This is the position that True Blood producer Alan Ball’s new show Banshee now finds itself in as its first season arrives on home release. Here in the UK, Banshee went out on a Monday night, following Game of Thrones for most of its run. This probably wasn’t the wisest piece of scheduling – an audience hooked on the latest developments in Westeros probably wasn’t in the mood to immediately leap into another hour of high-tension, all-encompassing television. Over the last couple of months though, folk have been discovering Banshee, often with great excitement and a compulsion to devour all ten episodes of the first season as quickly as possible, which is why the arrival of this set is so welcome. Banshee is a show where you cannot wait to find out what happens next. It’s “Just one more episode and then I really will go to bed” television. As well as the obvious ‘stranger strolling into town to take care of trouble’, Western influence, Banshee draws its strength from the world of comic books and video games. People have commented that the show often resembles Vertigo comics with its unflinching portrayal of violence. While Banshee doesn’t exist in the kind of fantasy world of a show such as Game of Thrones, it doesn’t wholly exist in reality either. The fight scenes throughout the first season are often brutal, bloody and utterly thrilling. Lucas Hood puts the viewer in mind of Wolverine on more than one occasion, while most who have seen the show will agree that a particular bout of fisticuffs that happens during eighth episode, We Shall Live Forever is like no other confrontation you’re likely to see this year. Banshee is a programme which pulls no punches when it comes to its adult content. Along with the comic book and video game-style rumbles, there’s a hefty dose of ‘getting jiggy with it’, but not just for the sake of having it in the show. At its heart, Banshee is a character-driven show, and whether these people are coming to blows or, erm, just coming, it’s always there to reflect a character’s emotional state at that time, usually in relation to one of the other inhabitants of this town. Ulrich Thomsen as Kai Proctor presents television with a cold but calculatingly intelligent villain. His dance of wills with Lucas Hood during the first half of the season is a great see-saw to watch. The defining Kai Proctor moment surely occurs during episode eight when he delivers a threatening monologue to his estranged Amish family. There’s no shortage of great dialogue in writers Jonathan Tropper and David Schickler’s scripts. They are jammed with lines that drip with cool, but this diatribe from Kai Proctor is one of the script and show’s finest moments. Former Bond girl, Ivana Milicevic makes up the show’s power three as Carrie/Ana Hopewell. She turns in a brave performance as Ana is a tremendously physical character in many respects but also one being torn apart inside by an internal conflict. Having escaped her former life to a place she thought safe, the walls of that security come rapidly tumbling down when Hood appears in town. If you think that Ana/Carrie is going to be the show’s meek love interest, you couldn’t be more wrong. The fight that everyone talks about from episode eight – she’s in it! It’s good to see that Banshee’s audience is growing and that its following is becoming as passionate about it as those who chomp at the bit for the latest episode of Breaking Bad. The show is a not so subtle blend of comic book violence, larger than life anti-heroes and the complex and twisted web they find themselves in within this town’s limits. As first seasons go, it’s hard to think of one which has recently delivered such consistent quality across its episodes. Episode six is perhaps the only weak spot here, but that’s only because it doesn’t feel to contain quite as much action as the rest. If you’ve yet to discover Banshee and you like your television fast and thrilling then stop punishing yourself and wait no longer. It’s a crazy ride that is hopefully just getting going. Banshee season one is released on DVD and Blu-Ray on Monday the 2nd of September in the UK. Read James’ spoiler-filled Banshee episode reviews, here. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
