Miles Millar and Al Gough — best known to NOC readers as the creators of Smallville and Into the Badlands — serve as the showrunners, executive producers, and writers for Wednesday. The show premieres November 23, only on Netflix. This year, at New York Comic Con, I spoke with both of them during a roundtable interview.
Continue reading “Showrunners Miles Millar and Al Gough on Their New Series, ‘Wednesday’”
From the cold fronts of Westeros, to the chilling halls of Nevermore Academy. Gwendoline Christie joins the cast of Wednesday — the brand new Netflix series — as Larissa Reems.
Continue reading “Gwendoline Christie Joins the Spooky Cast of Netflix’s ‘Wednesday’”
Netflix has cast Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams in a new live-action, comedic coming-of-age tale. Wednesday will be directed by Tim Burton, who will be making his directorial TV debut. The legendary character has already been portrayed in television, film, video games, and musicals, but Wednesday has always been part of The Addams Family ensemble until now.
Continue reading “Jenna Ortega Set to Star in All-New Netflix Series, ‘Wednesday’”
It’s been a hell of a year for Lewis Tan. And for the next seven days, it’s going to be one hell of a week! An O.G. and official Friend of the NOC, Lewis Tan is back on Hard NOC Life.
Originally posted at Just Add Color
The last time I wrote about Into the Badlands on this site, I was… distressed. Veil died in the Season 2 finale, after being tortured for basically the entire season.
Continue reading “Three Reasons Why I’m Giving ‘Into the Badlands’ Another Shot”
So that happened.
We’ve been singing the praises of Into the Badlands all season, but man, that death was disappointing. I’ll keep the spoiler about which character(s) met their ultimate demise until after the jump. Just know that it has made me reevaluate how I feel about this show.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?”
The second season of AMC’s Into the Badlands concludes on Sunday, so our intrepid live tweeter Laura Sirikul joins Keith to look back on one of our favorite shows! Of course, they can’t help juxtaposing Ballands and Iron Fist, but they also explain Daniel Wu’s previous comments about whitewashing and why Oliver Stark needs to be a guest on a future episode. They also share their predictions about the finale and how Keith decided to mashup Badlands and Hamilton for #IntoTheHamLands.
In a fateful example of perfect timing, the airing of Into the Badlands episode nine, titled “Nightingale Sings No More,” coincided with Mother’s Day. So how does the Badlands writing crew celebrate mothers? By ripping their babies away from them, locking them in solitary confinement, and having them duel their daughters in deadly sword-to-sword combat, of course! More on that in a minute…
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Disciplined Dissidents”
There are few nerdy pursuits that bring me a lot of pure joy anymore. Hamilton, of course, is one, and Into the Badlands is the other. And like what the homie Shawn Taylor said, sometimes it just feels better to big up a thing you love than to tear down something you don’t. That’s why I love giving these HamLands recaps to you, the people. One, unwarranted Hamilton references is kinda my thing — just ask my poor family. And two, the hashtag Into the HamLands — which was initially designed to house Badlands-specific Hamilton puns, IS BEING USED BY THE CAST AND WRITERS OF THE SHOW! (Badlands, that is. Still waiting for Lin to chime in.)
So when Veil herself tweeted this gem below, I knew it had to be the title of this week’s ‘cap!
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Equal, Opposite Reactions”
Apologies for the delay in getting this weeks Badlands recap out1. I know how much you anticipate my weekly Hamilton references! It was probably a good thing that I didn’t watch this episode live though. Not sure I would’ve been able to sleep had I seen Artemis haunt my television right before going to bed!
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: What is a Legacy?”
Despite my better judgement, I went with a Hamilton pun this week rather than straight up lyrics from the show. Couldn’t help it. The fight scene between the Abbots and Sunny’s old and new sidekicks — juxtaposed against a Christmas-y backdrop, no less — was a highlight! Before settling on “A Winter’s Ball” wordplay, the other obvious number to reference was Jasmine Cephas-Jones’ showstopper “Say No to This,” thanks to twitter user @Bespectacled_Cy!
