TV Review - Homecoming: Season 2 (Pride Month)

I reviewed the first season of Homecoming (2018) and it was one of the best TV shows of that year. I was saddened when it was mostly ignored by the Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as at other award shows. This series was the first stab at television for movie-star, Julia Roberts, and she was absolutely fantastic. When it was announced that there was going to be a second season, but Roberts wouldn't be in it, I was again saddened because Roberts was in large part why the first season was so superb. However, I was intrigued because it was also announced that Janelle Monáe would be taking over as lead actress. It's been several years now since she's identified as being a part of the LGBTQ community, which she reinforced during her performance at this year's Academy Awards when she she said she's a queer artist. I wasn't sure if she would be playing a queer character in the series, but it's revealed in the second episode that she is indeed playing a queer character, which makes this series a good one to spotlight for Pride Month.

Monáe stars as Jacqueline Calico, a woman who wakes up on a boat in the middle of a lake with no memory of how she got there or where she originated. She's not even sure if Jacqueline is her name. It's simply the name on her ID card. She then has to figure out how she got into that boat and why she was out there. If one has seen the first season, then one can guess as to why she has amnesia, but the particulars or steps that got her there is a mystery that some might find intriguing. However, in order to build that mystery, the series does things that aren't as impactful but also echo or repeats dynamics that makes the series feel like it's taken several steps backward or is spinning its wheels.

I love Monáe, but she's no Julia Roberts. Roberts' character had a charm and sense of humor to her that she exuded almost every moment that she was on screen. There was a range to her that the series developed and exhibited. Monáe's character doesn't get that range. Even in the first episode, even in the first 10 minutes of the first season, Roberts gets such a dynamic range to play. Within the first minute, we see her smile and even do something comedic. I don't think that we ever see Monáe smile at all throughout this whole series or do anything comedic. I understand that this series leans more toward the dramatic and thriller aspects, but it just didn't feel as dynamic or organic as the first season. It felt more contrived and self-serious.

Hong Chau (Watchmen and Big Little Lies) co-stars as Audrey Temple, the character who is technically the equivalent to the Julia Roberts' character from the first season. Yet, that's not apparent until the third episode. Audrey started out as a receptionist at this chemical company called Geist, which does cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Audrey aspires to be an executive at the company and provide more input into what the company does. Audrey appeared in one episode in the first season. This season spends an entire episode explaining how she got to the point in that episode last season. The series seemingly goes back in time and does a flashback.

In the first season, the show did its flashbacks concurrent with the present action. Here, this second season doesn't do its flashbacks concurrent with the present action. It separates the past and present, so that there isn't a lot of jumping back-and-forth. Director Kyle Patrick Alvarez (The Stanford Prison Experiment and Easier With Practice) puts things together in a more straightforward way. Writers Micah Bloomberg and Eli Horowitz, along with their team, make the series more straightforward, and only diverting into flashback here-and-there. Yet, the dual timelines are not a crucial part of the structure of the series as they were in the first season, which was helmed by Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot). Esmail's visuals and camerawork were incredible and really engaging. Alvarez's visuals and camerawork are rather plain. There's one interesting shot where Jacqueline sneaks into a house that was well done. There's another involving a melon or cantaloupe that tries to make more of a big deal out of it that feels more like a waste of time than anything consequential. Unfortunately, Alvarez's work here didn't impress or blow me away like Esmail's work.

Chris Cooper (Adaptation and American Beauty) plays Leonard Geist, the founder of the company in question here. His purpose becomes a little bit more clear by the end, but, for the most part, his character feels like an excuse to throw blame off the company. We're led to believe that Leonard had no clue about the malfeasance done in the first season in his company's name. It's done to make Leonard more of a heroic figure or more of an Albert Einstein figure in which the government takes something he invented and tries to weaponize or capitalize off it. Yet, I feel like Cooper's character represents a layer that distances us from the other characters more, particularly that of Jacqueline and Audrey.

That distance is more felt here than last season. What was great about the first season is the relationship that Roberts' had with the other actors, particularly her relationship with Stephan James (If Beale Street Could Talk and Race) who plays Walter Cruz, a soldier suffering from PTSD from his service in war. Last season, he was getting treatment at a facility run by Geist's company. Roberts played Heidi Bergman who was basically Walter's caseworker or social worker. The relationship between Walter and Heidi was the keystone of that series, the bond between the two and the chemistry as performed amazingly by James and Roberts was beyond.

This season, there isn't that kind of relationship that is the keystone. Ostensibly, that relationship should have been between James and Monáe or their characters of Walter and Jacqueline. Unfortunately, Jacqueline and Walter don't get enough time together for them to build that kind of relationship. Walter and Heidi spend the majority of the first season together, which was ten episodes. This season is only seven episodes and Walter and Jacqueline only spend two episodes together at most. This season doesn't dig into Jacqueline's character as deeply either. Last season for example, we met Heidi's mother and got more of a sense of her past. Here, we don't really get that with Jacqueline.

Joan Cusack (Shameless and Toy Story 2) plays Bunda, a woman from the Department of Defense who is an interesting foil in this season. She comes in to fill the space vacated by Bobby Cannavale, but, again the writers don't do enough with Cusack as they do with Cannavale to make her as impactful as she could have been. Because Cusack is such an incredible actress, she manages to make a strong impression regardless.

Rated TV-MA.

Running Time: 30 mins. / 7 eps.

Available on Amazon Prime.