Homecoming episodes 1 & 2 review: New Julia Roberts show is a dreamy mystery told in bitesize chunks

'Homecoming' has the feel of a one-hour-per-episode show, so when these credits intervene just shy of the 30-minute mark it’s disorientating – but a bit of a masterstroke

*This article contains minor spoilers for Homecoming episodes 1 and 2*

Julia Roberts has downplayed her first television role, but it’s a career landmark nonetheless and one that certainly won’t hurt Amazon Prime’s viewing figures. The series that tempted her away from film – after what must have been a ton of TV offers – is Homecoming, a psychological drama based on a podcast of the same name and steered by Mr Robot creator Sam Esmail.

Roberts plays Heidi Bergman, a counsellor at Homecoming Transitional Support Centre, a mysterious government facility that rehabilitates PTSD suffering soldiers back into society. At least that’s what the patients are told; from the outset it is clear that all is not as it seems. We learn through flashforwards in claustrophobic 4:3 aspect ratio that Heidi quit her job to work shifts in a dusty, dog-eared diner. Why the sudden career plunge? Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire) is on the case, a bureaucrat from the Department of Defence determined to find out what is really going on at the facility.

As with Mr Robot, Homecoming is keenly subversive, and Esmail looks to produce maximum unease with his choices of shot. The show is filled with quirky, dream-like directorial flourishes. Some very “Classic Hollywood” scoring is inserted where it doesn’t belong and long takes are employed – the camera pans over the facility’s many floors and rooms as a video game view might. Pineapple is established as a recurring motif from the outset. You didn’t read that wrong: pineapple is, in the weird world of Homecoming, an inauspicious fruit.

Julia Roberts plays a counsellor at a mysterious rehabilitation centre (Amazon Prime)

Most striking about the show though is its unorthodox end credits, which arrive unexpectedly and abruptly. As if interrupting the scene, they display over the footage, the only sound being the continuing background noise of the setting. Homecoming has the feel of a one-hour-per-episode show, so when these credits intervene just shy of the 30-minute mark it’s disorientating. It’s a bit of a masterstroke though, and the show feels like a sprawling, Zodiac-esque mystery dished out in bitesize chunks.

Why was Heidi’s calm and amiable patient Walter discharged from Homecoming because of violence? What’s the facility’s deeper purpose? Is it even in Florida, as the patients are told? Why can’t Heidi remember much about her time at Homecoming, is she hiding something or was she forced to?

The success of a show like this is down to how compelling the answers to these mysteries turn out to be, but the first two episodes have persuaded me to stick around and hear them.

Homecoming season 1 is released on Amazon Prime on 2 November