Finn Cole stars in "Animal Kingdom"

Wild, wild crime: TNT's gripping crime drama is back. "Animal Kingdom," the series based on the critically acclaimed and much-decorated 2010 Australian film of the same name, returns for its sophomore season Tuesday, May 30.

Emmy-winning actress Ellen Barkin ("The New Normal") returns to her headlining role as Janine "Smurf" Cody, the matriarch of a criminally inclined family living in a beautiful Southern California beach town.

The first season kicked off with Smurf's daughter overdosing on drugs, leading Smurf's 17-year-old grandson, Joshua "J" Cody (Finn Cole, "Peaky Blinders"), to come live with her and her adult sons.

And what a gang of thieving, plotting and murdering scumbags those Cody boys are. Shawn Hatosy ("Southland"), Ben Robson ("Vikings") and Jake Weary ("Pretty Little Liars") star as J's uncles, while Scott Speedman ("Felicity") stars as Smurf's adopted son, Baz.

By the end of the first season, the family members were starting to turn on themselves, and the police were getting close to uncovering their criminal scheming. Thanks to some quick thinking by J, though, the cops were sent off empty-handed, and Smurf welcomed the teenager as a full-fledged member of the Cody clan.

The new season's trailers show a family that's pulling off bigger heists than ever before, but also one that's increasingly turning on itself, with Smurf's boys becoming more and more jaded about their mother's control over their lives. Meanwhile, it doesn't become any clearer just how on-board J is with his grandmother and uncles' criminal schemes.

"Animal Kingdom" returns Tuesday, May 30, on TNT.

Can't stop the (country) music: Breathe easy, "Nashville" fans: after flirting with cancellation once before, the country music drama isn't going anywhere for a while, despite its sudden disappearance from TV screens a few weeks ago.

After laying low since its mid-season closer, which aired March 9, "Nashville's" fifth season finally explodes back onto CMT Thursday, June 1, albeit without one of its stars.

Connie Britton ("Friday Night Lights"), who has headlined the cast since the very beginning, has hung up her cowboy hat and ridden off into the sunset. She played country music superstar Rayna Jaymes, earning a Golden Globe nomination for her performance, but now she follows the lead of Aubrey Peeples ("Necessary Roughness") and Will Chase ("Smash"), two actors who didn't make the transition to "Nashville's" fifth season.

The road to season 5 was a tumultuous one. Despite its devoted fan base, ABC cancelled the series after the fourth season in May 2016, throwing the show's future into doubt. Luckily for fans, only a month later, CMT announced that it had picked up the show and that all cast members, with the exception of Peeples and Chase, were committed to returning.

Despite it already having been cancelled once, and in spite of the fact that one of its stars has left, there's no need for fans to worry about "Nashville" being cancelled again any time soon. The back half of season 5 isn't even on the air yet, but a sixth season has already been greenlit by CMT.

The music may have stopped for Britton's Rayna Jaymes, but the show must go on. "Nashville" returns Thursday, June 1, on CMT.

Spreading anarchy: "Sons of Anarchy" may have come to an end in 2014, but there are still so many more stories to tell within the "SOA" universe. A spinoff series is in the works at FX, with a pilot on order and a growing ensemble cast.

Similar to "SOA," "Mayans MC" will focus on an outlaw motorcycle club based around the California-Mexico border. JD Pardo ("Revolution") headlines the cast as Ezekiel Reyes, a prospect in the Mayan Motorcycle Club who struggles with his thirst for revenge on the outlaws that tore the American dream away from him.

If ordered to series, "Mayans MC" will be set in the same universe as "Sons of Anarchy," and will explore motorcycle club culture from a Latino perspective, and its growing cast list reflects that focus. Other names signed on for the pilot include Edward James Olmos ("Battlestar Galactica"), Antonio Jaramillo ("Dallas"), Jacqueline Obradors ("NYPD Blue") and Israeli actress Efrat Dor ("The Zookeeper's Wife," 2017).

"Sons of Anarchy" premiered in 2008 and quickly became a hit for FX. By the time its third season rolled around, it had grown into the cable network's highest-rated series, and its fourth season premiere was the highest-rated episode in FX's history -- a record that was smashed only a year later by its season 5 opener.

Rumors of a spinoff have been swirling around for years, with talk of a prequel series set in the 1960s being discussed publicly as early as 2013. "Mayans MC" is still in the pilot stage at FX.