S01.E02: Fist Like A Bullet

[formerlyfreedom]

M.K. finds refuge in an unlikely and dangerous place, while Sunny's loyalty is tested when Quinn tries to force him to commit an unspeakable act.

 

 

 

[Primetimer]

Physician, good luck healing thyself.

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[Greta]

This show reminds me of my late, ridiculous, beloved Dominion, although ITB is not quite measuring up (at least yet) to the nuggets of crack-like addictive awesomeness that show often exuded through the gaping plot holes and shaky worldbuilding.  And at least this Special Snowflake Chosen One is a fairly goodlooking (for a baby) acting mediocrity, not the unholy spawn of a Cabbage Patch doll and a potato relentlessly undermining the craft of acting itself like a rabid termite (not that I have any residual Dominion bitterness still lingering, not at all.)

 

I think I'm mainly watching for the cinematography and worldbuilding because none of the characters really grabbed me. I like Sunny, but I'm not invested in what happens to him yet. I usually love the sullen, dissolute, spoiled but disregarded son of the villain, but here I'm just "meh" on Ryder for now. The Widow and Tilda are just types to me still. I might be interested in what happened to the Widow's son Percival depending on how it plays out.  To be fair, I haven't seen the pilot yet.

 

I have just decided that there was some sort of plague (perhaps engineered) that genetically modified people to be deathly allergic to constituent ingredients in gunpowder. That way, it doesn't hurt my head.

[shrewd.buddha]

With Sunny's tattoo strategy, there's not going to be much room left on his body at the rate he is racking up kills.

Does he do a head count at the end of each kung-fu spectacular, or do you think he just keeps a running tally in his head? 

 

Speaking of kung-fu extravaganzas .. we had two in this episode : one with The Widow and one with Sunny. And while still impressive, I'm wondering how these are going to go as the episodes continue. Bigger? Even more attackers? Right now, the fight choreography is the best thing this show has got going for it. 

 

I'm ready for Sunny and The Chosen Child to start their journey Out of the Badlands. I get it - the Baron's crazy evil, has a dysfunctional family, and the other Barons want to take over.

...But no one wants to take over enough to use bows and arrows or have a secret gun factory in operation..

 

But this isn't Game of Thrones. And I am not really interested in watching Baron Quinn take a whole season (or more) to die. 

Edited November 23, 2015 by shrewd.buddha

[lynnea6]

I'm ready for Sunny and The Chosen Child to start their journey Out of the Badlands. I get it - the Baron's crazy evil, has a dysfunctional family, and the other Barons want to take over.

 

I know, right? I got the impression that this show was about traveling in the Badlands, not preparing to go into the Badlands. At this pace they might start their journey next season. Still, I am enjoying the show so far.

[paigow]

What lies outside the Badlands?

[Ronin Jackson]

If the critics got screeners of the first two episodes, I can understand the negative reviews a bit more after seeing this episodes. All the drama and rivalry about the barons is not particularly compelling... the only story I find potentially compelling is the escape from the Badlands and looks like they are not going to jump right into that, plus they're throwing in a bit of dippy teen romance. The second fight scene was pretty cool but hopefully they can get some narrative push by the end of these first six episodes... I'm rooting for this to be something I'd want to watch.

[Tarasme]

I'm not eager to share this, but I really like this show. After being less than enthused about the new crop of action-thriller-genre shows this season (especially since I had such high hopes for so many), this is- egads- the only new show I look forward to each week.

 

I like the Widow. It's interesting to me that she is completely defined by her title, yet, she maintains a steadfast contradiction to most aspects of it. 

Widows are often depicted as                                                            THIS Widow is

-Forlorn                                                                              -Not grieving but thriving and plotting and planning

-Need care/ keeping                                                           -Doing a decent job of caring for everyone under her purview (except regent)

-Missing physical strength that was provided by husband            -not lacking strength nor skill

 

For me, Tilda is also full of interesting contradictions between the superficial and internal (that's not really the word I want, *sigh*).

