
It has its fans, sure, but as far as the amount of steady viewers is concerned, it's nowhere near playing in the big leagues – yet. It's amazing this show hasn't found a bigger audience. That's what happened to me with 'Banshee'.

#Banshee tv ratings how to#
How to catch up with it: All nine seasons are currently available on Netflix.Every once in a while a show comes along that catches you completely off guard you only want to check out the pilot because you've read a comment or two on IMDb comparing it to some other show you kinda like – and BOOM: you're blown away. If you like your comedy dark, dank and a little bit depressing, this is your show. This is a sitcom in which no subject is off-limits, from living on welfare to seducing a priest. Why should you be watching it? Imagine an American version of Peep Show only with four dysfunctional idiots and a sometimes naked Danny DeVito, and you’re half way to understanding It’s Always Sunny’s appeal. Why don’t you know about it? Good question – this is a US comedy that has run for nine seasons and 104 episodes but is barely known in the UK. What’s it about? Dennis, Dee, Charlie and Ron are a despicable bunch of human beings who run a grotty pub in South Philadelphia, and every week manage to turn a perfectly civilised situation into a chaotic calamity. Season 1 is currently available on DVD with Season 2 due out later this year.

How to catch up with it: The show airs on TCM in the UK with Season 3 due to arrive early next year. There’s a dark heart lurking under those wide Wyoming skies and Longmire in fact has more in common with Wallander, that other show about a gloom-ridden loner sleuth, than any US rival. Why should you be watching it? On paper Longmire seems like a throwback to a time when TV shows were gentler and the western was king but don’t let that “crime of the week” vibe fool you. Why don’t you know about it? Because most people only have time for one modern-day western and Justified is a bit flashier. Battlestar Galatica’s Katee Sackhoff steals the show as a big-city detective struggling to cope with small-town life while Lou Diamond Phillips plays Longmire’s closest friend, Henry Standing Bear.
#Banshee tv ratings series#
What’s it about? A detective drama spun off from a series of best-selling books, it follows the trials and tribulations of Walt Longmire (The Matrix’s Robert Taylor), a Wyoming county sheriff still coming to terms with his wife’s death. How to catch up with it: Season 1 is currently available on demand at Sky Go or Blinkbox, or you can buy it on DVD Season 2 returns to Sky Atlantic on 7 July at 10pm. Written by acclaimed literary novelists Jonathan Tropper and David Schickler, Banshee comes across like the result of an all-night speed-writing jag yet its gleeful indulgence in pulp’s conventions – a man with no name, a bad girl trying hard to be good, a sharp-suited villain whose slick words disguise his true evil – is what makes it such fun. Why should you be watching it? This is pulp television at its best, a fast, furious blast of over-the-top plotlines, scenery-chewing villains and tightly shot action scenes. Why don’t you know about it? Because these days there are so many US shows available to watch that it’s impossible to keep track of them all. But his new home isn’t exactly the quiet backwater it appears and his past threatens to catch up with him in the shape of an old flame.

What’s it about? An ex-con on the run assumes a new identity as sheriff in the Pennsylvanian town of Banshee. And what better time to unearth them than during these lean televisual times when the schedules are wall-to-wall World Cup and, as of tomorrow, Wimbledon? So, should you need a break from the footie/tennis here’s our guide to the truly underrated series that you should be catching up on in coming weeks:

Indeed, the cultural conversation on this side of the Atlantic is so dominated by a few shows – Game of Thrones, Line of Duty, Broadchurch, Breaking Bad – that it’s easy to miss some real gems. Laid-back criminals with secrets to hide, dodgy dames with back-stories darker than sin, and straight-shooting lawmen on a mission – it can only be Banshee, which returns to Sky Atlantic next month.īut if at this point you’re saying “what on earth’s Banshee?” then you’re not alone now on its second series, this neo-noir, from True Blood/Six Feet Under maestro Alan Ball, has barely created a ripple on these shores, despite being a pulp-tastic riot.