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: A Winter’s Brawl”
Another week, another Into the Badlands recap that takes its cue from a Hamilton song. While it’s pretty obvious that I’m quoting Lin-Manuel’s soliloquy from the end of “The World Was Wide Enough” — fittingly about the lead-up and aftermath of a duel not unlike what Quinn and Ryder did last week — this week’s subtitle has as much to do with #GhostRyder as it does with the return of Sunny and Bajie who are just on the other side of the Badlands as well. And speaking of “other sides,” we see some characters aligning with other sides too. But really, it’s all about Quinn’s son on the other side.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: A Glimpse of the Other Side”
Once again, we’re venturing back Into the Badlands as we finally get to see the much anticipated Baron Conclave. Last week, if you recall, we saw Minerva and Waldo arrive at Ryder’s estate to take part in the gathering. Basically, this is when all of the barons in the Badlands come together to sign agreements and hash out differences — without swords. Mostly. This particular conclave has been convened to vote on whether the Widow is allowed to even be a baron. Debates ensue, and all I can think of are the lyrics for both “Cabinet Battle” tracks from Hamilton.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: You Don’t Have the Votes”
In my quest to title each Into the Badlands recap after lyrics from a Hamilton song, the writers did me a solid by letting Nathaniel Moon, played by veteran actor Sherman Augustus, say a line from the classic George Washington showstopper:
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Teach ‘Em How to Say Goodbye”
AMC’s Into the Badlands is in their second season and are going strong with their viewership, storyline, and martial arts. Unlike other series that attempts the martial arts genre, Into the Badlands’ stellar moves can be attributed to executive producer, and star of the series, Daniel Wu.
The Nerds of Color got a chance to sit down and chat with the actor about the second season and what makes the show so appealing to audiences.
Continue reading “One-on-One with Into the Badlands’ Daniel Wu”
In the first part of a special podcast crossover with DC TV Classics, Keith chats with Into the Badlands co-creator Al Gough. They talk about Al’s start in Hollywood with his writing and producing partner Miles Millar; working with Hong Kong cinema legends like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Michelle Yeoh, and Daniel Wu; how difficult it is to accurately portray kung fu on broadcast television; and the importance of representation and why the onus is on producers and directors to find and cast diverse talent.
Subscribe to DC TV Classics or download part two of this interview here.
Continue reading “Journey Into the Badlands with Co-Creator Al Gough”
AMC’s Into the Badlands might have gotten a ten-episode second season (up four episodes from season one), but there’s no slowing down narratively. Episode 2 — which is actually chapter 8, proving just how propulsive the story of the Badlands is — wastes no time getting Sunny out of the mines, after a pretty awesome, and gruesome, fight scene to open the show. I would put the rest of the episode into three distinct buckets, that just so happen to coincide with a line from Hamilton‘s “My Shot.” And yes, I’m keeping up these #IntoTheHamLands recap titles all season!
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Young, Scrappy, and Hungry”
After more than a year off the air, AMC’s dystopian martial arts epic Into the Badlands has finally returned! And with it, so have these NOC Recaps. Speaking of which, I’m going to try to title each recap with a line from Hamilton because 1.) seriously, have you met me?; and 2.) the Badlands writers have basically challenged me as much. So, appropriately enough, the Season Two premiere is named after a lyric from “Yorktown.”
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Friends All Scattered to the Winds”
Five years ago today, Smallville ended its historic ten-year run on The CW, fka The WB. At the time, it was the longest running genre series on-air and is still the longest running superhero series in television history. It’s hard to believe now, when superheroes have completely permeated popular culture, but Smallville’s popularity was a rarity in the early 2000s. The current incarnation of The CW — which after the acquisition of Supergirl from CBS should just rename itself DCTV — owes a great debt to the Superman origin story shepharded by Into the Badlands creators Al Gough and Miles Millar. (FYI, Craig Byrne, founder of Kryptonsite — the definitive Smallville destination on the internet, penned a must-read retrospective of the series at Collider).
Continue reading “Waiting for Superman: The Beginning of the End of Smallville“
One of my favorite television series in the last year is Into the Badlands. The noirish dystopian Wuxia drama is the perfect blend of action, mystery and mysticism that keeps my eyes glued to the flatscreen.
As is the case with all things PoC excellence, Into the Badlands has caught its share of hate from racist white fandom. I’m not talking about legit criticisms but nitpicking and feeble excuses that are never made for legions of lesser white shows.
Needless to say I’m not having it.
When the shade is thrown, I’m honor bound to make the haters day a “Sunny” one.
After last week’s episode ramped up the stakes for our heroes, we headed into the first season finale with a lot of questions that needed answers. Who poisoned Jade? Will Quinn take advantage of M.K.’s gifts? Will Sunny turn on his young apprentice to secure passage on the River King’s ship? Did the Widow survive her duel with Sunny? Will Veil blame Sunny for the death of her parents? Will the show come back for a second season? And why are there only six episodes for the season?
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Bloody Barons”
Continuing our recap catch up, the penultimate episode of Into the Badlands was clearly the most interesting of the season. And that’s too bad because after this weekend’s season finale, we don’t know if AMC will be bringing the show back for a second one. We hope so since all the pieces are finally in place for an epic showdown between good, evil, and everything in between.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: The Butterfly Effect”
Last night’s Into the Badlands — clunkily titled “Two Tigers Subdue Dragons” and not to be confused with this — was tasked with propelling us into the end of the season. In addition to a promised Baron v Baron showdown, the episode was the first to effectively use an episode-ending cliffhanger to guarantee viewers will tune in for the final two entries of its debut season. But did it deliver?
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Warriors vs. Clippers”
