• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Banshee - The 4th and final season - Fridays on Cinemax

Status
Not open for further replies.

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
For Proctor to be responsible you have to make some massive leaps. I agree Burton could have acted on his own, but really that makes absolutely no sense either as they were practically buddies for an entire season and why he would act out in such a way makes no narrative sense.

Maybe, but it would be a far more satisfying conclusion to her arc than if it just ended because of a random serial killer they threw in at the last minute.

Plus, there's been a ton of tension between those three since the series began and they've only escalated it this season. (Rebecca having a secret side business that she desperately wanted to keep hidden from Kai, Kai stealing Rebecca's money and her pointing a gun at him). There has to be more to the story...
 

Audioboxer

Member
I'm probably in the minority, but I feel like all the episodes have been pretty damn great so far, and the latest one was quite probably one of the most violent since S1's season finale. That truck scene was something else. Jop getting his groove back was amazing, and the scene at Siobhan's trailer was the most emotive Banshee has been in a while. Great marks all around.

My main concern is the usual, though. While I'm enjoying the season as much if not more than the previous one, the pacing makes no sense at all once you consider the reduced number of episodes. Even if the writing feels tighter than in previous seasons, plot development itself has been baffling spread out for a season finale with a reduced number of episodes.


I could be wrong, but I believe Dushku is really not into nekkid scenes. So that may be it.



It fits the super pulpy nature of Banshee.

With that said, small places often hide the biggest secrets. Close to my parents' hometown there's this podunk deep into hicksville territory that is home to a huge (and I mean HUGE) swingers club* that looks like your average rustic mansion. Depending on who you ask, weekends are either the closest thing to heaven or something out of a Hunter S. Thompson's wet dream.


*and before you ask, no, I'm not one of the patrons.

I've enjoyed this season as well! New to Banshee and binged season 1~3 on BD.

One of my fav shows ever. Great mix of Justified, The Shield and a little Breaking Bad.

I will say though this really isn't playing out like a last season. More of an experimental season with a 5th to come. So I'm sad in that sense. Also even sadder to find out this is ending on episode 8 :( Expected 10. There's so much more they could do. Guess the budget is in the shitter and viewing numbers suck.

Job is one of the best characters on TV.
 
They're artistically not showing fight scenes or just cutting away from them now...

Can't believe Hood and Brock both got taken out so easy in the garage.

This show is a mess.

Carrie fight was legit. I think they don't bother with some fight scenes because they trust the viewer to know the person (Hood or Burton) is too OP and will just breeze through the fight with ease. Still, I was bummed we didn't see Burton destroy the Nazis.
 

KonradLaw

Member
Cinemax has done a half assed job at attempting to break out into the original scripted game, but of their 4 series, Banshee was actually their biggest hit.

All of Cinemax original series seem pretty expensive though. Strike Back with their world touring each season, Knick with all the historical detail etc.

They don't have ridiculous HBO budgets, but none of their shows seem to stray away far from typical cable budgets.

I doubt Quarry and Outcast will be cheap either.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
All of Cinemax original series seem pretty expensive though. Strike Back with their world touring each season, Knick with all the historical detail etc.

They don't have ridiculous HBO budgets, but none of their shows seem to stray away far from typical cable budgets.

I doubt Quarry and Outcast will be cheap either.

The half assed part of my comment was directed at the fact that, since branching out into the original scripted game in 2011, they've only managed 4 shows in 5 years. This year they're introducing 2 more, but only after 3 of the original 4 have ended (The Knick is still tba).

When they were ordering the final season of Banshee (and hammering out the budget) it was their highest rated show and yet they still decided to slash the budget.
 
All of Cinemax original series seem pretty expensive though. Strike Back with their world touring each season, Knick with all the historical detail etc.

They don't have ridiculous HBO budgets, but none of their shows seem to stray away far from typical cable budgets.

I doubt Quarry and Outcast will be cheap either.

Banshee is working against incredibly tight budgets to deliver what they want and with that Burton non-fight they seem to have run out of time and/or money in the end. The production company that makes it is named One Olive after a well known American Airlines cost saving measure. Greg Yaitanes goes into this in depth here:

https://medium.com/behind-the-scenes/the-one-olive-77ed70426f8#.eg9v8js09
 

Klocker

Member

Audioboxer

Member
All of Cinemax original series seem pretty expensive though. Strike Back with their world touring each season, Knick with all the historical detail etc.

They don't have ridiculous HBO budgets, but none of their shows seem to stray away far from typical cable budgets.

I doubt Quarry and Outcast will be cheap either.

How is Strike Back?
 

KonradLaw

Member
Banshee is working against incredibly tight budgets to deliver what they want and with that Burton non-fight they seem to have run out of time and/or money in the end. The production company that makes it is named One Olive after a well known American Airlines cost saving measure. Greg Yaitanes goes into this in depth here:

https://medium.com/behind-the-scenes/the-one-olive-77ed70426f8#.eg9v8js09
Damn. Great piece. Thanks for linking.
I hope they skipped some of the action scenes to save the budget for the final showdown.

