The Prestige TV Podcast - 'Homecoming'

Episode Date: May 22, 2020

An entrance survey for the second season of 'Homecoming,' starring Janelle Monae and streaming on Amazon Prime now. Hosts: Chris Ryan and Juliet Litman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good sleep is everything. That's why Ali's science back support is made with a blend of melatonin and L-D-Nine for both kiddos and grown-ups. So when your mind won't switch off, you've got something that can help. Erasing thoughts and restless nights won't stand a chance. Find Ollie's sleep solutions for the whole family at ollie.com. That's OLLL-L-Y.com. Hello, welcome to TV concierge, a daily podcast where Ringer Staffers help you navigate the crowded TV landscape. I'm Chris Ryan.

And I'm joined today by my pal, Juliet Lidman. What's up, Juliette? Hello, Chris. Wow, coming in hot. And today we're going to do a little bit of a different kind of episode. We're going to do an episode of this podcast about a show we have not watched yet. Because this is the Homecoming Season 2 entrance survey. You may be familiar with our entrance and exit surveys on the ringer.com,

a very good website, where we kind of ask questions going into and coming out of seasons. Homecoming Season 2, hotly anticipated show coming on Amazon. on after its critically adored first season, which was entirely directed by Sam S. Mail, who is, I guess I could say a friend of the Watch podcast, but also a friend of the Big Picture podcast. And also the creator of Mr. Robot. It's just a great filmmaker. He directed the entire first season of Homecoming Season 1, and it starred an up-and-coming actress named Julia Roberts that I'm expecting big things from. The second season is a little bit different. This TV adaptation of a podcast with big movie stars in cinematic direction, that was where the first season took us.

it was kind of like Pete TV Yatsi and it starred Julie Roberts and Stephen James and Bobby Kahnavale among others and this season James returns no Roberts, no Bobby but Hong Chau comes through she was briefly featured in season one and James and Hong Chow

are joined by Janelle Monet who at least according to the trailer seems to be the star of this season so what I did is I put down a couple of entrance survey questions for Juliet because Juliet and I I'm fired up really love this show the first season I just want to say Sam Esmell's direction of season one is like incredibly memorable for me.

So the stakes are very high. I think it is the best tribute to Alfred Hitchcock that I've ever seen without being a Hitchcock knockoff. And it was also had like real MC Escher vibes. And I just thought it was so beautiful. And the visual work elevated the material in a way that I think often is not matched on television because such a writer's medium, but my expectations are very high for season two. And if you haven't watched season one, like, I don't know what you're waiting for. It's such a really cool and unique television experience. And I personally had never met Sam MestMail, so I'm only saying this as a fan.

You are not compromised. It was so of a piece. The writing, the direction, the acting, the music, which borrowed scores from some great 70s paranoid thrillers, like Parallax View. And I believe all the president's men, they had some great, like, sort of piano theme. from those films, it just all felt so perfectly considered. So it's a very high bar. So let's get into our season two homecoming entrance survey. Obviously, Homecoming is going to be on Amazon Prime and it starts airing Friday, May 22nd. And I want to ask you, Julia, just to start with, what is the last thing you remember about homecoming season one? The last thing I remember homecoming season one, aside from all the things I just said, are Julia Roberts and Stephen James being in a town,

that seems like it's adjacent to the action of wild, wild country, that other Netflix show. So they might be joining some cult in the Pacific Northwest or just living a nice life, a simpler life among the trees of the beautiful redwoods of the West Coast. Yeah, I placed them adjased to Big Sur, Big Sur, Jace. So I also remember that, but the thing I remember most is that Hong Chow kind of post-credit scene where she rubs the red perfume, which is sort of the, this extract of a flower that we see intermittently harvested in season one. And it kind of has something to do with the medication that the soldiers in season one have

been taking and that's supposed to alleviate their PTSD by basically wiping their memories. That's kind of where we're at. And, you know, the biggest thing that I think I wanted to ask you about was, were you left wanting a second season? You know, this is a really successful podcast, a really successful first season of TV. did you want to see more from this world? I did. There were so many unanswered questions. I would have been okay just leaving it.

