What I’m Watching: Banshee (Season Premiere)

Banshee: Season 4, Episode 1 “Something Out of the Bible” (B)

Maybe I’m just ungrateful, but I was distracted this entire episode by the fact that, for some unexplained reason, this is the final season of this show, which will come to an end after just eight episodes. I suppose that four seasons is nothing to scoff at given how so many other series end much more quickly, but I don’t know why this one had to go off the air so soon. The flashback format of this hour just kept making me think that everything that played out in the two years before season three and this one could have been covered in a season all its own. Putting aside regrets, this premiere was good but not great, only because so much has changed and it’s hard to picture things getting back to normal, whatever that means on this show. Brock has come a long way from being told to shut up and getting slapped by Lucas, finding a way to navigate the political waters in a way that Lucas never could. So many people are gone, with two law enforcement portraits memorializing those losses, and both Gordon and Job completely out of the picture, leaving plenty of mourners in their wake. And then there’s Rebecca, who always caused so much trouble while she was alive, who seems like she is going to be a big part of this season as the events leading to her untimely and bloody demise unfold. As always, I’m pleased to have this dark yet alluring show back, and I’ll gladly take the seven episodes that are left.