The second season of "Homecoming" was always going to have a difficult time living up to its original effort. That first season really captured lightning in a bottle with its unique format and ideas. While predictably not quite living up to the billing, it still provides a solid run of episodes that features some interesting ideas. I only wish they had been expanded upon more.
For a very basic overview, S2 of "Homecoming" begins with Jackie (Janelle Monae) waking up in a rowboat with absolutely no idea how or why she got there. All she knows is that Audrey Temple (Hong Chau)--an employee of the mysterious Geist corporation--is in a relationship with her. From there, viewers (and Jackie) are left to piece together exactly what happened. All the while, Leonard Geist (Chris Cooper), the company founder, struggles with his conscience over how his plant extract has the potential to affect members of society, and one of those previously-affected members--Walter Cruz (Stephan James)--is still trying to put the pieces together of his own Geist involvement.
Basically, the story structure here is as follows: the first episode and the last episode move the overall plots/characters forward, while all the other ones in the middle are essentially flashbacks for how Monae's character ended up in that rowboat.
On one hand, I can see what is trying to be accomplished: crafting a mystery to be unpacked. For me, however, that only worked fairly well, as it is simply mystery for mystery's sake. While it's somewhat interesting to see the events line up in ways you never would have expected when you first see the character wake up in the boat, to me the much more interesting material was the plot lines involving Leonard and Audrey. In S1, the Geist company is so shrouded in mystery that there's a golden opportunity to delve into that here. While that does happen, it is--in my opinion--much too small of a dose. Instead of spending so much time on Monae's character journey, perhaps a more even split could have been obtained.
Up until the last episode of this season, this show was a 5 or 6 star rating for me. But the finale truly is incredible (again, because it combines the Geist material with the newer characters perfectly) and really re-energized me as far as what the show can accomplish when running on all cylinders.
So, while not nearly as ground-breaking as its predecessor, Homecoming's second season is simply more of a "solid effort". Despite its faults, you'll have some fun watching it either way.
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