3.1 The Fire Trials Rather than a story engine, Hood is now our guide to what really makes Banshee so utterly entertaining and compelling; the insane, pulp universe it takes place in, and with the Rabbit storyline mercifully put to rest along with seemingly any more fears about Hood’s past catching up to him, season three has a clean slate to dive headfirst into the gloriously convoluted politics of Banshee’s many warring factions. On top of Proctor’s empire, the besieged Amish and the increasingly lethal Native Americans, we now have an army reserve to contend with, an army reserve Hood plans to rob despite the fact that the place is rife with dangerous mercenaries. This concept alone is so typically Banshee; ludicrous but a promising open door to more mayhem, especially as it seems that the reserve will be going head to head with the Indians, now led by the imposing Chayton Littlestone. It is almost exhilarating how thoroughly Banshee embraces its own ridiculousness, while still maintaining consistent and likeable characters who are worth caring about. Like most season openers, The Fire Trials was more about putting the pieces in place for the episodes ahead, rather than having any shocking developments of its own. Particularly after the bloody wipe-out of characters that was the season two finale, an episode like this was necessary (although it still found time for a couple of killer action scenes). And sure some of the dialogue was a bit on the nose and I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the show’s love of strange shot compositions and jump cuts, but those are problems inherent to the series, not this episode. Banshee remains one of the most downright fun and entertaining shows on TV, and as a season opener there is not much more I could have asked for. Bring on the carnage. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
