First Glimpse: Banshee

Banshee

Pre-Ramble: First time I’ve seen that tagline actually haha. I think it about sums it up. I stumbled across this show when I was browsing the internets and I saw a preview for Season 3. “More explosive than ever!” it said or something to that effect, so I was curious. Of course when I hear “Banshee” I think X-Men’s Banshee and then I’m all “Oooh, mutants?” No, not even close. It’s an original series from Cinemax, which intrigued me because HBO, Starz, and even Netflix original series have been hot on my radar lately. Given that Cinemax would want to break into that original series market, I thought their effort to beat out the competition would be worth a glimpse. The premise itself is that an ex-con becomes a sheriff of a small town and deals with the problems of said small town, Banshee, in a way only an ex-con can. Ok, a little contrived, but let’s see how it pans out. Throw in the fact that Banshee has a huge Amish population (whaaa–? Weird twist!) and I was decidedly intrigued.

First Glimpse: I have to say, contrived premises can get old (cough cough Snowpiercer). I don’t like being forced to believe something I sincerely cannot reconcile with reality. Unless you go all out and say “This is a reality far different from ours,” such as with fantasy/superheroes/sci-fi, then it really starts to rankle. It’s like uncanny valley: Wall-E was a lovable robot with human characteristics, despite his completely non-human appearance. However, Beowulf the animated version freaked everyone the hell out because despite being hyper-realistic, people could only focus on the unreal parts. When you have something so distinctly different, you look for similarities and take comfort in the commonalities. But when you have something that’s close but no cigar, your brain can only focus on the differences and it makes you constantly uncomfortable. A contrived premise is much the same way: I can see how it feels real and it seems real and all the broad strokes seem to jive with my reality, but the little subtle differences, the minor off-key notes can be more jarring than, say, an entire setting that’s completely alien to my reality. Banshee does a great job of getting the viewer to focus on the parts of the show that jive with your reality and that’s why I’ve become hooked after the first episode.

Visuals: It’s a small town so the production values are low. Visually, it’s not stunning. However, I think the rural setting is complemented well by the small production feel. It’s not a Michael Bay production with explosions and over-the-top action, but more along the lines of the Bourne Identity close-in hand-to-hand-to-face combat. Less flash, more grit.

Audio: I haven’t much to say about the audio either, truth be told. It has some interesting bgm but not a lot to really rant or rave about. I think the main pull is the story and the development of the characters so the other elements are muted.

Plot: As I’ve said, I dislike contrived premises that constantly stretch belief. It gets wearing. Yes I buy that this guy must do this ONE TIME. But with a poorly contrived premise, that gets beat into you over and over and over and over until you just say “Why doesn’t he just give it all up?” I simply don’t buy it that character A can’t find any other way to do things. What I like about Banshee is that the premise is an excuse to tell a story about a man who’s treading water. There aren’t a whole lot of flashbacks and poring deep into the backstory of the protagonist. I thoroughly appreciate how the writers are teasing it out bit by bit. Right now, they’re focusing on his life in Banshee and the fact that he’s an ex-con choosing the opposite of a safe post-prison life is fairly irrelevant. That’s not to say it doesn’t come up, but it’s not the main dish here. Sure there are times when he acts in a decidedly non-sheriff way, I can’t deny that. The point of this show isn’t to highlight how he’s a wolf hiding among sheep, but rather, to focus more on the plot. Without spoiling, I’ll just say that he is an anti-hero who doesn’t aspire to higher ideals or struggle with too many moral crises. That’s what I like about him. Even with superheroes, it gets wearing to constantly hear about it: Batman won’t use guns, even if it’s the only way, even if it KILLS him, his trauma as a child is simply too great! I mean, Batman would be a terrible comic if that made an appearance every scene. The best parts of the Batman comic line are the ones that focus on everything in his life around the tragedy – how he deals with the aftermath, how he moves forward, what decisions he makes and what mistakes he makes. It’s the same deal with Banshee: we know it won’t last, but instead of harping on the borrowed time, the show focuses on the here and now and what he’s doing. You see him living two identities and it’s refreshing to not see him bemoan his fate. He doesn’t make the smart call and try to completely walk the straight and narrow. It’s simply not believable. Instead, you see a very flawed human being making bad calls and spur-of-the-moment decisions that you know will come back to haunt him. It’s believable in the reality of the mistakes he makes and how he just keeps trying to take it day by day.

The rest of the cast are slowly rounding out the story, bringing in their own intriguing story lines and dropping surprisingly poignant moments. It’s understated, though, in a way someone casually drops a quote that perfectly describes how you’re feeling, and then they move on instead of sitting down and analyzing it for days. In the end, it comes down to how the show paces itself well and scales properly. Too many shows feel like they have to prove themselves in the first episode and then find themselves tapering off to quickly and fizzling out. It speaks to solid writing and directing and I am COMPLETELY excited to see what comes next.

Final Glimpse: I have to constantly remind myself not to be a TV snob. This show makes it hard to remember that because I feel like I can go on for days about how well it’s been pulled off. It’s not a perfect show, but it is exactly what it aims to be. It’s not quite the hardest-hitting show, but it sure as hell is 100% accurate in hitting the mark. I give it a 9.5/10 because of that. I have a hard time finding a show that knows itself as well as this show does, skipping the awkward growing phase of the first season where you wonder why in the hell you’re still watching, at times. It’s like one of those people who never wonders “Who am I?” in their room, in the dark. They simply keep going because forward is the only option. There is a refreshing practicality and pragmatic feel to this show that fascinates me.

Good programming. Bad connoisseur.