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Into the Badlands - Post-apocalyptic kung-fu meets steampunk western - Sundays on AMC

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aku:jiki

Member
I think I enjoyed everything about this. Cool world, fun fight scenes and an appropriate level of mystery surrounding the plot and the hunt for whatever the city was called. People are saying it's anime and I wouldn't know, but it really reminds me of an 80s cartoon right now.

Don't know why people are hating on Wu, I kind of loved him and his restrained mimicry. He had a lot of small smiles in reaction to what went on and I liked it, especially when people challenging him (the nomads in the beginning) made him smile like "bitch please". The kid is the poorest actor so far, but servicable enough.

I am easily down for the whole season and it may have become the show currently airing that I'm most excited about seeing. Perhaps not the best show, mind you, but the one I'm most curious to see where it goes and how it fares.
 
Really impressed by that sword fight in the rain. The first fight scene didn't really boil my potato, watching like nine guys square off but then all come at him one at a time and wait patiently while he kills their friends, but the rain scene was fucking legit. Genuine four-on-one choreography at the start, progressing to a sweet one-on-one against Crouching Tiger Hidden Fedora. Little too much noticeable wirework and needless slo-mo for my liking, but nothing terrible.

The non-fighting bits seem so generically TV-show-y that I don't know what to say about them. Rubbish lines that people only say in TV land ("They're going to kill you; you know that, don't you?"), pretty actors doing their best Blue Steels, finish it all with a montage of all the characters being melancholy while an indie song plays; it's nothing I haven't seen a dozen times before. I'm in it for the fights, though, so if it gets better at the other stuff that'll be a nice plus.
 

Apoc29

Member
The fight scenes are better than you'll see in most movies, wow.

I find the plot similar to Equilibrium: futuristic world ruled by enigmatic leader(s) who trains an army of special assassins, the most skilled and respected of them begins to doubt his allegiance. Maybe it's a well-known trope I'm unfamiliar with.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
With a rising TWD as a primo lead-in, Into The Badlands came roaring out of the gate at 10 PM with 6.4 million viewers and 3.994 million among 18-49s for a 3.15 rating. Ahead of Supergirl and Blindspot’s 3.1 ratings result by a hair, that makes the post-apocalyptic martial arts series the top-rated new series of the fall on either cable or broadcast. With Daniel Wu as an assassin warrior (called Clippers on the show) named Sunny, Badlands had a very sunny start — it also marked the best fall debut AMC has ever had.

Yes, Into The Badlands dropped 52% of its 9 PM lead-in’s demo and 50% of its viewership. However, that’s actually only 5% more than Better Call Saul’s demo fall from its TWD lead-in when the Breaking Bad prequel debuted on February 8 this year.

In fact, with a highly teased sneak peek at the season’s penultimate TWD episode deep in its first half-hour, Badlands is the fourth-best cable demo debut ever and the third AMC series in that top four list. The top debut among 18-49s is the August 23 start of Fear The Walking Dead (6.3 million), followed by Better Call Saul (4.4 million), and then 2002’s USA’s The Dead Zone (4.034 million) from the non-DVR past.

Source
 

Faiz

Member
I'm in it for the fights, though, so if it gets better at the other stuff that'll be a nice plus.

This right here. As long as the fun action scenes keep up the pace I'll still be in. Just because it's AMC doesn't mean I need it to be cutting edge drama.
 
Like I said in the cancellation thread, the true test for this show will be the three weeks it airs without Walking Dead as a lead in.

Those are the numbers I'm waiting to see for it.
 
How many cumulative minutes of fight scenes were there in the first episode? That was the amount of time I enjoyed. Really doubt I'll keep up with this one.
 

Johndoey

Banned
Are people honestly bothered by the writing?

This is meant to be a throwback to exaggerated as fuck kung-fu movies of the early days.

The writing is bad on purpose, or rather, it's not the focus. It's not the point of the show. And I don't mean that in a "it's not that type of show" way.
It absolutely is not bad on purpose it's very very self serious. Also "its bad on purpose" is the laziest excuse in the world.
 

Hamlet

Member
Pretty decent pilot. As everyone has stated the fight scenes are fantastic, you can definitely see all the extra work being put into them. The fight in the rain was so good.
Everyone else was alright. Looking forward to see where it goes from here and the fight scenes of course.
 

Qvoth

Member
it starts off well but then it got kinda meh
the fight scene at the start was pretty cool, the sword fight not that much imo
wtzgU.gif
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
How is the quality compared to Black Sails, Vikings and Spartacus?

Quality wise, after only one episode, I'd say it's decent/mediocre but not good/great. Black Sails and Spartacus started out really rough though and ended up being great, so who knows what will happen with 'Into the Badlands'...
 

ironcreed

Banned
I'll be tuning in. The fight choreography is pretty damn good and I kind of dig the whole martial arts, steam punk vibe it's got going on.
 

harSon

Banned
I'll be tuning in. The fight choreography is pretty damn good and I kind of dig the whole martial arts, steam punk vibe it's got going on.

It's got a lot of Antebellum South aspects to it as well. Really reminds me of Aeon Flux for some reason.
 

Frog-fu

Banned
I'd probably have stuck with this show even if the pilot was garbage - which I am grateful it wasn't - purely to support an Asian lead.

Black people are finally starting to their due, but our women still ain't shit in the eyes of the masses, and the same can be said for Asian, Hispanic and Latino men and women outside of their stereotypical roles.

Sunny is a badass fighter, but the show is going for more than just kung-fu fury, so I'm hoping Daniel Wu has the opportunity to really grow into the character and give strong dramatic performances.
 
The plot and characters and their journey is nothing to sang home about that's for sure
(girlfriend should have or shouldn't have the baby, even though they both know what will happen... and then bam the "Lets get away" plot line)
. The acting is very so-so especially the kid. Although composition and lighting is great but again the story so far is stock action series, but at least the action is pretty darn good.


Other then that its pretty meh. Might watch a few more episodes to give it a better chance given its just the plot.
 

RPGCrazied

Member
Finally watched episode one. The story is all sorts of weird. Boy with super powers? Barons? Set in the far future?

I will say the fights are super cool though, and Sunny is a bad ass.
 

Bandit1

Member
*great ratings*
Source

Good news for the show! But I have to wonder how much the ratings will drop when it isn't sandwiched between Walking and Talking Dead. I liked the first episode, so I'm down for the season. The only thing I wasn't too keen on was the boy's "powers" but that's no deal breaker.
 

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
It's doing very well in delayed viewing as well:

With three days of post-air viewing, the show logged a 4.0 rating in adults 18-49 and 8.22 million viewers. The 18-49 rating is the third-best L+3 number for a series premiere on cable — behind two other AMC shows, “Fear the Walking Dead” and “Better Call Saul.” (“The Walking Dead’s” series premiere ranks fourth.)
 

-Deimos

Member
Forgot about the show and missed the OT, thanks for linking it in the Walking Dead OT. Impressions looks good so far.
 
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