Homecoming – TV Preview

Homecoming – TV-14
Release Date: Fri 2 Nov 2018

***NOTE: This preview is based on the first three episodes of the show as they were shown at TIFF 2018.***

Homecoming is a new series from Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail. It stars Julia Roberts as Heidi Bergman, a therapist tasked with helping soldiers returning home from war transition into the domestic life. They practice job interviews and are give many psychological tools and trade skills to make it by completing the program known as Homecoming.

But as with Mr Robot, there is a lot more going on as the show expertly peels back a layer or two with each episode. I will not go into spoilers (especially since I still have seven season one episodes to wait for in November!) but here’s a few things we find out about early:

Heidi (Roberts) knows that Homecoming is some sort of front that is covertly testing drugs on the soldiers. Some are on a placebo. We also know that sometime between the events of the Homecoming program and a later time period shown in parallel that Heidi left the program and is now working as a waitress and living with her mother (Sissy Spacek.)

Mr Robot alum Bobby Cannavale plays Heidi’s boss Colin Belfast at Homecoming. Steven James plays Walter Cruz, a soldier who starts the Homecoming program in the events of the first episode.

Having an entire season of a Sam Esmail show available to watch all at once is going to be prime bingeing material. Here’s hoping it doesn’t take a season and a half to kick in. (Mr Robot seemed like it took a little too long to become more than merely “good.”)