Julia Roberts conquers TV in ‘Homecoming’
She brings her likability into conspiracy thriller
This is not the kind of homecoming you expect.
The return at the center of Amazon’s new series starring Julia Roberts (in her first TV series role) is not exactly the stuff high school dances are made of. “Homecoming” (streaming Friday, ★★★☆) is about soldiers back from war, the government and corporate entities that are interested in them and, most of all, Heidi Bergman (Roberts), a well-intentioned if misguided counselor who desperately wants to help them.
Promos for the series are vague and arty, all long hallways, foreboding words and terrible wigs, revealing nothing except a moody pretentiousness.
Thankfully, “Homecoming,” created by Eli Horowitz and Micah Bloomberg and directed by Sam Esmail (“Mr. Robot”), is far more straightforward than its trailers and often overly stylish cinematography might suggest. Based on a fictional Gimlet Media podcast, the series is an old-fashioned conspiracy thriller in which the bad guys are exactly who you’d expect and the big twists reveal nefarious deeds yet are mostly predictable. It’s the rare drama where the answers to the mystery are simple yet supremely satisfying.
Heidi is a counselor at the Homecoming Center, a halfway house for returning soldiers that is meant to transition them back into civilian life. It’s clear from the outset that something is off, from its seemingly benevolent corporate benefactors to its odd decor to the rules veterans must follow while they live there.
The series unfolds in two timelines. One begins when Walter Cruz (Stephan James) arrives at the center and begins his counseling sessions with Heidi. She is trying to do what’s best for him and the other vets, even as her boss Colin Belfast (Bobby Cannavale) anxiously pesters her with protocol and corporate double-speak. The other timeline unfolds four years later: Heidi is downtrodden and disheveled, living with her mother (Sissy Spacek) and working as a waitress at a greasyspoon diner. She’s reluctant to talk about the center but is pursued by a Department of Defense compliance officer, Thomas Carrasco (Shea Whigham), who’s investigating a complaint.
Roberts is the perfect choice to anchor “Homecoming.” Her likability, and status as “America’s sweetheart,” make the audience inherently trust Heidi. We want to believe that this sweet and beautiful (if harried) woman is in the right. She and
James have electric chemistry and together create a relationship that is far more complicated than just a doctor and patient. The writers also play on our preconceived notions by casting Cannavale, who knows how to convey sleaze with ease.
“Homecoming” succeeds where other attempts to bring podcasts to the small screen (such as Amazon’s horror series “Lore”) have failed, because it cleverly melds the visual with the sonic. The series borrows from its audio roots in the best ways, and at times it’s structured like a radio drama, with a twist around every corner. The musical score is delectably old-fashioned and dramatic, full of crescendos and key changes, screechy strings and clanging piano.
Esmail slickly directs all 10 episodes in a contemporary style, but because of lots of long takes and overhead or offcenter shots, he often obfuscates simple scenes. Pacing is probably the series’ greatest flaw: 30-minute episodes feel at once too short and too long, awkwardly ending in the middle of the action, with scenes continuing for 30 seconds or so as the credits roll. The future timeline is shot vertically, like videos we take with our smartphones.
“Homecoming” can be annoying, slow or confusing at times, but its final few episodes are so gripping, well-acted and well-written that you may get swept away and forget what annoyed you in the first place. Roberts starts to show her incredible range as a performer, turning her emotions on a dime and filling up the small screen with as much magnetism as she ever did on the big one. And, thankfully, once the storyline climaxes around Episode 8, all those aggressively “arty” choices start to make more sense – even the vertical video.
Perhaps, like the very lucky “Homecoming,” other TV shows can cover up minor faults with a fantastic Julia Roberts performance. If she decides to stick around, that is.