AMC’s Into the Badlands season 1 is now on DVD and Blu-ray. Find out what we thought of the freshman run and all of the show’s bonus features.
About ‘Into the Badlands’
Centuries from now, civilization as we know it has ceased to exist. Billions perished and nations collapsed, but over time, a feudal society emerged where the strongest rose to wealth and power. This area, known as the Badlands, is uneasily divided among seven rival Barons who control the resources necessary to daily life. Each Baron has loyal armies of trained assassins known as Clippers. Baron Quinn’s head Clipper, Sunny (Daniel Wu), grew swiftly through the ranks to become Quinn’s most trusted advisor. For decades, Quinn has been unchallenged as the Badlands’ most powerful Baron, but there is a rising suspicion among his rivals that he is growing vulnerable. The territory’s newest Baron, The Widow (Emily Beecham), has begun testing his appetite for a fight.
An ambush leads Sunny to a teenage boy, M.K. (Aramis Knight), who Sunny soon learns harbors a dark secret and has a hefty bounty on his head. Sunny selects M.K. as his Colt (student) and together, they will embark on an odyssey that could mean the difference between chaos and enlightenment for everyone in the Badlands.
‘Into the Badlands’ season 1 review
I’ve already talked at length about the show’s use of fight choreography and why I think it’s such an interesting and important change for American television, but while Into the Badlands does make combat a large part of the show, that is not at all the primary focus.
Into the Badlands is about power. There are those who have it and demand to be respected, and those who want the respect that power affords. There are also those who respect the power, and those who constantly challenge it. Everyone has their own reason for their dynamic with power, and therein lay the story for this show.
The fact that Into the Badlands season 1 is only six episodes affords the show the luxury to set up a world and lay groundwork for what’s to come without dragging the story out past its time. We meet the characters, we understand their challenges and desires, and we see them take their first step on the road to the next part of their life.
This show is an interesting amalgamation of culture. It is set in the future, and yet at its core, it feels so very old. Between the costumes, the swordplay, the plantation workers, and social hierarchy, Badlands somehow comes across familiar and yet different.
This unique world lets the show dabble in a little bit of everything, and the incredibly fleshed out characters live so vibrantly among the backgrounds that everyone feels so real and alive. Every actor on this show, including the younger ones, brings their A game. Then again, I would expect no less from AMC.
Into the Badlands could be for anyone and everyone, but it probably won’t be. The highly stylized fight sequences will be a turn off for some, but if you can accept that one’s ability can overcome something as basic and true as gravity, you will see the show for what it is: a story about people who only want to better themselves and their children.
Special features
The following special features appear on the DVD/Blu-ray release:
- Inside Into the Badlands
- Anatomy of a Fight
- Building the World of Into the Badlands
- The Characters of Into the Badlands: The Barons
- The Characters of Into the Badlands: The Clippers
- The Master: Into the Badlands Fight Camp Episode 1
- Creating Real Kung Fu: Into the Badlands Fight Camp Episode 2
- Bringing It All Together: Into the Badlands Fight Camp Episode 3
- Into the Badlands Digital Comic
There is a heavy reliance on the fight sequences to fill out the special features here, but you won’t find me complaining. Between “Anatomy of a Fight” and the “Fight Camp” episodes, there’s plenty to watch if you enjoy how the choreography is developed and consequently broken down.
Aside from that, most of the other special features feel basic because you learn much of the information about the characters from watching the actual show, but there are some insights which prove to be interesting bits of information to be stored for later use.
The interviews with the cast, and especially the creators, are also fun to dive into, if for no other reason than to see how passionately they all feel about their characters and this world.