Into the Badlands

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Um, you could post some of them Widder pics her, y’know

[Drunk Monk]

It’s been a long run since Friday, something I had to plan ahead of time, staging gear for the Cannabis Cup, the inevitable partying and subsequent lack of sleep that comes with it, the lonely trek back, Monday’s morning blues, then a disciple ceremony where G2 plugged the wrong restaurant into her phone for the commute and because I was an honored witness, 14 people actually got on their knees and bowed to me, and then on the way home, after being slowed by two construction zones, there was some incident with over half a dozen cop cars blocking the hwy with guns drawn on a pulled over car. 

I should’ve gone straight to bed but I just couldn't resist watching s3e14 again. Man, I’ll miss this show.

[Drunk Monk]

Fell asleep during S3E15.  I guess I'm tired.  Well, better than then behind the wheel, right?

I've decided I really don't like the final story arc for the Widow.  It's not a great note for her  story to end on, too obvious a card to play really.  

Daniel Wu will be doing an in-store at Darkside Initiative on Powell for Cinco de Mayo.  He got the rights for some exclusive limited-edition Badlands merch.  He invited me to drop by and said he would hook me up with something if I did.  Not sure if I can swing that with my mom's situation, but it is a work thing because I'm hoping he'll be free to drop in on TCEC this year and I'd be happy to remind him.  Plus I'd love some Badlands gear.  He said he'd love to come by if he's free, but he's so busy.  Beyond his film work, he's a car nut so he's going to these car shows all the time, all around the world, plus he's a family man.  Fingers crossed.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Huh. That is across the street from where The Ex lived for many years. I used to see Sneaker Heads camped out on the sidewalk waiting for special shoe releases.

[Drunk Monk]

It's kinda hipster, right?  I've been to the Mission store, but it was during a Mission crawl waiting for a Laurie Anderson show last year, and it blurred together with all the other hipster stores on Valencia.  It looks like a lot of fashion paramilitary gear, which just does not work for me.  I mean really, wtf? The whole point of paramilitary gear is that it's built tough.  Make it into pansy hipster fashion and that's just dumb.  Pervasive but dumb.

Nevertheless, I'd love me some Badlands gear. AMC never did merch. If you read my interview with Daniel (looking at you Greg) he brings up his disappointment with that.  Badlands was designed with merch in mind - the logos, the style - I'd love a butterfly shuriken.  There was some crew Badlands merch made for a fundraiser available the second time I went, and they offered it to press.  It wasn't that expensive and I really regretted not getting any.  

I have a few Badlands collectibles, but none matches the lingering sensation of holding the Widow two and a half times - once at the premiere in formal dress so artfully captured by Greg, once in full costume (stilettos!) in the sanctuary set caught on my iphone by the press rep, and once at dinner where she sat next to me - I didn't take a pic and I totally regret that too.  It was dinner with almost the entire cast.  If only I would've taken a pano pic of that table - just me, three other press, the rep and most of the cast.  

Damn I'm gonna miss this show.

[Drunk Monk]

Got my Widow butterfly shirt. It was quite a day. I gotta crash now cuz I’m nodding out and this is a big week, starting with a vid shoot first thing Monday morn. I’ll fill y’all in later.

---

Note to self - peacock

[Drunk Monk]

Yesterday was a good day.  I got up to Chinatown/Little Italy early and grabbed lunch at Happy Veg after staking out Darkside.  When I first went there, it was barren but by the time I got back, the line was 30+ deep, so I got in it and regaled fans with my tales of knowing Daniel.  He has a lot of Chinese fan girls.  Daniel texted me on the way in, saying he was looking for parking, and then he gave me a hearty handshake when he saw me in line but he had to scurry in before the fans got too excited.  After all, he was there to sell shirts.  

