Entertainment
HBO's Raunchy Amish Action Series Is The Best Show You've Never Seen
By Jonathan Klotz
| Updated
The problem with most network crime shows is that no matter how dark the story gets, they can’t show too much violence, which turns climactic fight and action scenes into bloodless affairs with comical overacting. Premiering on Cinemax in 2013, Banshee never had that problem, and features at least one bloody brawl in every episode that on NCIS, would be a season-ending showstopper, but in the small rural Pennsylvania town, it’s Tuesday.
However, Banshee is now the answer to a trivia question: “What show was Homelander (Antony Starr) on before The Boys?” That does a disservice to how the series plays out like a mini-action movie in every episode, and thanks to HBO Max, it’s perfect to rip through over the course of a weekend.
Small Town, Big Characters
Antony Starr’s Lucas Hood isn’t as villainous as his breakout character, Homelander, but he’s not exactly a good guy either, especially since he’s not really Lucas Hood. He’s an ex-con who takes the Sheriff’s identity after the well-meaning lawman is killed in a shakedown gone wrong (and notably, has a bullet-sized hole blown into his hand) one day before he was to meet anyone in the town of Banshee.
The new sheriff picked the rural town, which has both a very large Amish population and includes a Native American reservation, because his ex, Ana (Ivana Miličević), is living there under a fake name and raising a family.
That alone would be enough for CBS to greenlight as a procedural, but Banshee goes further and makes sure the small town is stocked with a never-ending parade of colorful residents. There’s Sugar Bates (Franke Faison) the retired boxer who knows Hood’s secret, Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen) the former Amish man turned local crime lord, Jon (Hoon Lee) Hood and Ana’s androgynous “man in the chair” who can hack everything from ATMs to CIA satellites, and Rebecca, (Lilli Simmons) the young Amish girl who rebels against the community and finds her way by embracing a life of crime.
Every season finds new and fun ways to bash the characters up against one another, and every episode includes at least one moment that will make you stand up and shout. Take, for example, the third episode, “Meet the New Boss,” when an MMA fighter comes to town for an exhibition fight at the local casino. After he assaults one of the cocktail waitresses, Hood gets into the Octagon for a bloody brawl that drags on for several minutes, and just when you think someone’s lost, it keeps going like a real-life version of Peter Griffin versus the Chicken.
It’s absurd, it’s over the top, and it shatters the belief that Hood would remain Sheriff, but in the middle of it all, there’s a single moment that’s echoed later in the season, and it shows for all the blood, guts, and skin on display, Banshee knows exactly what it’s doing.
Banshee Has A B-Movie Action Film Crammed Into Every Episode
That one moment, a simple blocking motion, comes back during flashbacks later in the season to Hood’s time in prison, so while it’s not Shakespeare, Banshee has enough depth to keep it interesting. Best of all, the four-season run doesn’t end on a cliffhanger; instead, the story reaches a definitive conclusion, making the journey to get there well worth it.
The series was also well-received by critics and audiences during its run, earning a 90 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 92 percent audience rating. To put it in perspective, Banshee’s rating is higher than both Daredevil: Born Again and The Boys.
Despite the love from critics and those who have seen it, Banshee has remained outside the conversation when talking about the best crime shows on cable, a discussion that often includes Max’s own The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire. While the Amish-crime family of the Cinemax original can’t compare to either of those two, it’s not trying to.
The series is doing its own thing by embracing every B-movie action trope under the sun, tossing them into the small-town setting, and letting fans enjoy the resulting mess. It deserves to be more than a part of Antony Starr’s IMDb trivia, and there’s no better time to take a trip to small-town Pennsylvania than right now.
Entertainment
Network Execs Hated The Star Trek Episode That Created A Great Guest Villain
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Star Trek is a franchise that most fans love to watch because of its heroes. It’s genuinely thrilling to see characters like Captain Kirk overcome insurmountable odds (he doesn’t believe in the no-win scenario), or Captain Picard overcome unstoppable villains (the line must be drawn here!). However, I’d argue that the villains of Trek are actually much more compelling. Characters like Gul Dukat, Q, and even Nus Braka steal every scene and leave us quietly rooting for the bad guys to finally win.
Believe it or not, this is a franchise tradition that goes all the way back to the beginning. In addition to those recurring baddies mentioned above, Trek has always had memorable guest villains played by actors who show up and immediately blow everyone away. The Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Charlie X” was one that the network absolutely hated, but fans came to love. Of course, most of that affection is because of one man: Robert Walker, whose method acting turned a frightened 17-year-old boy into one of the scariest villains the Enterprise crew ever encountered!
