When & Tomorrow - Friday Video Distractions with Mike Norton

 Two this week. A drama involving mysteries and a conspiracy, and the other a sci-fi comedy. One I've watched and am recommending, and other that's debuting today (May 29th), and which I'm at least intending to give a look. The first is on Amazon Prime, the latter two on Netflix. I wanted to lead with that info, in case you don't subscribe to either service and have no immediate intention to change that.
  I'm not drawn toward most 21st century shows that have a strong anchor in service in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq. (I've just snipped three paragraphs of unnecessary explanation for that.) Oh, it's standard character background everywhere, there no avoiding that. A military background is such an easy character building block, and writers draw on the wars recent history provides.
 So, when in late 2018 I saw that Amazon Prime was launching the new series called Homecoming, the promos didn't grab me.
The story is built around the titular program, which at least purportedly designed to deal with reorienting members of the armed services with at least some indications of PTSD, upon their return to the States. The combination didn't automatically land it on my list of likely views.
  The second season appeared May 22nd (and how whacked out has my own perception of time become that I only just now realized that was just this past Friday) so there was a renewed push, and through whatever combination of factors it wore down and broke through my initial resistance. Perhaps it accomplished this mostly by making it clear that this story is a mix of mystery and conspiracy, and overall appeared to have a perspective and agenda I could respect.
   Homecoming is told in juxtaposed timelines, spending part of the time in 2018, and the rest roughly four years later, moving back and forth in a series of often tantalizing revelations. It plays heavily on themes of subjective reality, ranging from the subtleties of how we expediently deceive ourselves, and the vital importance of both personal and shared memory.  Memory as identity. As we follow some key characters, generally the most sympathetic ones, their mystery is made ours. The drive to regain lost memories and uncover the truth plays against some growing dread of what might be revealed not only about events but about self.
   Here's the trailer for season one. I'm not going to post the one here for season two, because that would be a pretty unsatisfying place to start. 

   The first season gradually introduces us to the Homecoming project, a privately-contracted program paid for via the Veteran's Administration. We quickly come to understand that it presents itself to the incoming servicemen (all of the candidates we see in season one are male) and any outside inquiries in one way, but its actual mission is much more intent on the data they're gaining in using the clients as test subjects. At some level, Veteran's Affairs is comfortable with washing their hands of it because it's not something they administer, and the people directing the program are
   While we're introduced to many characters, season one has four, main players:

   Heidi Bergman (Julia Roberts), in 2018, she's the lead/sole caseworker in this newly-launched project. In roughly 2022, her life is substantially different. The story of what happened is one of the central mysteries of the season. In 2018, we see that she's earnest and engaged, but is also being squeezed, and responding to that pressure in ways that will have consequences.
Walter Cruz (Stephan James), a young, affable serviceman who has signed up to be part of the Homecoming program. Fairly easily the most likeable character in the show, and the writers use that affection in large part to keep us on the hook through the final scenes of the season.

  Colin Belfast (Bobby Cannavale), easily and quickly spotted by us as a manipulative, bullying, conniving shitheel who is capable of turning on the charm, but for whom all interactions are simply means to a thoroughly self-interested end. We do get some glimmer of a kernel of a sympathetic character late in the season, but even that is ultimately purely self-serving. I found a  particular scene with his wife to be very affecting -- if it strikes you that way when you hit it, don't hesitate to mention it to me; I'd love to compare reactions and interpretations.

  Thomas Carrasco (Shea Whigham) is a fairly low-level bureaucrat from the Department of Defense, whose job it is to follow up on any complaints made against government and government-sponsored agencies and programs, tasked with investigating just to the degree of either declaring it investigated and settled, or to elevate the complaint so someone at a higher level can investigate. So, a low-level functionary. A minor grinder of details, who's been at it for many years and has risen as far as he's ever likely to in civil service. Neither charismatic nor imaginative, he does have a solid ethical base, and so resists expediently dismissing the complaint when pressure is applied to do so.
  Season two brings us more of a few characters met in season one, along with some new ones, but I don't want to get too far ahead. One season two performance I'll quickly note, though, is that I enjoyed the character they created for Joan Cusack, all the more so as it's a fun call-back character flip to the quirky, often surreal Robin Williams vehicle Toys (1992). In that film Joan Cusack's character was sister to Robin Williams', as the adult-of-body children of a man who built an empire of his toy business. That film was a commercial flop, but I've always enjoyed aspects of it, and the story arc similarities between what happens to corporate interests in each of the projects is too similar to ignore.

  The first season gives us a fairly complete set of character story arcs, though the stories of several of the characters and the aftermath of the Homecoming program continue in season two.
   Season one is ten episodes, each roughly half an hour, while season two was only seven episodes of similar length, so roughly 8.5 hours of binge-watching for those so-inclined.
  While there are characters you'll be interested to see what happens to them after this, the second season leaves us with a generally satisfying ending, and so a complete package. There's no viewer anxiety about whether or not the rest of the story will be greenlit by Netflix.
   Two, interesting quirks to the episodes:
   One is that they often lift musical soundtracks from movies, which was oddly jarring. The use of music from Carpenter's The Thing (1982) and The Fog (1980), for instance, or from The Eiger Sanction (1975) were all examples of this that threw me a little, pulling me out of the narrative for at least a few moments.
   The other is that each episode ends with an extended shot of a scene, as the camera keep running even though the main characters we were following in the scene have generally moved on. To the best of my notice, we see no new, story-pertinent information during these shots. They frequently left me wondering if this was meant to be a statement of how all of this is very much in our world, reminding us that this story is woven into an otherwise mundane world, or if this was simply a clever way of getting the audience to sit through most of the credits following each episode.
   Arriving on Netflix today, A 10-part comedy series from Greg Daniels and Steve Carell plays with Trump's initiative to create a new branch of the military: Space Force.

    With Daniels' involvement I'm torn as to what to expect. He's been key to several series, including two long-running workplace comedies - The U.S. version of The Office, and Parks and Recreation. While I greatly enjoyed the latter, I've so far found the former to abrade me at every step. Carell's prominent (starring) involvement in both The Office and this new show doesn't fill me with great confidence. but I'm open to give it a chance. Given the contemporary political connections to the subject matter, I've been especially avoiding early reviews. I want to let it succeed or fail for me on its own.
  If absolutely nothing else, this series includes what I believe is the last work by the very recently-passed Fred Willard.
  Next time, I expect to at least take a little time to look at the latest streaming platform to arrive: HBO Max -- which is an interestingly expanded form of HBO Go, with several noteworthy additions, ranging from Studio Ghibli and some connection to Turner Classic Movies, to Doctor Who and some DC comics properties.
  In the meantime, enjoy the weekend and the first week of June as best you can.   - Mike