When I got in, he hooked me up and I'm now proudly wearing my Widow Butterfly shirt.  He asked what my plans were for after and said "I'm going to take my daughter to pizza. Wanna come?"  So he had me hang out in Darkside, introduced me to the crew and I became the photographer for fans posing with him.  It was fun watching him interact with his fans.  A stuntman from season one dropped in to connect and pitch some project.  Daniel was cordial.  And a local Sifu friend dropped in with his student - we all chatted about SF martial arts for a bit and they got an extra poster for one of my former freelance contributors (his Kung Fu brother). AMC only allowed a limited run of gear and it pretty much sold out that day. There was a steady stream of fans for about 2 hours.

We grabbed pizza at Tony's but given the wait and his daughter's eagerness, we grabbed some gelato beforehand.  His daughter is about 6 and super shy and cute.  Daniel introduced me to her as 'Uncle Gene', kind of a Chinese thang, but that was cool, right?  Her was a guardian with her too, who was very quiet.  At pizza, another stuntman Matt dropped by, same guy who treated me to dinner in Dublin. We've become friends - his school is in the East Bay. Also one of the builders of Daniel's car, the Tanto, was with him.  They were driving around in some suped up sports car.  Yesterday was a car show at the Craneway in Richmond and the Tanto won some award but no one was quite clear on what it was.  

Daniel ordered salad, calamari and 3 pizzas for the four of us (Matt has some calamari but they were headed to some ramen joint in the sunset and just dropped by to say 'hi').  Daniel said he always orders a lot - he planned to bring it home to his wife.  

Unfortunately, he cannot make our tournament because he has to be at Cannes.  For L'Oreal.  He said he's not that into it, because Cannes is all industry people hating on each other's films.  

It was a great day - lots of long chats and so many insane BTS tales.  He's so down to earth and I forget that he's this major star until we walk about and are assailed by fans who want photos (he's very obliging that way).  

On the way home, down the 1 again, which is still enjoying superbloom wildflowers, there was this peacock on the side of the road.  I guess that's as auspicious as a whale sighting.

---

And of course, tonight is the final episode.  I will be sad to watch it again.  

What a run the Badlands has been for me.  It got me to befriend Daniel, to embrace the Widow, and to fulfill a bucket list item - getting Tara to the Hill of Tara.  I'm so grateful.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

That is every kind of Cool.

[Greg]

You're going to have to give Daniel a pass. I mean, Canne? Seriously.

Good day.

[Drunk Monk]

Right?  Cannes over TCEC?  That's just silly.

For make up no less...

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

About them Widder pics...

[Greg]

I'd be going to Cannes.

[Drunk Monk]

Finale

What a ride. Hard to believe it’s over. One more adventure comes to a close.

Someday I’ll rewatch this so nostalgically. I think the only topic I’ve written more on is Shaolin. 

Will I ever hold the Widow in my arms again? I can’t imagine how. I was so blessed, so very blessed.

[Drunk Monk]

But wait... a spin off?

‘Into the Badlands’: Creators Explain Their Plans for ‘Deadwood’-esque Spinoff
Al Gough and Miles Millar wrote the ending to their series hoping for a chance at a follow-up down the road.

Liz Shannon Miller
May 9, 2019 5:59 pm
 @lizlet

[img=610x0]https://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/10_IntotheBadlands.jpg?w=780[/img]“Into the Badlands”
Aidan Monaghan/AMC

