Into the Badlands

[Talgrath]

A thread for AMC's new show, Into the Badlands. The show just got started, but I'm intrigued enough to give it a few episodes (and there's only going to be six episodes in season 1). A few quick thoughts.

There's a Lot of Cliches
The deadly assassin having second thoughts, the boy with the mysterious power, the treacherous son, the powerful man losing his grip with age and the spurned wife are all some pretty old cliches, it will be interesting to see if they can do something to make this more than the sum of its parts so far.

The Fight Scenes Are Impressive
Given that this is a TV series, those are some damn good fight scenes. While there's nothing here that fans of martial arts movies haven't seen before, it's certainly better than any other martial arts TV show's fights that I have seen before. Additionally there's a lot of pretty background/landscape shots.

Sunny Is Not That Interesting
In a lot of ways, I feel like Sunny is one of the least interesting characters in the show, and that's a shame because he is the main character. The lone warrior assassin who is having second thoughts has been done...a lot. But really, the most interesting characters from what I've seen so far are in the supporting cast, The Widow's struggle for gender equality (at least for herself), Quinn's issues with the other barons and Ryder's struggle for power and recognition are all a lot more interesting than Sunny's story.

M.K. Ultra?
M.K., the mysterious boy with powers, surely must be a reference to Project MKUltra.

 

[hunter_le five]

M.K., the mysterious boy with powers, surely must be a reference to Project MKUltra.

What does a boy with powers have to do with MK Ultra?

 

[Talgrath]

Well, he has a spotty memory and when he bleeds he loses control of his mental faculties, sounds like the sort of mind/memory control MKUltra was trying to achieve.

 

[slym2none]

So, near the end, did anyone notice that the first wife of the baron, while looking into her mirrors, the mirrors made her look older than she is? Like, that is what she sees when she looks into them?

And then, right at the end, we see someone sneaking into the baron's sons' room, and at first, it appears to be his mom? Then we see it is the younger wife of the baron as she comes into the light.

I swear, those images were manipulated to look like that. I watched it twice last night, and my impression is not lessened.

 

[ffaoe]

Not at all impressed with the show. The fight scenes were impressive, but otherwise it was pretty blah.

Problems I have so far:
A. Hundreds of years in the future, how can they have an antique 1950s? car in mint running condition?
B. Outlawing and getting rid of ALL guns is an impossibility.

 

[slym2none]

When I watch a Superman movie, I believe a man can fly. While watching TWD, I believe zombies are real.

When watching a fictional show that says all guns are outlawed & gone, I believe that.

I think it's called "suspension of disbelief". You should try it.

 

[Schemy]

So, near the end, did anyone notice that the first wife of the baron, while looking into her mirrors, the mirrors made her look older than she is? Like, that is what she sees when she looks into them?

And then, right at the end, we see someone sneaking into the baron's sons' room, and at first, it appears to be his mom? Then we see it is the younger wife of the baron as she comes into the light.

I swear, those images were manipulated to look like that. I watched it twice last night, and my impression is not lessened.

I noticed the same thing. I wasn't sure if I saw it right, as I was trying to do some recipe research at the same time. Glad to know I wasn't seeing things.

Overall it was an entertaining episode. I'm hoping Sunny's character evolves as we learn of his past. As he begins to break away from the Baron, I'm hoping his character will become more interesting.

 

[Talgrath]

Sudden realization after reading that parts of this are based on "Journey to the West", M.K. is "Monkey King", maybe?

 

[Talgrath]

So, near the end, did anyone notice that the first wife of the baron, while looking into her mirrors, the mirrors made her look older than she is? Like, that is what she sees when she looks into them?

And then, right at the end, we see someone sneaking into the baron's sons' room, and at first, it appears to be his mom? Then we see it is the younger wife of the baron as she comes into the light.

I swear, those images were manipulated to look like that. I watched it twice last night, and my impression is not lessened.

Good catch, I didn't quite pick up on that on the first viewing.

