BANSHEE

Finished this teleplay by Jonathan Tropper and David Schickler.  It's Alan Ball's new series on Cinemax.  Series is about an ex-con newly released from prison.  He ends up in Banshee, Pennslyvania where he finds himself in a pub drinking with the bartender and a stranger who reveals that he's the new Sheriff of Banshee and starts work on monday.

In come two thugs and soon everyone is drawing guns.  It jumps off in a hurry and the Sheriff is shot dead.  Our ex-con though is a man of many moves and is able to kill the two thugs. 

Our lead then goes to lookup an old flame who has moved on to another life.  She's changed her name and is now married to the District Attorney and has two kids.  We learn that our lead and this flame once stole ten million dollars worth of diamonds.  The lead has come for them.  The flame tells him that she got rolled by some Serbians and doesn't have any cash.  We also learn that there's an old gangster named Rabbit still looking for them.

With nowhere to go and wanting to stay close to his flame, our ex-con takes on the identity of the dead Sheriff and goes about playing cop.

Along the way, we meet Kai Proctor, Banshee's crimelord.  Kai's father is Amish.  Kai has turned away from that lifestyle and now lives in wealth.

During a party welcoming the new Sheriff, a thug comes for Proctor, shooting up the place.  Our ex-con (who now goes by the dead Sheriff's name of Lucas Hood) shoots the thug dead.

The pilot ends with Rabbit telling his grisly looking underling that he wants our couple found.

And with that, this series gets off to a kick-ass start.  This is how you get your series rolling.  You need a bang and this pilot provides an explosive one.

The characters are cool.  The action is there.  The motivations are set up quickly.  We're in right off the bat.  Alan Ball's got another hit on his hands.