Disclaimer: I have a literary crush on Jonathan Tropper. All glowing reviews of Jonathan Tropper and his works in this article may very well be biased by said crush.
But my crush is well earned. Just pick up one of his books—I’d recommend This Is Where I Leave You to start—and you’ll understand. Not only is he hilarious—although, boy, is he hilarious; I’m constantly laughing out loud in public places when I read his books—but he’s insightful, and captures entire brilliant epiphanies in the most well phrased one-liners you’ll find in modern novels. (To wit, a side note on the phenomenon of cigars from his latest book, One Last Thing Before I Go: “Because of a tossed salad of latent Freudian inadequacy issues, middle-aged men will perform fellatio on a clump of cured leaves and somehow feel more like men because of it, which, if nothing else, is a colossal triumph of marketing.”) Plus, he’s Jewish, which not only endears him to me, but makes him fair fodder for this publication.
So, yes, I’ve read all of Tropper’s books and may have memorized a few of his best lines, which made it no surprise that when I heard Tropper was writing (and co-creating, and producing) a new television show, I knew I had to watch it. Now, I’m fairly picky about which shows I’ll watch. At any given time I have about four shows that I’ll endorse to others (currently: Sherlock, Homeland, Game of Thrones, and Downton Abbey [and Girls, if I’m being honest]). And I hate getting hooked on a show when it’s new. I prefer starting them when a few seasons are out already so I don’t have to wait a week between each episode. But now I’m all caught up on my current shows and looking for something new to love, and Banshee is most clearly the top contender.
Other than a few lines clearly written by Tropper—I’m almost certain one of them was straight out of one of his books—the show is nothing like his novels, which pretty consistently deal with a 20-something writer from New York who’s vaguely Jewish and has daddy issues. In fact, it’s about as far from that theme as you can get.
Banshee: Small Town. Big Secrets. They could have come up with a more clever tagline, to be sure, but the first episode will more than make up for the mediocre tagline. In short, an ex-con makes himself a sheriff, reunites with his ex-lover, finds out he might be a father of an exceptionally rebellious teenage girl, kills more than one person, and has sex with the first woman he sees, all in his first day out of prison, and with the help of a (mega) flamboyant criminal hairdresser and his new ex-con ex-fighter bartender buddy. Throw in a few Amish people, a couple Native Americans, and a potential new love interest in the form of a hot cop lady, with just enough Tropper-brand one-liners to keep me happy, and more than one plot twist, and it’s pretty hard to find a more enthralling pilot episode anywhere.
Watch it. Now.