 

[Talgrath]

A much better episode, in my opinion, than the opener. We get a better picture of the characters around Sunny, who honestly, are more fun to spend time with.

Enter the Widow
We got to see more of the widow this episode, and she's totally badass. After killing a group through of would-be assassins sent by Ryder, she decides to set up an alliance with a large group of nomads. In return the widow then uses those nomads to set up an ambush intended to kill Ryder in preparation of a full assault on Quinn's fort, which would have worked if Sunny was not a complete badass himself. As a side note, it turns out that the Widow owns the oil fields of the Badlands, which is why the barons are not so keen on unseating her, despite her apparent weakness; just like the modern day, everyone wants to stay on the good side of the people that control the oil. The Widow may be the series most competent character, so far.

...And Her Daughters
We also meet the Widow's daughters, in particular Tilda. Tilda, as a sort of reverse Cinderella, is wandering around the forest murdering small woodland creatures when she meets MK. Tilda clearly has fallen for MK, though for his part MK is either oblivious or uninterested. In any case, once Tilda finds out the Widow wants to turn MK into some sort of weapon against the other barons, she helps him escape...by making out with him; apparently that's enough to get him kicked out. Tilda's attraction to MK is almost certainly going to be a major plot point.

Quinn's Gonna Die
We find out more about Quinn, aka "The baron". Quinn used to be a peasant himself, until he became a clipper and somehow killed himself to the top. Quinn visits his doctor, who just so happens to be the adoptive father of Veil (Sunny's girlfriend). While Sunny is visiting with the adoptive mother of Veil, Quinn is getting some very bad news, his headaches are due to a tumor in his brain. Quinn makes what is almost certainly a massive mistake, he orders Sunny to kill the doctor and his wife since they know he's going to die. Sunny refuses, the first time he's ever done so, so Quinn takes Sunny's sword and does it himself. This prompts Sunny to promise Veil he'll get them out of the Badlands somehow, which will probably end poorly. On Quinn's part, it's not entirely clear why he just doesn't tell Ryder to take over and listen to Sunny, admittedly Ryder hasn't had the hard upbringing that Quinn had, but he's at least vaguely competent at coming up with a plan (the ambush of the Widow would have been brilliant if it had worked).

M.K. Lies a Lot
MK spends most of the episode lying, to pretty much everyone, to the point where I'm not even sure whether anything he's telling is true. I suspect MK knows a lot more than he is letting on, or he may have some sort of amnesia. Neither one is not a good sign for Sunny's future.

This Can't Possibly Go Wrong
After MK saves Sunny's life, he claims he actually knows a way out of the badlands back to his home; this revelation gives Sunny an idea that is going to backfire for sure. Sunny will train MK to use his powers and to fight, in exchange MK has to take Veil and his kid out of the Badlands to protect them. Never mind that Veil only wants to leave if Sunny will come with her, never mind that teaching a guy who becomes a super saiyan psychopath when he bleeds to use his power could result in a mega murderer, never you mind that MK has lied to Sunny at least once, Sunny nonetheless decides to bet on MK instead of just using his badness to flee the Badlands with Veil. I suppose making dumb mistakes makes Sunny more human, but damn that is a really dumb decision.

If nothing else, I'm watching this series to see the Widow make good decisions and see a bunch of awesome kung-fu.

 

[Schemy]

A much better episode, in my opinion, than the opener. We get a better picture of the characters around Sunny, who honestly, are more fun to spend time with.

Enter the Widow
We got to see more of the widow this episode, and she's totally badass. After killing a group through of would-be assassins sent by Ryder, she decides to set up an alliance with a large group of nomads. In return the widow then uses those nomads to set up an ambush intended to kill Ryder in preparation of a full assault on Quinn's fort, which would have worked if Sunny was not a complete badass himself. As a side note, it turns out that the Widow owns the oil fields of the Badlands, which is why the barons are not so keen on unseating her, despite her apparent weakness; just like the modern day, everyone wants to stay on the good side of the people that control the oil. The Widow may be the series most competent character, so far.

