However, this is much loftier than that. Slick split-screens, ethereal crossfades, long tracking shots (a home invasion looks impressively complex), and lingering credits sequences keep Homecoming looking great. Then she follows the trail of her mysterious circumstances to the home of Audrey Temple (Chau), the Geist assistant-turned-executive, and eventually to Geist’s corporate headquarters. There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. He lives in Chicago with his two cats and a never-ending to-do list of things to watch. Outstanding, will def make my top 10 of the year. So often, us viewers unpack a mystery box TV show like this one, only to find it empty inside. This is a very satisfyingly structured series indeed. Honestly, it’s dizzying how perfect it is. Although the actors were interesting this season, the storyline was ridiculous and nearly incoherent. The Guardian Ellen E Jones May 22, 2020. Her scenes with Stephan James, who plays a veteran, require her to call in more quiet craft than the past five years of her movie work combined, and she nails every one of them. Her understated, dry deliveries come in scary, biting, or bashful varieties—she sells cute and unassuming or cold and calculating as naturally as she swaps outfits. But people aren’t going to commit to a five-hour series just to watch one specific shot. She has a difficult role that in other hands might have come off as one-dimensionally glum, but here her megawatt smile – which can still part clouds, by the way – works to humanise her character.

This season opens with Monae’s character waking up in a dinghy on a lake, no memory of who she is or how she got to be in her precarious position. The show’s incidental plotting, often obfuscating the point for the sake of a later reveal, carries over to its arms-length tone. The latter, at least, gives Chau more to sink her teeth into after being solid in the first season and a breakout in HBO’s Watchmen. A woman wakes up in a boat - with no memory of how she got there, or even who she is. Richard Roeper Nov 2, 2018. You can follow him on Twitter here: @jacoboller. Homecoming review: Amazon Prime drama fails to live up to past glories. Homecoming season two review – the mystery box that just keeps giving 5 5 Singer and actor Janelle Monáe takes up the baton from Julia Roberts in … The Guardian Ellen E Jones May 22, 2020. Or is its purpose one of the countless things I’m not allowed to tell you about? One of the most under-the-radar thrillers returns for a second season and now it’s lead by a new superstar. It’s the carefully wrapped TV gift that keeps on giving. Check out the trailer for season two of Amazon Prime's Homecoming. Nationwide News Pty Limited Copyright © 2020. It was gripping, suspenseful and drew inspiration from the likes of Brian De Palma and Alfred Hitchcock, an unsettling experience in which you, like the characters, were frequently off-footed and kept in the dark. Mr. Robot’s Sam Esmail has passed on directorial duties to The Stanford Prison Experiment’s Kyle Patrick Alvarez, someone who brings plenty of experience with fucked-up experiments, and who also maintains the striking visual language of the original. My Season 1 review of the show was vague about the memory loss … But as the gaps filled in from both ends, we got context. Homecoming season two can’t match its superb predecessor. Homecoming is one of those shows, a paranoid conspiracy psychothriller that streams on Amazon Prime Video. The premise involved a counsellor (Roberts) at a facility which treated returning soldiers’ PTSD, including Walter Cruz (Stephan James). Find their... Music title data, credits, and images provided by, Movie title data, credits, and poster art provided by, No episode information is currently available for this season. 100. Read full review. Specifically, it’s as old as Alfred Hitchcock. James and Monáe get left out to dry as surly, confused, and emptied-out shells, while the conclusion lacks grace or “everything clicks into place” satisfaction. It becomes I Spy, with only the absence of information sucking us in like a black hole. In that sense this momentum, this sense of “what the hell just happened?”, reminds you of another Amazon show, The Sinner.

It’s mature. Homecoming manages to add layers of meaning and complexity even as its secrets are revealed.

