For a show with such an expansive-sounding title, Animal Kingdom is remarkably insular. Someone with the last name “Cody” appears in every scene of “We Don’t Hurt People,” which works both for and against the show. Despite some forward momentum in the plot, Animal Kingdom‘s second episode was more concerned with delving into the psyches and idiosyncracies of the brothers Cody.
Like a lot of brothers, no matter how different, the Cody brothers share traits. This is, uh, less exciting from a cinematic perspective. The familiar beats are all here: Craig is slowly (rapidly) becoming addicted to Oxycontin, Barry is having an affair with a woman in Mexico, and Deran is gay and in the closet. There’s entertaining television to be wrung out of all these traits, but it’s not as consistent as it should be.
For example: of Deran and Craig, who’s supposed to be the unhinged one? These overt similarities become clear in their scenes together in “We Don’t Hurt People,” where they’ve been tasked by Smurf with dismantling the Range Rover they used to commit the jewelry store robbery. It’s nice seeing the nitty-gritty of grand larceny, but the two just come off as too similar in these scenes. I will say that Jake Weary does a nice job portraying Deran’s more menacing side: after J catches him getting a blowjob from a guy in a bathroom stall, Deran runs him off the road, and later, when J sees Deran and Craig torching the Rover, he pointedly tells J, “Now we’ll see how good you are at keeping secrets.”
Shawn Hatosy, as Pope, gets better material to work with. With the absence, so far, of an external antagonist, Pope looks like the best bet to fill that role. He’s not even trying to come off as anything less than menacing. As Smurf remarks, “He’s worse than ever,” alluding to the meds he no longer takes. Hatosy makes for an engaging presence whenever he’s on screen, no more so than in a scene where he tells J’s girlfriend Nicky how to get two grand and tie up her parents so she can go to Cabo. To say nothing of the crush he’s harboring on Barry’s wife, with whom he apparently had a fling a while back.
“We Don’t Hurt People” does a good job of slowly ratcheting up the discomfort factor as well. There are some serious incestuous undertones here. Smurf blatantly checks out J’s body while he undresses, and while dismantling the car, Deran remarks “I’d love to see Smurf on her knees right now.” He’s referring to work, but the implication is unmistakable. There’s some weird psychosexual resentment and dependence at play here, and while I’d be surprised if it ever crossed that line, it makes the family dynamic even twistier than it is.
“We Don’t Hurt People” wasn’t quite as propulsive as the pilot episode, but it helped to establish Animal Kingdom‘s blend of beauty and menace, which I appreciated. It looks like things are about to get very dark against the show’s sunny backdrop (very little of this show takes place at night), which will be exciting to watch.
A Few Thoughts
- I liked the scene of Barry and Smurf melting the watches at a foundry. There aren’t nearly enough foundries on TV nowadays. Back when I was a young lad, there was a foundry on TV every night. Who could forget classic episodes of Friends (“The One Where Phoebe Works At a Foundry”) or Scrubs (“My Foundry”)?
- Smurf mentioned a character named Kilmer – think that’s a reference to Heat? I choose to believe so.
- It bugged me a lot that J took the gun to school. Not only did it not go anywhere (it was literally a Chekhov’s Gun that didn’t go off), but it showed a stupid side to J that hadn’t been established before.
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