No. 10: 'Into the Badlands' A Feast for the Eyes
It’s so easy to forget, as we focus on witty banter and inspired Sorkin-esque speeches, but we watch television. And never more than now. Given the ubiquity of HD broadcasts and 1080p monitors, virtually every viewer can have a home theatre that’s superior in some important ways to the local Cineplex. And there’s no better source material for your big old flat TV than AMC’s new martial arts drama, Into the Badlands.
Badlands is the most visually arresting show on television. The production design and costuming are feature worthy, with rich, saturated colors and attention to detail that brings this antebellum redux landscape to life. When the director says “Action,” he means it as each episode is filled with enough intricately choreographed sword fights and martial arts sequences to satisfy your inner Tarantino.
But when the bloodletting stops, there are characters deserving of your attention, notably Daniel Wu's conflicted warrior Sunny and fledgling bad-ass Tilda (played by Ally Ioannides,) who are trying to make sense of this this ultra-violent world, while their bosses, The Baron (Marton Csokas) and The Widow (Emily Beecham) are content to simply raise the bar on brutality. It’s still early, but Badlands is a show very much worth watching. In the most literal sense of the word.
