Banshee: Season 1 (Cinemax)

I tuned into "Banshee," not sure what to expect. I had really only seen a few commercials for it here and there. What I found was a TV show with an intriguing premise, solid acting, and some of the most brilliantly choreographed fight scenes I've ever witnessed. Make no mistake, if you don't like violence (or sex), you won't like this show. The basic premise (an ex-con assumes the identity of a freshly-dead sheriff) sounds on the surface a bit absurd and tough to expand on. "Banshee" takes that premise and runs with it, escorting you to a world that's fresh, exciting, and brutal. It's not just a small town, it's a small town in Amish country with a "crime lord" (but not the kind you're used to) and an illegal drug ring, among other things. "Banshee" never bores, never stalls, and never falters. The characters are unforgettable and unique. One of the highlights of the series is the female lead (Carrie Hopewell, played by Ivana Milicevic), who is NOT your stereotypical weak-willed woman in danger. Even in a scene where she should be considered a "damsel in distress" and is presumably rescued by an officer of the law, we see glimpses of the resourceful & powerful woman she really is. In a later episode, she engages in a brutal fight that - including other scenes cut in to break the tension - spans nearly 2/3 of the episode. I mentioned it before, but I can't emphasize it enough: the fight choreography in this series is incredible. It's taken to a level that should come across as fake and over-the-top, but it never does. Perhaps that's due in part to the actors' dedication to the scenes. You see no restraint, fear, or apprehension. Even as the season ends on a fevered pitch, you never get the feeling that the show is running out of steam, and there is certainly no doubt that our characters' stories could carry through into a second season with ease. SUMMARY: If you love engaging stories, memorable characters, stunning fight sequences, and a unique setting, "Banshee" is right up your alley!

I bought Banshee, sight unseen, based solely off a recommendation of a friend whose taste I trust. After having finished the season, I'm glad to say I now know for sure said friend has excellent taste. Banshee is a fast, fun, adult show that doesn't pull any of its many, many punches. The fights are bonebreakingly, blood gushingly brutal. The sex scenes are steamy, sticky, and frequent. The characters are layered, dynamic, and always fun. Banshee is a very high quality show. The story follows an unnamed protagonist who after being released from prison, tracks down his old partner to the town of Banshee, and because of a ill fated bar fight, finds himself impersonating the soon to be sheriff of the small town. The characters are varied and interesting, and rarely come off as cliched. Because this is a Cinemax show, as previously stated, violence, cursing, sex, and brutality abound. But, and this is important, none of these things, in my opinion, are as gratuitous as many would have you believe. When people fight, they bleed. We have become used to the overly stylized form of violence that has overtaken our entertainment. People have knock down, drag out fights, yet walk away with nothing more than ruffled hair and a cut lip. In Banshee, the consequences of combat are far more realistic. What it comes down to, if you're looking for a fast moving, action packed, well written show, and aren't offended by sex and violence, you aren't going to do better than Banshee. An excellent show and a definite buy.

Overall this series is wonderful. The performances are outstanding and the story line keeps your interest. The only episode I didn't care much for was the one with the biker gang. The story line was too fake in that episode and I only sat through it to make sure I didn't miss any of the character development. The series is shot in a non-Hollywood type way. Due to this, the series is even more interesting. Did the mention the acting is outstanding! Starr, Faison, Thomsen, Lee, Cross, and Milicevic create characters that are interesting to watch. One of the best scenes of the series is between Starr and Milicevic where they confront each other after a betrayal by Milicevic's character. The scene has very little dialogue but shows what talented actors can accomplish by reactions alone. I am a little worried about the series continuing due to lack of publicity. Most viewers and fans come from word of mouth. Hollywood is built on promotion and most of the actors are not typical as far as remaining in the public eye. I have a lot of respect for that but want to see the series continue on its merits and that means playing the Hollywood promotion game. I have always believed that Hollywood treats us like we are brain dead. The garbage Hollywood produces keeps me from watching their crap! For a well written and acted series- this is it. Check it out and tell others. One note: if you are offended by sexuality and violence, this is probably not the show for you.

