DVD/TV Series Review: Animal Kingdom Season 4

 

The 13-episode fourth season of Animal Kingdom aired during the summer of 2019. It does a lot to both tie up loose ends and advance the story forward. Some of the storylines are closed out in ways that you may not expect, and others are set up going into the final two seasons of the show. The fourth season is all about the continued friction between the characters, especially after Baz is killed. Pope is still the only one who knows that Smurf had Baz killed, and Mia has so far managed to keep J in the dark about the fact that she pulled the trigger. Mia and J definitely start to distrust each other more as the season goes on, and their relationship is anything but solid. There is also a power struggle between Pope and J for who will take over when Smurf is out of the picture. For her part, Smurf continues to stir up trouble between everyone. Things are also complicated by Julia's old friend (and Pope's old flame of sorts) played by Emily Deschanel (best known for her role on Bones, which is a 180-degree difference from this role) who is freshly out of prison and manages to weasel into the Cody's affairs. The show also manages to provide more of Smurf's backstory through the use of flashbacks to the 1970s, with young Smurf being played by Lelia George, who does a great job making the character her own yet channeling Barkin's version of the character so well at times you can totally buy that they are the same person. It gives glimpses into how Smurf ended up the way she did, yet still leaves a lot open to be told of Smurf's life.

The DVD set is a three-disc set. It is a very basic MOD release. It does have English captions, but there are no extras to speak of. So, the only reason to get it is to add to your existing collection if you purchased the first two seasons on Blu-Ray and the third season on DVD. Otherwise, you are not missing anything just streaming it.

Overall, the season is very good. There is still a lot of violence, sex, and drug use depicted on the show, and it pushed the bounds of what can be shown on basic cable. But, that has been the case since season one, so it is nothing new for the show. The acting and writing are very good, and I think the show benefits from having shorter seasons as it is able to tell a concise story without having to drag things out to fill in 22 or 23 episodes. If you have been a fan of the series up to this point, you will probably like this season as well. On the other hand, if you did not like the prior seasons all that much, this one is probably not going to make you change your mind about the show.

DVD/TV Series Review: Animal Kingdom Season 3

 

The 13-episode third season of Animal Kingdom aired during the spring and summer of 2018. It picks up basically immediately after Baz is shot and the cliffhanger is resolved, then does a bit of a jump forward in time after the first episode. Most of the season revolves around Smurf's time in jail and her trying to control the boys and scheme her way out of jail, and the boys trying to become independent of her. Finn Cole does a great job with the character of J, as he begins to move to get out from under Smurf's thumb while taking on responsibilities for her. There are some additions to the cast, notably the addition of Dennis Leary as Derain's wayward father and his burnout girlfriend played by Diechan Lachman, and new love interest/partner in crime for J, played by Sohvi Rodriguez. Molly Gordon's role is reduced throughout the season as the character of Nikki is basically written out as a regular character. Another great storyline is Pope continuing to care for Lena since he feels guilty for killing Cath in season one. Shawn Halosy knocks it out of the part with his acting this season and even directs an episode. And, of course, there are the crazy intricate heists that the crew manages to pull off.

The DVD set is a three-disc set. They are fairly poorly done MOD discs. I did not have a problem playing them on my 4k blu-ray player, but it looks like other people are having issues playing them, so you definitely want to make sure your firmware is up to date. For extras, there are deleted scenes for most of the episodes. And, not just a couple of seconds worth of deleted scenes, but probably just short of an hour's worth, which is definitely more than you get with most MOD DVD sets. And, there are English captions. It is definitely disappointing that the show was not released on MOD Blu-ray, but not all that surprising given that sales for tv-series on Blu-ray are not all that great anyway, so only the most popular shows get even a MOD release.

Overall, if you liked the first couple of seasons you will probably like this one. There is still a lot of violence, swearing, and sex, about as much of each as they can get away with on basic cable. So, if you did not like that from the prior seasons, this one is not going to change your mind.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Animal Kingdom Season 2

 

The 13-episode second season of Animal Kingdom aired during the summer of 2017. The season has a couple of big themes. First, there is a Baz versus Smurf for control of the family storyline, with Smurf grooming J. as a replacement for Baz. The second involves Pope working through his guilt for killing Cath by taking care of Lena. Nikki is more of a fixture this season, basically shaking up with Craig while still maintaining feelings for J, which complicates things toward the end of the season. Smurf continues to be awful to pretty much everyone in the guise of motherly love (again, sometimes creepily so), and of course, there are the well-orchestrated robberies. The big score this season is robbing a mega-church after a charity donation day. I will not go into too much detail to avoid spoiling the season for those who have not seen it, but overall, there is a lot of good character development that happens throughout the season. Smurf's past continues to present a problem, and there is a major cliffhanger that ends the season. The show does a very good job of balancing the fact that almost every character in the show is a horrible human being while trying to show a human side to at least some of them and even manages to make some of the characters sympathetic.

