Review: Homecoming (Season 2)
What made this 2018 psychological thriller series so outstanding, other than its Hitchcockian premise about a shady facility that was secretly erasing memories of soldiers in order to redeploy them into military service, were the unsettling long takes and ominous score that made the hair on your neck stand.
It also boasted the star power of Julia Roberts, as the caseworker protagonist at the Homecoming Transitional Support Centre for returning veterans.
Despite not reaching the dramatic heights and emotional depths of its predecessor and without its A-list headliner, the second season - which is streaming on Amazon Prime Video - packs in enough to keep you bingeing.
The conspiracy is expanded, as are the roles played by returning cast members Stephan James, Hong Chau and Chris Cooper.
We relive, through flashbacks and references, familiar Season 1 plot threads from different points of view, but with wider repercussions.
New addition Janelle Monae takes the lead and things kick off with the mystery over her character waking up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be in a boat stranded in the middle of a lake, while the rest of the season uncovers her links to the bigger picture.
She looks luminous on screen and her bone structure is to die for, but Monae is just not that compelling - her performance in the first two shaky episodes even borders on amateurish.
And as much as the interracial relationship between Monae's and Hong's characters takes centre stage and is a refreshing nod to diversity, it does not wield as much potency as what Roberts and James shared.
But even though the pieces do not fit as snugly and satisfyingly, fans will still be celebrating Homecoming 2 for delivering an intriguing, provocative puzzle that they are not likely to forget.
Score: 3.5/5
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