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AMC's Into the Badlands, a new martial arts/sci-fi series

JD

JD

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In a couple weeks AMC is premiere it's new Sci-fi/Martial Arts mashup series, Into the Badlands. I love martial arts and these kinds of low tech future sci-fi stories, so this is right up my alley.
AMC said:
Centuries from now, a feudal society has emerged in the wake of civilization's destruction. This area is now called the Badlands and is uneasily divided among seven rival Barons. Each Baron enforces their iron rule with the aid of loyal armies of trained assassins known as Clippers.
The most lethal of the Badlands’ Clippers is Sunny (Daniel Wu) -- the Regent (Head Clipper) and most trusted advisor of Baron Quinn (Marton Csokas). For decades, Quinn has been unchallenged as the Badlands’ most powerful Baron; however, the territory’s newest Baron, The Widow (Emily Beecham), has begun testing his appetite for a fight.
One day, Sunny rescues M.K. (Aramis Knight), a teenage boy who has survived a deadly ambush. Sunny soon comes to understand that the teen harbors a dark secret and has a hefty bounty on his head. Together, they will embark on an odyssey that could mean the difference between chaos and enlightenment for everyone in the Badlands.
Click to expand...
Cast:
Daniel Wu as Sonny.
Aramis Knight as MK
Emily Beecham as The Widow
Sarah Bolger as Jade
Oliver Stark as Ryder
Orla Brady as Lydia
Madelein Mantlock as Veil
Ally Ioannides as Tilda
Stephen Lang as Waldo
Yohance Miles as Ringo

The series is created by Spider-Man 2 writers, and Smallville creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and star Daniel Wu also serves as an Executive Producer,
AMC's A Look at the Series video.
IGN's Meet the Characters video.
It's been a while since an American series has tried to do this kind of Asian martial arts story, and with AMC behind it has the potential to be successful. I have loved everything I've seen from it so far, and I'm really looking forward to it.
 
I think it looks really cool, I just worry that it'll bomb. Doesn't really seem like something the average viewer will embrace, but I'm remaining cautiously optimistic.
 
It looks like it'll be an awesome show, but I thought it's only meant to be a six part series.
 
I'm not sure. Nothing I saw said anything about it having a limited run. Even if it is, a lot of AMC's shows start with short season, both TWD series had only 6 episodes for their first seasons and Humans had 8, but it is also a British co-production so that might have something to do with that one.
I didn't even realize Stephen Lang, Orla Brady and Sarah Bolger were all in this until I was looking up the cast list for my post. All three have been in stuff I've liked, so it's nice to know there will be some familiar faces in this.
 
They've released a whole bunch of BTS videos since the last time I posted.
Building the World of Into The Badlands
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BAWyIxw64k&index=5&list=PLP63B9XPsQt0YdyzajqAilmGNRoH8D80K[/yt]

Two Character of Into the Badlands Clips
The Clippers
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WECDvOeENXU&list=PLP63B9XPsQt0YdyzajqAilmGNRoH8D80K&index=4[/yt]

The Barons

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjCKQHMePIQ&list=PLP63B9XPsQt0YdyzajqAilmGNRoH8D80K&index=3

We also got two clips[/yt]
Forest Fight
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbatBh5boPE&index=2&list=PLP63B9XPsQt0YdyzajqAilmGNRoH8D80K[/yt]
The Widow Gets Ambushed
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0qeE2gNUpE&list=PLP63B9XPsQt0YdyzajqAilmGNRoH8D80K&index=1[/yt]

EDIT:
They've also released the first three pages of a prequel digital comic.
 
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As much as I'm anticipating the premiere tonight, I'm not sure if I'm going to make it very end. It's on at 11:00 here, and that's when I usually go to sleep. It will be the first thing I watch tomorrow morning if I don't make it.
 
I decided to watch it after The Walking Dead since I wanted to stay up to watch Talking Dead right after it. It has an interesting concept and looks great but I felt there were some pretty slow points in the show. I'm not sure if I'll keep watching.
 
I recorded it after seeing some of the good reviews, but honestly I found the incessant, nonstop ads during TWD so annoying I'm not sure I'll ever feel the desire to watch.
 
I was able to watch it this morning, and I really enjoyed. I was a little surprised we didn't get The Widow's big fight that they showed in all of the trailers, and released as it's own clip.
 
The sword fight in the rain was incredible as was the opening fight scene. The setting is rather surreal but I like the concept of the show. And I too am lookingforward to seeing the Widow fight.
 
