Homecoming

I read a few of the reviews prior to watching this. The initial perception - it is slow to start. However, the first few episodes provide those key tie-in's that end up making this a very entertaining show! Having been in Iraq for 5 years, this show sure hit home. Very good! Thought provoking! Haha, yes I binged watched it. Is definitely worth it! Enjoy it folks!

NOTE: This review applies only to Season 1.

The premise is intriguing and the acting is quite good, but the pacing is so slow that it often becomes boring. The story would have been more effective as a 2-hour movie than it is as a 10-episode series. You can tell that every episode was padded with yawns to fill the 30-minute time slot. The plot is so simple, it could be written in no more than five paragraphs.

Julia Roberts, Stephan James and Bobby Cannavale all turn in good performances, but there just isn't much to work with here.

Julia Roberts is laid back most of the time and seems to be on sedatives. I've seen the film described as a "thriller" so I watched all 10 episodes waiting for some thrills. They never happened. It just isn't worth the time.

We have Amazon Prime so I was able to stream this through my Roku.

It stars Julia Roberts, who was also a producer, as Heidi Bergman. She is a therapist assigned to help returning military men adjust to being home again and to develop the temperament and skills necessary to get into the workforce.

At least that is what we are told in episode #1. But not everything is as it seems and there is something very experimental going on.

I like Julia Roberts, and she is fine here, but as producer I suspect her main goal was to make a good chunk of money from Amazon. There really isn't anything much new here, it could have been a pretty good 90 minute movie, but the story is stretched out over 10 episodes, as has become the new mode of operation for sources like Amazon and Netflix. Which is fine for those who want to spend time leisurely watching everything unfold slowly

Count me among those disappointed with this series, it is much ado about very little.

I've just got back from a screening of the first four episodes of Homecoming at TIFF, and I must say that I am impressed. I was initially a little off-put by the show's strange pacing (it is a drama series with half-hour long episodes), but by the third episode I was really digging it. Although the story moves at a slow pace, it is thoroughly engrossing and packed full of spine-tingling moments.

I have not listened to the podcast this is based on, as I wanted to go in blind, but I'm a massive fan of Mr. Robot and was very excited to see what Sam Esmail would do with a pure noir. I was not disappointed. The directing of the series is ridiculously strong, including some familiar Esmail-isms (top-down shots, unusual framing, etc) and a lot of steady-cam and long shots. The third episode in particular had a number of images that took my breath away.

Outside of the directing, the acting is probably the strongest element of the show. Julia Roberts and Stephan James bring impressive depth and emotion to the two lead roles, while the other characters are more defined by their quirks and are often used comedically. Shea Wigham in particular stands out because of all the subtle little mannerisms he employs to define his character. Bobby Cannavale is also very good, although his character is quite mysterious at this stage.

Overall, I am really loving Homecoming so far, and would recommend it to anybody who likes a good mystery, although it might be a good idea to wait until the whole season is out so it can be watched in hour-long chunks.

Seriously I feel like I need a prescription of Xanax or something after watching this. Something about it is unnerving. I don't think I've ever actually watched something that gave me anxiety like this LoL it's good though, it's really good - no doubt about that.