A genuine sign that TNT
is leaving the safer world of procedurals such as Major Crimes and Rizzoli
Isles to enter the darker, more ambitious world that is generally explored
by fellow basic cable channels FX and AMC
was last summer's Animal Kingdom. An
Americanized version of a brilliant dark movie, it deals with the lives of the
Cody family, a group always in motion, skateboarding, surfing, screwing running
criminal jobs, and fighting, often each other.
When the second season premiered,
it became clear that a lot of the dark seated family problems against the
iron-handed matriarch Smurf (Ellen Barkin) was finally coming to a head. The
brothers finally broke away from her demands for complete control and loyalty,
in order to try and form a foundation of their own - with the possible
exception of grandson J (Finn Cole), who still feels loyalty to his grandmother
for reasons that are as hard to fathom as some of the others.
But even free of Smurf's grip, the
family remains heavily fractured. Baz (Scott Speedman) is trying to maintain a
level of leadership, while still reeling over the 'disappearance' of his wife
last season. He hasn't been able to accept his relationship with his daughter
since, and its only now he's beginning to consider that she might be dead. Pope
(Shawn Hatosy) has begun to take over a role as a surrogate father, buried in
the fact that he killed her mother under Smurf's orders. He has recently begun
going to a church, ostensibly to scout it for a robbery in the future, but
perhaps because there is a hidden guilt there. Craig (Ben Robson) seems to be trying to make
his own break from the family, using some of his money to buy a bar, the first
real sign towards legitimacy that any of the Cody's has tried so far in the
series. And Deran has continued to seem the most lost of the group, continuing
his affair with J's girlfriend, and buried so deep in drugs that he nearly
burnt the apartment he stayed in down.
As always, the hardest character to
fathom remains Smurf. After killing a man she thought had been her father in
the first season finale, she has been deteriorated as much as her sons,
drinking heavier and making more mistakes, particularly in a major job in the
season premiere. She is still trying to maintain her dictatorial hold over the
boys, changing security codes, and operating behind their back on more than one
occasion. But it's also clear that there is something far greater bothering
her. Someone she was very close to was sickening and passed away in the last
minutes of last night's episode, and she convinced J. to take her to the wake.
Something is clearly broken in her, but like the remaining Codys she will not
admit it, even to herself.
Equally hard to fathom is whether
or not Animal Kingdom is actually a
good series. There is a grim fascination to it, to be sure, and Barkin's work
is worthy of an Emmy nomination. But its not a great sign that we've now begun
the second season, and the series still has yet to find a genuine direction to it. If you're into the grim
and dark world of family crime, this may fill a void, and there's definitely
some good acting here. But there's definitely better stuff than this on TV, and
it doesn't prove that TNT is quite ready to
play on the same level.
My score: 3 stars.
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