Hong Chau and Janelle Monae Take the Training Wheels Off at Homecoming

Homecoming is back, taking the training wheels off pacing us on a ride learning what happens to Walter Cruz (Stephan James), Colin (Bobby Cannavale) and Audrey Temple (Hong Chau) and this drug that the Geist Corporation has inflicted upon its unsuspecting veterans.

The critically-acclaimed series Homecoming returns for its second season with a fresh new mystery starring Janelle Monáe.  Alex (Monae) wakes in a rowboat adrift a lake, with no memory of how she got there — or even who she is. While in search of her identity, her inquisitiveness leads her into the heart of the Geist Group, the unconventional wellness company behind the Homecoming Initiative.

The second season finds Stephan James reprising his role as Walter Cruz, who is trying to build a new life following the traumas of war and the Homecoming Initiative, when he begins to realize that there’s an even more stealth version of the program underway. Hong Chau returns as Audrey Temple, a front desk receptionist at Geist who finds herself thrust into a top position of the corporate ladder much to her detriment. Also joining the cast for Season Two are Oscar-winner Chris Cooper as Leonard Geist, the company’s eccentric founder and Emmy-winner Joan Cusack as Francine Bunda, an equally eccentric military woman with huge ambitions, goals and dreams.

At the meat of this story are vets experiencing PTSD and how the government uses some of these men as human guinea pigs in an effort disguise. Created by Micah Bloomberg, Eli Hororwitz and Sam Esmail with most episodes directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez,  Homecoming is shot with heavy Rod Serling-esque/Hitchcock cinematic influences of overhead shots and split screen action thanks to the cinematic genius of  Tod Campbell and Jas Shelton and a score that enhances every single frame of action that enhances the anxiety and tension building of this dramatic thriller.

Janelle Monae is exceptional and is having a great run theatrically between Homecoming, Lady and The Tramp and the anticipated release of Antebellum. From the second I witnessed her multi-nominated role as Ngoc Lan Tran in Downsizing, I knew Chau would become a force to be reckoned with.  Watching her spar with heavyweights like Joan Cusack and Chris Cooper is thrilling to behold. But, what’s most fascinating is watching Black people in the woods…yup…that part and a whole new meaning to the old saying “don’t drink the Kool-Aid.”

Bottom line is that this series, has the uncanny ability to make you feel like you are watching a series of many motion pictures and it is absolutely fantabulous. Judge for yourself when Homecoming hits Amazon Prime Video on May 22nd