Banshee (Season Three)

This review contains spoilers for Banshee season one and two. There are mild spoilers for season three.

In my review of the first season of Banshee, I talked about how its gung-ho violence and titillation were satisfying in a shallow way, but there was undoubtedly heart and (some) brains beneath it all. With season two, I felt they really amped up the emotional stakes without compromising the show’s visceral nature; delivering a more thoroughly engaging season of TV. With season three, the show’s status as a cult classic became crystal clear, with a breathless, twisting, wrenching collection of ten episodes that showcased all its best elements, with scant few complaints.

Katana Zero (2019, Switch)

Having spent the majority of my life playing video games, I have skipped an untold number of time-wasting conversations. You know the drill; the text box slowly fills up with meaningless NPC waffle, warning you of impending doom or making an unfunny quip. You mash ‘A’ to make the box fill quicker, then again to skip to the next line. And repeat.

Sure, sometimes you want to hear it. But other times when a game makes no effort to grab you with its story in the early goings; the ‘skip’ button gets a workout.

Typically, brushing off what a character has to say doesn’t manifest itself on your character or in the game world (with some exceptions). You’re simply speeding the conversation up.

Katana Zero changes that. And while there’s lots of exciting things to talk about in this twitch-y, psychedelic, action-platformer; I’m mainly fascinated by this.

Banshee (Season Two)

This review contains mild spoilers for Banshee season one.

The first season of Banshee had a rough diamond of a redemption story buried under copious amounts of cool-guy swaggering. For the sophomore effort, the balance shifts more in favour of inner conflict of Lucas Hood, while still finding a way to amp up the action. And the results are tremendous.