Homecoming (Amazon Prime) S02: B-

Julia Roberts starred and produced the first season of this series for Amazon Prime. When I watched I thought it was a one an done mini series, but the news of renewal caught me off guard. At the same time they said that Roberts wasn't coming back for a second season.

Still in that universe where Geist is still working on the project Homecoming. That looks to help veterans fight PTSD. In the first season we learned that this drug wiped almost completely the mind of a person. Leaving them traces of a life that they don't know they had.

Audrey Temple (played by Hong Chau) who we met briefly last season is back. She takes control of herself and escalates quickly on Geist by blaming others and hiding some details of the Homecoming project. Soon Washington sends Bunda (played by Joan Cusack) she works in the military and are very interested in acquiring the drug.

Unfortunately for Temple someone is trying to know what happened, some events are very blurry and doesn't seem to remember the last few years.

Janelle Monáe plays Jackie a woman that wakes up on a boat in the middle of a lake. She doesn't know how she got there. When taken to the hospital the doctor thinks she's an addict, she has some marks on her arms that indicates drug use. Jackie tries to find out what exactly happened to her.

Monáe performance here is for me the high light of the series. She is terrific and transmits a lot of emotions even though her character is someone that knows how to hide her feelings very well. I loved her even more than Julia Roberts and didn't miss her at all.

The supporting cast is great. Joan Cusack is always a delight to watch her, Chris Cooper and Hong Chau, they are all great in it.

Visually the second season is very similar to the first one, this feeling of watching an indie movie. The long shots at the end of each episode that gives you a small hint of what's to come. The division on the screen to watch what's happening with different characters, like a comic book or the series 24.

The music is a key element here, it helps set the mood and keep you bitting your nails, even though this is a drama and not a thriller. Well maybe is some sort of hybrid between drama and thriller.

On the down side the pace in which the story evolves is also very similar to the first season. Slowly leaving you small pieces, but if we are talking about 7 episodes things are still going way to slow for such a short season.

But Janelle specifically keeps you busy uncovering her own story and what really went on at Geist. Her chances are probably slim but maybe, just maybe she gets an acting nod at the Globes or the Emmy's. Like people still care about awards anyway.

So far the series hasn't been renewed for a third season but it might become a thing. Is some sort of anthology series and the story can keep going with some different characters that connect somehow to some of the ones we already know. Following this direction I don't think that Monáe would be back for a third entry, but who knows, maybe her and even Julia Roberts are game for a third and maybe final season.

This series would be a good addition to a playlist.