TV Review: HOMECOMING: Season 2, Episodes 1-7 [Amazon Prime]

Homecoming Season 2 Review

Prime Video’s Homecoming Season 2 is a driven, suspenseful thriller with a new heroine in the form of the inimitable Janelle Monáe. This season gave you the chills of 80’s horror, mixed with Memento style. Here, in the second season, we discover the devastating potential of the memory drug as the series expands beyond first season’s focus group of volunteer veterans.

Monáe soared in the lead role of Alex, and was surrounded by a stellar cast. Season 2 is a strong continuation of the Homecoming brand. *Contains Major Spoilers*

Story

The unsanctioned experiment “Homecoming” creates a legal firestorm for Geist Corporation, the manufacturer of the drug used to erase the memories of returning soldiers. Walter Cruz’s (Stephan James) inquiry into his treatment at “Homecoming” causes the creator of the drug, Leonard Geist (Chris Cooper) to examine the serious consequences of his invention. Some, like Audrey Temple (Hong Chau) see infinite possibilities for the drug’s application in the world. However, the future of the company rests in Alex’s (Monáe) ability to persuade Cruz to abandon his pursuit of the truth, which threatens a lucrative corporate partnership. Only, Alex has no clue who she is or what she is doing or where to begin to piece together her identity. The plot jumps like a mixtape between past and present, making it a little difficult to follow, but easy to understand.

Memory and Identity

Janelle Monáe carried this season as Alex, the fixer with no memory in pursuit of her identity. Alex was hypnotic, self-confident and cool, which made her excellent at her job. She was good at fixing corporate problems with whistle-blowers or potential plaintiffs. Every moment from when she bolted upright in a canoe to her last glance of utter depression, Alex’s micro-expressions explain the anguish of memory loss. But, loss of purpose is the overarching issue. Without her memory, was she still Alex?

Stephan James returned as Cruz. He was the bombshell – the living proof that Geist’s program was deleting more than memory. There was a heartbreaking moment between Cruz and Leonard Geist where they discussed the identity crisis that the drug poses. Cruz had lost his desire for meaningful existence. Of course, Leonard already feared the potency of his drug. It was surprising, and refreshing, to see a Corporate Giant whose CEO was not the devil.

Actually, the sinister effects of his invention outraged Leonard Geist (Cooper). The story beneath the story was about responsibility in innovation. Nothing chemical with such potency exists in a vapid, benevolent vacuum. People are always looking to exploit something good. Leonard was operating his chemical company like a nonprofit Eden. Meanwhile, his employees were working on a way to put his “stress reliever” into military application. The drug Geist farmed was not only a stress reliever; it worked to adjust a person’s brain chemistry to forget who they were. Season 1 showed the effect on a memory. Season 2 took things a step further and showed the effect on identity.

Atmosphere

Homecoming Season 2 had a very different feel from the first season’s quiet contemplative introspection. This season, the music department played with the score, invoking screeching horror elements. Almost immediately, we were hit with loud discordant notes that raised the hairs off your neck. The eerie, uncomfortable theme continued to interject throughout the story disturbing any space for contemplation. There were even a few jump scares.

The cinematography played with our perspective. We were generally looking at the scenes from Alex’s point of view, but occasionally, we were a voyeur from a window, or peeking around a corner, or a camera in the ceiling. You did not just feel creepy. You felt like a creep. That feeling symbolizes the sneaky nature of Alex’s character as a subversive corporate tool. It also developed the skin-crawling feeling that Alex and Cruz experienced as they realized that someone or something had wiped their mind, and made them feel raw.

Each shot was full of information. There was a layered richness to what we could see – or could not see – in a frame. For example, Leonard’s office was a botanist’s oasis. He was set up in a rooftop greenhouse complete with a cracked up, old, leather recliner as an office chair. It spoke volumes of the farmer-pharmacist CEO’s personality. This contrast against the design of his company’s, cold, ultra-modern office building sprinkled with pockets of greenery. The design foreshadowed how something pure and organic gets overtaken by unchecked innovation, losing its original purpose for something universally bleak.

Conclusion

Homecoming Season 2 expanded our universe to see the origin of the drug and its true danger. While the first season went deep into consciousness, this season challenged us to witness what happened after the subjects could not remember. The pain of loss and betrayal on Cruz’s face gets etched in your retina. And, it is intentional that our heroine, Alex, was an expert on subverting people’s quest for justice, because the justice served in this story was, indeed, served cold. While there were many questions raised by the decisions made, in the end, you have the choice to feel satisfied or dissatisfied. Homecoming has established that it will not make that choice for you. Everything is upended and open-ended.

In a lot of ways the second season surpassed the first. It included brilliant talent like Joan Cusack as, Bunda, the military interloper. Chau‘s character Audrey, was our microscopic look at the weakness of character that we also saw in Heidi (Julia Roberts). While I have purposely left this unspoken for the review, it must be acknowledged, that this sci-fi thriller boasted three leading characters who rep people of color and the LGBTQ community. A rich, psychological drama with that much nerve gets my viewership and deserves yours.

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