I finally
got on board the recommendations from the blog The Nerds of Color to watch Into the Badlands. I didn’t start quite in time to be ready for
the recent season 2 premiere, but I quickly mainlined the six-episode first season
on Netflix and am now caught up with the current episodes. Basically?
Love, love, love (premise
spoilers.)
In a
post-apocalyptic society, a feudal system ruled by a network of rival barons
emerged after years of devastating war.
What’s left of society, the barons’ various territories, is known as the
Badlands. If you’re not a baron, you’re
either a nomad (dog-eat-dog clans on the fringes of society,) a cog (a slave in
your baron’s fields/factories/mines/etc.,) or a clipper (a member of your baron’s
elite, highly-trained security force.)
Sunny works for Quinn, the opium baron, as his most celebrated
clipper. He’s very good at following
orders and kills without compunction, and in the harsh world of the Badlands,
he’s never really considered the possibility of a life that could be
different. When he comes upon M.K., a
teenage wanderer with tales of a city outside the Badlands, however, Sunny
starts to wonder if there really could be something better out there for him
and those he cares about, and if there’s any way he could make it out alive.
It’s not
perfect; I’ll admit that much. Not every
storyline is a slamdunk, and there are some logic holes here and there. But I am all
about this show. What it occasionally
lacks in precision, it makes up for in massive doses of stupendous originality
– or rather, creative fusion. There are
a number of well-trod narrative paths here, although, in my opinion, the show
generally does quite well with them.
What really dazzles me is the stunning blend of different genres and
aesthetics. At perhaps its most
boiled-down description, this show is a steampunk kung fu Western set in a
post-apocalyptic Antebellum South. (I
mean, are you kidding me?! I am all
over that.) Even though the two
shows are incredibly different, it reminds me a little of the late, lamented Kings in how intentional and thoughtful
both are in their production design.
Here, the anachronistic flair and genre mixing creates a really stunning
visual feast, a smorgasbord of crazy details you never knew you wanted to see
together until this show put them onscreen for you. I love the plantation look of the barons’
estates, the beautiful sleekness of the clipper uniforms, and the sheer fact
that we have a main character who drives a motorcycle, fights with a sword, and
carries a spyglass. Only on this show, I tell you.
What I
said about kung fu and sword-fighting? Holy crap. Part of the show’s premise is that, whenever
it was in history that these catastrophic wars ended, they took with them all
the guns. This is a gunless society,
ostensibly to prevent future war, although it’s clear it hasn’t made much of a
dent in the brutal violence of the Badlands.
I’m not going to quibble about how realistic that is or speculate as to
how it was achieved, because it’s all in service of the series’ most crowning
bit of awesomeness: all fighting now is
carried out through martial arts and wuxia-style
swordplay. And it is amazing.
The fights on the show are absolutely insane, a weekly explosion of
tremendous talent on the part of the fight choreographers, editors, and actors. I love it so much. Such a fine blend of skill and creativity,
most often upping the ante, not just by sending increasingly-large waves of
redshirts to face Sunny but by introducing locales that lend themselves to more
innovative fighting, as well as unique challenges to overcome. These scenes are spectacular, audacious,
often slyly humorous, hugely impressive, and 100% exciting. All the love to the fight scenes on this
show.
I’m
familiar with very few of the main actors on this show, with the exception of
Sarah Bolger (Christy from In America
all grown up!) and Orla Brady (who was in the Eleventh Doctor’s final
episode.) I think everyone, however,
does a great job bringing their intriguing, complex characters to life. Special props go to Emily Beecham as the
Widow, Madeleine Mantock as Veil, and the man himself, the fantastic Daniel Wu
for his phenomenal performance as Sunny.
Expect lots and lots more Into the
Badlands posts in the near future.
Warnings
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