 

M.K.'s ok- but I'm much more interested in his origin and enhanced abilities than I am him.

 

Sunny and Veil (sp?)- I'm interested enough to want a happy ending for them.

 

(*note- So sorry that this spacing is way off!)

Edited November 24, 2015 by Tarasme

[Stardancer Supreme]

The Widow is pretty bad ass.  It's also nice to see even in this world men tend to underestimate women.  I wonder what made her kill her husband. It probably has something to do with her son who is no longer alive.  Was she a clipper herself? If I was a Baron, it might behoove me to have everyone around me be able to protect me with deadly force.  

 

What takes me out of the story a little is that Sunny is clearly the most deadliest Clipper evah, so why are these Barons just throwing men at him? There's nobody in the other Clipper factions that is at least on Sunny's level?  Tilda may be good, but I'll bet Sunny would gut her like a fish.  The Widow may be bad enough to take him, maybe.  But she is at least smart enough to want to take Quinn out herself.  Even with a tumor, he may draw blood. 

 

I felt bad for Veil's parents. I'm glad she didn't immediately assume Sunny killed them. 

 

When Ryder comes to, he is going to be a problem.

[thuganomics85]

I'm still mainly here for the fight scenes.  The story, characters, or dialogue aren't exactly grabbing me, but those are some awesome fight scene.  Although, I worry that if they are too careful, they could go overboard with it.  For example, The Widow's big scene at the beginning was great at establishing her as a badass, but then Sunny pretty much dispatches 5 times that many with ease, so now that makes me think if those two ever come to blows, how can Sunny not win?  I get he's the lead and he needs to an ass-kicker, but maybe build up slowly.  Or the finale is going to be him taking on a hundred people at the same time.

 

So, Quinn has a tumor, huh?  Unless this is a fake-out, this sounds like a way to dispatch by the time the season ends.  I can easily seem them making him a one-season villain, and then doing elsewhere.  I just don't see how he can survive that.

 

Stephen Lang!  He is always awesome.  

 

Still could care less about this kid with powers stuff, but it sounds like he is going to be important to the "war", so I guess we're stuck with him.

[Raja]

Maybe The Widow would remove her platform spiked heeled boots for combat gear to even the odds.

[MrWhyt]

What takes me out of the story a little is that Sunny is clearly the most deadliest Clipper evah, so why are these Barons just throwing men at him? There's nobody in the other Clipper factions that is at least on Sunny's level?

Men are cheap, and common. Why risk your best fighter against their best fighter when you can just throw waves of expendables at him in the hope one gets through?

 

Also: looking at it from a show business perspective. You build up to super badass one on one fights you don't put them in the first episodes.

[johntfs]

I kind of want to like this show but it's really pushing the "because the plot demands it" button pretty hard.  Why does the Widow leave the room before MK is tested (because the plot demands it).  Why does Quinn accept as a Clipper candidate a kid he sentenced to death? (because the plot etc)  Why does Quinn murder the doc and his wife and then allow their grown child, who will want to avenge them, to live?  (yadda, yadda plot).

[candall]

Oh dear, it's been a week and I'm only poster Lucky 13.  Not a good sign.

 

I, however, am a solid yes.  I wanted to queue right up in the first ten minutes and say:  DAMN, The Widow has moves!  And as opposed to Sunny, she's not all, like, dispassionate about her work.  Many of those guys were corpsed long before she stopped slashing and stabbing.  It's probably those stilettos that make her extra pissy.

 

Frankly, I knocked out a couple games of Freecell while Sunny knocked out his next 75 tattoos.  (Ow.  Ow.  Ow. . .)  But there were at least three or four scenes that demanded my full attention--which is more than I can say for TWD lately.  I thought The Widow was pretty cold offering up her daughter on a bet, but then it turned out the odds were better than good.  This show has some very refreshing womyn power.  And that includes skipping the cliché where Sunny has to remind an hysterical Veil that she knows he would never harm her parents, blah blah blah.

