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?”
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”
by Dominic Mah
So I went to my preferred karaoke bar in NYC the other night, and who should be there but two of the stars of AMC’s Into the Badlands, Emily Beecham and Ally Ioannides, a.k.a. The Widow and Tilda. This is because magical occurrences happen inside karaoke bars, all the time.
Continue reading “‘Into the Badlands’ Stars Go to Karaoke Bars And You Should Too”
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 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”
Last year was the year of the most iconic feminist leading lady in action/sci-fi, arguably the most in cinematic history: the one and only Imperator Furiosa played be Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road. Thanks to a fellow NOC, I have finally finished the way too short first season of Into The Badlands. Following Furiosa and a long history of leading women in Hong Kong action cinema with better acting chops and doing more roundhouse damage than their male co-stars (Michelle Yeoh will be back soon as Yu Shu Lien people!), Into the Badlands also introduced us to strong heroines whose stories I hope to better understand in more detail in a second season. More than Wu’s Sunny, more than the avatars, even more than my man Cung Le, it was Emily Beecham’s show-stopping performance as The Widow that locked me in.
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”
The third episode of Into the Badlands — “White Stork Spreads Wings” — will be the last one to follow The Walking Dead since last night was the mid-season finale for everyone’s favorite zombie show. How Badlands will fare without its massive lead-in will be a question to be answered next week. If this episode is any indication, viewers should be coming back in full force even without a zombie pre-show.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Who Run the World? Girls!”
For obvious reasons, we’ve been riding the Into the Badlands train from jump, and now that it’s here — and a huge hit — we couldn’t wait to add the show to the Recap rotation. We’ve been holding on to this one for a while too, since we got an early look at episode two a few months ago. As much as I dug the pilot, I always thought the second episode was where the series was going to take off with audiences. And if nerd twitter was any indication Sunday night, everyone else agreed.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: #WheresWidow”
Originally posted at Angry Asian Man
As we near the end of 2015, one thing is for sure: it’s a great time to be an Asian American television consumer. For the first time in history, you’ll need two hands to count the number of major television programs to feature Asian American leads! On ABC alone, you have shows like Fresh of the Boat, Dr. Ken, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Quantico.
This Sunday night, the biggest network of them all — AMC — throws its hat into the ring with Into the Badlands, a dystopian martial arts drama starring Daniel Wu. And I can safely say the show is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: The Time is Now”