I thought that they did a really, it was a beautiful show, and I thought that the ambiguity sort of suited the material, so it would have been okay ending there. But Stephen James has so much charisma, and he's sort of like my entree into this world, I'm entering. I want to walk through the door. I also, you know, in retrospect, I think the watchman was just one of the,

another one of the best television experience that I've had in a really long time. So I'm ready for more Hong Chow. Yeah, I was going to say about Hong Chow is that she is someone who I think we've only gotten like little taste of her talent so far. She's been the best thing in a little part in a couple of different movies,

downsizing, like you mentioned, watchmen. And she's always so good. But I want to see more. I want to see her carry half of a show if she's given the chance. that's a huge reason for season two. I also think, like, I'm very curious to see how much Micah and Eli, the guys who were responsible for the podcast, and they came on the watch, how much they kind of take the show in a different direction from the first season, because I think that was

ultimately a really interesting collaboration between them and Sam Esmell, but it had so much distinctive S-mail feel to it about pharmaceuticals, about paranoia, about surveillance, about your mind being malleable. I'll be really curious to see where it goes this year. In the trailer, we see Janelle Monet wake up in a kind of a canoe in the middle of a lake and clearly be very disoriented. So I think they're going to keep playing with this idea that you can lose your memory in this world.

Right. And I will say not compromised by any S-mail connections. However, Eli Horowitz was my first boss at my first job. And so I am compromised on that side. But Eli always had such cool, high-minded ideas. that like we're almost like ahead of its time. And I feel like just having been exposed to the way that he thinks previously, I think that there's a lot of like world building he could do.

So I have a lot of confidence that Eli and, and his co-writer, Mikeo, we'll figure it out for season two. But I think that also just like there's, it's a pretty like limitless conceit, right? Like the loss of memory and sort of like mind altering medications, whether taken by choice or coercion is like a rich topic and the history of narrative that like, who's going to say no to that, especially right now.

Like, I would like to have my mind manipulated sometimes. At the end of the workday, I'm just like, sure, give me a red pill, you know? Let's see what happens. I also think that, like, the, so the person who replaced Sam is this guy named Kyle Alvarez, who directed a movie about the Stanford Prison Experiment. It's called Stanford Prison Experiment. And that was obviously also a lot about big medicine and institutions, sort of manipulating people. I think he's really the perfect person to fill in here.

What are your thoughts on Janelle Monet, the actress? That was my next question. I was going to ask you, what is the state of your Janelle Monet as actress stockholding? I think I'm buying. I think there's just, she's another really charming person who I feel like hasn't had the right material. I also think that she has always kind of like done her own thing. And I feel like this could actually be a really good match of kind of. of like unique individuals finding each other on a unique show.

I also think that she's really well suited to like a one-off standalone series on a streaming network because I don't know. I think she's got a lot of charm and I think she's got a lot of talent, but I don't know that she can like be a franchise star. Like I think you want her on your championship team, but she's not your point guard and she's also not your superstar. She's like you're Ron Harper. And so I think this is like a really good lane for her.

This is definitely her coming out year. This is her big going mainstream. year because at least in terms of being an actress because she has homecoming season two which she is essentially the star of she stars in antebellum which is a get outish horror movie that that is slated to come out this year at some point and she was also in a sundance favorite called the gloria's which right we'll probably see on demand at some point this year with the absence of a theatrical release so she's in a bunch of really high profile stuff this year i i feel the same way about you i'm I'm ready to see more.

I'm ready to see her do different kinds of stuff. And I'm especially ready to see her carry more of a load in a show. All right. So it sounds like we're pretty fired up. You know, I mean, it's the perfect time for a show where people are feeling weird about their bodies and their minds and the medicines they're taking.