I rarely give a 10 to anything, usually there's always a few flaws that can be pointed out, but this show is clear in their intention, it doesn't try to hide is own nature, and in doing so it establishes a perfect ground for measurement. It's the characters of Banshee and their labyrinth of relationships that make the show an engrossing, entertaining portrait of a fictional small town. "Passive" and "active" violence is a constant, and so is nudity, so if you don't like fist fighting, people shooting others dead, women showing their breasts, soft sex scenes, then this is definitely not a show for you. This scenes really keep me entertained, and I'm the kind of person that finds sexual intercourse scenes usually boring, but I'm quite comfortable if I think they fit into the show, which is clearly the case in my opinion. The characters are just amazing, all of them are so alive and so filled with character, what an amazing feat, so rare this days, they all feel unique and even better than that, in a over the top show you would expect a ton of cliches everywhere, and a ton of cliche characters, Banshee has none, just amazing character development, I take my hat and bow to the show creators. The acting is in my opinion of top quality, even the less important characters provide us with quality acting. And the main villain of this story, Kyle Proctor (not sure if I'm spelling it right), Sir, your acting, the character you bring to life, you deserve an Oscar, no contest here. So summing it up, I recommend this show to everyone, minus puritans and anti-violence evangelists, and of course, people that can't understand the difference between fiction and real life.

Awesome show. This ranks up there with Justified. It has a lot of action and a descent story. It is a little unbelieveable that a sheriff can kill that many people, even if while on the job, and not have outside people looking into his actions. The story line is basically this: This guy gets released from jail after serving 15 years for robbing a diamond place. He then starts looking for his ex girlfriend who was with him but he let her escape while with the diamonds while he took the wrap. He finds her in the town of Banshee living under another name and married to the town DA. While in town, a man who is coming to be the new sheriff, who no one has actually met or seen, gets killed in a bar that was being robbed. The Ex con takes his identity and becomes the new sheriff. He then runs the town in a un conventinal way but it is effective. Oh ya, it is Omish country and the locally crime boss is an ex communicated Omish man. That is it in a wrap[ with out giving out to much info. Do as I did and rent the first episode form amazon and determine if this is your type of show.

This show was really good I like a lot of action series it keeps me busy. I am am on the second season of banished. I enjoyed it watching it can't wait to see the third season.

I don't subscribe to Cinemax and I pretty much stumbled upon this show by accident while taking advantage of a free sneak preview weekend of several premium cable channels. Wow, what a show! You want violence? it's got violence; sex? check; nudity? plenty of it. But what really makes this show stand out from the pack, and not be just another mediocre series, is the clever writing and great acting by the cast. Every episode is just so much fun to watch. That's why I had to order the season on Blu-ray to catch up on all the previous episodes. I'm not sure what other shows to compare Banshee to but, if you like Tarantino movies, you'll probably enjoy Banshee as well. For certain, you'll never look at the Amish countryside in quite the same way again!

Just finished season 1 . This is in excellent condition as stated.

Ich kann jedem die Staffel Banshee nur empfehlen. Sie entwickelt sich im laufe der Geschichte zu einer super spannenden Action Serie, die teils ordentlich blutig ist. Ich hab Staffel 1-4 verschlungen, weil man immer wissen wollte wies weiter geht. Die einzelnen Charaktere sind spitzenmäßig dargestellt. Schade das die Serie nach 4 Staffeln vorbei war. Schon länger nicht mehr so ne geile Staffel gesehen! Staffel 1-4 einfach Top. Kann ich jedem nur empfehlen! Wärend blödel Staffeln wie zbsp BIG BANG in die unzähligste Runde weiter gehen, sind die besten Staffeln immer viel zu früh zuende! Wie auch diese! Traurig! Absolut empfehlenswert! Alle Staffeln dieser Serie! Einfach Top! Vorallem das Intro und der Soundtrack! Schön düster! Sehr geil!

