, which premiered in November 2018, was a contemporary- and near-future-set psychological thriller that at its core followed four individuals caught up in a very complicated conspiracy. The first was Heidi Bergman (Roberts), a psychotherapist who was the head on-site administrator of Homecoming, which is ostensibly a transition center for recently deployed active duty military. The second was Walter Cruz (James), a soldier haunted by his experiences in Iraq and is seeking treatment at Homecoming. The third is Colin Belfast (Cannavale), a fast-talking and profoundly corrupt businessman who kept the true mission of Homecoming a secret from just about everyone, including Heidi and Walter. The fourth was Thomas Carrasco, a mid-level Department of Defense employee who is following up on a complaint about Homecoming.

Promotional image for the first season of “Homecoming” (Copyright: Amazon Prime)

The action in Season One was split between the “present day” and 2022. In the 2022 segments, Heidi was working as a waitress and living with her mother (Spacek), Carrasco was following up on the complaint, and Colin realized that the whole scandal may be re-emerging. The central tension of most of the episodes involved the fact that what at first seems like purposeful evasiveness on the part of Heidi regarding her time at Homecoming quickly appears to be a genuine lack of memory regarding these recent events. How is it possible that she has she forgotten Walter and Colin? And what really happened at Homecoming? These are interesting questions that are more than enough to sustain the season’s 10 half-hour episodes.

Interestingly, despite its titillating premise and almost impossibly attractive ensemble cast, the show was not interested in being fast-paced or sensationalistic. There was essentially no sex or violence in the whole season and the episodes have a deliberately slower pace that undoubtedly tried the patience of some viewers. However, I found that these decisions allowed the show’s fascinating atmosphere to really permeate the proceedings and the deep philosophical questions to dominate. The teleplays cleverly toyed with many of modern America’s greatest fears — our fears of what the government, military, and pharmaceutical companies are really up to and the fear of what’s really in the pills we take and food we eat.

But by underscoring the show’s atmosphere and philosophizing, I do not mean to imply that it was disengaging. Rather, the show’s spectacular performances made sure that each episode was highly engrossing. Each individual performance was stellar, particularly Roberts who thrillingly shed the warmth and charm that has dominated so many of her big screen roles and fully embraced the role of a confused, introverted, and prickly woman who is trying to piece together the fragments of her life. It is an unexpected but wholly successful performance that anchors an exceedingly intriguing show.

There was immense buzz around the show when it first premiered. It premiered to an astonishing 98% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an equally impressive 83/100 average score on Metacritic. A month after it premiered it got nominated for several top honors at the Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice Awards.

Then it all but disappeared. It lost all the awards it was nominated for at the Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards, was snubbed entirely by the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and only scored a single nomination for Cinematography at the Primetime Emmy Awards. Even four-time Oscar nominated film legend Julia Roberts couldn’t score a richly deserved nomination.

So what went wrong? It is possible that Amazon failed to promote it and campaign for it properly, but I suspect that the show’s chilly atmosphere, cerebral nature, and enigmatic characters combined for a product that was more admired than loved by critics and audiences. As a result, it failed to stir passions when it came time for Emmy voting. I also think the unclear nature of the series itself hurt it. It clearly appeared to be a limited series, but it was officially announced as a drama series that had been picked up for two seasons. Then the powers that be announced that when it returned for a second season it would not involve Julia Roberts (onscreen at least). People were puzzled and with no news for a long time, they moved on.

This is all to say that it was extra surprising when the show announced a second season.