Back in 2016, TNT released Animal Kingdom, giving its source material— the Australian movie of the same name—a sexy, sun-soaked update.
Right off the bat, episode 1 thrusts us into the Cody family’s crime-embroiled world. J (Finn Cole) becomes our POV after his mother’s death forces him into the arms of his estranged grandmother and uncles. It doesn’t take long to flesh out the pecking order.
Ellen Barkin’s Smurf sits at the top with calculating plans and too-long kisses with her sons, who do her bidding out of crippling fear and twisted devotion. And what follows are hot grandmas, juicy mind games, and adrenaline-fueled action sequences under the hot California sun. For a while, it’s the best crime drama on TV–and then Season 4 happens.
But when Animal Kingdom decided to kill off Smurf, the show loses its whole appeal. And yeah, I’m still rip-roaring mad about it.
***Spoilers ahead for Season 4 of Animal Kingdom and beyond***
Smurf goes out with a bang–literally.
J shoots her in the head. Not because he had to, but because she begged for it after a cancer diagnosis leaves her desperate to die before anybody dares to perceive her as weak. As a cold, cunning matriarch with just the right amount of sociopathy to scare off the best of them, it seemed only an act of God could cut her down. And Season 4 bounces between present-day Smurf and her younger self, providing a poetic juxtaposition of a woman nearing the end of her life and a woman beginning it.
On its own, it makes for solid TV. With context, it becomes a disappointing turn for Animal Kingdom’s most important character.
Animal Kingdom Has a Poor Excuse for Killing Off Smurf
As executive producer John Wells told Entertainment Weekly back in 2022, “We were feeling that we were repeating a little bit the Smurf stories. We had told the Smurf stories in the present that we wanted to tell but what we were really interested in is how did she get to be Smurf?” Thus, goodbye, Ellen Barkin. Hello, Leila George, the actor tasked with playing “Young Smurf” from Season 4 onward.
Wells’ statement about repeating and exhausting present-day Smurf seems hypocritical. After all, how many times did we watch Craig (Ben Robson) struggle with addiction? Or Deran (Jake Weary) toss up his hands and try to part ways with his family?
In contrast, Smurf’s manipulations and fractured relationships with her sons and grandson pushed Animal Kingdom forward. Almost every plot point—from Baz’s death to Deran getting his bar—traces back to Smurf. You cannot tell me there were no more stories left to tell. What about the big J and Smurf stand-off teased from Animal Kingdom’s early seasons?
And no, the mercy kill doesn’t count. Really, Smurf got exactly what she wanted then, too. Letting her live would have been more of a punishment.
Losing Ellen Barkin Feels A Lot Like Agesim
Losing Smurf isn’t what Animal Kingdom billed itself as.
As executive producer Jonathan Lisco said, the show’s “DNA” is its “provocative, powerful and perverse matriarch who has this emotionally incestuous hold over her boys…” And while we still get that with Leila George’s version of the character, it isn’t the same. Few women over 60 get leading roles in TV series. Even fewer get to play gritty, fleshed-out Victor Corleone-esque characters. Barkin’s write-out isn’t just a personal loss; it’s a loss for feminism.
Despite Wells saying Barkin “understood and thought it was a really good story,” the actor suggested otherwise. Tweets from Barkin hinted at dissatisfaction with her departure, including a tweet where she praised the women behind the Animal Kingdom cameras before stating that it “does not diminish the erasure of the onscreen 64 yr old female lead.”
Unsurprisingly, the nameless, faceless Internet trolls cited “bitterness” on Barkin’s end, a common stereotype placed on women, especially older women, when they dare to speak their minds. All those tempted to say, “But she is bitter,” right now should also know Barkin spoke about alleged ageism in Animal Kingdom back in 2018—long before her Season 4 exit.
A tweet reply by Barkin discussed a deleted explicit sex scene between her and actor Anne Ramsey. We only see the barest bones of it in Season 1. Barkin attributed it to the “no sex for older women” trope.
Smurf’s Write-Out Hurt Animal Kingdom’s Story
While it’s easy to get sucked into the “he said, she said” of it all, Barkin’s departure ultimately hurt the series. The remaining Codys deliver satisfying performances thanks to a competent cast (Yes, I’m talking about you, Shawn Hatosy!), but watching them mourn Smurf for two seasons feels just as repetitive as Wells claimed present-day Smurf’s stories were. More importantly, J’s gut-punching Season 6 betrayal lacks oomph without Smurf around to witness it.
Animal Kingdom uses flashbacks to hammer home the fact that the Cody boys are Smurf’s biggest victims. Yet, we’re expected to cheer and clap when J takes his revenge on them? Yes…weren’t we just all so ecstatic watching Pope slump down by the pool or Craig bleed out on the concrete?
J’s vengeance doesn’t just feel misplaced. It is misplaced. Season 6 should have been J versus Smurf in a battle of wits and treachery. Instead, it’s a pointless battle of victim versus victim. Sure, there could be commentary there on how victims can become like their abusers. However, it pales in comparison to what could have been if Barkin’s Smurf had stuck around.
Didn’t you crave to witness J take everything she ever loved and cared about? Wouldn’t you have loved to see her “kingdom” crash down around her? Didn’t you want to watch her cry–really cry for once in her life? Instead, we see Barkin replaced by an actor 38 years younger, only for teenage Julia to become the new object of the male gaze when George’s Smurf creeps toward her 40s.
So yeah, in some ways, I feel about as betrayed as Morgan Wilson probably felt when J drove her into the middle of the ocean like a maniac. That’s not to say I hate Animal Kingdom. I frequently recommend it. As far as I’m concerned, those early seasons are still some of the best crime drama TV out there. However, my recommendations always come with a caveat: the show goes downhill in Season 4—and Ellen Barkin’s departure has everything to do with it.
