I was so sceptical going into this series...martial arts etc., I didn't think it would captivate, but WOW, it is SUPERB. The quality of writing, the visual beauty (the sets) are spectacular and visionary, each major character is 3 dimensional and interesting. I wish all of TV were this original, this gorgeous to view and as fast paced. As of the 1st January, my cable provider is dropping AMC, yet for this show alone, I am going to subscribe to an alternative provider. I do want to see the evolution of the show, it has so much to offer for multiple seasons, watching MK grow, Tilda (who is fascinating and ambiguous) and the humble, yet incredibly dangerous, Sunny. I hope that all the characters from the 1st 6 episodes survive, they are so well 'fleshed out', and the concept is fresh and startling. Please keep TV this good, this intelligent, and this original. Bravo and Kudos.
Into the Badlands (TV Series)
Chapter VI: Hand of Five Poisons (2015)
User Reviews
Review this title4 Reviews
Sunny took them on!!!,
olawal-894-63752323 December 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Those three monks had to turn ghost to take down Sunny. Sunny would have kicked their butts otherwise. This was the best episode so far. Fast forward to next week Tuesday, can't wait for it. I was beginning to think how much of a story there really could be here, surely they will escape for a better life and could not see it. Now that Quinn is dead, or is he? What happens now. This is much better written than I expected and the anticipation now grows with this climatic end of episode 6. It also begs the question, if the medallion was also found on Sunny as a boy, does he have the same power and it takes a different way to get it out of him and he was just never harnessed.
Season 1
IPyaarCinema5 June 2021
Review By Kamal K
"Into The Badlands" thrills in its nimble genre. Even more striking is its impressionistic world-building, skillfully painting a feudal society a few centuries beyond our own, outfitted with Studebakers and Saarinen chairs and dressed in bowler hats and bustles.
There are no guns but plenty of fists courtesy of the highly trained armies of enforcers known as Clippers, employed by the seven resource-hoarding dictators called barons who rule over the South.
The most feared Clipper is Sunny (Daniel Wu, the American-born veteran of a slew of Hong Kong marital arts films), in the employ of the supremely Darwinian Baron Quinn ("Power is not inherited," Quinn sneers at his wife as she tries to position their son as his successor. "It is taken.")
Raised from an orphan by Quinn. Sunny is a lethal warrior and trusted advisor, unquestioningly loyal -- until a chance meeting with M. K. (Aramis Knight), a teenager on the run, and a revelation by his secret sweetheart Veil (Madeleine Mantock) make him question his calling. At the same time, Quinn, who controls the manufacture of opium, faces a power grab from an upstart baron called The Widow (Emily Beecham), who has raised a fearsome all-female army of her own.
The stakes are set up efficiently, and Wu is marvelous in the fight scenes and solid elsewhere as the impassive and improbably named Sunny (the series is loosely basely on a 16th century Chinese picaresque "Journey to the West," about the Monkey King Sun Wukong). But the scene stealer is Beecham, whose cunning and ambitious Widow is no slouch in the blood-shedding department. She's every bit the badass as Sunny, only in a bustle and black leather stiletto boots.
"Into the Badlands," only six episodes to start, is not without its flaws -- the dialogue is often leaden, and some of the secondary characters are little more than tropes. But the show's high style, intriguing machinations and kinetic fight sequences.
"Into The Badlands" thrills in its nimble genre. Even more striking is its impressionistic world-building, skillfully painting a feudal society a few centuries beyond our own, outfitted with Studebakers and Saarinen chairs and dressed in bowler hats and bustles.
There are no guns but plenty of fists courtesy of the highly trained armies of enforcers known as Clippers, employed by the seven resource-hoarding dictators called barons who rule over the South.
The most feared Clipper is Sunny (Daniel Wu, the American-born veteran of a slew of Hong Kong marital arts films), in the employ of the supremely Darwinian Baron Quinn ("Power is not inherited," Quinn sneers at his wife as she tries to position their son as his successor. "It is taken.")
Raised from an orphan by Quinn. Sunny is a lethal warrior and trusted advisor, unquestioningly loyal -- until a chance meeting with M. K. (Aramis Knight), a teenager on the run, and a revelation by his secret sweetheart Veil (Madeleine Mantock) make him question his calling. At the same time, Quinn, who controls the manufacture of opium, faces a power grab from an upstart baron called The Widow (Emily Beecham), who has raised a fearsome all-female army of her own.
