An Unsatisfying Homecoming Season 2 Won’t Stay in Your Memory for Long

The second season of Eli Horowitz and Micah Bloomberg’s once-based-on-a-podcast Homecoming has a common problem found when expanding from “story” to “franchise.” The shadows in the corners of the Amazon mystery series’ world, the ones that once invited our imaginations to fill in the gaps, have—by design—evaporated, for little reason other than that Season 2 needed a story to tell. It’s not unwatchable, it’s just unnecessary.

The excellent first season kicked off with a past-and-present relationship between soldier Walter Cruz (Stephan James) and caseworker Heidi Bergman (Julia Roberts) that had deteriorated into nothing. But as the gaps filled in from both ends, we got context. This season starts off with a gap, then uses its mystery to provide text.

Janelle Monáe plays Jacqueline Calico—or at least wakes up with that ID in her pocket. She, whoever that really is, wakes up in a rowboat in the middle of a lake with a phone in her hand and no idea how she’s gotten there. The phone is quickly dropped into the water, but the amnesia’s more permanently in her possession. Unfortunately, the initial investigation into her identity isn’t particularly compelling TV, as it feels like a silent video game protagonist playing a point-and-click mystery. Unlocking new locations by finding the right clues, her procedural drive replaces personality. It becomes I Spy, with only the absence of information sucking us in like a black hole. Eventually, however, it all returns to the Homecoming program.

My Season 1 review of the show was vague about the memory loss plot, the mysterious Geist Emergent Group, and the secretive Homecoming program at the heart of it all, but specific about the artistry behind them. That vagueness will remain (partially because I’m prohibited from sharing details, outcomes, and entire characters, and partially because there’s still enough fun to be had with some reveals that it warrants a cautious approach) just as the artistry has persevered. Mr. Robot’s Sam Esmail has passed on directorial duties to The Stanford Prison Experiment’s Kyle Patrick Alvarez, someone who brings plenty of experience with fucked-up experiments, and who also maintains the striking visual language of the original.

Slick split-screens, ethereal crossfades, long tracking shots (a home invasion looks impressively complex), and lingering credits sequences keep Homecoming looking great. These latter sequences, almost always mundane counterpoints to the high-concept antics of the preceding episode, remind us that life goes on and that even the most outrageous actions and reveals are built upon boring errands. Ned Stark’s head wasn’t lopped off without a lot of off-screen blade sharpening.

But there aren’t too many shocking twists over Season 2’s seven half-hour episodes. The brief runtime is a continued highlight that seems especially praiseworthy as streaming dramas (especially mystery-laden ones) bloat to obscene, Quibi seed funding-like levels. But the second season is shorter, less ambitious in scope, and still feels like it takes three episodes to get going. That’s partly because Homecoming gets caught up providing answers nobody was asking for, like “Who’s the weird old farmer at the head of Geist?” and “Has he been upstairs the whole time?” (he has, as played by Chris Cooper at his crustiest). It also supplies those that were more interesting when they were ambiguous, like “How’s Walter holding up in his new life?” and “How did secretary Audrey Temple (Hong Chau) take over Homecoming?”