I was quite excited when i stumbled upon this series on Netflix as it looked interesting. It follows the Cody family that commits crimes while also living a "hardcore" lifestyle of extreme sports and tons of boozing and sexy-time with really attractive ladies. As great as that sounds, the show is actually pretty dumb.

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Take a bunch of dudes who I presume are thought of as attractive and combine them with a very strangely, overly affectionate mother who acts as a matriarch of sorts and have them acquire tons of wealth through nefarious means and you basically have the entire premise of the show right there. The Cody's have opulence and somehow manage to maintain it although it is never really explained (in the 6 or so episodes I watched) about how there are never any questions about how they have all this stuff with no one apparently having a job. If you don't have a legal income but are continually buying stuff, the government is going to start asking questions. Whatever, it's fiction; let's move past that.

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The family also constantly has wild parties at their house with tons of guests, which doesn't really seem very consistent with a crime syndicate that is trying to remain under the radar of the authorities. The grandmother matriarch participates in the debauchery and I gotta say, it is all quite strange.

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The story mostly focuses on "Josh" who joins the family after his mother overdoses on heroin. At this point in his life he actually has no idea that the Cody family was involved in crime and learns about all of the things they are up to once he is taken in by them. I suppose it is interesting at times.

Basically, I think this film was trying to capitalize on the success of Sons of Anarchy and perhaps attempting to appeal to a younger audience despite the fact that there is a lot of drug use and occasional nudity in this one... Oh who am I kidding, Sons of Anarchy had tons of that too.

I suppose this series is alright, but the trailer is a lot more interesting than the show actually is. The show is basically a bit of action followed by a ton of arguing amongst the various family members with a little bit of creepy grandma mixed in for good measure. The show is also incredibly predictable and unrealistic as far as the sort of crimes that the group gets away with time and time again. Perhaps many would find this entertaining, but for me it kind of falls flat.

There are a few interesting characters but for the most part I think this series will get relegated to the back of the pack for now.

On a scale of "Urgh!" to "Wowsers!" I award Animal Kingdom the score of.....

"Skipsies!