You see, just when my hopes were waning for this show, suddenly my faith is restored. In this political ridden society split apart by our own views, it’s surprising to see that this horror series first started as a show for horror masters is now deciding to tell stories that have meaning. Joe Dante directs this entertaining episode based on the award-winning short story “Death & Suffrage” by Dale Bailey. The story was first published in “The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction” and has been fixed to adjust to the modern lexicon. This has to be the best episode of the series so far, that displays all its talent for show including Greg Nicotero’s zombie effects.
As the body count rises, Washington continues to pander to the country who suffer through the unjust war, but the final straw is when the politicians take a genuine sentiment expressed by our main character, and use it as a tool for the election which makes the undead soldiers finally rise. They have enough of their names being used to help boost an unjust war, so they take action, and decide to voice their own opinion. Many of the undead soldiers begin rising in rather creepy sequences doing nothing but wandering around, and it becomes a frightening set of events that then turns in to a nuisance when they discover that they just want to voice their own thoughts. There are many jabs at modern war sentiment. Our main character even suggests, “Why don’t we just ignore them? Like regular vets?” If there was an attempt by the creators to give us a war time commentary ripe with satire, they pulled it off with more than flying colors. “Homecoming” is one of the most subversive pokes at the political era I’ve seen in a while, and it doesn’t dance around commenting on the war, it tackles it head on.
There’s the pointless war, the mother protestor who lost her son in the war and personally begins protesting, and Thea Gill who does a wonderful impression of amoral militant right winger Ann Coulter, there’s the Pat Robertson look alike (Calling the zombies miracles from god when they rise, and demonic spawns of satan when he discovers they’re against the war. Hilarious), and the Larry King soft ball interviewer who instigates conflicts. Dante’s direction is very inspired capturing both the horrific and humorous elements of the situation pictured in this episode. “Homecoming” ends on a twisted high note that really manages to flaunt its message loud and clear for the audience. It’s an inspired and very entertaining installment for a series I was worrying about. “Homecoming” is an entertaining and often creepy allegory for the voiceless souls lost during the war whom come back to make themselves heard once again. Dante’s installment is twisted and morbid with sharp jabs at the recent administration and pulls off intelligent political satire with good results.