DVD Review: Animal Kingdom Season 5

 

+++Warning: This contains spoilers from Season 4, but no major giveaways from Season 5+++

The 13-episode fifth season of Animal Kingdom aired during the summer and fall of 2021. It starts out a bit slow and then ramps up in the final few episodes. In the fifth season, the storylines jump back and forth between the present day and flashbacks to young Smurf (played by Leila George). While there were flashbacks in season four, they are even more prominent now that present-day Smurf was killed off at the end of the fourth season. The beginning of the fifth season sees all of the Cody boys struggling to get their footing in a world without Smurf calling the shots. Pope and Craig spin out of control in their own ways, and Deran and J engage in a power struggle for leadership. For about the first two-thirds of the season, it seems like the show is trying to figure out how to tell the story without Ellen Barkin, and then it really ramps up to a very good ending and sets up a major storyline (that loops back to the early seasons) that is definitely going to play a big role in the final season. 

The DVD set is a three-disc made-on-demand set. It is actually what I consider a MOD-plus set, as it includes captions and a few extras, including a featurette on Smurf's end and a couple of short behind-the-scenes features on the fifth season. Nothing extensive, but what is there is good. But if you are one of those who only get the physical discs when there are a lot of extras, you may just want to stream it. 

Overall, I liked the season, mostly because of the final few episodes. I do think the present-day storylines suffered without Barkin, but I thought Leila George did a great job as young Smurf. She does not try to copy Barkin outright, but sprinkles in elements from her performance that show how she has evolved into the person we see in the first four seasons of the show. And Shawn Hatosy deserves all the kudos for his portrayal of Pope and the range of performances he has to give to play that character. Ultimately, if you liked the prior seasons, this one will definitely feel different, but it is worth sticking with.