All American: Homecoming Review: Confessions (Season 1 Episode 12)
The season is slowly coming to an end on All American: Homecoming Season 1 Episode 12, “Confessions.”
With its penultimate episode, the series still feels too low stakes without a clear direction. The ensemble has great chemistry, but even that is not enough to save the story.
It feels redundant to keep saying that the series is missing something and that the energy is too low, but there isn’t much else to describe the lack of excitement in the back half of Season 1.
While I think Damon and Thea are lovely together and don’t mind them exploring a relationship, it feels way too soon for them to act so serious.
The conversations that they are having about his family feel intense for a relatively new couple. It’s also unfair to demand so much of Damon when he’s still trying to figure his family drama out. However, it’s equally unfair to Thea that Damon speaks of “timing” with Simone, making her feel like his second choice.
It also feels odd that Thea pretends not to know how close Damon is to Simone. She can’t possibly be learning this information for the first time.
Everyone at Bringston can see how much Damon and Simone care about one another.
To pile onto the drama, Thea hiding from Damon that Simone and Jordan broke up is such a frustrating choice. We know she is insecure about their bond, so she’s doing it to keep him around, but it will only blow up in her face.
As for the other central relationship drama between Cam and Keisha, it hasn’t been that long since Keisha decided to start with therapy to prepare herself for a better relationship.
While it’s possible that the writers want to end the season with them as a couple, it doesn’t realistically make sense from a timing perspective. Keisha only recently sat down to start working on herself, so while these two are adorable together, it feels like a missed opportunity to build up to a more earned reunion.
Plus, we haven’t actually seen any of her therapy appointments. So it couldn’t hurt to focus more on Keisha’s process and how she’s approaching her internal work. It could even influence viewers at home to seek help for similar struggles.
I think this reunion would work better as a storyline that opens Season 2 after more time has passed and Keisha continues to better herself.
While Keisha’s storyline offers a positive example of a character coming to terms with their mental health issues, Marcus’s storyline is disappointing.
Of course, he’s going to spiral without his medication, but why isn’t anybody stepping in?
Marcus’s behavior has been acknowledged by multiple characters over the past few episodes, but nobody is taking the initiative to see what’s going on.
I thought this group was a family, but this lack of intervention feels contrived to get us to the end of “Confessions.”
I’m also struggling to unpack the message here. For a franchise that flawlessly executed Layla’s mental health spiral in All American Season 2, it’s hard to watch Marcus’s downfall without shaking my head. Unfortunately, we also don’t know enough about him to dissect why this happens, which weakens the story.
As for how “Confessions” ends, I’m seriously hoping for better execution of a breakdown than what we’ve seen so far.
Unfortunately, “Confessions” continues the narrative slump that Season 1 faces, lacking the excitement and fire needed to sustain our interest in the storylines on-screen.
The pacing fluctuates from too slow to too fast, making for an uneven feel to the narrative execution.
As All American: Homecoming enters its season finale, I hope the series picks up the pace while dropping hints of new and exciting storylines for Season 2.
Stray Thoughts
- JR is very clearly into Simone, especially now that Damon is with Thea.
- “Wreck it Ralph” is such a funny nickname.
- Simone is done with tennis for the year? The focus on tennis feels so uneven that I’m not sure how to feel about this.
- The university drama is painfully boring. I’ve said it before, but it would work better for Season 2.
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What did you think of this episode of All American: Homecoming? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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All American: Homecoming airs Mondays at 9/8c on The CW.
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Julia Paino
Julia is a TV and pop culture enthusiast who gets too emotionally invested in her favorite characters. She loves making people laugh and is always down for a Taylor Swift sing-along. She is firmly on Team Stefan and has been since 2009. Follow her on Twitter @juliampaino!