Get Out My Ship, Charles!
“Charlie X” is an episode where the Enterprise crew rescues a young man named Charlie (played by Robert Walker) whose ship had crashed. The crew tries to help the kid out, including Captain Kirk, whom he sees as a father figure. However, things take a sinister turn when the crew discovers that Charlie has the powers of telepathy and transmutation, which he uses for horrific acts like making everyone who annoys him disappear. Eventually, the godlike aliens who gave this kid superpowers show up to take custody of him, reasoning that he is now too dangerous to be raised among humans.
These days, “Charlie X” is considered a fairly strong episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. At the time, though, NBC really hated the episode because they thought Charlie’s presence made the story feel too much like a teenage melodrama. Plus, everything took place aboard the Enterprise, so the episode didn’t have any of the “strange new worlds” the show would become famous for. That second factor ended up being a blessing in disguise, though: postproduction was very easy on “Charlie X” (especially after they recycled some footage), so it became the second episode of Star Trek to hit the airwaves.
Boldly Going Where No Villain Has Gone Before
Fortunately, the episode didn’t need exotic locations to be memorable when it had a killer guest star. Robert Walker played a young man with fantastic powers, and he blew the cast and crew away with his acting talent. In The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, Janice Rand actor Grace Lee Whitney explained that Walker was a method actor who deliberately avoided interacting with the cast between shots so that he could stay in character. She claimed that “it worked” and that “You can see it in his performance, a subtle yet persistent air of estrangement from the Enterprise crew, and indeed, from the rest of humanity.”
She gushed that Walker’s “careful effort to stay in character added a convincing dimension to his performance,” which helped the actor “[capture] the perfect balance, projecting vulnerability, innocence, and horrifying menace at the same time. A lesser actor could not have handled the range and depth of the character.” In a later interview with the Television Academy Foundation, “Charlie X” writer D.C. Fontana agreed, noting that Walker “was excellent as Charlie.” She also commended the then-26-year-old actor for successfully portraying a 17-year-old character, noting that “he looked young enough to pull it off.”
“Charlie X” was a Star Trek: The Original Series episode that NBC hated but that fans loved. They wouldn’t have loved it nearly so much, though, if Robert Walker hadn’t turned in such a chillingly perfect performance. He’s one of the best guest villains in the franchise, and his method-acting talents give us a one-off villain that fans love to hate. It’s an approach that would inspire later Star Trek actors, including Michael Dorn, whose own method acting made Klingon security chief Worf one of the most beloved characters in Star Trek history.
Entertainment
Dark Psychological Anime Banned From Television Is Now Streaming
By Zack Zagranis
| Published
Paranoia Agent is the best anime you’ve never seen. The twisted, psychological thriller was originally deemed too intense for both Japanese and American broadcast standards and was eventually aired in both markets in a heavily edited format. Luckily, the entire uncut series is available to stream on anime streaming service Crunchyroll.
Paranoia Agent is the brainchild of creator Satoshi Kon. Kon was initially a feature film director responsible for such anime classics as Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers. During the production of his films, however, Kon found himself with an excess of story ideas and themes that didn’t fit with any of his projects but intrigued him nonetheless. As a result, the director decided to take these discarded concepts and weave them into a television series.
Prior to the creation of Paranoia Agent, the creator had spoken at length about the filmmaking process and its rigidity, how he would work for two years on the same project, being in “the same mood” and using the same method over and over again.
The flexibility of television enticed Kon because he wanted the freedom to explore a variety of themes and topics rather than be confined to a single concept throughout a feature film. Kon was also drawn to the speed at which television animation is produced vs. movie animation because it allowed him to “Realize instantly what flashes across my mind.”
The result was 2004’s Paranoia Agent—a frightening mix of anxiety-inducing thrills and dark themes that made viewers question the sanity of the characters on screen as well as their own. Paranoia Agent revolves around a mysterious assailant known only as “Lil’ Slugger” who skates around on rollerblades attacking seemingly random victims with a dented golden baseball bat. Each episode focuses on a different victim and the detectives working to catch Lil’ Slugger.
