Janelle Monáe joins Homecoming as details emerge about the Amazon hit's second season
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Because one does not simply lock down Julia Roberts for multiple seasons of TV, the Oscar-winning actress won’t be returning for the second season Amazon’s Homecoming. Her replacement, though is no slouch. Acclaimed actress and pop star Janelle Monáe will headline the new season, playing what Deadline describes as “a tenacious woman who finds herself floating in a canoe, with no memory of how she got there—or even who she is.” Makes sense, what with this being a show about the manipulation of memory.
Though the season will deviate from the podcast upon which the series is based, it won’t be adopting an anthology approach. Deadline says they’ve heard that season one regulars Bobby Cannavale, Stephan James, and Hong Chau could return, as well as Shea Whigham, though they sound less sure about whether his Thomas Carrasco will return. This also makes sense, as the first season ended with a stinger that found Cannavale’s Colin Belfast cast in the shadow of Chau’s Geist Group honcho Audrey Temple.
The first season of the compelling drama, which was directed by Mr. Robot’s Sam Esmail, told the story of a transitional support center for soldiers that secretly toyed with the processing of its clients’ trauma. “We’re working on a second season, but we have a very different trajectory for our show,” Esmail recently told THR.
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Good news. The podcast’s second season is truly awful. The sound mix is shit because Eli Horowitz thought he can do it himself, the plot is aimless without much forward momentum and the “mystery” (a very generous use of the word, too) at its core relies on every single woman involved acting like an absolute idiot.Its only redeeming factor is David Schwimmer, who plays such a perfect, manipulative, slimy fuck that you want to get your hands on him after a minute – it might be his best role altogether.Only Limetown’s second outing was worse. Since that podcast is also getting a TV adaptation, I hope they’ll do the exact same thing and just do an original season 2.
While we’re at it, I’m terrified by the lack of news regarding FX’s Alice Isn’t Dead show, particularly a single thing: that they still haven’t announced Jasika Nicole returning as Keisha. Because there’s no possible way someone else is playing her, right?
i never had any desire to listen to the podcast (and i listen to a lot of podcasts) b/c the show was pretty short & very well done. Gotta love a drama with 30min eps.
Too bad about Roberts. She was great. Really sold the ambiguity early on.
I thought Roberts was very good, but I’m kind of happy they’re moving the story somewhere else. I wish more shows would be brave enough to make that choice once the primary thread is kinda played out. Excited Hong Chau is coming back; it makes sense to follow her character into the next phase. Plus I thought she was doing really interesting work, despite having very few lines.
yeah, her story is done. keep it going with the company and other stories.i’m not a huge fan of Roberts, but man, she really sold the two sides of her character in that first season. Wigham was great, too – but the direction and use of old 70s paranoia-thriller music really seeded my love for the show.