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Big Trouble in ‘Banshee’ [1]
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Date: 2025-04-17
Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, a newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, retrospectives, recommendations, and more. You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article to receive future editions in your inbox.
The television series “Banshee” is a bit like “The Andy Griffith Show” — if Andy Taylor was fresh out of prison, assumed the identity of a slain sheriff, and was mixed up with crime bosses and a bounty of stolen diamonds.
“Banshee” first ran on Cinemax from 2013 to 2016, an eon ago in modern entertainment terms. But it’s found a second life streaming on Max, becoming one of the service’s most-watched shows, right up there with “The Righteous Gemstones” and “The White Lotus.”
One reason for that is fans of “The Boys,” curious to see what actor Antony Starr was up to before he began playing the star of that series, the anti-superhero Homelander.
Starr, a New Zealand actor who had a fruitful film and TV career before “The Boys,” made an impression with “Banshee.” His lead character is a thief and ex-con who assumes the identity of a newly-hired Pennsylvania sheriff, Lucas Hood, after the real Hood is killed in a bar by a couple of criminals.
Since the mayor and officials in the town of Banshee hadn’t yet met the real Hood, the ex-con can easily slip into the role. Why would a career criminal, who’s just done 15 years in prison for stealing millions in diamonds, want to play-act the sheriff? Maybe because his ex-girlfriend and ex-partner in crime, Ana, is in Banshee, and she has the diamonds. So he’s staying close to the loot – and the woman he loves.
An official trailer for “Banshee” (via Cinemax on YouTube).
It’s a clever premise that lets “Banshee” play with the conventions of small-town life, from the Pennsylvania Dutch furniture makers to the town festival. There’s also the local crime kingpin, Kai Proctor, who immediately recognizes the ersatz Hood as a force to be tamed or eliminated.
Hood’s main ally is Sugar, owner of the local hole-in-the-wall bar. Sugar is a former champion boxer who tries to temper Hood’s violent tendencies.
Just how violent and explicit is “Banshee?” The opening episode features close-ups of brutal gunshot wounds and graphic sex scenes. There’s a lot of that in “Banshee” — and in the town of Banshee, apparently.
Echoes
If you’re not old enough to remember when Cinemax, the sister network to HBO, was jokingly referred to as “Skinemax” for its racy late-night fare, then “Banshee” will introduce you to the concept. We’re talking hard-R stuff here, with lots of nudity and gore.
Intentional or not, “Banshee” is very much in line with the kind of action-packed, rough around the edges exploitation movies that played at drive-in theaters in the 1970s. There’s a formula: a scene of brutal violence is followed by a scene of sexual adventure, briefly interrupted by some small-town politics, like whether the festival will be canceled when a motorcycle gang attacks.
Back in the day, the “Walking Tall” movies, about real-life Sheriff Buford Pusser, set the standard for this formula. More recently, small-town crime TV series like “Ozark” and “Justified” followed the same backwoods cops-and-criminals blueprint – while being a bit safer for basic cable and general audiences.
Small-town noir is a trendy thing in novels and TV series right now, but “Banshee” got there more than a decade ago.
Starr is a wild card as the imposter sheriff and the show explores his character with some nuance. Based on the circumstances of any given episode, viewers can guess if he is acting out of greed, vengeance, or a duty to protect the locals. As the series progresses, the contrasts in Hood’s actions – cleaning up the town or robbing an armored car, for example – get more pronounced.
Ivana Milicevic and Eddie Cooper in ‘Banshee’ (2013) (Credit” Cinemax via IMDb).
Hood has a pair of good antagonists. Ulrich Thomsen plays Kai Proctor, the aforementioned town baddie, and Ben Cross is Rabbit, a Ukrainian crime boss who wants to bring down Hood for stealing his diamonds 15 years earlier.
In Starr’s corner are Frankie Faison as Sugar and Hoon Lee as Job, Hood’s longtime criminal associate.
Ivana Milicevic, a Bosnian-American actress, plays Ana, Hood’s former lover and accomplice, who has a lot to lose when Hood follows her to Banshee. Ana, now under the name Carrie, is married to the local prosecutor and has two children. Complicating matters is that Hood suspects he may be the father of Ana’s oldest daughter (played by Ryann Shane).
There’s a good supporting cast and some surprising guest stars who pop in over the course of four seasons. This includes some with relevant experience dealing with small-town menaces, such as David Harbour, who played Police Chief Hopper in “Stranger Things,” and Eliza Dushku, who played Faith the Vampire Slayer in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
Wild Things
Again, be warned that there are some pretty steamy sex scenes in “Banshee” as well as some very bloody bouts of violence. Many episodes feature both, like when a traveling MMA fighter assaults a local woman and Hood confronts him, or when a prison flashback ends with the kind of dismemberment we’ve not seen since the days of Lorena Bobbitt. You may find yourself saying, “Did I just see what I thought I saw?” after scenes like that prison one. (Credit: Cinemax via IMDb)
I enjoyed that “Banshee” reveals early on that Ana is not the type of criminal’s ex-girlfriend to wilt from danger. Milicevic is nearly as believable a battler as Starr and has as brutal an episode-long fight as anyone in the series.
And there’s some fairly sharp humor in “Banshee” too. Hood and Deputy Emmett (played by Demetrius Grosse), the department’s only Black officer, go to confront some racist skinheads. Showing Hood around the area, Emmett notes, “This is where the master race collects their unemployment checks.” The white supremacists snarl and curse when they see the deputy, and Hood replies, “It’s OK guys. His wife is white.”
Rural crime shows like “Ozark” and “Justified” have enthralled viewers for years. “Banshee,” with its mix of small-town secrets, sex, and violence, just might have mastered the formula. Thanks to the greater fame of its star, people are discovering that appeal now, nearly a decade after the show ended.
Banshee is streaming on Max.
Keith Roysdon is a Tennessee-based writer of fiction, true crime, and pop culture.
This article first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, recommendations, retrospectives, and more. Join the mailing list today to have future editions delivered straight to your inbox.
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