Sporadic Scene: Banshee (Season 3×03) – Nola Longshadow vs Clay Burton

Banshee is something I became hopelessly addicted to, and the biggest reason for my addiction? Clay Burton. Truly. The man is freaking awesome (you can check out my gushing here). Season three also gave us one of the most epic fights I have seen in years. The second Nola’s tomahawk flew into the scene and pinned Burton, you knew that there would be hell to pay. As much as I liked her, she had absolutely none of my loyalty in the deadly match when it came right down to it. The fight was perfectly choreographed, looked amazing and had thrills laced throughout it (scalpel tray in the boot of the car, a roof being shredded, car badges becoming weapons). It was exhilarating from start to finish. Brutal, bloody, beautiful.

Ugh, I cannot seem to find a clip that plays when embedded in my site, but if you click it will take you to YouTube itself so you can go check out the epic!

PS: Contains spoilers if you haven’t seen this far in Banshee yet!

If you have a scene that you would like featured, drop me a mail at sporadiczoe@hotmail.com with a link to the scene and an explanation as to why.

Character Tribute: Clay Burton

So recently I watched Banshee at the recommendation of my brother and a very good friend. I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed the show, but the one thing that kept me hooked no matter what was the possibility of seeing Matthew Rauch’s character Clay Burton. I knew that he needed a Character Tribute, and I spent an indecent amount of time pulling this together. Oh my goodness! What a forbidding guy, but he is the best! He has amazing screen presence, he’s not someone anyone should cross, has such a weird personality and is shrouded in immense amounts of secrecy. I want to know more about he mysterious Burton! I also feel that Matthew Rauch is the best casting for this character, too. He really owns every second he is on screen, gets under your skin and makes Burton so much more real. Mesmerizing.

I have no idea why people are not more afraid of him. Even in a fight, he never loses his calm, but he will put you down, end of story. Non-negotiable. Also, the only man I would not mock or question wearing pink. It is just what it is.

Always the cleaner. Never complaining. Always diligent.

Kai Proctor’s protector and right hand man, Burton is always by his side. It seems he is incapable of feeling fear, and will walk into any situation at any time and own it.

Even his freak out sessions have this deliberate and weirdly contained, dignified and chilling element to them.

As if he wasn’t creepy enough, just wait for the slaughter of Jason Hood. Right in the middle of banging Rebecca, no less! Not to mention the crazy weird clean up after the fact, his flashbacks, how calm he is about absolutely everything all the time, as well as the whole ritual he had when going about restoring the motel room. Nice.

Burton is beyond cold, calculated and ruthless. He is efficient to boot, too. Look at him, not even flinching!

You know bloodcurdling Burton is making an appearance when the glasses go… those things tell you so much about where on the terrified-spectrum you should be.

His loyalty to Kai Proctor is simply astounding. No matter what happens, Burton is there. Violently, at the best of times.

There is absolutely nothing that will stop him when he gets peeved. He is not really one to express his discontent with facial expressions and words, and this epic fight with Nola Longshadow was about as animated as we have ever seen him, yet he remained in control for the most part. He’s like a pitbull. Once he’s got his teeth in you, it isn’t over until one of you is dead.

The way he starts paying close attention to those who pose a threat to Kai Proctor as well as Burton’s standing with him, such as Rebecca. Since she started staying there and becoming involved with Kai’s business, Burton has made Rebecca his business.

Again with the efficiency. Even after all that has happened, Burton will do what he can to care for himself. He is very independent. It seems he does not like the feeling of vulnerability or threats, either, and no matter his state will assert his dominance.

And lastly, I think this picture that was snapped somewhere on set is just awesome:

Banshee: Season 2 (2014)

*CONTAINS SPOILERS*

What I liked:

• Hood and Siobhan finally getting their thing on. Seriously, I am so freaking over anything that is Carrie related it is insane, so to have him moving on in life is really good.
• Watching Gordon’s collapse after Carrie left. That poor dude so didn’t deserve what he got.
• Matthew Rauch as Clay Burton. I know that I have mentioned him before, and I can see myself mentioning him again time and time again, but this is just something amazing. I don’t think I will ever get over it. I absolutely adore the man, and I would. He is all messed up and creepy and gives me chills. As if this wasn’t bad enough, there was the episode, Armies of One, and he just capped his terrifying iceberg. That whole scene was a thing of pure beauty – the kill, the clean up, the music, the flashbacks…
• The intro. I still really like it, and the hints it gives and the story it tells. It is nice and different and I like that.
• The Banshee Sheriff’s Department. I think the characters are great and were wonderfully cast there, and I think it is really entertaining to watch the way they are totally being changed by Hood.
• Watching Burton observing Rebecca, having no faith.
• Job got so much time in this one, and we got more of a look at him and it was just awesome. Plus there was quite a bit of time dedicated to how unsuspectingly badass he can be.
• Nola Longshadow. I really wish she got more screen time, because she really is quite the complex character with all the potential in the world to be super interesting, and they are working well with that so far.
• Methodic Doubt’s score. It works well with the show and is suiting.