...And Her Daughters
We also meet the Widow's daughters, in particular Tilda. Tilda, as a sort of reverse Cinderella, is wandering around the forest murdering small woodland creatures when she meets MK. Tilda clearly has fallen for MK, though for his part MK is either oblivious or uninterested. In any case, once Tilda finds out the Widow wants to turn MK into some sort of weapon against the other barons, she helps him escape...by making out with him; apparently that's enough to get him kicked out. Tilda's attraction to MK is almost certainly going to be a major plot point.

Quinn's Gonna Die
We find out more about Quinn, aka "The baron". Quinn used to be a peasant himself, until he became a clipper and somehow killed himself to the top. Quinn visits his doctor, who just so happens to be the adoptive father of Veil (Sunny's girlfriend). While Sunny is visiting with the adoptive mother of Veil, Quinn is getting some very bad news, his headaches are due to a tumor in his brain. Quinn makes what is almost certainly a massive mistake, he orders Sunny to kill the doctor and his wife since they know he's going to die. Sunny refuses, the first time he's ever done so, so Quinn takes Sunny's sword and does it himself. This prompts Sunny to promise Veil he'll get them out of the Badlands somehow, which will probably end poorly. On Quinn's part, it's not entirely clear why he just doesn't tell Ryder to take over and listen to Sunny, admittedly Ryder hasn't had the hard upbringing that Quinn had, but he's at least vaguely competent at coming up with a plan (the ambush of the Widow would have been brilliant if it had worked).

M.K. Lies a Lot
MK spends most of the episode lying, to pretty much everyone, to the point where I'm not even sure whether anything he's telling is true. I suspect MK knows a lot more than he is letting on, or he may have some sort of amnesia. Neither one is not a good sign for Sunny's future.

This Can't Possibly Go Wrong
After MK saves Sunny's life, he claims he actually knows a way out of the badlands back to his home; this revelation gives Sunny an idea that is going to backfire for sure. Sunny will train MK to use his powers and to fight, in exchange MK has to take Veil and his kid out of the Badlands to protect them. Never mind that Veil only wants to leave if Sunny will come with her, never mind that teaching a guy who becomes a super saiyan psychopath when he bleeds to use his power could result in a mega murderer, never you mind that MK has lied to Sunny at least once, Sunny nonetheless decides to bet on MK instead of just using his badness to flee the Badlands with Veil. I suppose making dumb mistakes makes Sunny more human, but damn that is a really dumb decision.

If nothing else, I'm watching this series to see the Widow make good decisions and see a bunch of awesome kung-fu.

Agreed on all this. I'll continue to watch.

 

[ffaoe]

Anyone else notice the model of the capital behind Quinn in his office?

 

[Talgrath]

So, the third episode of the series is getting into exactly the stuff I wanted to see, that's pretty awesome.

The Barons Are Angry
In retaliation for last episode's events, Quinn takes his clippers and attacks the Widow and we get a good sense of why everyone is so afraid of Quinn; his men completely wipe out all of the Widow's defenders, save for her "daughters" (which are pretty clearly not her kids at this point, but her elite assassins) who escape the compound along with the Widow after she fights Quinn and he nearly kills her. Unfortunately for Quinn, the barons have some sort of balance of power agreement in place, and Quinn just violated it. By taking the Widow's oil fields he's gotten the barons riled enough to try to kill him, they call a "parlay" as a thinly veiled excuse to lure him into an ambush. Whoopsie.

Sunny Should Take Quinn's Place
With the barons in a tizzy, we get some insight into how one becomes a baron, and it's pretty straight forward. Quinn wants Sunny to meet with one of his fellow regents, Zephyr, who apparently used to be his lover. Zephyr extends an offer to Sunny, "clip" Quinn and the other barons will recognize him and they'll split the oil fields. Sunny, too loyal or stupid to see this as a solution to his problems (barons can have kids, after all) instead does what Quinn asked him to, and asks Zephyr if her baron will meet with Quinn, the response essentially being maybe, but don't keep your hopes up.