 

Even the hooker acquitted herself quite well, tricking the snotty scion.  And who was the hooded woman eyeing said hooker while she hung her lacies out to dry?  Magic Direwolf Lad's mother?  She looked very capable.  If they want to bring in another female power player, I think you already know I'm down with that.  : )

 

I appreciated the showdown between Sunny and The Baron.  I expected Sunny to go in and try to fake the murders of Dr. & Mrs. Doctor, but instead both master and slave made surprising choices when backed against a wall.

 

Keep surprising me, show.  Please.

[Netfoot]

...womyn power.

 

Is the replacement phrase for Grrrl Power?  Wouldn't like to be un-PC by accident...

[rozen]

I kind of want to like this show but it's really pushing the "because the plot demands it" button pretty hard.  Why does the Widow leave the room before MK is tested (because the plot demands it).  Why does Quinn accept as a Clipper candidate a kid he sentenced to death? (because the plot etc)  Why does Quinn murder the doc and his wife and then allow their grown child, who will want to avenge them, to live?  (yadda, yadda plot).

 

I dunno, I fully expect for it to come around as a test for the Widow's daughter and Sunny, both. I bet the Widow was watching through some peephole, and the fact her daughter refused to cut him tells her all she needs to know. The Baron was giving Sunny all kinds of side-eye when he desperately requested to take Super-Saiyan Whinyface as a Colt. He's probably just giving Sunny enough rope for him to figure out what's going on and snatch the prize for himself. 

 

The daughter A) doesn't know what her parents did so her rage is futile and B) Sunny hasn't been exactly subtle about meeting up with her so she's probably leverage for whenever The Baron discovers Sunny's secret.

 

I'm not hooked yet, but I love the fight scenes. Which is exactly how I felt about Spartacus until episode four or five, so I'm still down.

Edited November 30, 2015 by rozen

[Bec]

I expected Sunny to go in and try to fake the murders of Dr. & Mrs. Doctor

I wonder why he didn’t? He just stood there and let the Baron kill them. I guess subterfuge is just not Sunny’s thing. Yep, the Baron totally knew something was up when he requested to train that kid himself.

 

He keeps saying “the Baron will hunt me down” if he tries to leave. So… why doesn’t he just kill the Baron? Can’t hunt you down if he’s dead. So I can only chalk it up to some kind of misplaced loyalty that he can’t quite shake. Or maybe the Baron is somehow an even better ass-kicker than him. Which I find hard to believe. Nah, it’s got to be the loyalty thing, because he also just stood there when the Baron had a sword to his neck. So, he’s wouldn’t even fight the Baron to save his own neck.

 

Is it too early to speculate that he’ll finally actually fight the Baron when the Baron kills or threatens to kill his girlfriend?

 

So far, I’m finding it hard to see how Sunny would be so loyal to this jackass, though. I guess that’s something we’ll be shown later on. Or maybe the writers think that whole “birds love flying free but they go back to their comfy cages” is enough of an explanation. Oh wow, that was so deep and not at all nonsensical. *eyeroll*

 

And here’s another “why doesn’t he just” - why didn’t that nomad leader just stab Sunny in the back instead of trying to strangle him? This one has got to be purely because the show would be over if he did that, because Sunny would be dead.

 

Don’t get my wrong, though, I’m still entertained and want to see more. I don’t mind the show taking its time to get to the badlands roadtrip part (if it’s even going to get there at all). Mostly because I like the sets and I would imagine we’ll be seeing a lot less beautiful sets and a lot more walking around in the woods if they set off on a roadtrip. Thanks, but, I see more than enough of people walking around in the woods on The Walking Dead. Give me crazy architecture any day over more goddamn woods.

[qtpye]

I think Sunny has a weird father/son dynamic with the Baron.  The widow actually encourages the parental bond in her clipper, but she seems to care about her people more then the Baron does about his.