I'm very curious how it will be before we get to see the city (Azra?) from MK's pendant and Sonny's compass. I'm also wondering if we're going to get to meet the other 5 Barons. They said there are 7, but so far all we've seen, or that I remember hearing/reading about in the promotional material, is Quinn and The Widow.
The fight scenes in the show are awesome, but they've got people from Crouching Tiger, and Hero working on it's, so that's not a surprise. I just hope they can keep it up.
 
JD said:
I'm very curious how it will be before we get to see the city (Azra?) from MK's pendant and Sonny's compass. I'm also wondering if we're going to get to meet the other 5 Barons. They said there are 7, but so far all we've seen, or that I remember hearing/reading about in the promotional material, is Quinn and The Widow.
The fight scenes in the show are awesome, but they've got people from Crouching Tiger, and Hero working on it's, so that's not a surprise. I just hope they can keep it up.
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Its hard to say. On one hand, the series is supposedly based on the Chinese mythological story of "Journey to the West". With Azra seemingly representing the the promised land, I suspect we'll only see it in the finale. Having said that, the story thus far bears no resemblance to its source material so really, anything could happen.

For those who are unfamiliar with Journey to the West, it is a Chinese fantasy story a monk, Triptika and his 3 disciples, Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy. The story largely revolves around the 81 trials they encounter as they traveled from China to India with the goal of obtaining Buddhist scriptures. Right now, I am guessing Sunny is Triptika and MK is Monkey. We'll only meet Pigsy and Sandy later when they actually start heading to Azra, which I assume is the series' version of India.
 
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It would be more accurate to say that Journey to the West is the Chinese fantasy story -- probably the most important and influential mythological epic in all of Asia, their equivalent of something like The Odyssey in European tradition. It's been adapted countless times in Asian cinema and a few times in Western cinema -- e.g. the movie The Forbidden Kingdom and a 2001 miniseries called The Monkey King or The Lost Empire. Quite a few anime series including Dragonball Z have been adapted from or inspired by it.

And the monk's name is Tripitaka, actually.
 
The Widow's fight scene was awesome, Sunny's fight at the ende was a bit over the top. And I can't see how this relates to the Journey Into The West, maybe Sunny is meant to be the Monkey King.
 
DWF said:
The Widow's fight scene was awesome, Sunny's fight at the ende was a bit over the top. And I can't see how this relates to the Journey Into The West, maybe Sunny is meant to be the Monkey King.
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It looks like Sunny's pregnant girlfriend will take the place of the monk and the young kid, MK, is the monkey king (duhz!).

However, by setting up so many characters including the Baron and his family, the Widow and her "daughter", it kinda ties the characters down in the badlands. I get the feeling they won't be heading out to Azra any time soon.
 
I hadn't realized this was already on -- fortunately there's On Demand. I watched the pilot today. Odd that it's called Into the Badlands when it seems to be about characters wanting to get out of the Badlands.

I like martial arts for the athleticism and skill, and there was some good choreography and cinematography here, but it's a lot more brutal and gory than I prefer. (It's weird that the parental advisory warning at the beginning only called out language and not violence, when it was intensely violent and had no significant profanity.) And I'm not sure yet how interested I am in the premise or the characters. Well, if it's only six episodes, I may well stick around. It's interesting to see Orla Brady and Marton Csokas again, though I wish they didn't have to use American accents. And I'm glad to see The Tomorrow People's Madeleine Mantock again; she was the best thing about that show.
 
Christopher said:
I hadn't realized this was already on -- fortunately there's On Demand. I watched the pilot today. Odd that it's called Into the Badlands when it seems to be about characters wanting to get out of the Badlands.
Click to expand...

The boy MK is from Azra and the only way to go there is though the Badlands. The Barons and their little part of civilization aren't a part of the Badlands.
 
Watching the start of episode 2, I had to wonder: Why is it, when a large gang of thugs goes up against a martial artists, superhero, or whatever who just totally trashes them one after another, the rest of the thugs just keep on coming without hesitation? I mean, it's one thing with trained and disciplined soldiers, but the people who attacked the Widow in the bar were basically hired goons, and you'd think that after they saw her waste the first few of their number with ridiculous ease, the rest would've thought, "Hell, no money's worth this" and made a break for the exit. Okay, that one last guy did seem to be starting to run before she killed him, but it was just one guy. Sure, yes, the intent is to make for a longer fight scene, but when the one fighter is so utterly deadly even against a huge number of opponents, it kind of strains credibility that they don't panic and run. It's like, how come the bad guys always stop to shoot at Superman when they know it won't work?
 
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