Ned Stark’s head wasn’t lopped off without a lot of off-screen blade sharpening. Homecoming season two starts streaming on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, May 22, Share your movies and TV obsessions | @wenleima. When it comes to execution, by constantly pulling the rug out from beneath its audience, the new episodes of “Homecoming” come off as sharply made but cheaply retroactive as a creative storytelling exercise, one that’s far too reliant on structural misdirection. Season 2 Review: So often, us viewers unpack a mystery box TV show like this one, only to find it empty inside. Homecoming season 2 trailer starring Janelle Monae. While things pick up pace in the show’s final episodes, the series never quite reascends to its former glory, and in a season of only seven fairly short episodes, it feels like too little too late.

It's beautifully shot and scored, the team have taken inspiration from past classics like Hitchcock (and why not) but brought it up to. She’s undimmed from her glory days. Janelle Monae takes over from Julia Roberts as the series leadSource:Supplied. Homecoming review – Julia Roberts' old-fashioned mystery has hints of Hitchcock 3 / 5 stars 3 out of 5 stars. ‘Homecoming’ Season 2 Review: Janelle Monae Series Loses Spark – Variety Her transformation from underling to corporate bad guy is one of the few times the season nears the commentary of the first, as ambition, oppression, and overcompensation wage war inside her strained expressions. © 2020 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. My Season 1 review of the show was vague about the memory loss plot, the mysterious Geist Emergent Group, and the secretive Homecoming program at the heart of it all, but specific about the artistry behind them. (If you haven’t seen Homecoming at all you can read the review for the first season here. Janelle Monáe is a … Amazon’s big hope for autumn sees Roberts play a psychologist caught up in a complicated government programme. Homecoming Season 2 premieres Friday, May 22nd on Amazon Prime. © 2020 Paste Media Group. ), Janelle Monae is a newcomer to the showSource:Supplied, RELATED: Julia Roberts and Sam Esmail interview on Homecoming season one. ‘Homecoming’ season two review: Janelle Monáe picks up where Julia Roberts left off. I really don't get the critics giving this a low score, it doesn't seem correct relative to other shows. One of the most under-the-radar thrillers returns for a second season and now it’s lead by a new superstar. The brief runtime is a continued highlight that seems especially praiseworthy as streaming dramas (especially mystery-laden ones) bloat to obscene, Quibi seed funding-like levels.

Mysteries live and die by the the reveal. Homecoming review: Amazon Prime drama fails to live up to past glories . He likes them (the cats and the list) most of the time. the writers did a good job tying it into season 1 cleverly, Janelle Monáe excels. It's like one of those movie sequels nobody really asked for, but which proves to be a pleasant surprise. Homecoming season 2 trailer starring Janelle Monae. Find out more about our policy and your choices, including how to opt-out. Last modified on Fri 2 Nov 2018 06.05 GMT.

Homecoming: Season 2. Whereas Homecoming’s initial mystery was engrossing, its second is simply unfocused. It's artful and a cut above almost anything else you'll see. An Unsatisfying Homecoming Season 2 ... it all returns to the Homecoming program. In the present, Julia Roberts is a happy, driven administrator with a job that involves rehabilitating veterans back into civilian life. METASCORE. Here she was, late to the party, making her television debut half a decade after every other big-name star in Hollywood. The ID in her pocket says she is an army veteran named Jackie. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Everyone's cobwebbed in a way-too-busy plot that replaces simmering office park absurdity with dystopian triple-reverses. Stephan James and Janelle Monae anchor the most interesting scenes this seasonSource:Supplied. By Ella Kemp.

It's beautifully shot and scored, the team have taken inspiration from past classics like Hitchcock (and why not) but brought it up to date with some lovely shots. No, what matters most here is the ending. It’s the carefully wrapped TV gift that keeps on giving. That vagueness will remain (partially because I’m prohibited from sharing details, outcomes, and entire characters, and partially because there’s still enough fun to be had with some reveals that it warrants a cautious approach) just as the artistry has persevered. Hong Chau returns this seasonSource:Supplied. For instance, one episode contains the single most inventive use of aspect ratio I have ever seen.