TV Review: BANSHEE: Season 3, Episode 8: All the Wisdom I Got Left [Cinemax]

Cinemax‘s Banshee All the Wisdom I Got Left TV Show Review. Banshee: Season 3, Episode 8: All the Wisdom I Got Left started off nice, with a scenic airboat glide through the gator infested bayous of Louisiana, building anticipation for the Big Easy bad boy brawl of death we were promised last week. You may recall, rules challenged Sheriff Lucas Hood (Antony Starr) botched his last attempt to bring homicidal fugitive Chayton Littlestone (Geno Segers) to justice a couple of weeks ago. This time he’s brought Deputy Dog, er dogged Deputy Brock Lotus (Matt Servitto) along for moral support as the dynamic duo follow the hot tip that lead them way, way out of their Banshee jurisdiction.

Gotta love the little character bits in this show, though. First there’s the bayou connection with a whacked out larynx. Then a youngish Colonel Sanders wannabe running an underground fight club for Spartacus cast-offs. It’s in this underground club that Hood and Chayton go the first round of their death match. It looks like the set up for a great New Orleans clash of titans, but it is a lot of promise, with a disappointing middle act and very under-utilized locations.

Whatever tension was built by the bayou chase and the first fight though, gets diffused by scenes of Hood and Deputy Brock Lotus (Matt Servitto) kicking back on what must be the most un-interesting doorstep in all of New Orleans. Guess the production blew their budget for extras on the underground fight club because you half expect to see a tumble weed roll through all those quiet, empty streets.

The action does pick up again as Hood chases Chayton through a cemetery and then into a staging area for over-sized Mardi Gras props. Perhaps it’s a metaphor for the clash of swelled egos, but it might have just looked cool. Either way, it’s here that Hood finally corners Chayton and the end is clear. Two well placed, gloriously graphic shotgun blasts later and Chayton is literally swimming with the fishes. It seems a bit of a cheat for Hood to defeat such a great adversary with a shot gun, especially since the graphic nature of the death is so reminiscent of Gus Fring’ equally explosive, but much more clever and satisfying demise in BREAKING BAD.

The rest of the episode is mostly a set-up up for next week, as too-tightly wound mercenary commandant Stowe uses a bit of Sherlockian logic to piece together the profiles of the team that ripped off his ill-gotten booty. Might be a couple of hostage situations to look forward to. And maybe a showdown more worthy of Banshee.

Best line of the episode was Lotus’ telling Hood they , “…Gotta finish what we started, even if I have to kick your ass back to Banshee myself.”

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