What I didn’t like: 

• Again, so much sex all over the show. It does nothing to contribute to the plot or anything like that, it is just there.
• There are still so many fault and inconsistencies laced throughout the show, which is annoying. It is the one thing that really keeps throwing me back off of this.
• Nothing is ever getting done about Hood. Nobody seems to bust him, he is never getting reprimanded, nothing.
• Carrie. Still, nothing changes here. It was great to see less of her, and when we did it was strategically used, which was better. But still, every time she opens her mouth I want to throw something at her for how selfish and silly she is. Ugh.
• Rebecca’s uneven character growth. Sometimes she’s crying, sometimes she misses home, sometimes she thinks she’s badass. It could have just been done so much better and believably, instead it just irritates you quite a bit.
• The ridiculous amounts of cross-cutting that went on here. Don’t abuse that! Do it from time to time. It is like every other damn scene that carried some weight was laced with another one. I was so over it by the end of that. Not cool.

Rating:
I must say that I definitely thought that this was an improvement over the last season, though there are still plenty flaws within it to deal with. For once, when they brought in FBI Special Agent Jim Racine, I thought that someone was seriously going to turn up the heat. Obviously that didn’t happen, which was a disappointment. But oh well. I suppose we will just have to see what happens thereafter. Naturally, another someone would have to crop up to jeopardize Hood’s identity. This time it was Jason Hood, the real Lucas Hood’s son. It was just weird that Jason was not bothered whatsoever about his father being dead, and got into some shady business with Hood, who just wanted the kid gone. Instead, of course, there was some more extreme crazy drama for us to deal with.  Clay Burton thrilled me endlessly, as always. We get to see quite a bit more of him in this season, with some extreme flashbacks that are quite horrific. The more you see of Clay Burton, the scarier the guy becomes. Job and Sugar still entertain me with their sniping at one another the whole time. More subplots started making their appearance here, and I liked that. The show is finally broadening from the Hood/Carrie story and moving on to other things, which means less irritation and more interesting aspects being explored. Hood is definitely quite different since the last altercation with Rabbit, but he is still adamant that he will not leave town. The Neo-Nazi plot that came in concerning Emmett later was cool, and really got me pissy. Argh! I mean seriously now, people drive me insane. I felt so bad for Emmett, and I could totally understand why he did what he did, and all of that set a seriously hardcore chain of events into action. Rebecca and Kai are getting really close, and he is bringing her into the family business – something that I like and dislike. Things are moving way too quickly there, and can we mention that slightly-too-incestuous thing going on between them? The competition between Alex Longshadow and Kai Proctor is just awesome to watch, definitely a very entertaining part of the season. The rivalry is great, their conversations and fights as well as the mad things that they are doing at each other to get one another out of the way and in trouble and payback and all is heavy. Then there is the fact that it is so much better in this season to not see Lucas Hood so ridiculously hung up on Carrie… he is moving on, and it has finally come to pass that he is hooking up with Siobhan, the deputy that works for/with him. I have been waiting for this since season one. And good for Gordon for not just letting Carrie come home and carry on as she pleased, she is actually being held accountable for the crappy way she treated her family, and she still hasn’t told them everything. Each and every time some headway seems to be made, she goes and messes it up again royally, and offers exactly no explanation for it. Goodness, I have no idea why Carries are such central characters to shows and do nothing but irritate the hell out of me. The effects were alright here, but I really think the Carrie and Rabbit story arcs got a little bit convoluted towards the end, and I just wanted to reach through the screen and slap Gordon. I know he is having a really bad time, but he has a family that he needs to care for. I loved finally seeing what went down with Rabbit/Carrie/Lucas, but I must admit that I was extremely underwhelmed after the intense build up that it received. Either way, there were worse ways that it could have gone. It was just a really big deal for nothing. Flaws and all, it seems that the longer you watch Banshee, the better and more entertaining it becomes.