The Blu-Ray set is a four-disc set, with the episodes evenly spread across the four discs. It is basically a MOD plus set, with a handful of extras (mostly deleted scenes, then a featurette on the character of Pope on the last disc). There are English captions, and the discs allow you to pick up where you left off, even when your player powers down. So you can stop in the middle of an episode and pick back up automatically without searching for where you stopped, which is always nice when bingeing a TV series.

Overall, the show is well-written and acted. It definitely pushes the bounds of what can be shown on basic cable with swearing, nudity, and drug use. It is definitely not a family-friendly show. But, if you enjoyed the first season, you will likely enjoy this one, with the caveat that the character of Baz is written to be a lot more unlikable this season. It is definitely a unique drama that is less cookie-cutter than some of the shows that are out there. It is definitely worth checking out.

DVD/TV Series Review: Animal Kingdom: Season 6

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from the prior seasons, but no major giveaways from season six+++

The sixth season of Animal Kingdom aired during the summer of 2022, and consisted of 13 episodes. This season is all about reveals. It picks up sometime down the line from the discovery of Catherine's body by the police at the end of Season 5. The cops in Oceanside officially consider it a cold case, assuming either Baz or Smurf killed her, and with both of them being dead, were not looking too heavily into the case. That is until a new cop takes up the case and starts looking at Pope. 

The show jumps back and forth between the 1990s, where young Smurf, played by Lelia George, is completely fucking up the teenaged versions of Pope (played by Kevin Csolak, who mirrors Shawn Hatsoy's performance perfectly), Baz (played by Darren Mann), and Julia (played by Jasper Polish), and the present in which J is acting as the de-facto leader of the family. 

In the past, we see the events that led J to hate Smurf and the entire family, and in the present, it is revealed exactly how much he hates them. We also see the events that led to Pope being arrested for bank robbery, which was the crime he had just been released for in the show's first season. I won't say too much about how things play out, but the show does provide some closure, but some things are not tied up in nice bows. For example, we never get a concrete answer as to whether Smurf actually had an incestual relationship with any of the kids, but it is strongly hinted that she did at least with Pope. Of course, that is not something that they ever could have filmed in the flashbacks since the kids were supposed to be in their teens, but Lelia George played Smurf just as creepy and skeevy as Ellen Barkin did.

For those who get the DVD, it is mostly a MOD set with the 13 episodes spread across three discs. It does have one bonus feature, which is an 8-minute-long series retrospective that includes interviews with members of the cast and crew and has some behind-the-scenes footage from the final season. 

Overall, the season is good. I think the material in the flashbacks is a bit better than the material in the present day, but Shawn Hatsoy (who also directs another episode this season) carries every scene he is in. Lelia George really nails young Smurf and does a great job portraying an absolutely horrible character that ruined all of her kids' lives.  I cannot say that everyone will love how the series ends, but if you have been a fan of the show up to this point, it is definitely worth seeing how it plays out. 

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Animal Kingdom: Season 1

 

Animal Kingdom is a show that was adapted from an Australian movie of the same name about a crime family led by Janine "Smurf" Cody, played by Ellen Barkin. She has been running scams and thriving since the 1970s and enlists her adoptive son Baz, played by Scott Speedman, and her biological sons Deran, played by Jake Weary, Craig, played by Ben Robson, and Andrew, who is called "Pope", played by Shawn Hatsoy, to commit elaborate break-ins, steal whatever loot is available, and then divides up the bounty. Life for the Codys gets complicated when Smurf's estranged daughter dies of a drug overdose and the family has to take in Smurf's grandson Joshua, who is called "J", played by Finn Cole.

While the series does have a lot of action in it, at its core, and when it is at its best, it is really about a deeply dysfunctional family, apart from all the crime. It deals with issues like repressed homosexuality, transactional love, and manipulation. It even gives off some very creepy incest vibes between Smurf and her kids. The show definitely pushes the bounds of what can be shown on basic cable, with as much sex, nudity, and swearing as they can get away with. And, there is a student-teacher sexual relationship storyline that plays a big role especially later in the season. 

For those who get the Blu-Ray set, the ten episodes are spread across three discs. The A/V transfer is good, but not great, with a better audio transfer than video transfer. But, unless you are a big-time A/V wonk, it will probably not bother you. The extras include deleted scenes for most episodes, that range in length from about a minute to over thirteen minutes, then there are five short featurettes (all about two minutes long or less), and then a fourteen-minute making-of documentary. You definitely want to watch all the extras after watching the episodes, especially if you care about spoilers because the making-of-documentary does spoil some of the plotlines. 

Overall, the series is very good. It is well-written and very well-acted, with the standouts being Barkin and Hatsoy. Pope is not only very violent, as are all of the Codys but also mentally ill, and Hatsoy plays the character perfectly. It is most definitely not a family-friendly show, and there are some people who will be offended by some of the storylines. But, if you like crime dramas with a lot of action and are not bothered by violence, sex, and the like, it is definitely worth checking out.