Homecoming (TV series)

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Television series
German title Homecoming
Original title Homecoming
Country of production United States
original language English
Year (s) since 2018
Production
company		 Esmail Corp,
Gimlet Pictures,
Crocodile,
We Here At,
Red Om Films,
Anonymous Content ,
Universal Cable Productions,
Amazon Studios
length 24-37 minutes
Episodes 17 in 2 seasons ( list )
genre Psychological thriller , political thriller , drama
Director Sam Esmail , Kyle Patrick Alvarez
idea Micah Bloomberg , Eli Horowitz
production John G. Lenic
camera Death of Campbell
Initial release November 2, 2018 on Prime Video

First publication in German		 February 22, 2019 on Prime Video
occupation

Main actor:

Supporting cast:

Homecoming is an American television series that has been publishing Amazon's streaming portal Prime Video since 2018. It is based on the podcast of the same name , which was produced by Gimlet Media in 2016 , and is a thriller series that takes place in two time levels and deals with the intertwining of private-sector interests with the treatment of traumatized US soldiers.

Julia Roberts plays the leading role in the ten-part first season staged by Sam Esmail . In the second season, directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez , Janelle Monáe plays the leading role. Also involved in the production are the authors of the podcast, Micah Bloomberg and Eli Horowitz. The series has been nominated for several awards, including the Golden Globe Award .

action

season 1

At the center of the plot is Heidi Bergman, who works as a consultant in a program of the private institution Homecoming in 2018 . The aim of the program, given to her, is to help post-traumatic stress disordered US soldiers to reintegrate into civilian life. Bergman's work is mainly described using the example of the former soldier Walter Cruz.

In 2022, US Department of Defense employee Thomas Carrasco is investigating the reason for an anonymous complaint that Cruz was held against his will in Homecoming . He asks Bergman, who is now a waitress and at first can't remember anything, as well as her boss at the time, Colin Belfast, who is evidently keeping something secret. He also finds out that the anonymous complaint was once abandoned by Walter Cruz's mother, Gloria. For Carrasco and the audience, the suspicion is growing that the former army servants' stay in Homecoming was in fact used for other purposes.

Ultimately, it turns out that the therapy sessions in the homecoming program were only intended to camouflage the real purpose of equipping soldiers for renewed military service. For this purpose, the soldiers' traumatizing memories were removed by a drug that they regularly took with their lunch without knowing it. Bergman found this out in 2018 and lost her memories by taking the drug herself, which she will therefore initially lack in 2022. Without informing about the deception of the soldiers, Belfast sells the work of his company to the clients from the Ministry of Defense as a success.

Staging

season 1

The episodes last between 24 and 37 minutes and, with an average length of 30 minutes, are unusually short for a drama series. The series plays, in constant change within the episodes, in two time levels that differ in their image format: The story set in 2018 takes place in the conventional 16: 9 image format, whereas the story set in 2022 up to the eighth episode is staged in a square format . In the eighth episode, in the 2022 moment when Heidi Bergman remembers her time at Homecoming , the image format changes to 16: 9. As the director explained in an interview, the change in the image format serves to visualize Bergman's return to her past. In the tenth episode, at the time set in 2018, when Bergman lost her memories after taking the drug, the image format becomes square. The square image format not only serves to differentiate the time level, but also symbolizes the protagonist's lack of memory.

Apart from the changing image format, the staging is characterized by long tracking shots, for example through the interior of buildings, as well as split screens , slow zooms in larger and smaller settings and distant looks from a bird's eye view , including on cars or people. The critic of the website fernsehserien.de commented on the staging: The director “operates with [...] a geometric framing , which often places the characters off the center [...], with artful plan sequences that the viewers across the arena architecture lead, with […] irritating blurring and surreal interludes ”like a pelican.

The soundtrack of the episodes consists exclusively of external music, ie not music created specifically for the series. It includes compositions by Lalo Schifrin , Bernard Herrmann , John Williams , Michael Small , David Shire and Vangelis and themes from soundtracks from thriller films such as Dressed to Kill , Amityville Horror , Der Marathon-Mann , Vertigo , Klute , Duell and Die Rattlesnake .

history

The authors Micah Bloomberg and Eli Horowitz once had the idea for the Homecoming podcast , which they developed with the intention of telling a thriller plot “in small bits”, only through conversations and consciously without pictures. Voiced by actors like Catherine Keener and Oscar Isaac and produced by Gimlet Media , iTunes released the podcast, consisting of six, 20-minute parts, beginning on November 16, 2016. After the podcast started, Amazon.com bought the rights to it It was adapted as a television series, prevailed against a number of other film and television producers and ordered two seasons. In an interview, Bloomberg and Horowitz emphasized their intentions regarding the adaptation as a television series, "to defy certain series conventions and to stay narrative close to the podcast format".

reception

criticism

The first season received mostly positive reviews. There was particularly encouragement for exciting staging. In Süddeutsche, for example, the critic spoke of “an atmospherically dense thriller that breathes the spirit of Hitchcock as well as of seventies films like The Three Days of the Condor .” Numerous irritating moments would persuade viewers to stick with it. In the FAZ it was said that the director had "created a claustrophobic psychological thriller that plunges a basically simple plot into flawless suspense ." The film service awarded three out of five possible stars and said that the series "very cleverly" combined two levels of time and "the unfortunate intertwining of the horror of war and economic interests unpretentious and straightforward" develop. In the New York Times , critic James Poniewozik rated the season as "five efficient hours" because it manages to be both deliberate and propulsive at the same time, and even gets going when it does the first few episodes seem to wander aimlessly.