[img=117x0]https://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ITB_308_AM_1208_0009_RT.jpg?w=117&h=82&crop=1[/img]
[img=117x0]https://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/widow.jpg?w=117&h=82&crop=1[/img]
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for the series finale of “Into the Badlands.”]
Imagine “Deadwood,” but with kung fu. That was the pitch “Into the Badlands” creators Al Gough and Miles Millar made for a potential spinoff for their fan favorite series, which aired its final episode this week.
Gough and Millar learned during production on the first half of Season 3 that this would be the final season of their complex and fascinating post-apocalyptic martial arts drama, which concluded Monday after an epic battle featuring the show’s primary characters. But the creators had plans for a spinoff, which led to the events of the series finale, in which Sunny’s baby Henry survives and the Widow is with child.
“The spinoff would have jumped probably 20 years into the future and it would have been following The Widow and Gaius’s daughter and Henry as young people,” Gough told IndieWire. The project was developed with AMC before ultimately being put aside. “And Bajie (Nick Frost) would have still been around acting as sort of the mentor character. It was more like a kung-fu Western, is how we described it.”
Added Gough, “Bajie would kind of be the combination of sort of sheriff and the mayor and running this town, and obviously, the big threat coming in was that more and more people were getting weapons.”
That follow-up, sadly, probably won’t happen now, but it’s fascinating to consider, especially how it would have incorporated “Badlands'” big series finale moment — the introduction of guns into this feudal land.
[img=610x0]https://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ITB_314_AM_0424_0030_RT.jpg?w=780[/img]

“Into the Badlands”

Aidan Monaghan/AMC

On one level, guns would have been necessary for the Western element — “you couldn’t really do a traditional Western [without them],” Millar said — and also adding guns would have given the spinoff “its own thing that would make it distinctive from ‘Into the Badlands.'”
“It was really covering the ‘whys’ of guns and how that was [going to] become a much bigger problem — and also sort of merging kung-fu with firearms,” Gough said.
An “Into the Badlands” spinoff with guns would make for a notable difference from the original show, which put a heavy emphasis on the martial arts skills of its characters. As Millar said, “I think, as disciplined writers, it’s good to have those boundaries, particularly when you are creating a new world. It actually forces you to be smarter. And it also is an equalizer. Without weaponry, everyone was now equal. It was about skill, rather than having a gun. It made us smarter as well.”
More importantly, the spinoff would have had a much different approach to its storytelling. “‘Badlands’ was more of a journey to enlightenment and a show which, frankly, had a lot of quests,” Gough said. “This [spinoff] was a show that would have taken place in and around a town, it would have been more akin to ‘Deadwood,’ I think.”



[img=610x0]https://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ITB_309_AM_0116_0018_RT.jpg?w=780[/img]

“Into the Badlands”

AMC

The idea of centering the spinoff around a central town had a budgetary component to it, as Gough said: “How do we do something where we’re not on a quest every week?” But, he added, “we would have built the town out and as the story goes, the world would get bigger. But, it was just an idea of how do you do something where it’s more about stories can cross in through the town, or come through the town, versus ‘They’re off on a journey again’?”
As Millar said, “It’s just really making sure that the spinoff [feels] distinct from the mothership. That they were two separate shows and you could drop into the spinoff without knowledge of ‘Into the Badlands.’ If you’re going to do a spinoff you really need it to feel like its own thing and it has a reason to be.”
“It can’t be overly reliant on the mothership,” Gough said.
As Gough said in the lead-up to the final season, ideas about other ancillary follow-up works are still in the mix. “A graphic novel feels like an obvious choice. But now there could be shorter mediums which could be a potential as well,” Millar said. “In a world of so much content and so many different platforms, there could be, in the future, a market for return to the Badlands. We’re certainly open to it and are exploring.”
Meanwhile, the current ending of “Into the Badlands” includes plenty of loose ends, but Millar and Gough are somewhat content with that. “I think it’s very valid that we don’t answer all the questions, it’s very Badlands that we don’t. It really makes people think about what who they are, and I think it puts the characters in a great place,” Millar said. “I think we answer many, many questions and then we also pose that you’re not always going to answer questions and the future is still to be decided. I really like that as well. I mean, if I were a viewer watching it would I be angry or frustrated with us? Maybe? But I also think it’s very consistent with what the show is.”

[El Dingo]

To be honest I'm watching the show for Nick Frost. I'm a huge fan of the Simon Pegg movies and Nick is the perfect co-star whether helping or hurting. The fact that he is a martial-arts master in the show makes it even more entertaining. The fight choreography is still top notch even if the story has stalled. It's a visually gratifying experience even if the 'Baron' plotline has waned.