Before Homelander, The Boys' Antony Starr Played A Very Different Kind Of Killer

Antony Starr's performance as Homelander on the hit Prime Video series "The Boys" is absolutely incredible. He manages to give tiny moments of humanity that appear through the cracks in his villainous facade, making the character so much more than just a monster who's really into milk. Starr is excellent at portraying badasses with a penchant for murder, and while Homelander is pure villain, he once played a much more complicated kind of killer.

Before he was Homelander, Antony Starr starred as the morally ambiguous but unspeakably charming Lucas Hood on the Cinemax series "Banshee," which aired from 2013 through 2016. In "Banshee," Starr plays a world-class thief who took the fall during a botched job to protect his team, spending 15 years in prison. When he's released, he ends up in the fictional town of Banshee, Pennsylvania, where the Amish, an Indigenous crime organization, skinheads, and more are almost always at war. A quick chain of strange events leads him to pretend he's Lucas Hood, the new sheriff in town who happened to be killed before anyone got a chance to meet him. It's a blast watching Starr play a thief who's pretending to be a lawman, and it's an even better display of his talents than we get to see in "The Boys."

"Banshee" got its fair share of praise while it was ongoing, but unfortunately it aired during a glut of similar shows. "Banshee" is one-part "Justified" and one-part "Breaking Bad," but taken to pulpy extremes. It's much hornier than any of its contemporaries (no, for real, there is a lot of sex) and it never takes itself quite as seriously, either, making for a perfect trashy action-drama. Where "The Boys" is clearly concerned with making statements about the state of the world, "Banshee" is delicious escapism, although it still gets plenty dark and disturbing.

Hood may not have Homelander's superpowers, but that doesn't stop him from taking out the baddies like he's the antihero American answer to James Bond. He is almost effortlessly cool while getting both beaten and delivering beatdowns, events that happen pretty frequently. It's actually refreshing to see Starr play a character who can be hurt, as Homelander's near invulnerability definitely makes him harder to relate to or understand. Lucas Hood may be a total badass, but he's still very human, and it always feels possible that he might not make it out of his wild adventures alive.

Starr's performance as Homelander is extremely nuanced, told mostly through the way he clenches his jaw and his intense, expressive blue eyes, but he gets more to work with as Hood. There's still plenty of great facial emoting happening, however, because of Hood's complicated multiple identities. You see, his former business partner, lover, and mother of his child is living in Banshee under an assumed name, and he wants back into her life. Hood has to alternate between continuing his thieving, pretending to be the sheriff, and trying to look out for his daughter, which means he's constantly hiding something from someone. It's compelling stuff sandwiched between lots of sweaty nudity and wild action sequences, making for truly great television that deserves to be seen.

Of course, Starr is the lead in "Banshee," but he's not the only one doing a great job playing in this gritty sandbox. Ivana Miličević is excellent as Hood's ex-lover and ongoing partner-in-crime, Hoon Lee is hilarious as the crew's tech wiz, and Frankie Faison rounds out the crew as Hood's first real friend in Banshee, a bar owner and ex-con named Sugar. The townies and villains are all played to perfection, making "Banshee" feel deeper than its bloody, pulpy exterior would have you believe. The show is now streaming on Max, so anyone who missed this amazing series the first time around has a chance to appreciate both it and Antony Starr in all of their glory.