I have to wonder how much Banshee got screwed by moving to Pitsburg after North Carolina cut their tax incentives. Of course they still moved to where such incentives exist, but moving everything had to be expensive, especially for last season.
 

Anbokr

Bull on a Donut
Man, next episode is the series finale right? Doesn't feel like it at all man, series feels like it's ending too early. Hope they provide some solid closure.
 
I get the feeling that Hood won't make it out of the finale alive. I can't shake the feeling, but it just feels like that his closure will be death...
 

Anbokr

Bull on a Donut
I get the feeling that Hood won't make it out of the finale alive. I can't shake the feeling, but it just feels like that his closure will be death...

Yeah that's my feeling too. It doesn't feel like to me that we're anywhere near a finale or closure, there's still so much hanging. So I can't help but think that our closure will just be a bunch of dead people... not just Hood lol.
 
The camera panning away from Burton when he was fighting the neo nazis speaks volumes about what this show has become.

Very sad to see Banshee go out with a whimper...
 
Yeah that's my feeling too. It doesn't feel like to me that we're anywhere near a finale or closure, there's still so much hanging. So I can't help but think that our closure will just be a bunch of dead people... not just Hood lol.

Agreed, still feels like a lot of threads are up in the air and any attempt to tie them off in the last hour will feel rushed.

As for the Burton fight, I honestly think didn't show it because we already knew the outcome. It's one of those highly skewed fights that while fun to watch doesn't have any real threat for the character. I accept this is probably me rationalising their lack of budget to actually show the thing, but still...

I'd much rather see Burton fight when the odds aren't as skewed in his favour and there's an actual chance he'll lose.
 
last two episodes were a lot more enjoyable than the crap before it. it's finally feeling like the banshee of prior seasons. too little too late though tbh.
 

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
I enjoyed the episode. I'm a bit baffled by some of the choices made for this season, but I can't say I feel the need to blast the show as if it had undergone some kind of Dexter-like death spiral. I just can't agree with the negativity, at least to the same degree.

As for the fight with Burton, I thought it was cute. People would have probably laffed at it had it happen at a previous season, alas, we've reached that point

QAuqEnP.png
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
As for the fight with Burton, I thought it was cute. People would have probably laffed at it had it happen at a previous season, alas, we've reached that point

QAuqEnP.png

People would have laughed in a previous season because previous seasons weren't almost entirely devoid of action and fight sequences. People are starved for action, since that's the core hallmark of the series, and to be teased like that is frustrating.
 

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
People would have laughed in a previous season because previous seasons weren't almost entirely devoid of action and fight sequences. People are starved for action, since that's the core hallmark of the series, and to be teased like that is frustrating.

That is more or less what I meant to say. People are pissed due to the show not living up to its violent past, so a "cute" scene that would have been well received in the past is obviously going to be met with exacerbated criticism.
 

Alpende

Member
The camera panning away from Burton when he was fighting the neo nazis speaks volumes about what this show has become.

Very sad to see Banshee go out with a whimper...

Didn't like that either. We didn't get to see a lot of Burton fights and the ones we did see were amazing. Cutting away like that was lame.
 
D

Deleted member 325805

Unconfirmed Member
Pissed me off too, Burton is such a great character and I love watching him fight but nope, apparently that's not in the budget anymore.
 
I enjoyed the episode. I'm a bit baffled by some of the choices made for this season, but I can't say I feel the need to blast the show as if it had undergone some kind of Dexter-like death spiral. I just can't agree with the negativity, at least to the same degree.

As for the fight with Burton, I thought it was cute. People would have probably laffed at it had it happen at a previous season, alas, we've reached that point

QAuqEnP.png
The show only gets to Dexter shitdom if Hood becomes a lumberjack and Hood ends up carrying Deva's corpse into the eye of a hurricane or some shit.
 

Monocle

Member
This episode has completed the season's descent into stupidity. I was kind of OK with it up until this point because I guess it didn't really sink in how close it was getting to the end, but now...? It's lost me completely.

The satanic serial killer is stupid and irrelevant and uninteresting. I don't care if the whole thing is played straight or turns out to be a red herring. It's a lame waste of time, nothing remotely compelling about it.

Brock is a moron for not piecing together that Hood was a criminal. I am so over his bullshit, insisting he wants the truth, getting the super obvious answer, and proceeding to freak out that the guy who breaks laws with impunity and has an inexplicable skill set turns out to have a shady past. Jesus damn, pay the fuck attention to what's right in front of your face, Brock. Great police instincts buddy.

Carrie's counselor suddenly going off the record and giving her the worst and most cliched advice ever was truly absurd. Nobody in his position would ever tell a patient to finish it when finishing it will obviously involve committing crimes and putting herself at great personal risk. Not even "as a father," lol.

