Toxic Masculinity Tuesday: ‘Banshee’ (2013-2016)
Although Banshee is just seven years old, there is no way it would be made today.
This is for many reasons. The actors and actresses are very attractive. It’s unapologetically violent. It has guns, cops, and touches on storylines that the Twitter mob would not allow to go unpunished.
But if you want to fight your toxic masculinity with even more toxic masculinity, the short-lived action-drama Banshee TV series by Cinemax is a must watch.
Check out the trailer for season one here:
Plot
Before his star soared playing Homelander in The Boys , Anthony Starr was kicking tail in Banshee . Starr played a man who was a master thief before doing a fifteen-year stretch after getting caught stealing fifteen million in diamonds for his Ukrainian mob boss Rabbit. He was part of a crew of criminals along with Rabbit’s daughter Ana, who was also his secret lover. They both decide to rob Rabbit of the diamonds and run off together, but things do not go as planned, and Starr’s character sacrifices his freedom so Ana can get away with the loot.
After being released, the Thief finds one of their old cohorts, cybercriminal Job, who helps him track down Ana to a town called Banshee. Once in Banshee, the Thief finds that Ana now goes by the name Carrie Hopewell, is married to the local district attorney, and has a daughter.
Their first encounter does not go as planned as Ana begs him to leave her and his family be. Hurt that he gave up fifteen years of his life only to see Ana has moved on, the Thief stops at a bar to drown his troubles. There, he makes friends with the former boxer and ex-con Sugar over some shots. The newly hired town sheriff, Lucas Hood, stops by for his own brew after his long drive into town.
That’s when the Thief is sent down his path that changed the entire town.
Later, Sugar is visited by hooligans who were sent to the bar by local crime boss Kai Proctor to collect protection money. Like a good cop should, Sheriff Hood intervenes but dies after killing the two collectors. Seeing a way to stay in Banshee to pursue Ana while also hiding from Rabbit’s men, the Thief decides to impersonate Lucas Hood and become the sheriff of Banshee.
It’s a simple premise, but a criminal pretending to be a cop while hiding from a mob boss in a town controlled by another criminal boss while chasing after his criminal ex-girlfriend and his money sets up numerous dynamics that were probably a blast to write. And it shows in this series.
Cast of Characters
Banshee leans into its over-the-top premise with its wonderful cast of characters. It’s impossible to give them all their due, but a few do stand out from the others.
The Thief/Lucas Hood
The Thief as Sherriff Lucas Hood is fun and sometimes unnerving to watch. It’s obvious from day one he knows nothing about law enforcement outside of what he learned from his life of crime. Immediately, he bends and breaks the law to enforce ‘justice’ in the town of Banshee, threatening Kai Proctor, maiming, and murdering criminals, and throwing his new weight around, that unsettles his law-abiding deputies.
When he’s not getting into gun fights or brawls, Sherriff Hood sleeps with basically every woman in town. Call it a cope for losing Ana. Or call it just being a cis-het, patriarchy-enforcing man. Either way, Sheriff Hood marks Banshee as his territory at a Wilt Chamberlain type pace.
Did I mention how attractive the cast was?
Yeah, Hood gets them all.
Yeah, Her Too
Early in season one, he kills some criminal yokels and even ends up sleeping with the leader’s wife afterwards. Talk about masculinity! There was a time – seven years ago – that Hollywood wasn’t afraid to admit women were attracted to tough, rugged, take-charge (toxic?) men. Being Cinemax, Banshee does not hold back on the nudity, which can be upsetting to some viewers. But if you’re a toxic male like me, I ask you to look at that cast picture above again and decide if you mind a little skin.
Worth Evading an Alien Monster For
Yeah, don’t hurt yourself when ordering the boxset to see these incredible women Cinemax style. Always buy physical media .
But I digress.
Struggling to win Ana back and attempting to enforce the law, you watch as Hood spirals beneath the weight of the lies he must carry to continue the ruse.
Driven by long held grudges, Hood is a hurricane that turns the town of Banshee on its head.
Ana/Carrie Hopewell
Ivana Miličević as Ana/Carrie honestly should be put in the same conversation of great female characters. She is beautiful, smart, capable, also a master thief, and a highly trained fighter. Once Hood reemerges in her life, Ana is trapped between her old life and trying to protect her new family from her vengeful father. Caught in the turmoil that always seems to follow Hood around, Ana’s life also begins to fall apart as the lies unravel around her.
Before anyone begins to think she is a Mary sue like most modern female characters, you’ll have to watch Ana’s fight against Olek. If there was ever a time to make her a Mary sue it would have been in the first season when Rabbit’s top guy catches up to her. Instead, you get a masterful bloody fight that goes as you expect when a highly trained woman fights a highly trained man.
And this is not a one off. Ana is a flawed character who is in no way perfect and makes many mistakes that shatters the family she was trying to protect.
Any writer having trouble writing strong, believable women could take a cue from studying this character.
