Season three of Into the Badlands is brutal, action-packed, and utterly unique right from the start. The season revolves around Sunny (Daniel Wu) trying to establish a better life for his infant son, Henry in the Badlands. While all around them, the Badlands have been consumed by the war between Baron Chau and The Widow (Emily Beecham). As they battle it out for control of the territory and power, Sunny is on the run when Henry gets mysteriously ill. Forced to team up with his old friend, Bajie (Nick Frost), Sunny sets out to cure his son of the gift. On this journey, we finally uncover Sunny’s origins and the truth behind the mythical city of Azra. Unlike the other seasons, the third season deals with various large-scale wars begin fought.
This season introduces a variety of new players that cause more conflict within the battling the Badlands. Pilgrim (Babou Ceesay) and his devoted acolytes set out to rebuild the city of Azra utilizing the gift to slaughter those who stand in the way. While Black Lotus, a mysterious group who proclaim to be protectors of the world, hunt down anything related to Azra and the Dark Ones.
The first season of Into the Badlands introduces an apocalyptic world that is gritty, brutal, colorful, and unique all in one. Rebuilt into a feudal type structure of Barons and their devoted warriors, Clippers, the Badlands is unlike any other world created in television. The main character Sunny, a Regent, and Clipper, who takes on helping a mysterious boy with unexplained powers. From the start, a variety of complex characters are introduced into the background that captures your interest and helps the story progress.
The second season continues giving us a dark and brutal feeling of the Badlands while starting to focus more on other characters and their struggles as they strive for power and survival. The Widow in this season starts to garner interest as she battles the other Barons to transform the Badlands into a better place for everyone. While we’re given a more comprehensive look at some of the other Barons and their territories. M.K (Aramis Knight) is no longer under Sunny’s training and is off discovering more about the gift his cursed with.
Season three holds onto the reigns of exploring the Badlands while war is raging on. With 16 episodes, this season is the biggest one that involves complex themes like religion, family, and devotion. A theme that has been prevalent since the beginning is love and devotion for a worthy cause. Each character at one point is fighting for a worthy cause or love, only to be faced with the real world and forced to reevaluate who they are as people. An issue noted with this season is some of the characters progress seems to be sped up or overlooked. This could be related to the fact that they wanted to fit in much as possible as this season due to AMC canceling the show. For a martial arts show, Into the Badlands does give enough complexity to its characters while still providing as many memorizing fight scenes as possible.
Throughout the seasons some of the dialogue and delivery seems a bit strange and cold which sometimes trips you up. The fight scenes paired up with this dialogue give off an old school martial arts vibe that is utterly unique for a tv show. The best part of this series as a whole is the dazzling fight sequences in every episode. The jaw-dropping fight scenes never disappoint and seem to get more brutal and gory as the season progresses.
The scenery and clothing pieces of Into the Badlands create a stunning and captivity world that unifies the ancient world with the modern dystopian society with a martial arts influence. The colors involved in this world aren’t deep colors that would traditionally be found in similarly themed shows but rather an array of exquisite and intense colors. From white to brilliant blue to vivid red, the Badlands is made up of a collection of colors that give them meaning and help distinguish characters. Each character adopts its style within their color scheme that reflects who they are as people. Just like each character has a color style, their choice of weapon and fight style reflects who they are as fighters. Weapons of choice vary from character to character and can range from katanas, crossbows, spears, and even mace.
Into the Badlands season three ended with an epic bang of fight scenes, deaths, and revelations. It ended giving us closure of sorts for the series but also left with a mystery future for the Badlands. The cancellation of this show is a true tragedy for television because there’s no show quite like it. It’s one of a kind that will always stand out amongst other shows. The marriage of material-arts and crumbling post-apocalyptic world is truly a fresh fantasy that is unapologetically its self.
