AMC's Into the Badlands - Discussion (spoilers)

[Darth Lucifer]

Into the Badlands on Wikipedia

From www.aceshowbiz.com:

"Into the Badlands" is a genre-bending martial arts series very loosely based on the classic Chinese tale Journey to the West. In a land controlled by feudal barons, Into the Badlands tells the story of a great warrior and a young boy who embark on a journey across a dangerous land to find enlightenment.

"Into the Badlands"is set centuries from now, where a feudal society has emerged and the strongest and most brutal rose to wealth and power. This area came to be called the Badlands, and is divided among seven rival Barons who control the resources necessary to daily life and enforce their rule with the aid of loyal armies known as Clippers. Clippers enjoy status and comforts the general population can only dream of, and they are willing to sacrifice their lives in service to their Barons. Few Clippers ever live to see their 30th birthday, but Sunny (Daniel Wu) is no ordinary Clipper. Demonstrating lethal proficiency in martial arts, Sunny rose swiftly through the ranks to become Quinn's (Marton Csokas) Head Clipper and most trusted advisor.

For decades, Quinn has been unchallenged as the Badlands' most powerful Baron, but the territory's newest Baron, The Widow (Emily Beecham), has begun staging brazen attacks on Quinn's transport vehicles and is testing his appetite for a fight. One of those attacks leads Sunny to 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. As The Widow continues her campaign against Quinn, the destinies of the stoic assassin and the impetuous teenager become intertwined. In their evolution as teacher and student, each will discover his true purpose; together, they will embark on an odyssey that could mean the difference between chaos and enlightenment for everyone in the Badlands.

One of the ground rules of the world setting of this show is "No guns." While right-wing gun fetishists were up in arms about "liberal propaganda", my thoughts went more into the realism (or rather un-realism) of that premise. It takes a great deal of suspension of disbelief, though I know they did it to push the wuxia-style martial arts action.

Anyway, here's the trailer on YouTube

[bilateralrope]

Anyway, here's the trailer on YouTube

The uploader has not made this video available in your country.

Why would someone block international access to a trailer ?

[Darth Lucifer]

Why would someone block international access to a trailer ?

Aww crap. If I embed the video here can you see it? I tried to use the YouTube tag when crafting the OP but I had to go with a dressed link since I can't seem to get it to work.

[bilateralrope]

Aww crap. If I embed the video here can you see it? I tried to use the YouTube tag when crafting the OP but I had to go with a dressed link since I can't seem to get it to work.

The region block was set by the uploader. Embedding the video won't bypass it.

[biostem]

The show completed its first season a couple month's back. It is quite entertaining. They never quite explain how or why they managed to get everyone to stick to the "no guns" rule - it would stand to reason, given the cutthroat setting, that any advantage would be taken, (heck, other than thrown weapons, no bows/crossbows are depicted, either).

Still, if you get passed that, it is quite entertaining.

[Darth Lucifer]

Actually, there are crossbows used at the beginning of episode 3 during the attack on The Widow's fortress. It's only during the opening salvo to take out the perimeter guards, after that it's all swords and kung-fu.

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[Darth Lucifer]

**Thread necromancy engage**

Rather than making a new thread for every episode/season, I'm just going to post here. Season 2 has just begun and last we saw, Cung Le and the monks kidnapped MK, the widow's life was hanging by a thread, The Baron's regent had just betrayed him and now the King of the river dood is pissed because he found out Sunny tried to swindle him. A bunch of pickles to go with the ham (because honestly some of the acting isn't all that, excepting Lance Henriksen he's awesome).

As the main post says, there are spoilers ahead. I hope this new season was worth the wait. Will be posting as the binge watching begins!

[Darth Lucifer]

Episode 1: Tiger Pushes Mountain...

Time skip...six months have passed. Sunny is a slave in a huge mining operation; apparently the River King dumped him here for trying to pass off another head as MK's. Meanwhile Ryder has taken control of the armadillos, but the Widow strikes back, taking back the oil fields that once belonged to her clan. And MK has been whisked away to some Shaolin-esque mystical temple, on a spiritual quest to control the darkness within him...

Everything that made ITB awesome has been ramped up x3 for this season...the visuals are awesome, the fights are even more intense and the stakes are higher than ever; the wardens of the slave mine (who also run a gladiator pit for sport and entertainment) have just discovered that Sunny is a "Clipper."

The only thing I don't like is the increase in blood and gore...like I said they ramped up everything, but I thought the show was violent enough as it was. But then again, they don't call it The Badlands for nothing...

[Darth Lucifer]

Episode 2: Force of Eagle's Claw - At the end of our last episode, we see Sunny's new companion, Bajie, has just sold him out to the Engineer. But in a twist of fate, the two remain chained together as they are thrown into the arena to fight some big dood. Some Jackie Chan-esque fighting takes place, then the battle moves over to a room with a giant cliche...I mean, spinning fan. You can guess who bites it and who escapes.

Meanwhile, we get to see Waldo since he betrayed the Armadillo Clan and now he's mentor to Tilda, who has risen to the position of Regent. She did a bad thing last episode...some prisoners who declined the Widow's offer of fealty and were subsequently released unharmed were secretly killed by Tilda. Waldo reminisces about Sunny while advising Tilda.

The exiled Lydia is still with her father and the religious commune and everything seems nice until bandits show up to cause havoc. After the groom is brutally speared and others are preyed upon, Lance Henriksen is about to get killed for just looking at the thugs...then Lydia seizes a knife and strikes back, killing them all. But her father is displeased for only the Gods have the right to kill.

MK has a one on one session with the head abbot, who uses smoking origami to make him embark on some kind of vision quest...he breaks through his amnesia to see a hold in a cargo ship with everyone dead. Then a dark version of himself appears, answering MK's question of what happened here..."We are what happened."

At the end of episode 1, we saw right at the very end that Quinn survived being stabbed by Sunny when he helps deliver Veil's baby. Now we see that he has a secret complex and a group of men still loyal to him. The southern baptist preacher style of the former baron is ramped up like everything else, it's hammy for sure, but also signifies his mental decline as well, what with the tumor and all.

Ryder, the new Baron of the Armadillos, has taken over the residence of the dead Baron Jacoby. He gets a visit from his mother, who says that Quinn always protected her father's people from bandit attacks. He briefly agrees to help before Lydia's attempt to reconcile with her son backfires and he reneges.

Quinn has a baptism ceremony of sorts for the baby and at the same gathering, publicly makes an example of one of his men who was looking at Veil the wrong way. He's developed an obsession with her and the baby, seeing the child as the heir to his legacy.

Sunny and Baije finally make it to the edge of the Badlands and they encounter a problem. A really, really big problem: