Homecoming is the best kind of "what the hell is going on here?" TV

Vulture

The Amazon series is the mystery-box drama at its best, with the casting of Julia Roberts a stroke of genius, says Jen Chaney. "There are two types of 'what the hell is going on here?' TV," says Chaney. "There’s the supposedly complex but really just confusing kind, which makes you feel so lost that you can’t figure out what’s actually happening, even after reading multiple recaps. 'I don’t know what the hell is going on here!' you scream midway through season one, then give up on the whole thing and start rewatching old, extremely understandable episodes of Friends. Then there’s the good kind of 'what the hell is going on here?' TV, which presents a version of a specific reality, hints that there’s more to that reality than meets the eye, and then slowly reveals additional details that speak to the full truth of its characters’ experiences. In the middle of watching a show like that, you say, 'I’m not sure what the hell is going on here … and I love it.' Homecoming is that second type of series, an irresistible mystery-box drama that tells its story with carefully considered details and superb acting that grounds the whole piece in reality."

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• Homecoming is fall's most bingeable show with deep-rooted paranoia that feels right at home in 2018
• Julia Roberts isn't wasting any time on the small screen: Her soft-spoken enigma gradually builds as the show becomes an awfully good mystery
• Less is very much more: Sam Esmail concentrated on a single, intricate story with 10 swift and magnetic episodes
• Homecoming's half-hour drama format is a "surprising innovation" in the Peak TV era
• Esmail brings a malevolent, Hitchcockian aspect to Homecoming, especially with his decision to change the aspect ratios
• Homecoming hums with paranoia and jangly-nerve thrills, with a Mr. Robot-y distrust of practically everything
• Eerie, unnerving, fascinating and spare: For viewers of Mr. Robot, Homecoming may come as a relief
• Unlike Esmail's Mr. Robot, Homecoming has the worn edges of a 1970s mystery thriller, with just a bit of old-school gumshoe TV and Hitchcock thrown in
• Homecoming is surprisingly, welcomingly low-key: It makes chaos feel manageable
• The podcast is superior: Because it is a direct adaptation, the Homecoming TV adaptation is too talky
• Production designer Anastasia White discusses creating a multi-floor set for Roberts' epic walk-and-talk
• How the sets helped Julia Roberts get into character
• Creators Eli Horowitz and Micah Bloomberg strove to retain their podcast's intimate and claustrophobic character-based feel in its TV adaptation
• Horowitz and Bloomberg made multiple changes, including to the ending, so it wouldn't be familiar to fans of the podcast
• Julia Roberts doesn't consider working on a TV show a big deal: "I get it because I see that the press, as it were, sees a clear delineation between movie actor and TV actor,” she says. “For me, I’m just looking for the best part. This just happens to be a moment in my career quite joyfully where the podcast came to me, and I met Sam, and it all kind of came together.”