Banshee

Network: Cinemax
Episodes: Ongoing (hour)
Seasons: Ongoing

TV show dates: January 11, 2013 – present
Series status: Has not been cancelled

Performers include: Antony Starr, Ivana Milicevic, Ulrich Thomsen, Frankie Faison, Hoon Lee, Rus Blackwell, Matt Servitto, Demetrius Grosse, Trieste Kelly Dunn, Ryann Shane, Daniel Ross Owens, Lili Simmons, and Ben Cross.

TV show description:
This dramatic TV series is set in a small town in Pennsylvania Amish country. It revolves around an ex-con and master thief who assumes the identity of the murdered sheriff of Banshee, Pennsylvania. He imposes his own brand of justice and also continues his criminal activities, even as he’s hunted by the shadowy gangsters he betrayed years earlier.

The show begins as a man (Antony Starr) leaves prison with nothing but the shirt on his back. He makes his way into town, has sex with a local bartender and steals a car. He arrives in Manhattan to see an old acquaintance, a cross-dressing hair stylist and genius computer hacker named Job (Hoon Lee). Before leaving, he forces Job to give up an address. The man is then chased and shot at by a Ukrainian mobster through the New York City streets. He escapes, steals a motorcycle, and rides into the town of Banshee, PA.

In Banshee, he sits at a local bar and shares a drink with the bartender; an ex-con, ally, and former prizefighter named Sugar Bates (Frankie Faison). Two men walk into the bar looking to rob it, but Lucas Hood, the newly-arrived sheriff-to-be, has other ideas. Following as altercation, the thieves and the sheriff are all killed. While disposing of the bodies with Sugar, the man takes a call on Lucas’s phone and decides to his assume his identity.

The new Lucas visits the home of Carrie Hopewell (Ivana Milicevic), the wife of the town’s district attorney, a former marine named Gordon Hopewell (Rus Blackwell). Lucas and Carrie, whom he calls Ana, share a past from the life she had before arriving in Banshee. Ana was once a notorious jewel thief, but now lives in Banshee under an assumed identity with a husband and children who know nothing of her past.

Lucas wants his cut of the diamonds they stole from a ruthless Ukrainian gangster named “Mr. Rabbit” (Ben Cross). Rabbit has been searching for the thieves for 15 years and continues to do so. She pleads with him to just leave her and her family alone, including her rebellious teenage daughter, Deva Hopewell (Ryann Shane).

Lucas has Job hack into law enforcement databases to verify his cover. He meets with Dan Kendall (Daniel Ross Owens), the town’s young mayor, and is introduced to the sheriff’s deputies. Surly by nature, Brock Lotus (Matt Servitto) is the department’s longest-serving deputy and resents Lucas for getting the job he wanted. Siobhan Kelly (Trieste Kelly Dunn) has put her painful past behind her to become a cop and Emmett Yawners (Demetrius Grosse) is a strong, devoutly Christian man who can kick ass when he needs to.

While making rounds with Brock, Lucas springs to action when he sees a group of local thugs, the Moody boys, beating up a group of Amish men. Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen), the man who controls all of Banshee’s criminal enterprises and most of its legal ones, arrives and puts a halt to the fight. He forces Cole Moody to apologize to one of the Amish men, who happens to be Kai’s estranged father. Later, in Proctor’s slaughterhouse, he savagely beats Cole.

What do you think? Do you like the Banshee TV series? Do you think it should be cancelled or renewed for another season?

More about: Banshee, Banshee: canceled or renewed?

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