Animal Kingdom

I absolutely loved Animal Kingdom as it has quickly become one of my all-time favorite shows! It's not only one of the best shows currently on tv but it's also just flat out one of the best shows ever created! I'm just so impressed with how each season continues to be just as good as the others! If you haven't seen this incredible show yet and are looking for a show that will keep you on the edge of your seat every episode then stop what you're doing right now, do yourself a favor and go watch it...I promise you that you won't be disappointed! If you don't believe me all you have to do is look at the ratings or read through the reviews to see how loved this show really is.

It's hard to put into words just how much I love Animal Kingdom. It's such an incredibly underrated show. It's about J Cody (who's mother died of a heroin overdose) and has to move to Southern California to live with his Uncles who are 3 troubled brothers and their crazy mother who make a living doing armed robbery's and other criminal activities. Jay doesn't really like them because they never talked to or helped his mom (their sister) and he blames the family of her overdose. He gains their respect over time and become one of the leaders of the family. This show will have your heart pounding from all the excitement throughout the entire series. Once you start watching you're going to want to binge it as fast as you can.

This show starts out as a trashy, glossy, action-packed and very, very watchable entertainment. Successful bank heists are celebrated with a sky-dive, for no other reason than to have a very cool skydiving sequence set to pumping music.

The genius of this show is that it very, very gradually starts to deepen, uncovering layers to the main characters and slowly revealing their depths and complexities. It does this so gradually that you don't even realise it until realise you're watching some of the most beautifully-drawn characters on TV for a long time.

It then becomes as much a character- study, and a character-driven drama - as it is an action-packed heist show. The issues, plotlines and brilliant twists and turns are consistently unpredictable and original.

Some of the heists stretch credulity - as action sequences often do, but the whole thing is so skillfully-woven that it doesn't matter - you happily buy into the lack of believability in the heist/action sequences, because they're so well integrated into the brilliant character studies and first-class storytelling.

The casting is perfect - everyone is bringing their A-game but Shawn Hatosy is astonishing and Ellen Barkin is hitting a career best.

It's a Breaking Bad-level achievement, possibly exceeding it at times. One that flew under the radar.

I remember watching Fin Cole since his days on Peaky Blinders and while he physically looks the same, he certainly shows his skills throughout this show. It's hard to work out what he actually feels about his family but the hatred at times shines through, especially knowing they lived a mile away and didn't do anything to save his Mum. Smurf cast her out of the family and J has never forgotten that. As the show moves through the seasons and you become more involved in the show and characters, I found myself liking Pope more and more. At first he seemed really creepy, especially standing over J's girlfriend in the bedroom but the more you learn about Pope, the more you feel for him.

I REALLY like this show :)

I am in only mid season 3 so far, but having seen this show thus far I felt it necessary to leave a review, especially after seeing the many inexplicable 10 ratings which mention Point Break and High Octane.

Animal Kingdom may be many things, but fast paces and high octane it is not. No, this is much more a rather slow burner of a drama with only tidbits of crime and action thrown in almost as if an afterthought. The show doesn't build around the crimes and jobs the Cody's commit and so far every single one of them has been pretty underwhelming. The viewer is show the highlights of the job, and there is very little victory or celebration to be felt even after the most successful heists because too much happens off screen. The action here is best filed under how to make robbery boring. The heists themselves are pretty ingenious, but the execution is just rather meh look we got more money. Give me the money. No we have to clean it first. Gets a little old.

Where Animal Kingdom gets it right, like other great crime-dramas of the past is that there are no heroes. Every character is shown, the good, bad, the ugly, warts and all. Character development and back story are pretty limited leaving the viewer at a loss most of the time. Even the family tree isn't fully painted to the point that there is no clear vision of who fits where or why. Even the relation between characters is not well defined. In a way, it adds more intrigue, but it can also make it hard to follow at first. The only real thing that can be said is that the Cody family are mostly made up of some pretty horrible people, all very deserving of whatever bad karma may be thrown at them next. It is difficult at times to find even a single person to root for here.

Still the show does have many positives. It is filmed in beautiful Oceanside, California and there are great scenes of the Strand, the Oceanside Pier and other locations throughout the city. As former resident, I loved how the characters talk about how real estate is ruining the beachfront because that is a war that has been raging since the mid 1980s. Some great surfing and other water sport scenes are peppered in as well, and the characters love traveling on a whim to Baja, either winding up in TJ or a bit further down south with mixed results.

At this point there have been some pretty good episodes, but also a lot of dull, slow episodes also. There is a hope that the show will reveal a little more each time, that I think is the main reason to keep watching here. Every time the Cody's do something dirty and you think you've seen their worst, you need to wait as they'll even do something more despicable later on. The reason to keep watching is the hope that this strange ride has a destination or a point somewhere.

As many times as I've been tempted to shut it off, I plan to soldier on through season 4 and hopefully 5 with the rest of you out there. Though often unlikable there is something about these Cody's that is down right addictive. If I had to compare this to anything it would not be anywhere close to Point Break. No, this has much more in common with Shameless.