Our verdict on Julia Roberts’ new Amazon Prime Video series Homecoming
AMAZON PRIME VIDEO, FRIDAY 2 NOVEMBER
I t’s fair to say that in the streaming content battle between Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, the former service is streets ahead, with more than a handful of already iconic series, from House Of Cards and Orange Is The New Black to Stranger Things and The Crown. Meanwhile, Prime Video has the Emmy-winning The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Transparent, and… those Top Gear dudes. They’re clearly stepping things up, though, with a raft of starry new projects announced recently, and now this, a mindbending TV drama vehicle for actual Julia Roberts.
FREAKY HAPPENINGS
Homecoming initially feels a tad similar to recent Netflix series Maniac, with an equally bewildering and freaky set-up. Roberts plays a caseworker at the Homecoming Transitional Support Center, a facility supposedly helping soldiers transition back to civilian life. We say supposedly, because running parallel to these present-day scenes at the strange centre – in which Roberts is counselling Walter Cruz (Stephan James), one such soldier – are flash-forward bits to a few years later, when Roberts’ shrink character has moved on, and is living with her mother (Sissy Spacek) and working as a waitress in a diner. She’s also being investigated by a Department of Defense auditor. And we don’t know why.
ROBERTS REUNITED
That said, if you go with the flow of this mysterious saga, based on a hit podcast and told, unusually for a drama, in 30-minute episodes, it has many pleasures. It’s strikingly directed by the show’s creator Sam Esmail, of Mr Robot fame, who gives it the weird, queasy feel of a Brian De Palma movie, complete with split-screen effects, long tracking shots and a key role for Spacek, who shot to fame in De Palma’s classic Carrie. Adding to the nostalgic feel, there’s also a role for Dermot Mulroney, reuniting with Roberts for the first time since My Best Friend’s
Wedding over 20 years ago. And Roberts herself is a joy to watch, as ever.
★★★★