Critical Condition: Homecoming

Homecoming | Amazon Prime Video

☆☆☆☆ “The creator, writer and director of USA’s Mr. Robot, which redefined what a television series could do visually, is the director and executive producer of Amazon’s latest series, Homecoming … a visually dazzling thriller that plays on memory, the military industrial complex, conspiracy and unchecked government privilege to immediately set the hook as an intriguing, ambitious work of television.” — The Hollywood Reporter.

☆☆☆☆ “The series hums with paranoia and jangly-nerve thrills, with a Roboty distrust of practically everything. Its debut season runs ten episodes, and Esmail directs the living hell out of all of them. But the material, adapted by creators Micah Bloomberg and Eli Horowitz from their own hit podcast, is essentially a sequence of one-on-one conversations, different interrogators asking different questions to people who’d don’t want to give any answers.” — Entertainment Weekly.

☆☆☆☆ “In an age of streaming-TV bloat, Homecoming is five efficient hours, about 30 minutes per episode. It manages to be deliberative and propulsive at the same time. It builds momentum even as the first few episodes may seem to meander, and it comes together in a suspenseful thriller with an emotional punch.” — New York Times.

☆☆☆☆ “Homecoming is very good, but it doesn’t convince me that a TV series is a better way to tell the story than as a radio play. Because of the original podcast format, Homecoming‘s story is told entirely through conversation because the TV series is a direct adaptation. So there’s more dialogue than TV usually has, which means that it’s very, y’know, talky. It’s one thing to listen to a five-minute phone call, and another to watch it.” — TV Guide.

☆☆☆☆ “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. [Julia] 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.” — USA Today.