Just saw Homecoming 2 on Amazon Prime Video, and I wanted to review it before I forgot what I just saw.
Sorry, couldn't resist, but Homecoming 2 is even more about forgetting than was Homecoming 1. It features Alex, who wakes up at the very start of the narrative not knowing who she is, and Walter, back from Season 1, sans Julia Roberts' character, still wanting to know who he is, i.e., what he forgot.
The cause of all of this amnesia is some kind of juice from a plant grown on the Geist farm. When used as cream, it's almost miraculous in helping the skin heal. When taken internally, either by food or drink, it makes you forget.
Just how long your mind is lost is not clear. It could be forever. It certainly is long enough that Alex does not stop her lover and partner Audrey from drinking the red drink with the drug, after Walter and Geist have spiked everyone's punch at the big party. Alex not only has lost her intellectual memory of the woman she loved, she's lost that lovin' feeling. I missed hearing the Righteous Brothers sing that great song, with that masterful Phil Spector production, in background. (But here is it now, if you'd like to hear it.)
Since no such plant with those effects exist, Homecoming, especially this season, is almost as much science fiction as it is thriller, which is always fine with me. Of course, it's not impossible that I at some point in my life consumed such berry juice, and I've forgotten not only that I consumed it, but such a juice even exists. Hey, after sheltering in place at home for more than two months, almost nothing would surprise me.
Excellent acting in this second season, even though I missed Julia Roberts. Stephan James was just superb as Walter, able to modulate from sweet to angry in an heartbeat. Janelle Monáe was also excellent in the dual role of Alex before and after she lost her memories. And Chris Cooper was perfect as Geist.
I've always liked narratives about memory - so much so that I wrote The Consciousness Plague - and Homecoming 2 is a most worthy addition to the genre.
See also Homecoming 1: Memory Spliced, in Ten Short Parts
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