I've seen a LOT of TV series' in my time. Banshee stood out to me when I first read the plot description on my cable prompter: An Ex-Con is released from prison and by taking advantage of his circumstances, he assumes the identity of the sheriff in the small town of Banshee. (Or something like that). I'm not usually one for action in film, usually because of the poor plots, recycled rhetoric and cheesy one liners. This show didn't have any of that. It's like the directors knew that and specifically portrayed the story in a way that refused to rely on the classic themes used in so many mainstream action films and shows.
The action and fighting scenes are very well orchestrated and choreographed. The story line, although riddled with flashbacks in a manner that makes you scratch your head, is not only plausible most of the time, it remains interesting from start to finish. The characters are well played by the actors and the dialogue is rarely boring; this series has every corner of the game pinned at near perfect. There are slight flaws in some of the costume (changes) in different scenes here and there which were noticeable, only to my significant other. Sim eof the charachters are so well played they deserve spin-off shows. I usually do not root for this type of thing (let's face it, most spin off shows are terrible in nature) but in this scenario I think it is warranted.
HBO siad they cancelled Season 5 because they were "done telling this story". In my opinion that may be true for the sheriff and his ex-girlfriend Carrie, but the character known as "Job" (pronounced JOBE) is a self taught Asian American hacker, identity re-creation specialist and computer Guru with a flare for fashion. This charachter lone has so much potential I honestly think he deserves a new series, with him and, presumably another crew of specialists doing heists of their own.
Ini summary, Banshee is highly recommended and will not disappoint. It is graphic, holds back nothing, has a LOT of sex scenes (if you're into that sort of thing-personally I know there's another channel for that) but is probably the best series I have seen pull of four seasons, with only one episode I could pass off as not that amazing. This entire series was a mind blowing experience and frankly I will probably watch it again someday.
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