Bufurd
T. Pusser would appreciate the new get-tough sheriff of Banshee, PA, were he not an
ex-con, living under an assumed identity.
It sounds like a clever Cornell Woolrich set-up, but Alan (True Blood) Ball’s new Cinemax series,
created by Jonathan Tropper & David Schickler, is more about action than
suspense. Whatever works. As it happens, the first two episodes of Banshee work pretty well. There will be plenty of mayhem for relatively
grown-up audiences when Banshee premieres
this Friday on Cinemax (promo
here).
His
name is not really Lucas Hood. That was
the name of the honest loner who had accepted the position of Banshee’s sheriff
sight unseen. The recently released
thief on the run from a shadowy Ukrainian gangster happened to be on-hand when
Hood met his untimely end. He even threw
his lot in with the lawman. It was not
sufficient to save the real Hood, but it means there will be no witnesses,
aside from Banshee’s sympathetic barkeep and former Cruiser weight champion
Sugar Bates.
The
man now masquerading as Sheriff Hood came to Banshee to confront his former
lover and accomplice, now known as Carrie Hopewell, the wife of the crusading
district attorney. Perhaps he will stay
to take down Kai Proctor, the local slaughterhouse owner and vice kingpin, who
happens to be the blacksheep son of an Amish patriarch. Meanwhile, the ominous Rabbit’s henchmen are
hot on the trail of the ostensive Hood and his reluctant transvestite hacker
accomplice, Job. (Who knew Harry
Angstrom was a super-villain?) Potentially,
Hood could find himself juggling two nemesis figures, while ambiguously
pursuing his ex-lover and bedding all of Banshee’s willing party girls.
As set-ups go, Banshee’s looks solid
enough to sustain at least a full season.
The first episode origin-smackdown is particularly well executed,
although it might represent some rather unfortunate product placement for A1
steak sauce. To judge by the first two
installments, there should be plenty of Walking
Tall style action. Cinemax’s horny
teenager demographic will also appreciate Ivana Milicevic’s nude scenes as the
presumed Hopewell.
Certainly
looking the part, Milicevic does a nice job in the early going serving as both
femme fatale and soccer mom. In the
lead, Anthony Starr is surprisingly manly and hardnosed, especially by
Hollywood’s standards. He could become a
go to guy for an industry suffering from a masculinity deficit. Although Ulrich Thomsen has played plenty of
heavies in his American outings, he seems to enjoy Proctor more. The Amish angle probably helps. Ben Cross is certainly on familiar territory
as the malevolent Rabbit, but Hoon Lee’s shticky Job trades on some tired
stereotypes.
