On January 11, Cinemax debuts Banshee, the new premium-cable series from out producer Alan Ball, who also brought us Six Feet Under and True Blood.
The show stars Antony Starr (Rush) as Lucas Hood, a master thief who assumes the identity of the sheriff of rural Banshee, Pennsylvania. He might have sworn to uphold the law, but Lucas is still keeping at his criminal activities.
Ball says he decided to get involved because of the complex characters that creators Jonathan Tropper and David Schickler had dreamed up. “The town of Banshee itself had just as complex a history: Mythic small-town America… original tribal lands of the Kinaho Indians… new-world home to the old-world ways of the Pennsylvania Dutch. Drug dealers. Neo-Nazi skinheads. Ukrainian gangsters. Dumb rednecks. Bad-ass Asian cross-dressers,” says Ball. “Your typical pastoral American town with a dark, seedy underbelly of sex and violence and greed and impossible love.”
A Cinemax spokseperson says Job, the aforementioned “cross-dresser” uses his savvy to keep Lucas out of harm’s way. Played by actor hoon Lee, “he’s got a sharp tongue and a quick wit—kind of like Banshee’s answer to Lafayette from True Blood,” says the network. “Job starts the series in dark, heavy make-up and draping dresses, but as events force him on the road he struggles with changing his look to blend in with his surroundings.”
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Banshee debuts on Cinemax on January 11 at 10pm.
Mjl-428
……………………….. that’s all I got
MikeE
so gay or gay-associated characters in his shows always have to be screaming queens?
Caliban
I really liked Lafayette a lot the 1st season of True Blood, but not as much since. Yeah, he was OTT and “queenie” but also willing and able to fight, as hustler (in both the sexual and non-sexual senses) doing what he had to to get by. Since then they’ve done away with his aggressive side when that was what made the character interesting, not just a stereotype. It’s not Nelsan Ellis’s fault- he’s still good in the role- but the scripts he’s given to work with.
Stache1
@MikeE:
I don’t think you watched 6 feet under then. 2 of the lead characters (David and especially keith) were not only gay but masculine.
Little-Kiwi
behind every anonymous internet complainer who rails about “effeminate stereotypes” is the bigoted family that makes him feel inferior as a homosexual.
you know how those anti-gay straight folks in politics and leadership always end up being busted with their lips around some gloryhole? same thing with the “i can’t stand effeminate” crew – you hate in others what you hate in yourself.
grow a pair and get over it.
MikeE
@Little-Kiwi: shove it a$$hole. Your dime-store psychology is pure crap. So is your judgmental attitude. You’re the first to jump in and insult anyone who doesn’t agree with you.
I never said that I hate effeminate men. Learn to read.
I am only going by the description of this show, and the only other show of his I’ve seen: True Blood.
I simply find it odd and disconcerting that a gay writer/producer would create roles that are so stereotypical for the gay characters in their shows. It’s not just the stereotype, it’s the exaggeratedly stereotypical over-the-top character that I find unpleasant. And no, in the 40 years I’ve been out of the closet and open about being gay to everyone, I’ve met VERY very few men who act, dress, and talk like Lafayette. Generally, people who act out that way have something to prove about themselves. “Look at me, I’m so outrageous”.
And no, I haven’t seen 6ft Under.
Little-Kiwi
@MikeE:
this is what you don’t get, and this is why you’re an idiot: it’s not the “type” that is portrayed that matters but how the show is about it.
your knee-jerk reaction to “screaming queens” proves me right. wimp.
you see “screaming queen” – you don’t see “Screaming Queen who refuses to live in fear and is a strong and empowered character”
http://littlekiwilovesbauhaus.blogspot.ca/2009/09/in-defense-of-my-glorious-femme.html
some reading for you.
I call your bluff.
yes. you find it unpleasant. anonymous closeted cowards always do.
so yeah, i’ll judge you for the judgments you’ve already made and revealed in your posts. you have no balls.
Little-Kiwi
and generally, guys like you are always…well..guys like you. cowards who can only spew their disdain for “queeny stereotypes” from a place of cowardly anonymity.
Little-Kiwi
@Caliban: you’re spot on. that someone can see “just a _____ stereotype” and not the reality that said “stereotype” is also a tough-as-nails empowered character speaks volumes.
Shofixti
Also, as with True Blood – there is a kiwi in the main role.
Yay New Zealand!
Stephen
I remember the first time I saw this series and it was called “Twin Peaks”. Just saying…