Revolution in the head: from Maniac to Homecoming, the era of introspective TV

From Cary Fukunaga ’s Maniac to Julia Roberts’ new Amazon show, television is exploring its darkest subject yet – the human brain – and it all started with Tony Soprano on a horseIn an early episode of the Julia Roberts showHomecoming, a soldier is brought back from Afghanistan to live in a rehabilitation centre in Florida, where he will learn to reintegrate into civilian life. At dinner in the hall, he begins to question the food on the plate in front of him. The pineapple cobbler the men are served every night is “really laying it on thick”, he announces, served to make them believe they are in Florida. But how do they know where they really are? Could they leave the facility, from which they are supposedly free to go, to have a beer in a local bar? Are we watching a soldier grapple with PTSD, or are his questions about his reality actually pointing towards the series’ central mystery, tantalisingly about to unravel?In Homecoming, Roberts stars as Heidi Bergman, a case worker at the facility. When we meet her four years later, she seems not to remember much at all about her work there. There is layer on layer of uncertainty and unreliability, a sense that the floor is shifting underneath us. That suitsSam Esmail, the creator and director of the series, just fine. He created the similarly perception-bendingMr Robot. “I never consciously made the choice when I wrote Mr Robot or signed on to Homecoming,” he says, over the phone from Los Angeles, “but what t...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Drama Psychology Television Culture Mental health Legion Mr Robot The Sopranos Julia Roberts Dan Stevens Cary Fukunaga Jonah Hill Emma Stone US television & radio TV crime drama Schizophrenia Psychiatry Society Kill Source Type: news