Banshee: Season 1 (Cinemax)

I came into this show with fairly low expectations. But I figured, "What the heck." I will start off by saying that the show appeared on my recommended list as a result of the many Showtime subscription shows that I had watched and, not paying attention to the fact that it was a Cinemax (not Showtime) show, I assumed that I had the paid ability to watch all four seasons. Nope. Showtime (through Amazon) subscription does not cover this Cinemax series. And now I am hooked. So I will stew and complain and commit to not paying "the man" more of my hard earned cash for a TV series that I should have already had access to because I paid for Prime and I paid additional monthly fees to subscribe to Showtime on Amazon and its unfair that I should pay more and ... And then after a week I'll purchase season three and season four, because the show is just that good.So I've established that I enjoy watching the how. For many, many reasons, but let me establish one particularly pertinent reason for those people who have a certain predilection and only read the first few paragraphs of a review. There is nudity. Good nudity. Attractive young women frequently displaying their naked bodies. In the pervert vernacular, T & A, and a few instances of B. This is a Cinemax (not Showtime / Grrrr!) show and it keeps up the old Skinemax tradition. I happen to be a fan of attractive female nudity so I can't comment, in an unbiased fashion, on whether the nudity is gratuitous. I lean towards no (but it probably is). Anyway. There's that for those who want to know.Which is also to say that the writing is brilliant. The dialogue sparkling. The acting stupendous. And at that last statement, I suspect that TV critics will bristle. But hear me out. Refer to the previous paragraph. Frequent attractive young women displaying (occasionally) full frontal nudity. And yet as opposed to being bubble-headed pop tarts, these actresses have chops. Emoting, showing range, physically possessing their characters (Strasberg). In a word - acting. So rarely do "serious" actresses "do nudity", that when you encounter actresses that see the full human range of experience, including those moments when a character is unclothed, as material for inclusion in a dramatic setting, it is striking.The actresses and actors are all extremely talented. The writing is brisk. The action sequences engaging. Too many fistfights for my liking. They are too frequent, several an episode, and all so extraordinarily unrealistic. I mean. C'mon now. You get hit that many times with a lead pipe and you would be dead. You get hit that many times with a lead pipe EVERY EPISODE and your entire bloodline would be dead.The writing and the drama (and the nudity) keep you engaged. Like I said I will, eventually, purchase the next two seasons. So this is a big thumbs up. I would recommend the series for any, (adults) that appreciate good writing, solid action, engaging plotlines, superior acting ... and attractive female nudity.

I thought this would not be interesting, because everyone who recommended it dwelled upon the violence and sex. There sure is a lot of both, but the violence is choreographed so well, it's almost like watching a brutal ballet. There's a ton of plot, both an over-arching one and multiple subplots, some of which are resolved within each episode and others which take several episodes to conclude. In that respect, it reminds me of the old TV series Hill Street Blues. This series makes for great binge watching. "Lucas Hood" is not the real name of the protagonist, but we never learn the real identity of the ex-con who rolls into a small Pennsylvania town and finds himself taking over the identity of a newly arrived - and murdered - sheriff. For a small town in a bucolic countryside, surrounded by Amish farmers and an Indian reservation, there's an amazing amount of crime. The local crime lord, Kai Proctor, is a former Amishman. He has a sinister henchman who looks exactly like a psychopath in a neat suit, bowtie and glasses. Any time you see him removing his glasses, you know body parts are about to be dismembered. The overall plot involves Carrie, Hood's former girlfriend. The minute he gets out of prison, he tracks her down, only to find her living a peaceful life with an ex-Marine husband, a rebellious Goth daughter, and a son afflicted with terrible asthma. She has dreadful secrets, which is why she's been in hiding for fifteen years, and Hood's appearance brings them up. In the meantime, Proctor's in cahoots with the Indian chief, who is building a casino, the tiny police department is housed in a former used car dealership, and the new "sheriff" has his hands full...and generally uses his fists, a gun, and any other object handy to deal out justice, if not law. Season one is so riveting, I could hardly wait for season two!

I rarely give a 10 to anything, usually there's always a few flaws that can be pointed out, but this show is clear in their intention, it doesn't try to hide is own nature, and in doing so it establishes a perfect ground for measurement.It's the characters of Banshee and their labyrinth of relationships that make the show an engrossing, entertaining portrait of a fictional small town."Passive" and "active" violence is a constant, and so is nudity, so if you don't like fist fighting, people shooting others dead, women showing their breasts, soft sex scenes, then this is definitely not a show for you. This scenes really keep me entertained, and I'm the kind of person that finds sexual intercourse scenes usually boring, but I'm quite comfortable if I think they fit into the show, which is clearly the case in my opinion.The characters are just amazing, all of them are so alive and so filled with character, what an amazing feat, so rare this days, they all feel unique and even better than that, in a over the top show you would expect a ton of cliches everywhere, and a ton of cliche characters, Banshee has none, just amazing character development, I take my hat and bow to the show creators. The acting is in my opinion of top quality, even the less important characters provide us with quality acting. And the main villain of this story, Kyle Proctor (not sure if I'm spelling it right), Sir, your acting, the character you bring to life, you deserve an Oscar, no contest here.So summing it up, I recommend this show to everyone, minus puritans and anti-violence evangelists, and of course, people that can't understand the difference between fiction and real life.