The dossier
A master thief who stole a badge and decided to keep it
The man who calls himself Lucas Hood arrives in Banshee, Pennsylvania immediately after a fifteen-year prison sentence. The incoming sheriff dies in a bar fight before reaching town. Hood takes his badge while hiding from a Ukrainian crime boss.
His approach to law enforcement is entirely criminal. He does not know police procedure and does not care to learn it. He stops crimes by applying overwhelming, immediate violence, which accidentally makes him the most effective sheriff the corrupt town has ever had.
Antony Starr plays Hood with a contained, coiled intensity that constantly suggests he is calculating the fastest way to break someone's jaw. He rarely raises his voice. The performance relies on stillness broken by sudden, brutal movement.
Banshee is built on the friction between Hood's criminal nature and his growing attachment to the town he is pretending to protect. The character provides the series its moral centre by being consistently honest about the fact that he is entirely corrupt.