Amazon Series Homecoming is an Engrossing Mystery (and it’s Fairly Clean!)

My husband and I have grown pretty leery of watching series that are rated Mature.

We used to be more unconcerned, figuring we could pretty much just fast-forward stuff we didn’t want to see. But then we had like a whole bunch of things in a row shock us with graphic sex scenes that began with no warning.

So now we look up Mature and R ratings on the “Parent’s Guide” section of IMDB to see just what the rating is for.

When I heard of the Julia Roberts-starring series “Homecoming” on Amazon, I didn’t initially think it sounded interesting and unique enough to bother looking up what its Mature rating was for (since about 80% of the time, they seem to be for gross sexual stuff when I do look things up…).

But on a whim, I decided to look it up anyway. Turns out, it was an M for language. So we gave it a shot.

Homecoming’s not-so-unique premise

My husband asked me what this “Homecoming” show was about. I was like, “Some kind of government-y conspiracy something, maybe to do with the military?” Not so very fantastic on paper.

But once we started it, we were hooked pretty quickly.

Julia Roberts plays a therapist of some kind at a mysterious facility for soldiers who’ve returned from active duty and are suffering from trauma-related troubles that make adjustment to civilian life hard.

But things aren’t what they seem.

We’re pulled into the life of a young ex-soldier named Walter Cruz, who is very likeable and connects instantly with his therapist Julia Roberts (their age different feels a little squeamy at times, though things don’t get explicitly romantic between them…)

We’re given a lot of apparently unconnecting information that hints at deception on the government’s part. And once we see Walter Cruz and his more mentally-messed up friend try to figure out what’s really going on, the mystery feels more personal and important.

I liked Homecoming a lot more than I expected

“Homecoming” has great acting and writing, and it’s not hard to see why it’s been nominated for three Golden Globe awards.

The characters are believable and either very likeable or the type of well-done jerk you love to hate, in the case of one of them.

Episodes are around a half-hour each, which I think added to the un-turn-off-able quality.

Tonally, it’s kind of weird, almost quirky but not in a funny way. I honestly can’t think of another show or movie like it, but the tone seemed to work.

The storyline seemed to wrap up somewhat neatly at the end of the tenth episode first season, making us wonder if another season was even planned. Until the scene after the credits, that introduced a further conflict to come back to.

As far as moral issues, there is quite a bit of language (F-words aplenty), but not much else.