What I’m Watching: Homecoming

Homecoming: Season 1, Episode 5 “Helping” (B-)

This is the first episode of this show that I’ve watched since it picked up Golden Globe nominations for Best TV Series – Drama and for stars Julia Roberts and Stephan James, an honor that might be deserved even if I’m not yet ready to put it at the top of my list. I also found this half-hour to be the weakest one so far, not following up on what’s come before in the most enticing way. Colin called Heidi to ream her out for giving Cruz a harmonica, but I would think that the rest of her behavior was much more problematic. I’m not sure what compelled him to pull a prank on her with the phone at the start, but interrupting the legitimate therapeutic exercise run by Craig to get him to sit on a chair she had put glue on seems like the most unprofessional, public way of getting him back. Colin was stunned when he went into the diner ready to unleash hell on Heidi for daring to call him only to find that she didn’t even recognize him, which means that he himself doesn’t realize just what it was that Homecoming was doing. That makes some more sense given the revelation that he’s not the boss, and that he wanted to hide the shortcomings of the program from his supervisor, Ron, played by Fran Kranz, who was so great as Topher on the similarly trippy “Dollhouse” so many years ago. If Carrasco didn’t think that there was something to his investigation before this, meeting an extremely disturbed Shrier is sure to make him keep pressing. I saw Hong Chau’s name in the credits and certainly hope that the “Downsizing” Golden Globe nominee has a more substantial role going forward.