BANSHEE SEASON 2 REVIEW

[THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS]

I meant to write about Banshee for a while now. In fact, I thought I would recap it, but changed my mind after having watched the first episode.

I'm not a big fan of action movies, especially those with extreme violence and numerous sex scenes, but somehow I have a soft spot for this show. This is one of a few series, where violent payback for unjust, criminal actions is not tabooed, and I like it for it. For too long we've been fed with the same principle: a protagonist cannot do what the antagonist does, and I'm glad too see that at least somebody explores other possibilities. 

The question of whether or not answering with violence is a viable option is raised throughout the season, and there's even a short monologue on the topic, read by the lead. One by one, the good people surrounding Lucas Hood, as well as the sheriff himself, answer this question on their own and choose what feels right rather than what society would say is right. Some, like Emmett, pay the ultimate price for it; some, like Siobhan, not only get away with it, but finally get some inner peace. 

Both the opening episode and the season finale left me confused, the narration was so incoherent it felt like I was listening to a drunk telling story. I guess they just tried to put as much action and psychological tension as they could to make those episodes "exciting".

Unfortunately, few of the characters grew any layers. Rebecca's character has definitely changed the most as she tries on her uncle's shoes and does her first steps as his future heir. It saddens me that Job gets so little time on the screen and still we know next to nothing about him. Instead of exploring the regulars, the creators add a bunch of new characters and kill them off or send them away almost instantly.

By the end of the season Lucas seems to have finally let go of the past with Ana; whatever connected them is gone: the house he bought for them is burnt to the ground, the diamonds turned out to be pieces of glass (a discovery that hasn't been properly addressed, by the way), and even Rabbit doesn't threaten either of them anymore. But he can't leave Banshee now that he officially has a daughter. And the new threat is coming:

I have little hope that Chayton Littlestone will be a good replacement for Rabbit as a villain, but let's see how it goes.

SERIES TO WATCH IN JANUARY

On December 30 the first episode of a new British mini series, Ripper Street, is released on BBC 1 (BBC America will air it on the 19th of January). It's a period drama/procedural about a bunch of detectives who have to keep a district inhabited with very low class citizens, Whitechapel, within the law, in other words, solve crimes. The story happens in 1889, after the notorious Jack The Ripper murders took place, hence the title. It's very likely to turn out boring, but then it's only eight episodes, so it doesn't hurt to check it out.


FX managed to produce the two shows that I'm crazy about (AHS and Archer), so I'll definitely watch The Americans, a new series about Russian spies in the eighties, which premiers on January 30th. Let's hope it's better than Homeland.


Banshee will premiere on Cinemax on the 11th of January and the promo looks fine. I understand that it's "Dexter style" action series, about an ex-convict who becomes a Sheriff of a small town, and who'll fight the crime his own way.