After the success of Mr. Robot, any new show from Sam Esmail is going to be highly anticipated. And thanks to the success of Mr. Robot, it’s going to be just as secretive and mysterious. Esmail directed the new Amazon series Homecoming, created by Eli Horowitz and Micah Bloomberg, based on a podcast.
Julia Roberts plays Heidi Bergman, a counselor for soldiers returning from war. Her relationship with Walter Cruz (Stephan James) is the pivotal focus, but little else is known about the show yet. And little more was revealed at the Television Critics Association panel for Homecoming. Here’s what Esmail had to say to the TCA. Homecoming premieres Friday, November 2 on Amazon.
This show looks familiar:
“I think, look, there’s always gonna be that DNA [of Mr. Robot] inside me but for this, Tod Campbell and Anastasia White and Cat Thomas, my whole creative team, we really wanted this did have that old-fashioned, old-school thriller vibe to it. So really we more harkened back to Hitchcock and his successor, De Palma which honestly, if anything, the episode of Mr. Robot was probably more influenced by De Palma than anything else. It’s very different in that regard but there’s obviously a little bit of that Mr. Robot DNA also in there.
Oh look, another evil corporation:
“Obviously I think any art is kind of a sign of its times. And I do think that there is something in the air about corporate greed and especially since the 2008 financial collapse, we’re still reeling from that. I mean like how many of the perpetrators of that actually got arrested or jailed? I mean, I can count on one hand. And it’s actually probably to that point, none. So I don’t want to say that all corporations are the villains, but there is that untrustworthiness right now with capitalism in general, but corporations, especially large corporations specifically.”
Why Sam Esmail is sharing the load this time:
“Honestly, it just had to do with the material. I was obsessed with the podcast. I binged it I think three times in a row. And, yeah, something about it just deeply resonated with me. And then when Julia raised her hand, I was like, ‘I would be silly to say no to this, this could be something really special,’ which it turned out to be.”