Paranoia Agent Censored
The series features the usual adult anime tropes, plenty of nudity and profanity, but it’s Paranoia Agent‘s dark, taboo themes that got it temporarily banned in certain countries. Scenes like the one in episode 8, where a character commits suicide, caused the anime to be partially banned in Japan after being deemed “too harsh” by the Japanese government. This partial ban meant the anime had to air on Wowwow, a Japanese satellite station, rather than on the country’s regular broadcast channels.
Meanwhile, in North America, the series was initially banned from airing on TV and was only available on DVD in late 2004. The following year, a censored version of Paranoia Agent began airing on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim late-night programming block.
Along with being scrubbed of any references to suicide, this watered-down version of the series also took great pains to remove any nudity and swearing that might offend sensitive US audiences. The suicide scene was also removed before the series aired in the UK.
Paranoia Agent has been compared to the works of David Lynch for its, at times, dreamlike, surreal quality, as well as Kon’s other psychological thrillers Paprika and Perfect Blue.
In 2020, Adult Swim again aired Paranoia Agent, this time in a form closer to its original vision. This new edit included the blurring of certain body parts during nude scenes instead of cutting the scenes out completely, and an intact suicide episode, albeit with ads for suicide prevention airing before and after.
Satoshi Kon’s dementedly brilliant debut anime was unanimously praised by critics and audiences alike, despite most of those audiences being unable to experience the series as intended.
Paranoia Agent‘s Rotten Tomatoes score is as high as it can be, at an impressive 100% critic approval rating. The site’s consensus praises “Anime auteur Satoshi Kon” for bringing his “feverish vision” to television and delivering a “disturbing meditation on individual and societal anxiety.”
Paranoia Agent has been compared to the works of David Lynch for its, at times, dreamlike, surreal quality, as well as Kon’s other psychological thrillers, Paprika and Perfect Blue. The feeling among many fans is that Paranoia Agent isn’t something you turn on to zone out to, but rather a deep experience that will stick with you for a long time, whether you want it to or not.
You can check out Paranoia Agent right now courtesy of Crunchyroll , where the anime is streaming in its original format.
Entertainment
The best gaming monitor deals to shop this weekend — Alienware, LG, and ASUS on sale right now
The best gaming monitor deals at a glance:
Gaming hardware tends to come with some sticker shock. But if your current setup is feeling lifeless, this weekend is a good excuse to upgrade your monitor for less. Some major brands, including LG, Alienware, and ASUS, have previous-generation gaming monitors on sale for record-low prices and we’ve rounded up our favorites below.
Whether you’re hoping to bump up your refresh rate or enhance your visual experience, here are the best gaming monitor deals to shop this weekend.
Best curved gaming monitor deal
$649.99
at Amazon
$799.99
Save $150
Why we like it
Gaming is addicting on this 34-inch Alienware AW3425DW monitor. Thanks to a steep 1800R curved OLED panel that wraps the game around you, plus high performance specs like a 240Hz refresh rate, 0.03ms response time, and an aiming point editor called AlienVision, you’ll be fully immersed in every game and any world you choose. Combined with a stellar color range, VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack 400, 1000 nits peak HDR brightness, and G-Sync and FreeSync Premium Pro certifications, it’s hard to believe it’s only $649.99 (reg. $799.99). At just shy of 20% off, this is its lowest price on record.
Best flat gaming monitor deal
$499.99
at Amazon
$899.99
Save $400
Why we like it
This $400 discount on the LG UltraGear 27-inch OLED gaming monitor knocks it down to its best price ever.
While it’s over a year old at this point, it still packs some solid specs. Like the Alienware model above, it features an OLED panel with a 240Hz refresh rate and 0.03ms response time for fluid gameplay, and is validated for Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. It’s a bit smaller at 27 inches and isn’t curved, but some folks prefer a flat display — particularly at this size. The matte 1440p panel is VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certified, so colors pop and blacks are rich and deep. And as a bonus, the detachable base and stand allow for infinite adjustments to suit your gaming habits.
Mashable Deals
Best entry-level gaming monitor deal
$209
at Amazon
$289
Save $80
Why we like it
If you’re new to the gaming world or you’re just a casual player, the ASUS 32-inch TUF curved monitor is an affordable entry-level model with decent specs. Plus, it’s $80 off this weekend — its second-best price ever. It features an ultra-steep 1500R curve, 165Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, and FreeSync Premium supported through DisplayPort and HDMI. It won’t wow you quite like the first two monitors, but at only $209, who cares?
More gaming monitor deals this weekend
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