At this point I’ve started thinking about just giving up on TV since the only new shows that come out don’t tend to last that long despite being better than anything that’s come up so far. Kung Fu was a great show in its time and it could be great again so long as it’s done right, but the odds of that happening are usually to great to really consider. This time Kung Fu will be coming back with a female lead, and the story will be similar to the original as the actress makes her way across the land searching for her child who was abducted while meeting a friendly Korean War survivor. Armed with only her martial training and her hands and fists she’ll…huh boy, this is already starting to take a turn down nostalgia lane.
I’m not against a new series of Kung Fu coming out, especially if the show is done in an engaging and innovative way, but so far the premise sounds far too close to the original to be believable. It’s also set in the 1950’s, which is a decent idea as the period could open up a lot of possibilities. The idea of a woman being the lead character is not an issue, it’s simply that the story seems far too close in appearance to the original, which could be on purpose or on accident depending on how you look at it. To mess with Kung Fu’s story line too much could inevitably change it in such a way so that the show might run the risk of being turned into just another action series with little if any redeeming qualities other than its stunning action sequences.
There’s a rumor as to whether this story could have anything to do with the original series and David Carradine’s character, but that’s almost completely unfounded at this time. What is known is that a lot of people are already getting excited to hear about Kung Fu’s return. After all Kung Fu was a very popular show when it first aired and despite its return many years ago it was still kept around as a favorite just because so many people wanted to see the continuing adventures and what could be done with it. Unfortunately the series wasn’t that great and relied heavily on an aging David Carradine at the time, which was not much of a lift up.
You have to remember that controversy surrounded the making of Kung Fu as well in the beginning. The rumor that Bruce Lee came up with the original idea of a warrior monk traveling the west. His idea was never accepted however and was in a way stolen so that Warner Bros. could conceive of and come up with Kung Fu, a very whitewashed version of a half-Chinese warrior that flees west after killing the nephew of the emperor in order to seek out his remaining family.
Kung Fu could be good again, but it will take some serious attention to detail and a very keen eye to not make certain mistakes all over again.
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