Mommy and Daddy Issues
Ryder, it should be said, seems to have some pretty ****ty parents. After Veil saves his life, his mother tells him he doesn't deserve to inherit Quinn's place as baron in vicious fashion, while Quinn barely checks in on him at all. Quinn's new wife (who is having sex with both of them) is the only one that seems to give a damn about Ryder, that can't bode well. We also get an explanation on what is up Ryder's ****ed up foot, apparently "nomads" aka bandits captured him when he was little and cut off his toes to show he was still alive; this probably hasn't helped the poor kid's psyche.

Next episode promises some pretty epic fights, it should be fascinating to see how thing play out. I'm curious to see if we'll get any further insight into the politics of the Badlands.

 

[Talgrath]

Anyone else notice the model of the capital behind Quinn in his office?

Yes, I'm wondering why he has it. It could just be a visual touch, or maybe it's something important later in the show.

 

[Talgrath]

Now this is getting pretty cool, that was one of the more fun episodes in the series so far.

It's a Trap!
This episode is all about the Widow springing all sorts of traps on the barons, revealing her master plan. First, the Widow nearly sets up a war between Quinn and Jacoby, one of his fellow barons. But even as Jacoby and Quinn work things out, the Widow has sprung another trap, using the distraction to kill the guards at Quinn's mansion and pay off the cogs to join her in rebellion. The final "trap" is for Ryder, Quinn's son, which is more of a negotiation via ambush, it turns out Jacoby's regent, Zephyr, is working with the Widow and she wants Ryder on board too, the price is simple: She wants MK; a term which Ryder readily agrees to.

MK Is Getting Good
A lot of the episode is about MK learning to fight from Sunny and learning to control his murder powers. The training pays off when he's not only able to give Tilda a run for her money but is also able to control his murder powers enough to not murder her; unfortunately Sunny may now be well aware of the Tilda and MK romance. Oh yeah, did I also mention MK lied to Sunny about knowing to get to Azra? Yeah, Sunny doesn't take it well. We also find out that MK murdered an entire boatload of people by himself, probably in his murder rage, so Sunny has got to be feeling pretty pissed off now.

Sunny Looks to Get Out
It turns out for all his talk of not wanting to leave the badlands, it turns out that Waldo actually had a potential way out all along. Waldo hands Sunny an old plastic army man as payment to get to talk to the River King; who offers Sunny passage out, if he kills MK for murdering a whole boat of people.

The second to last episode of the first season looks to be a doozy, one in which a lot of things are hopefully resolved. I'm curious to see who lives and who dies in the next two weeks and whether or not the Widow's plans work out.

 

[Talgrath]

Not sure if anyone is still in on this thread, but if so, you may have been worried the show would take a huge ratings hit without The Walking Dead as intro, while the show did drop significantly without the lead-in from cable's most popular show, it wasn't as bad as you may think. Looks like the show is probably going to do okay on its own.

https://deadline.com/2015/12/into-the-badlands-ratings-no-walking-dead-better-call-saul-amc-1201658976/

 

[LarMoeCur]

I'm still watching but it hasn't hooked me. So far just enough to keep me around. I hope it gets better quickly.

 

[Talgrath]

A very interesting episode, in which the various tensions between the characters are laid bare. MK makes it pretty clear that if it comes down to anyone else besides Tilda, that he's siding with Tilda. Sunny's loyalty to the baron is brought, perhaps, to its end, but Quinn's lie/half-truth to Veil about who killed her parents could torpedo Sunny's plans. MK's power is revealed to Quinn, though nobody knew he was observing, I'm sure that will cause all sorts of issues. What's more, it turns out that the baron's wife's father knows more about MK than perhaps anyone else, as his group plans to try to "purify" the "dark one". I'm not sure that Sunny and company can tie up enough loose ends next week for them to actually get out of the Badlands, I guess we'll see.

