Into the Badlands – Pilot
Available on AMC, AMC.com, and Amazon
AMC, the network that made Zombies work on TV and revived horror on TV at the same time is stepping it up with yet another genre absent from the (relatively) small screen. Into the Badlands looks to be an authentic martial arts show. Well done martial arts on TV is hard enough to come by, to find a show that serves not just the style but the feel of traditional Chinese cinema is a breath of fresh air.
Taking a stand in a post apocalyptic world, a world that broke off from ours in the 1950’s to give it a truly unique sort of feel. The semi-apocalypse and time schism is really an unnecessary detail. The setting is visually striking and the important thing to know it that Barons rule as something like Kings and Queens. They enforce their rule with Clippers, hitmen trained in Martial Arts. Martial Arts are important in this world seemingly absent of guns. The absence of guns stands out at first since the main character also has a motorcycle, but for any fan of the martial arts genre the ‘why’ isn’t as important as the delivery.
The show’s protagonist, Sunny (Daniel Wu), is the most notoriously bad ass clipper of them all. He works for the larger than life Baron Quinn (Marton Csokas). Quinn rules over his poppy plantation with a large army, brutally trained, and a slave workforce. Sonny intercepts a group of bandits or mercenaries working for The Widow Barren, a rival of Quinn’s that is also an important business relation. Sunny dispatches the men in a great fight scene that, if the quality holds up, sets the bar high and will guarantee success for fans of the genre. Sunny finds that the men were transporting a boy in a trunk. The boy, M.K. (Aramis Knight), has an attitude but doesn’t show any particularly interesting traits until Sunny takes him back to Quinn’s plantation. Sunny finds out he is now forced to keep a big secret from his master, one that could get himself and his loved one killed. When new information about M.K. comes to light the season finds its goal. Sunny must get himself, and his small group of friends, out of The Badlands.
AMC found huge success in adapting the Walking Dead comic book to TV. They are now reverse engineering the process in making a TV show play out like a living comic book. I mean this in the most complimentary way. The show is visually amazing, the production value is fantastic, and the fight scenes are everything you hope they will be based on the trailers leading up to the shows premiere. The world the show is set in is easy to understand. Some of the explanation given in the start wasn’t necessary but it doesn’t detract from the show either. Into the Badlands has a world with all the pieces necessary for it to work, even in the more unrealistic aspects. It can’t be an authentic feeling traditional martial arts story without at least a hint of mysticism can it?
A lot of the dialogue is very exposition heavy. It’s possible this isn’t exactly weak writing, but a way to get audiences up to speed in the pilot episode of the show. The pilot episode always has a lot of work to do in world building and isn’t often 100% true representation of what the overall series will be. This is good news. If the pilot was this strong and the writing only gets better, there will be plenty of seasons to enjoy in the years to come.
Daniel Wu doesn’t completely sell being a famed assassin. His demeanor and delivery seem off. This is either an acting choice that will come to fruition later, or he was cast for being able to handle the physicality as much as he was cast as an actor. I had similar reservations with Lee Jones as Wilkin Brattle in The Bastard Executioner, but he has proven himself as the series went on. Marton Csokas is larger than life. I’ve seen some people criticizing his choices but I found them to be incredible. He is a living cartoon character. He is fun to watch, engaging, and full of life. Aramis Knight shows a lot of strength in his mysterious role, he is natural and doesn’t chew the scenery.
The supporting cast seems strong in the limited screen time everyone was given. Orla Brady, Sarah Bolger, Yohance Myles, and Oliver Stark are all actors we will be getting more familiar with as the series progresses and it doesn’t look like there is a weak one in the bunch.
Into the Badlands isn’t perfect, but it shows a lot of promise. The martial arts are legitimate in both feel and choreography. The show delivers on everything it promised, a highly stylized world with great fight scenes and a plot interesting enough to hold audience’s interests while tying the world together. Only one episode in, but between what they’ve shown us and the pedigree of AMC that includes Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and the Walking Dead, I’m hooked.
