[TV] INTO THE BADLANDS- THE AMC SERIES
I'm just going to go a little further on this since I do feel this show deserves more attention than it's getting... This is INTO THE BADLANDS, the AMC series, which ran from around 2015-2019 with three seasons plus a mini fourth season at the end... It's a martial arts post-apocalyptic show.... just don't mind me if I spill too much
So first off, for me this is one of the coolest parts of the whole show.... setting. Basically, the story begins after a big war occurred a long time ago, and it destroyed basically all modern civilization. Today the world or at least the part they show us, which they call the Badlands is divided into these territories and each one has its own Baron. They each have some sort of resource, such as opium poppies for one of them, and they each have some of these little private armies of elite fighters known as Clippers... just imagine a samurai meets hitmen, trained since childhood to fight and kill for their Baron. Here is the part that I love; in this world, there are no firearms at all, every fight is with blades, fists, staffs, whatever.
The main character is Sunny (Daniel Wu) and he's the best Clipper for one of the Barons, Quinn (who's pretty menacing as well). Sunny's reputation is a born one; he's the best fighter in the Badlands, reputable anyway, and everyone is scared of him, but underneath all that he's just tired of the violence, particularly when he discovers that his girlfriend is pregnant. He wants to get rid of it, but it's not going to be as simple as he thinks it will be to walk away from a life like that. Then all the fun begins when he meets this kid M.K. who has this weird power that emerges when he's bleeding, sort of like a berserker thing, and he starts to go against his Baron and end up saving this kid instead of following orders. That move essentially gets all the series started.
Now, I'll be honest, this is the only thing I'm watching this show for, the fight choreography – they brought in people with REAL Hong Kong action movie backgrounds and it’s so obvious watching this because these fight scenes are on a completely different level compared to basically any other American TV show I've seen. It's not just people swinging swords, there's some creativity to it, each fight attempts to be different, whether it's the location, the weapons of choice or how many participants are involved. I think I remember there's a "fight" in season one where they're in a moving train car, it's really tight, everyone's being thrown around, super cool.
Story-wise, I would say that season one is really good, possibly the best part of the entire series. It's a little more episodic, it lets you understand the world, the politics amongst the various Barons, who's on the same side as who, who's planning on who. I'm pretty emotional about this guy who's been living his life as a weapon for other people, and now he's trying to figure out how to be a dad, and he's trying to figure out whether he even deserves a normal life after everything he's done, all that stuff got me really emotionally involved.
I think this becomes a little shaky when you're going on to season two and especially season three. They sort of dismantle and destroy the initial Barons concept and the narrative goes more towards the larger mythology around M.K's power, other worlds outside the Badlands, this whole “Master” and secret group of assassins thing... Well, some of it was interesting, I should say, but I did feel, at times, that the writers were just winging it, knowing they would have to flesh out season two and three as they went, as if they weren't fully prepared for it. It's a bit more complicated and less earthy than the first season's succulent and concentrated debut.
Daniel Wu is really good at carrying this show, he doesn't say a lot but you can see the exhaustion and the inner turmoil on his face in a lot of scenes. But really, for me my favourite character throughout the show was the Widow, the character played by Emily Beecham. She's this Baron who runs her territory with an all-female Clipper army and she's ruthless, calculating, but under all of that, there's there's this depth and vulnerability that comes out throughout the show. One of the more interesting characters I've seen in such a show. I also got to know Bajie a little too much, he's comic relief but he has some heart to him as well.
Some of the side characters, particularly some of the other female Clippers, had a lot of potential that I think didn't get tapped. Much like the show creates intriguing dynamics between them and then doesn't always hold up, perhaps partly due to the shorter seasons later in the series.
Oh, and the show was cancelled pretty abruptly after season 3, although AMC released a short "final season", it definitely felt like it was rushed, as they knew they were scheduled to end this show.
For martial arts film fans, wuxia-action fans, and fans of post-apocalyptic wasteland aesthetics, this movie is a must-see. All you need to know is that the second half is a bit messy, and the ending doesn't tie up the loose ends as neatly as I would've liked, but for me, it was still worth it.
Rating: 85/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.