The stakes are set up efficiently, and Wu is marvelous in the fight scenes and solid elsewhere as the impassive and improbably named Sunny (the series is loosely basely on a 16th century Chinese picaresque "Journey to the West," about the Monkey King Sun Wukong). But the scene stealer is Beecham, whose cunning and ambitious Widow is no slouch in the blood-shedding department. She's every bit the badass as Sunny, only in a bustle and black leather stiletto boots.
"Into the Badlands," only six episodes to start, is not without its flaws -- the dialogue is often leaden, and some of the secondary characters are little more than tropes. But the show's high style, intriguing machinations and kinetic fight sequences.
Season One Review
southdavid12 November 2020
Finally decided to start "Into The Badlands". A show that is available in it's entirety on Amazon Prime in the UK. The first season is just six episodes, which given its campy performances and wire fu fight scenes seems about right for not outstaying it's welcome.
Set in a future where, for unexplained reasons, technology is in short supply, the only safety in this world comes from an uneasy alliance between seven regional barons, each of which gained their power through violence and maintain it through control of a needed resource. Sunny (Danie Wu) is the head assassin for one of the Baron's but who wishes to escape with his lover Veil (Madeline Mantock). He sees an opportunity when he meets MK (Aramis Knight) a young man with a medallion that links to Sunny's past but who also has a mysterious and dark power.
There is a little bit of having its cake and eating it too about "Into The Badlands", specifically its set up. Not wishing to set itself in feudal style Japan, but looking to restrict it's characters to that sort of world, most technology has gone. People fight either in hand to hand combat, or with edged weapons and to facilitate that there are no guns - but at the same time, Sunny has a motorbike and when fast travel is required, trucks are available. The fight scenes are pretty good, a lot of work has gone into the co-ordination and the wire work to make as spectacular as you'll see on TV.
The acting in fairly standard, utilising a reliable range of British and Irish performers like Orla Brady, Sarah Bolger and Emily Beecham. Daniel Wu is an engaging lead, the pairing of Stephen Lang and Lance Henrikson begin to take things a little more over the top, but chewing the most scenery with his wildly accented, alluring and menacing turn is Marton Csokas, as the current Baron and Sunny's Boss, Quinn. Mostly the story revolves around alliances being created and destroyed surrounding Quinn's home base, and his poppy fields that supply the worlds opium.
It was entertaining enough stuff, if a little lightweight and campy - I'm prepared to stick with it but I know that the number of episode per season is going to increase and that concerns me a little.
Set in a future where, for unexplained reasons, technology is in short supply, the only safety in this world comes from an uneasy alliance between seven regional barons, each of which gained their power through violence and maintain it through control of a needed resource. Sunny (Danie Wu) is the head assassin for one of the Baron's but who wishes to escape with his lover Veil (Madeline Mantock). He sees an opportunity when he meets MK (Aramis Knight) a young man with a medallion that links to Sunny's past but who also has a mysterious and dark power.
There is a little bit of having its cake and eating it too about "Into The Badlands", specifically its set up. Not wishing to set itself in feudal style Japan, but looking to restrict it's characters to that sort of world, most technology has gone. People fight either in hand to hand combat, or with edged weapons and to facilitate that there are no guns - but at the same time, Sunny has a motorbike and when fast travel is required, trucks are available. The fight scenes are pretty good, a lot of work has gone into the co-ordination and the wire work to make as spectacular as you'll see on TV.
The acting in fairly standard, utilising a reliable range of British and Irish performers like Orla Brady, Sarah Bolger and Emily Beecham. Daniel Wu is an engaging lead, the pairing of Stephen Lang and Lance Henrikson begin to take things a little more over the top, but chewing the most scenery with his wildly accented, alluring and menacing turn is Marton Csokas, as the current Baron and Sunny's Boss, Quinn. Mostly the story revolves around alliances being created and destroyed surrounding Quinn's home base, and his poppy fields that supply the worlds opium.
It was entertaining enough stuff, if a little lightweight and campy - I'm prepared to stick with it but I know that the number of episode per season is going to increase and that concerns me a little.
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