Into the Badlands Series Review

Into the Badlands (2015-2019)
Season 1 - 6 episodes (2015)
Season 2 - 10 episodes (2017)
Season 3 - 16 episodes (2018-19)

Buy Into the Badlands on Amazon (paid link)
Created by: Alfred Gough, Miles Millar
Starring: Daniel Wu, Orla Brady, Emily Beecham, Aramis Knight, Ally Ioannides, Nick Frost, Sarah Bolger, Oliver Stark, Madeleine MAntock, Martin Csokas, Stephen Lang
Rated: TV-14
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Plot
A mighty warrior and a young boy with supernatural powers search for enlightenment in a ruthless post-apocalyptic America controlled by feudal barons.

Verdict
It's an interesting premise. The first season pairs an elite fighter with a gifted kid possessing supernatural abilities where they can benefit each other. Successive seasons strain under the weight of the ever expanding lore. With each season this becomes more convoluted and the way the final season tries to connect all of the characters is forced. This starts with one supernatural kid and by the end of the series nearly everyone has some kind of gift. I really though this might connect this apocalyptic world with our world in reality, but that never comes despite some big nods.
Skip it.

Review
The first season is short and to the point. Unfortunately successive seasons aren't. This is a post apocalypse world with lords, barons, and their servants. Sunny (Daniel Wu) is the protagonist and the Baron Quinn's (Martin Csokas) top enforcer, an efficient knight called a "clipper." He's fully devoted to the baron.

S1: Daniel Wu plays Sunny

The setting is interesting enough, but the action and fight scenes are what separates this from other shows. It's a fantastical martial arts style where the characters leap acrobatically and exhibit fantastic reflexes.

Sunny wants to leave Baron Quinn which isn't permitted. That and the surrounding areas are dangerous He's hoping that M.K. (Aramis Knight) can provide a map. He's a kid with a dangerous power and multiple parties after him because of it.

The first season presents a typical story, but the setting provides interest. There's plenty of drama with shifting allegiances and a ruling class that we and the characters want to take down. The first season doesn't offer much resolution, serving as a setup for the larger story the next seasons will present.

With season two, Sunny made it out of the Badlands but not in the way he hoped. He escapes a prison camp with Bajie (Nick Frost), determined to get back to the Badlands. The second season isn't as focused. The characters are separated so we get disparate stories. Sunny is trying to get back to the action, M.K. is removed from it and Quinn, his wife, and the Widow (Emily Beecham) fight for power. We even get a dream episode which always feels like padding. The plot stands still as we wait for the dreamer to die or wake up.
M.K. was presented as having unique powers, but the more we learn and the farther we get into the season, we discover there are several like him. Sunny allies with whomever will help him reach his goal. Everyone is connected, and it doesn't seem plausible.

S3: Sherman Augustus, Eugenia Yuan, Nick Frost, Daniel Wu, Emily Beecham, Lewis Tan, Ally Ioannides, play Nathaniel Moon, Kannin, Bajie, Sunny, Minerva, Gaius Chau, Tilda

The start of season three feels similar to season two. All the characters are split, trying to get back to the action. The Widow is looking to consolidate power, with the show having traded one baron for another.  There are new characters, but alliances constantly changing remains consistent.

The lore becomes cumbersome. This lacks the focus of the first season. It ret-cons characters and interactions for added drama, but that just feels cheap. We don't need all of these character intricately linked. If these links were real, they would have been mentioned in prior seasons. This season loses me. Sunny ends up being integral to the lore and the dark power. It's so contrived. This season dabbles with the long lost brother and previously unseen brother as a way to deepen the lore for a longer season, but the more we learn the more it feels like it's just stretching the story. I kept thinking that surely this is the next to last episode that's setting up the finale, but we keep getting more set up and episodes. It started in the second season, but this season especially feels like a lot of  'well actually' as the show attempts to connect all of the main characters and shows us how they've all interacted previously even though it's never been mentioned. It's a show too interested in lore and mythology and forgetting that there needs to be a story and interesting characters to create a foundation for the lore. I was bored for a lot of the season.

This started with one gifted kid that has special powers, then there are several kids with the same power, and by the third season most of the main cast has this same power too. It completely dilutes the concept. By the end we have characters giving this power to everyone. The final season really pushes this idea of the perfect old world. That's a letdown as I kept thinking it was setting up some neat connection to our world, either a wink or nod. It never makes a connection.

Season one is easily the best. It kept the story simple. By the time we get to season three the lore is so convoluted that it becomes boring. It seems like there was no overarching plan. The show edits character backstory as needed to create drama. What started as an interesting concept becomes exploited.