 

[Schemy]

I finally got caught up. I'd say I'm hooked. I just need to know more about this world.

 

[hio3791]

My take: Sunny is stupid for not killing Quinn. Veil is stupid for not killing Quinn and stupider for believing him. What has MK done for Sunny that Sunny won't just kill him. It's hard to believe they've made it this far in this world being this way.

I thought the fight scene at the end was a bit rough with the CGI, but damn, I love watching the Widow fight, nonetheless.

 

[slym2none]

I love watching the Widow

You had me right there... something about me & pale-skinned redheads...

 

[hio3791]

You had me right there... something about me & pale-skinned redheads...

Yup, she's hot!

 

[Talgrath]

Wow, hell of an episode to end the season on. A few musings:

-Are those monks in the orange robes "dark ones" like MK? They seem to be able to control their darkness and they seem to be able to control MK's darkness by touching him. Despite their abilities those, the three of them aren't able to outmatch Sunny until they go "dark mode", which makes Sunny very scary.

-Sunny had a pendant similar to MK's, could he have similar powers that have somehow been repressed?

-The Widow's plan kinda sorta works. Ryder and, it appears, Zephyr, do get out of things alive and both Jacoby and Quinn are dead...it's just not exactly how they planned. Speaking of the Widow, laid up as she is with a nasty infectious wound, Tilda was given a choice by Veil, to give the Widow poison or a tincture to cure her...but we don't know what Tilda chose.

-The episode ends with both MK and Sunny leaving the Badlands...just not the way they thought. It's pretty evident Sunny and MK are going to have to find their separate ways back into the Badlands, if they want to protect the people they care about.

AMC better damn well pick this up for another season, I want answers dammit!

 

[ffaoe]

One online source states it's renewed:

http://renewcanceltv.com/shows/into-the-badlands/

 

[hio3791]

The final scene was awesome. We got to see that Sunny has insane fighting skills. The monks with the ability to control "dark mode" add an exciting element to the show.

Are we certain Quinn is dead? It sure seems like it but it was too easy.

 

[Schemy]

The final scene was awesome. We got to see that Sunny has insane fighting skills. The monks with the ability to control "dark mode" add an exciting element to the show.

Are we certain Quinn is dead? It sure seems like it but it was too easy.

My thoughts as well. I wouldn't be surprised if he is still alive somehow, someway.

Or he could be dead, because the story is not about him.

I thought this episode was awesome. I need to watch it again because the wife thought it was discuss our day time while I was trying to finish it up.

 

[Talgrath]

The final scene was awesome. We got to see that Sunny has insane fighting skills. The monks with the ability to control "dark mode" add an exciting element to the show.

Are we certain Quinn is dead? It sure seems like it but it was too easy.

I suspect he is, if nothing else the show has already told us he was "dead" and it seemed like there was a long, long line for his head. Marton Csokas also has a very, very busy schedule in the upcoming year, he's already in filming on two movies and has another couple in post production. It's still possible he's alive...but it's pretty unlikely, if nothing else getting the actor back will be difficult, especially given all of the off screen work that went into the show (they spent a couple of weeks in a martial arts primer camp before they filmed a single scene, for example). More likely than not, if they focus on the barons next season, it's going to be about the Widow and her alliance trying to hold onto their gains against the other four barons.

 

[slym2none]

I hope Quinn is dead. His "Southern" accent is terrible.

 

[Talgrath]

A bit of thread necromancy! If you're interested in the show, I just saw this today (yes, I realize, like 4 months too late). Looks like the show won't be coming back until 2017, which seems like a really long wait between seasons for a TV show, but I suppose it probably takes a while to make. More info here:

Season 2 2017

 

[hio3791]

Are we certain Quinn is dead? It sure seems like it but it was too easy.

Well, that happened.