Sugar
To round off the group, Sugar, played by a wizened Frankie Faison, becomes the group’s heart and soul. Letting Hood stay in a loft next to his bar, Sugar becomes a close confidant that leads the Sherriff through the local town politics and comes through in the clutch when Hood gets in jams while enforcing his law.
Job
For anyone who has watched Banshee before, they know Job deserves his own special mention. The left tends to think that anyone not on “their side” hates gay people or won’t watch them on the screen. That’s not true. Job is extremely gay but is one of the best characters in the entire show.
Played by Hoon Lee, who is straight, but this was before it was illegal to play gays without being gay , Job is a flamboyant, cross-dressing, effeminate, cybercriminal with a very acerbic attitude. His extravagant portrayal should make any toxic male change the channel, and if Banshee were made in 2023 it would, but looking beyond Jobs’ glitzy mask, you realize there is more beneath the surface.
And Jobs’ overt gayness is indeed a mask, using his attitude to prevent personal attachments. Yet, Job is arguably Hood’s most loyal friend. Having been sent to kill Job in the past but sparing him, it’s almost as if Job feels he owes Hood a life debt but will never say it out loud.
Throughout the series, you realize that he is loyal, highly capable, and never gives up on Hood, no matter what jam he gets them into. He often loudly disagrees with Hood and wants to leave Banshee behind, but always comes through for him in the end. Not to mention that the interactions between Job and the more traditional Sugar are comedy gold.
Yes, Job is gay, but outside of his clothes and sassy accent, the writers never bash you over the head with it . There is no lost love storyline. Or wondering if he’s in love with Hood. There is no random orgy or love scene no one wants to see. Job is a criminal, loves to be a criminal, and is always about the next payday. If every gay character was written like Job, you would see more gay men being accepted by straight people.
Good with a gun and capable in a scrap, Job is as toxic-male as they come. I’m sure Hollywood hates this character now because Job is a reminder they once knew how to do it right.
Villains
When you have protagonists this good, the villains must be great to contrast them.
Kai Proctor
Kai Proctor, the criminal who has Banshee in his grip, has very little nuance. An excommunicated Amish, Kai has a personal vendetta to prove his Amish family wrong and spits at God every chance he gets to spite them. Hence his giant tattoo. When his niece starts to stray from the Amish flock, Kai goads her into his criminal life just to hurt the family.
Ulrich Thomsen will play Kai like a business-like Mr. Rogers one minute but will violently murder someone a second later with his bare hands for making fun of the same family he seems to despise. Kai is an interesting character that is driven by a controlled hatred that will make you despise him in the end.
Burton
Burton is Kai’s psychotic bodyguard who sort of reminds me of Hugo from Street Fighter. Not as large, mind you, but he has that quiet menacing presence that you know he will do his masters bidding without question. If you never watch Banshee , at the very least, search Burton versus Nola and watch that fight scene. A classic fight that doesn’t get the credit it deserves.
Chayton Littlestone
Chayton is another standout villain because of his storyline alone.
In a plot thread that could not be made in 2023, Chayton is literally an Indian supremacist. Running a gang on the local reservation, Chayton runs afoul of Hood on several occasions while he wallows in his racism. Today, Chayton would be the protagonist, fighting the endemic racism of America, but in 2016 he was a gangster that manipulated his fellow Indians into a hate group. While his storyline simmers through several seasons, Chayton has a profound effect on Hood through his actions in the end.
The Albino
Okay, this is a personal choice for me, but the Albino in Banshee is terrifying. When the Thief first went to prison, he was more thief than a violent criminal and the Albino was sent by Rabbit to make him tell where Ana was hiding. Physically manhandling the Thief and stabbing him with a shiv, the Ablino makes no bones about the fact he is going to rape and torture him the entire fifteen years.
The Head Hang of Shame
Maybe I have a fear of a giant, chalk white freak of nature with red eyes in prison having his way with my exit only, but the Albino makes no qualms about his proclivity to emasculate men. Constantly surrounded by boy toys he had broken in the past, the Albino lets the Thief know he is next to join his growing prison harem. Even worse, he wants the Thief to submit willingly. That means he won’t stop brutalizing him until he does so.
Here is their first meeting and it only gets worse from there.
Considered me scared straight. No pun intended. There is a good (bad) reason this actor played this role so convincingly.
There are many characters and plot lines I didn’t highlight, such as a reformed white supremacist police officer struggling to get his brother out of the hate he introduced him to. Or Kai’s niece Rebecca going down the same dark path as him.
It’s worth watching the show to see how the writers tackled those issues.
Violence
If the characters, hot chicks, and compelling storylines don’t make you want to watch Banshee, then tune in for the violence. Which there is a lot of. Here are just snippets of what is in store for you.
Is Banshee the greatest show ever? No. Admittingly, season four comes off as a bit weak compared to the previous three. But Banshee could be your toxic oasis in a sea of streaming TV shows that love to feature weak, ineffective, emasculated men.
****
If you are looking for an escape from modern audience fare, check out my novel Fiasco of Adventures here or here .
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