We want to know more about this small snapshot of the world that we got to see in season one. Anything else? I just want to say that I think that I'm on the topic of buying stock. I'm buying prime video stock. I think there's... Big Bezos! I'm going up... I'm in the pocket of Big Bezos.

And perhaps this is like not a controversial statement because everyone uses Amazon all the time. And I also like, I personally love Netflix. I'm just so happy at like the deep catalog. I'm like every Friday something new for me. But I think Amazon has like a weirdly high hit rate. I don't know. I think they in like some ways don't get a lot of credit for it,

but they don't have nearly as many signature shows. But they have quite a few hits. are either critically acclaimed or really popular. I mean, like, John Krasinski is eating for the rest of his life on Jack Ryan. That's on Amazon, isn't it? And Marvel Smith's Maisel is like a show that I think about frequently. And as I'm, like, living through this, like, weird pseudo-New York, I'm like, you know what did better than this weird pseudo-New York?

The Marvel's Mrs. Maisel, New York. And I just think there's like, I just think there's like a lot of interesting stuff happening on Amazon Prime Video. And also, they improved their logo. in my, on my, uh, Roku, it looks nicer. And I just, I just think they have a high hit rate. I don't know. I don't think they get a lot of credit for it. And like, maybe people aren't looking to give Jeff these more credit in this world. But I, I think it's a good service. Also, Andrew and I, um, noted this yesterday on TV concierge. Very easy to add and remove add-on channels on Amazon Prime. And for that,

I'm appreciative. Yeah. It's a good service. They're sort of splitting it. Apple TV was supposed to be the way through which you watch TV as well as watching Apple TV originals. And I think Amazon is actually giving them a run for their money. I personally find the Amazon Prime, like, movie interface, like way easier to manage than going through iTunes on Apple. It is interesting that you point out, though, like, Amazon doesn't necessarily have like an identity the way some of the other streaming networks are striving to have one, you know, like where I even think Hulu has a little bit more of a defined identity than Amazon does. Amazon, it's almost a surprise when you look at Amazon and you're like, oh, a new show is there. Hulu, I feel like has a little bit more of a

discernible rollout for their shows. But yeah, especially now with FXFU.0.00, flea bag. Like, like, the Amazon's had like a run of really good stuff. Flea back. Yeah. Amazon has good programming. I like, sort of take it for granted. But I don't know, I'm like genuinely excited about homecoming. I also personally enjoy a show that is really well crafted and not completely engulfed by like the hype machine. So, yeah. Homecoming season two, I think has kind of quietly arriving. But like we didn't even mention that Chris Cooper's in it.

He's like one of the best actors of this generation. Okay, so the last question I want to ask you in this entrance survey, and it's a question I'll ask, anytime we do a show that gets released as a binge, what is your bar for episodes this weekend? Like what I'm aiming for or what I think I will hit? Aiming for. I'm going to aim for three, and I hope I don't exceed it.

I don't want to go too fast. I think like really good shows you should digest. I think I benefited from, I waited for the Watchman wave to be over, but I then still parceled it out over like three weeks, which is relatively long. And I think I really benefited from like having a discreet serial episode experience. And I think most TV shows should not be binged.

Unfortunately, I'm in a minority. What about you? I think I'm going to shoot for four or five this weekend. You know, it's a nice long weekend. I don't have a lot of other stuff on my plate. I'm very, very slowly making my way through Outer Banks because I'm trying to savor the flavor of John B. and his boys. but um and also the dream of going to the beach yeah like it's just it's almost too like it's almost

become exotic watching these guys like jump in and out of the marsh so i think what i'm going to do is concentrate on homecoming this season this weekend and get through about half the season all right so that that's also like a good barometer for how excited we are we're definitely going to watch multiple episodes this weekend juliet thank you so much for joining me on tp concierge and we'll see you next time