Critics also praised the actors' acting. For example, Jürg Zbinden expressed himself in the NZZ convinced that Julia Roberts shines in the series as a character actress and here "shows neither the long legs of" Pretty Woman "nor the décolleté of" Erin Brockovich "". Poniewozik said that the actor Bobby Cannavale embodied Colin Belfast "obtrusively" vividly and that Stephan James and Shea Whigham were "impressive" in their rather inconspicuous roles.

Amelie Heinz was not entirely satisfied in a review for Prisma . The series is “quite exciting” and Roberts does its thing “properly”, but you miss “that certain something” about your acting. ”With the“ very gloomy ”looking pictures, it was“ unfortunately a little exaggerated ”, because when you“ can only perceive black shadows, that reduces the viewing pleasure immensely. "

Based on reviews in English, the rating aggregators Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic calculated an approval rate for the first season of 98 and 83 percent, respectively.

Awards

The first season was nominated for three Golden Globes , namely in the categories of best actress ( Julia Roberts ), best actor ( Stephan James ) and best drama television series . There were also nominations - mainly for best series - for an Eddie Award from the American Cinema Editors , an Excellence in Production Design Award from the Art Directors Guild and a WGA Award from the Writers Guild of America . She has also been nominated for awards by the Motion Picture Sound Editors (two Golden Reel Awards ) and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association (three Critics' Choice Television Awards ). So far, there have only been two Satellite Awards , namely for best drama television series and for Roberts as best actress in a drama series (as of March 16, 2019).

Episode list

season 1

No.
( total ) 		No.
( St. ) 		German title Original title script
1 1 Compulsory program Mandatory Eli Horowitz , Micah Bloomberg
2 2 pineapple Pineapple Eli Horowitz
3 3 Optically Optics David Wiener
4th 4th redwood redwood Micah Bloomberg
5 5 Help Helping Cami Delavigne
6th 6th toy Toys Shannon Houston
7th 7th test test Eric Simonson
8th 8th protocol Protocol Eli Horowitz
9 9 job Work Micah Bloomberg
10 10 stop stop Eli Horowitz, Micah Bloomberg
All episodes were released on Prime Video on November 2, 2018.

season 2

No.
( total ) 		No.
( St. ) 		German title Original title Director script
11 1 People People Kyle Patrick Alvarez Micah Bloomberg , Eli Horowitz
12 2 giant Giant Kyle Patrick Alvarez Zachary Wigon
13 3 Before Previously Kyle Patrick Alvarez Sarah Carbiener , Erica Rosbe
14th 4th Soap Soap Kyle Patrick Alvarez Casallina Kisakye
15th 5 meter Meters Kyle Patrick Alvarez Evan Wright
16 6th needle Needle Kyle Patrick Alvarez Patrick MacManus
17th 7th Again Again Kyle Patrick Alvarez Micah Bloomberg, Eli Horowitz
All episodes were released on Prime Video on May 22, 2020.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Homecoming. In: gimletmedia.com. Retrieved June 4, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Director, Season 2. Accessed May 10, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Josh Wigler: Homecoming: How Sam Esmail Unboxes the Amazon Drama's Biggest Reveal , in: The Hollywood Reporter , Nov. 6, 2018, accessed March 24, 2019
  4. ↑ a b c Gian-Philip Andreas: "Homecoming": Julia Roberts' brilliant paranoia thriller , in: fernsehserien.de from Feb. 24, 2019, accessed on March 16, 2019
  5. ↑ a b Jürg Zbinden: TV series «Homecoming»: Julia Roberts also shines in the character subject , in: NZZ from March 13, 2019, accessed on March 16, 2019
  6. ↑ a b c Patrick Heidmann: "Homecoming" has what is missing from almost all series , in: SZ.de from Nov. 3, 2018, accessed on March 16, 2019
  7. ↑ Joanna Robinson: Oscar Isaac and Catherine Keener Present Your New Podcast Obsession , in: Vanity Fair , Nov. 16, 2016, accessed on March 16, 2019
  8. ↑ Amazon produces series with Julia Roberts , in: Spiegel online from July 20, 2017, accessed on March 16, 2019
  9. ↑ Ursula Scheer: She can't remember anything at all , in: FAZ from November 2, 2018, accessed on March 16, 2019
  10. ↑ Homecoming. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 22, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  11. ↑ a b James Poniewozik: Review: 'Homecoming' Is Military, Industrial and Complex , in: The New York Times, Oct. 31, 2018, accessed March 20, 2019
  12. ↑ Original quote: “pushy”
  13. ↑ Original quote: “impressive”
  14. ↑ Amelie Heinz: "Homecoming": Julia Roberts is haunted by her past. In: prisma.de . Retrieved March 20, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Homecoming: Season 1 (2018) , in: Rotten Tomatoes , accessed on March 24, 2019
  16. ↑ Homecoming: Season 1 , in: Metacritic , accessed March 24, 2019
  17. ↑ Awards , in: IMDb , accessed on March 16, 2019