ANIMAL KINGDOM....the american dream

Who hasn't ever wanted a good life? That's what it's been sold as the american dream. A land of opportunities that can be reached. But at what priced? Been able to accomplish a status quo has a high price but what are you willing to do to make it? And what if you lose yourself through the process? We all focus on the goal: making more money and get all needed for a perfect life, a big house, a nice car, trips, provide your family with what is best for them, but what if what you think is the best for them is actually not and can destroy them, and actually turns out it might be the best for your own interests. Trying to achieve your goals and the american dream, might be for the best of you and your family but is it? Stories of family dramas are what surround everyone. We are part of one or probably be close to one. Family is the core and foundation of society or is society what forges and creates families? Either way they have a big impact into each other. And that is exactly what a new series drama for TNT network wants to tell. A story of a dysfunctional family that actually found it's way to make it trough successfully but a very high price. This is "Animal Kingdom" (2016-current).

Based on the Australian film, the story follows J Cody, a 17 year old teenager that after his mom committed suicide by drug overdose, he ends moving with his grandmother and his uncles. But soon he'll realize why his mom kept him away from their family. Smurf Cody, the grandmother nurture a lovely-incestuous relationship with her sons, taking them to get involve in the family business, armed robberies and other criminal activities with a very planned organization and keeping all the information inside the family, giving them most of the benefits from their heists and letting them leaving a very comfortable life but at the same putting them in the sights of the police and FBI. Regardless their criminal activities, these guys are not your friendly neighbor. Raised in the streets and all from a different father these guys play by street rules and are used to  leave with whatever they want but when the are at home, it's their mother who has the control and who rules the house, with love and protection but at the same time manipulating them through her mother love to make them do what she needs and follow them, without realizing she had broken her children souls and now they find themselves navigating through the waters of the city in survival mode just caring about today and and themselves.

The young kid, soon realizes of all of this because he is different. He was raised in a close circle and with some morality, trying to be a student to forge a future for himself. But as soon as he moves in with his new family, everything starts to fade out and he finds himself trapped in between his grandmother influence of unconditional love if, and only if, agrees to be part of the family tradition, while his uncles just keep trying to influence him for good or bad. Pope is the oldest son and he just came back after serving in prison. He is mentally ill so he'll make life miserable to his young nephew after feeling he is taking all the family attention. But he has uncle Baz, the most sane and down to earth of all, that tries to advice and protect him, but only while he can keep it away from the family drama, as he has two families of his own, and while living a double life seems natural to him, after also having a double life as a nice guy that actually commits criminal acts, he can't make his mind what doe he want for his life and what road to follow, the right one or the one his mother has chosen for him, because she need him, as the most self aware, he is the brain of all the operations and his brothers listen to him, so makes him the perfect leader even he can actually lead no one nor himself, making perfect room for mom to take over her influence on them.

Then we have Craig, the crazy one in the sense that he likes to have fun, the consumes drugs and party more than needed and because of that he gets usually in trouble with narcos and women, having to hold on to his family to save him and take care of him, making him needy but perfect to influence and manipulate as a man that acts like a boy. And last the younger Deran, a closeted gay, that has no idea who he is and what he wants, afraid to pursue his feelings and desires afraid of what his family might think or do about it, while back in his mind, he wants desperately to leave them and move away from his background and start over with his lover, a surfer with whom has an on and off possessive relationship but as scared as he is of himself, he is of his family so finds himself in between what he is and what he wants to be, and his fear makes him weak, and his mother sees that and will use in her advantage to keep him close. With all that said, sounds like Smurf is an evil mother but she is not. She is just a survivor that has gone through a lot, reason why she won't let that happen to her cubs. She's fighting a war everyday to bring the best for her family and she loves them to death but the only way to provide the best to them is using them for the only thing she knows how to do very well, to hustle, and she now can't  separate the good from the bad and is  dragging her family with her, reason why her now passed daughter ran away from all that.

Sometimes we do what we learn to do in order to survive out there. We transform and adapt ourselves into this person we need to be in order to survival. If you look weak other will hurt you and take advantage so we  build a wall that can protect us from the rest and sometimes we include our beloved ones into this bubble, forgetting that our battles are ours and not always need to be shared with other but to face them on our own. Family is important and their influence is the most important example we get in life. But most of the time is their fears, insecurities, dreams, goals, frustrations and achievements the ones that we heritage by living them day by day and not by choice, becoming a circle where at some point we'll do the same when times come for us to have our own family and so on, but the lesson learned in this animal kingdom is that you need to make your own choices and follow your own path, either if it aligns with your family's or fight to follow the one that you deserve and picture for yourself. We can't keep blaming it to the love he have for our family or the one the profess for us, but realize that real love is not manipulating but supportive and respectful for own choices and what we feel is the best for us. Blood is a strong tie and can push us far or pull us down but at the end we are the only ones to blame when comes to our choices and how we deal with the circumstances we were given by birth, because at the end any animal has to leave the nest and so we'll see through it's first season of this family that will have to be united by the circumstances while each one of them will deal with their own choices to jump to a second season where they will have to face the consequences of those choices and fight to find themselves before others find them first.