As Kevin Fraser of Joblo has mentioned, Olivia Liang is set to breathe new life into the reboot of Kung Fu on the CW and in reality I’ll admit that I’m sitting here thinking ‘what the hell did I just read and then write?’. Maybe it’s the idea that gender-swapping has been an issue when a person makes it into one, or maybe it’s the fact that rebooting every possible movie and series that people come across is becoming a bit tiresome. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because the premise sounds like something that was derived straight from the 80s or 90s since a young woman having a quarter-life crisis (yes, no longer a mid-life but a quarter-life crisis, what we used to call ‘growing up’) really sounds like something that might be better explained as someone needing to make a decision on which way her life needs to go. In any case she visits an isolated monastery in China, where she learns Kung Fu and has to witness an assassin murder her master before returning to her hometown to find that it’s become a place of corruption that she’ll begin to sort out with her newfound skills. Without any offense meant to Liang, this sounds like the original Kung Fu was tossed in a blender with a few very comfortable tropes and blended until it became recognizable as something that could possibly be delivered to the masses without a chance that they’d spit it right back out and claim that it was horrible.
Fans of Kung Fu, the original series, might want to argue that it’s worth giving this show a chance, that it won’t be replacing the original or even destroying it, but at this point it really doesn’t feel a though this series is needed all that badly, and that it could possibly be left on the back burner until something else better comes along. Maybe that’s just my opinion, but something about this show just feels like it’s going to be pandering to the audience in a way that many shows have done throughout the years, offering up something that’s not necessarily good but is simply there for the watching. There are plenty of reasons to watch Olivia Liang as Kenn Anthony Mendoza of Style mentions, but this isn’t likely to be one of them unless a person is really willing to give it the benefit of doubt and sit down to watch it. Again, I could be wrong, but so far just reading the premise and the idea that will kick off the show sounds like a poor way to start since it’s an idea that’s been used again and again throughout several shows and movies and has become kind of hard to listen to over and over.
Despite all that however the CW is bringing the series forward and will be pushing it out as soon as possible. It’d be interesting if the networks would pay attention to the old 70s kung fu movies and start taking their cues from them, as many might agree that some of the story lines were a bit overdone and even corny, but there were plenty that were original enough that looking them up and taking the example in a new direction would have been preferable. Right now the idea is that anyone with an ax to grind and a hometown or a master to look after or avenge is going to turn out to be some kickass warrior that will end up dominating the bad guys left and right in the name of justice when in truth they’ve engaged in the same type of vigilantism that people have been embracing for so long, but won’t be seen as bad as some since they fight in the name of ‘justice’. Adrienne Jones of CinemaBlend has more to say about the show. Some realism in a show or a movie now and again would be kind of nice since as anyone can guess, people doing such a thing in real life would be getting in serious trouble for going out and ‘cleaning up the streets’ without the express consent of the law. Of course this would spark another debate concerning morality and the need to protect oneself, but really, the main point is that operating outside the parameters of the law does in fact make one a vigilante.
Right at the moment this show feels like dozens of others that have come along and either gone on to success or have gone down the tubes in a big way. Time will tell what’s going to happen to this particular show, but right now it does feel as though it’s bound to at least spark some interest from a large number of fans, at least initially. What happens from there we’ll have to wait and see, but if it succeeds then so be it.
Follow Us