What's the point of Eliza Dushku's crack smoking character again? To be the subject of played out tropes? Oh look, it's a woman in peril who needs the hero to come save her. But it's different because she's edgy and drinks whiskey with the serial killer, and did I mention she smokes crack?

The kind of OK bits were, unsurprisingly, where Job and Burton were doing their thing.

I can't believe they fucked the pooch this hard for the final season. There's no buildup to anything interesting, no sense of impending closure, nothing. It all rings hollow. It doesn't feel like we're close to the end of the season, much less the series. I was never especially invested in this show, but it's annoying to watch it go out with such a dud of a season.
 

Siegcram

Member
Oh yeah, Brock having a nervous breakdown about Hood comitting crimes when he has done so IN FRONT OF HIM was baffling to say the least.
 

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
So I guess we can all agree that season 3 was Banshee's real last season?


Yea?
 

UrbanRats

Member
Oh yeah, Brock having a nervous breakdown about Hood comitting crimes when he has done so IN FRONT OF HIM was baffling to say the least.

He also goes on to say he's can't be an ass kisser, is not in his character and all that, but in S1, i'm pretty sure he bent over backwards for Proctor, before Hood arrived.
Carrie's counselor suddenly going off the record and giving her the worst and most cliched advice ever was truly absurd. Nobody in his position would ever tell a patient to finish it when finishing it will obviously involve committing crimes and putting herself at great personal risk. Not even "as a father," lol.
When that scene happened, i thought he was reveled to be someone, like, from Rabbit's old crew or something like that.
Apparently he's just an incompetent counselor.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
What's the point of Eliza Dushku's crack smoking character again? To be the subject of played out tropes? Oh look, it's a woman in peril who needs the hero to come save her. But it's different because she's edgy and drinks whiskey with the serial killer, and did I mention she smokes crack?

slay ha
 

Beepos

Member
Just finished the Season 3 final and was on a super high to get into the final bad ass season....

I'm so sad right now, I binged the entire series in a week and was ready to finish the the last episode when it aired.

I'm not going to even tempt and watch it based on the commentary here.

Now, I'll just watch it alone and no other S4 episodes for a little closure and tell everyone to watch the first 3 seasons for a pulpy, kick-ass action series.
 

KonradLaw

Member
A bit offtopic, but Fox released Lethal Weapon TV series trailer and it's so bad. Riggs especially and it made me wonder who the hell would be able to play that character well aside from Gibson and the only answer I could come up with (while realistically staying in TV realm) was Anthony Starr :)
 

KonradLaw

Member
Just finished the Season 3 final and was on a super high to get into the final bad ass season....

I'm so sad right now, I binged the entire series in a week and was ready to finish the the last episode when it aired.

I'm not going to even tempt and watch it based on the commentary here.

Now, I'll just watch it alone and no other S4 episodes for a little closure and tell everyone to watch the first 3 seasons for a pulpy, kick-ass action series.

It's not that bad. It just lacks in action departament. But so far S4 seems to be successfully wrapping up emotional threads of the show in a pretty damn satisfying manner. It might not be the incredible final season I wanted, but it's not a bad way to say goodbye to characters themselves.
 
A bit offtopic, but Fox released Lethal Weapon TV series trailer and it's so bad. Riggs especially and it made me wonder who the hell would be able to play that character well aside from Gibson and the only answer I could come up with (while realistically staying in TV realm) was Anthony Starr :)
It makes sense to get a New Zealander to play a crazy Australian dude.
 

Siegcram

Member
It's not that bad. It just lacks in action departament. But so far S4 seems to be successfully wrapping up emotional threads of the show in a pretty damn satisfying manner. It might not be the incredible final season I wanted, but it's not a bad way to say goodbye to characters themselves.
Safe for Job, I can't say I agree. If anything most of the characters seem to be regressing (Hood, Brock). Or they're not present at all (Dava).
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
It all ends tonight.

Requiem

In the series finale, Lucas decides to leave Banshee, but discovers the murder case he believed closed may be reopened, while Proctor looks to finalize a deal with the Colombians after his intense faceoff with the Brotherhood. Carrie enacts one final act of vengeance; and Brock demands Bunker pledge his allegiance.
 
I caught up last night before this evening's finale. Disappointing season all around that's moved away from what made the show so wildly entertaining in previous years, though I did enjoy Job's scene with the hacker. Hope they up the ante tonight.

Sneak peek scenes:
- #1
- #2
- #3
 
I caught up last night before this evening's finale. Disappointing season all around that's moved away from what made the show so wildly entertaining in previous years, though I did enjoy Job's scene with the hacker. Hope they up the ante tonight.

Sneak peek scenes:
- #1
- #2
- #3

Oh man that 2nd sneak peak scene. AWESOME!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom