Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Stars on screen
Wild, wild crime: TNT’s gripping crime drama is back. “Animal Kingdom,” the series based on the critically acclaimed and much-decorated 2010 Australian film of the same name, returns for its sophomore season Tuesday, May 30.
Emmy-winning actress Ellen Barkin (“The New Normal”) returns to her headlining role as Janine “Smurf” Cody, the matriarch of a criminally inclined family living in a beautiful Southern California beach town.
The first season kicked off with Smurf’s daughter overdosing on drugs, leading Smurf’s 17-year-old grandson, Joshua “J” Cody (Finn Cole, “Peaky Blinders”), to come live with her and her adult sons.
And what a gang of thieving, plotting and murdering scumbags those Cody boys are. Shawn Hatosy (“Southland”), Ben Robson (“Vikings”) and Jake Weary (“Pretty Little Liars”) star as J’s uncles, while Scott Speedman (“Felicity”) stars as Smurf’s adopted son, Baz.
By the end of the first season, the family members were starting to turn on themselves, and the police were getting close to uncovering their criminal scheming. Thanks to some quick thinking by J, though, the cops were sent off empty-handed, and Smurf welcomed the teenager as a full-fledged member of the Cody clan.
The new season’s trailers show a family that’s pulling off bigger heists than ever before, but also one that’s increasingly turning on itself, with Smurf’s boys becoming more and more jaded about their mother’s control over their lives. Meanwhile, it doesn’t become any clearer just how on-board J is with his grandmother and uncles’ criminal schemes.
“Animal Kingdom” returns Tuesday, May 30, on TNT.
Can’t stop the (country) music:
Breathe easy, “Nashville” fans: after flirting with cancellation once before, the country music drama isn’t going anywhere for a while, despite its sudden disappearance from TV screens a few weeks ago.
After laying low since its mid-season closer, which aired March 9, “Nashville’s” fifth season finally explodes back onto CMT Thursday, June 1, albeit without one of its stars.
Connie Britton (“Friday Night Lights”), who has headlined the cast since the very beginning, has hung up her cowboy hat and ridden off into the sunset. She played country music superstar Rayna Jaymes, earning a Golden Globe nomination for her performance, but now she follows the lead of Aubrey Peeples (“Necessary Roughness”) and Will Chase (“Smash”), two actors who didn’t make the transition to “Nashville’s” fifth season.
The road to season 5 was a tumultuous one. Despite its devoted fan base, ABC cancelled the series after the fourth season in May 2016, throwing the show’s future into doubt. Luckily for fans, only a month later, CMT announced that it had picked up the show and that all cast members, with the exception of Peeples and Chase, were committed to returning.
Despite it already having been cancelled once, and in spite of the fact that one of its stars has left, there’s no need for fans to worry about “Nashville” being cancelled again any time soon.The back half of season 5 isn’t even on the air yet, but a sixth season has already been greenlit by CMT.
The music may have stopped for Britton’s Rayna Jaymes, but the show must go on. “Nashville” returns Thursday, June 1, on CMT.