HBO has a great reputation for quality TV, this series helps show why. For the gangster-police genre this is very rich thematically. It weaves multiple strands together very credibly. NY Russian mafia, mid-west crime lords, drugs, diamonds, Indian reservations, 'Amish farmers, small town life, cowboy sheriff, trailer trash, raves, teen coming of age, prize fights, casinos, ex-cons, old vengeance, old love, many complex families of all sorts, mistaken identity, assumed identity, forgery, buried bodies in the woods at night, pick pockets, politics.... it even has a moment for police paperwork (the irony!) And that's just the first 3 episodes. It is hard to see any formula or idea that the writer allows to slip past unexploited. It uses each fully, satisfyingly and cleverly. There is real, understated wit everywhere. The characters, sympathetic or not, all engage you, all are real and human and fully fleshed out. The dialogue and behaviour is 18. The menace is palpable and there's plenty of graphic violence, drugs and sex , though lots is effectively left to the imagination too. But it is done with purpose, and so fits with alot less jarring than mindless or gratuitous graphic scenes trigger. And our main character does not live without his demons and PTSD. If not perfectly credible everywhere is certainly hard to beat any many much higher p[rofile series could learn a lot from this. This was a french box, all cover text in french but plays films and bonus material in English (5.1) as default but offers French (5.1), German (5.1), Polish (2.0) and subtitles in all those plus Dutch and Portuguese too. Bonus material is not subtitled, includes quite alot: NY-bus-crash behind the scenes, Banshee origins, Town of secrets, cut scenes, season 1 and 2 trailers, episode 7 and 8 trailers, audio commentary. 4x DVD in a slip case and standard size box. 10 episodes. RECOMMENDED - Oh yes!

« Let’s talk about Banshee ». En manque d’une série susceptible de rallier ma compagne à mes visionnages nocturnes et après avoir lu et entendu divers avis ici et là, je me suis tourné presque à l’aveuglette vers cette série produite en partie par le fantastique Alan Ball (True Blood et surtout Six Feet Under, une série inoubliable) me rappelant par bien des aspects certains comics (Preacher et son arc Salvation dont on fait souvent référence discrètement par le pitch identique et le chien de Proctor appelé… Preacher). Il s’agit simplement d’une histoire bien classique et déjà vue : l’étranger débarque dans une bourgade isolée remplie de rednecks et de lois qui leur sont propres pour y faire le ménage mais revue et corrigée de façon contemporaine. Ne chercher pas une once de réalisme, l’ex-taulard devient shériff, les méchants sont TRES méchants et on pourrait résumer l’histoire telle quelle : le shériff se fait castagner, castagne et baise tout ce qui bouge. Et pourtant ça marche… l’histoire prend de l’ampleur au fur et à mesure des épisodes (excellents flashbacks qui lèvent graduellement le passif des personnages), scènes d’action hyper violentes mais stylisées et peu de temps morts, vraiment peu de temps morts. Il s’agit comme déjà dit d’un « Guilty Pleasure » ou plaisir coupable là où le cultissime Breaking Bad sacrifie parfois son rythme pour y planter son histoire, Banshee ne s’accommode d’aucun artifice et fonce pied au plancher vers l’issue de chaque épisode sans regarder derrière. Personnages comics, scènes d’action comme on en voyait plus depuis belles lurettes et humour très noir soutenu par des punchlines fracassantes, le spectacle peut déplaire mais curieusement cet étrange mélange de scènes tirées d’un film Z se marient à merveille pour nous offrir un spectacle décomplexé et qui rallie tous les suffrages. Banshee est donc vraiment aussi fun qu’il compte d’os cassés. Cette saison 1 peut presque se voir comme un stand alone complet car la fin boucle bien les enjeux développés même si on en creuse au sens large comme au figuré de nouveau pour une saison 2 que je ne vais pas manquer de regarder dès à présent. Concernant le Blu-ray, l’image est très belle, le son n’est pas en reste et le packaging est très sympa avec un surétui plutôt joli. Le menu donne envie de presser la touche play avec la tension de sa musique et la compilation de scènes fortes par contre si on est plutôt servi niveau bonus, les non anglophones déploreront l’habituel foutage de gueule de Warner (qui édite Banshee en vidéo) en supplantant les 3 quarts de sous titres français comme anglais qui auraient pu être utiles, notamment sur les courts « Banshee Origins ». Une excellente surprise envers et contre tous et une édition Blu Ray perfectible mais néanmoins il s’agit d’une série à acheter tant le revisionnage me semble possible contrairement à d’autres séries. Que du fun pour peu que vous aimiez un peu le trash, les os cassés et les nombreuses scènes de sexe « full frontal ». Un spectacle racoleur bien divertissant en somme. :)

Vraiment ultra heureux de mon achat. Étant Candien et donc en Zone A, je m'attendais à recevoir un coffret que j'aurais dû lire dans un lecteur multizone, mais a ma grande surprise il s'agit de disques multizone. La version américaine n'ayant pas de trame francophone, je suis aux anges.

Extraordinaria serie. Fantástica. Te atrapa de principio a fin. Todos los personajes tienen matices interesantes. Recomiendo esta serie a todo el que busque algo diferente.