StokerScore: Gogglebox - Into The Badlands

#StokerScoreTV : Highly Recommended

Evidently this tv show from AMC is loosely based on the 15th century Chinese novel, Journey to the West but I'm not so sure. I've seen tv shows (Monkey) and movies (Journey to the West) that claim the same thing with more obvious links and although season two of Into the Badlands has a character called Bajie, whose name appears in the story, it would seem that this may be just a looser interpretation. Whichever way it goes, compared to the dull repetition of The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead from the same company, Badlands brings colour, style, charm, wit and drama to your one-hour episodic viewing.

In 2016's Season One we met Sunny, an enforcer/assassin for his boss, Quinn. Seemingly set in some future America where society has collapsed and been replaced by feudal Barons, these communities jealously protect the resources they have saved. They also need to trade them with the other Barons but sometimes this system fails and results in skirmishes for territory or all-out war and the need for trained people to do the fighting. It's not really explained why they prefer swords, knives, shuriken and staves instead of guns, especially when they have machinery and oil but the focus of this universe is hand-to-hand fighting.

The first season's six episodes concerned themselves with exploring this society through the eyes of Sunny and Quinn and amongst others; MK, a mysterious young man with supernatural, possibly demonic abilities; The Widow, another of the Barons; and Sunny's pregnant wife. There is political intrigue, a mystery surrounding a compass, the meaning of loyalty and honour, and some beautifully choreographed martial arts and wire-fu that along with a steampunk set of visuals in the design and colour palette left me desperately hoping it wouldn't be cut after one season.

I'm not sure how the American audience approval ratings work because I've seen amazing shows cancelled and mediocre ones renewed but I thank whoever it was for gifting us a Season Two of this show, which has just finished as I write this and has a third season already ordered. In Season two we start with the characters in their own private hells left over from the end of season one. Giving absolutely nothing away, each character has choices to make and those choices have bigger consequences than in season one. The world this time around seems much bigger than was hinted at previously. I also love the introduction of Nick Frost in the role of Bajie. He is the last person that I thought could have credibly carried off kung fu, yet he's really good to watch and absolutely not just around for comic buffoonery.

"I'm sorry I mentioned The Huntsman: Winter's War"

Season two has a different feel altogether when compared with the first series. Nowhere is this seen more than in the last episode which has the surviving characters seemingly further from their comfort zones. If you have only caught a couple of episodes, I wholeheartedly recommend you to go back to the beginning and stick with it. It's a great show with a spiritual vibe that other shows can only wish that they could have.