We are one week away from AMC's much anticipated martial arts drama Into the Badlands from Alfred Gough and Miles Miller. Just one word, exhilarating.
The story is loosely based on 16th century Chinese tale, Journey to the West, which sees a monk on a pilgrimage to India, tasked with finding Buddhist religious scrolls. Accompanied by three protectors who hope to find atonement for past sins, the monk finds enlightenment of his own through his journey.
Into The Badlands is instead set in a gun-free, post-apocalyptic America where seven barons rule the feudal lands. The most ruthless of them all is Quinn (Martin Csokas) who enslaves young boys and trains them to become clippers, those who protect him and his estate. His most loyal clipper is our protagonist Sunny who has amassed hundreds of kills in service of the baron. Sunny comes across a young boy named M.K. (Aramis Knight) who is sought after from The Widow (Emily Beecham), another supposedly coldhearted baron who recently found power by killing her husband. The meeting of M.K. begins Sunny's path to atonement.
The show runners said there will be at least five minutes of action in each episode. The premiere does not take long to get into the kung-fu fray with the first of two fight scenes occurring within the opening five minutes. The sequence is bloody, bone crushing, and absolutely breathtaking. You could tell a lot of thought and choreography was put into the action by the team of director David Dobkin, fight director Stephen Fung, martial arts choreographer Master Dee Dee, and others.
However, the episode and the series as a whole is not just martial arts pornography, there is a great deal of compelling drama, which helps to build this very rich world. The characters are interesting, if not a tad bit archetypal, but we'll see how they grow and what their stories are as the series progresses.
The timing could not be anymore perfect for
Into The Badlands as it airs 40 years following the end of
Kung Fu. There has not, at least to my memory, been a martial arts show since. Back then David Carradine was cast in the lead role because America was not ready to see a Chinese lead. They essentially had a white guy with yellow face.
Into The Badlands not only does justice to the art of kung fu, but it also does justice to its casting. Daniel Wu is brilliant as the lead protagonist.
This is a show you definitely do not want to miss.
Make sure to check out
Into the Badlands November 15, 9c/10e on AMC after
The Walking Dead. SpoilerTV's review will be up immediately after for discussion.
If you have any questions of what to expect from the premiere, leave a comment below!
About the Author - Kollin Lore
Kollin is an entertainment writer and a film and television, in particular genre TV, freak having grown up during the 90s and early 2000s a dedicated fan of Buffy and Angel. Current shows like Person of Interest, Supernatural, Ripper Street, Penny Dreadful, Grimm, The Blacklist, Game of Thrones, and dozens of other shows are currently occupying Kollin’s nightly hours. His reviews for Into the Badlands and The Expanse will be coming this fall!
