Banshee Review: The best show on TV

 Banshee Review Season 1

I encountered the show by mistake, I heard about the Banshee TV show on Cinemax before but its title "Banshee" just turned me away from it. I didn't get the title name, or what it supposed to mean. A few weeks ago I encountered a post about Banshee, it mentioned that Banshee creators were the same people that brought us True Blood. i liked True Blood and after i read that post I decided to check out Banshee TV series and see what it is all about.

Banshee TV series plot recap

Banshee tells us the story of a thief (Antony Starr) that just got out from jail after 15 years inside. He is looking for his girlfriend who holds his cut from the last job he made before he got locked up. Our hero finds himself being a witness to the murder of Sheriff Lucas Hood in a bar fight. Hood was on his way to Banshee to take the job of a local Sheriff. That is why nobody in Banshee knows how Sheriff Hood looked like. In weird series of events our thief takes upon himself the identity of Sheriff Lucas Hood. While the new Lucas Hood is trying to do his new job the best way he knows how, he encounters local rednecks, passing through Bikers and an ex Amish self made mobster Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen). In between he manages to screw two chicks during this season: an Amish girl that likes to go wild (Lili Simmons) and Kat Moody (Kay Story) whose husband was killed by Hood (she slaps Hood for that but apparently that's enough and she can go wild on Hood just like the Amish girl). Between all the screwing around Hood thinks of Anna all the time (what a sensitive guy, every chick should get one) but in the background of the story a Russian mobster (Rabbit) is trying to find both Hood and Anna and "pay" them back for screwing him in the last job 15 years ago.

My take on Banshee

It’s a unique situation when there is a professional thief pose as a sheriff and tries to blend into the two worlds. On one hand he tries to make a living in the only way he knows how, and that is steal. On the other hand our hero has a strong conscious awareness, if he sees a wrong being done to someone he just beats the crap out of everyone that is involved while the local spectators (mostly his fellow cops) witnessing the beat downs in a shock state.

It appeared that most of the female actresses in Banshee had to be naked in some point during this season. Ivana Milicevic was running naked most of the season. Sometimes I got the feeling that she took her close off just so that the Banshee TV series producers will mark a V, we had a sex / naked scene OK let’s move on to the violence scene...

All the fights in Banshee season 1 were ridiculously awesome but two stand out from the crowd.
Sanchez vs. Hood and Anna vs. Olek - Those two fight scenes were two of the most brutal fights I ever saw on TV. They were bloody, very long (if I’m not mistaken Anna vs. Olek fight took half an episode) and most importantly unforgettable.

Overall the amount violence in Banshee was over the roof, you get the feeling that the creators of the show just didn't want to hold anything back. One of the most shocking scenes (for me) in Banshee season 1 was the rape of the waitress by Sanchez (what brought him later on the beating of his life). The visual details of the rape were very disturbing, what was shocking almost equally was waitress’s bruised face. 

If you read this Banshee review so far you probably think to yourself it’s all about sex and violence. Banshee had a lot of those two elements but they were not the most important factors in the TV show. The writing and the story telling was supreme. That's what glued together the graphic sex scenes and the never ending violence beat downs in Banshee to be the master peace that this Cinemax show turned to be. Banshee cast of actors were mostly unknown prior to participating in Banshee but that didn't stop them from doing a great job and turning Cinemax Banshee into the hottest thing on TV this season.

Banshee TV show brought us something fresh in the form of a raw product that shocked its audience every time and time again. Banshee was addictive at times and overall it was one of the best things that were running on TV this 2012-2013 season. Banshee is without a doubt a mighty cool TV show, I can’t wait for Banshee season 2 to air. Unfortunately Banshee season 2 is supposed to air only in 2014, so we will have to wait a while for the next Banshee season .

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About Sasha Shapiro

Sasha is the founder and editor of Cool Reviews Rule. He is very passionate about Movies, TV Shows and some Books. His favorite genres are: Action, Fantasy, History, Horror, Sci-fi and Adventure.
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