AMC's Into the Badlands

AMC's take on an After the End Wuxia show, set in the Deep South. In a world where guns were banned after the end of the world, the Badlands surrounded by the deserts are divided into seven baronies at uneasy peace with each other. Each Baron rules over his or her land due to the power of asskicking. Sunny, a Regent under Baron Quinn, is looking for a way to escape the Badlands when his lover, Veil, becomes pregnant, while also having to take care of M.K, a boy with unusual fighting abilities. Not helping the matter is potential war against another Baron named the Widow, who seeks to destroy the current social order.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lrJmLkuNg8

http://www.amc.com/shows/into-the-badlands/exclusives/the-world

The show is notable for having quite a few POC actors and actresses in prominent roles and for cool over the top fight scenes. Nick Frost, known for his roles in the Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy, will play a prominent role in the second season as a miner named Bajie.

Season 2 premiered yesterday and I quite enjoyed it. Both Sunny and The Widow got quite cool fight scenes.

edited 20th Mar '17 2:56:50 PM by PhiSat

I remember seeing a commercial for this. It looked kind of interesting. Maybe I should watch it.

I'd definitely recommend it, though I'd suggest watching season 1 first if you can since they're starting to get into lore stuff and it might get confusing for a new viewer.

The fight scenes in this show are sweet, clear water after watching the "kung fu master" that supposedly is the protagonist of Iron Fist. I mean, goddamn.

Dropped this show after episode 1. Just the premise and the pilot...

Look, I love Kung fu movies. Love the Shaw Bros, love wuxia, made it a point to buy Wheels on Meals.

But something about this show just came off as...stupid. Like...really, really stupid to the point of being unwatchable. Thumbs down.

edited 30th Mar '17 8:45:55 PM by Beatman1

The fight scenes are definitely better than Iron Fist's.

I decided to watch this. Marathoned the first season and about to go into the second.

My thoughts are that it is a show that works almost in spite of itself, somehow. The directing and writing is rather corny and silly, with nothing really sticking out dramatically. Characters pretty much live or die on the effort their actors put on them, because the writing doesn't (Baron Quinn, for example, is written as a pretty generic Evil Overlord but the actor sells him with a awe-inspiring amount of gusto).

It's a show that almost knows, on some level, what the audience is here for: to be entertained. The fight scenes are gorgeous and the universe is almost laughably stylish, with the eye-popping colors and Frankenstein's monster of aesthetics (Wild West, Feudal Japan, Antebellum South, some shades of Han China) everyone wearing leather, all the highly improbable weaponry, e.t.c. So what the show does well is pacing. It never lets you get bored. There's always something cool or enjoyable happening.

That's where the show triumphs, really. It's always enjoyable and entertaining, either via stylish aesthetics, awesome fight scenes or just the characters being entertaining (if not particularly cleverly written). Quinn, the Widow and Waldo are the highlights in this sense, because the actors are clearly having fun as playing these over-the-top, almost larger-than-life figures. The setting itself (as patently absurd as it is) is also fantastic and enjoyable.

Its ambition to be a Kung Fu equivalent of Game of Thrones, with the sprawling storylines and political conspiracies, comes across as silly but somehow welcome.

So in essence it's a show that thrives on Rule of Cool and Narm Charm. If you don't buy this show's brand of cool and just let it take you down for a ride, you'll probably hate it (see: Beatman, few posts ago).

Personally, I'm having a blast with all this sound and fury of high-octane Kung Fu western fighting.