Reflections on Cinemax's Series "Warrior"

My wife has been trying to get me to watch the series Warrior, for the last few months and last week I finally had a chance to sit down and watch it with her. All I can say is that it's a GREAT series. It is a series that is based on the writings of the late Bruce Lee set in San Francisco during the late 19th century, just before the passage of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. The series if full of action, drama, and political issues that are still very relevant today. Here are my top reflections on the series Warrior.

The Kung-Fu

Seeing that the series is based on the writings of Bruce Lee, there should be little surprise that it is full of Kung-Fu. As a child of the 80s, whose Saturday mornings were full of cartoons and Kung-Fu on television and whose athletic foundation began in martial arts as a child, I particularly appreciate this aspect of the show. The lead character is a young and cocky recent immigrant from China, who finds himself in an America that is not so welcoming to the Chinese immigrants. Throughout the series he puts his well-tuned Kung-Fu skills to use, using it to establish himself in San Francisco's Chinatown scene and when necessary to address the anti-Chinese/white-supremacist sentiments he faces. The fighting is both entertaining and a tribute to Bruce Lee, with some moves borrowed from several of Lee's films.

The Drama and Organized Crime

Much of the tension in the show arises from the fact that the lead character came to America in search of his sister, who he comes to find out is a leader in a rival gang in Chinatown. I'm glad that the show went with this route, as opposed to the overused Romeo and Juliet trope, where the lead character seeks the romantic attention of a love interest in the rival gang. Regardless, the relationship between him and his sister is understandably tense and creates constant potential danger for him with his own gang, who would kill him if they would discover the relationship.

The show is mostly set in the Chinese crime underworld of San Francisco leads to many of the things that make the show great. It brings with it many of the gang fights, drugs, prostitution, issues of hierarchy, and more. We also get to see the multilayered lives of a variety of characters, including those with him in the Chinese criminal underworld, as well as the police who have their own complicated life issues that affect their jobs of policing Chinatown.

The Issues of Immigration and Politics

The show also centers on the politics that surrounded the use of Chinese labor by the business community, and how the negative sentiment of being undercut by cheap Chinese labor ended up being directed towards all Chinese residents. Particularly, the show focuses on the Irish community, who although are recent immigrants themselves (and have the thick accents to prove it), felt like their service in the recent Civil War and whiteness gives them a better claim to America than the Chinese. Many of the discussions, including the one to keep the Chinese from coming to America, could be paralleled to many of the conversations taking place today about immigration at our southern border.

The Language

Although the show revolves around Chinese immigrants, most of it is in English. The lead character of the show is supposed to be fluent in English, due to his American grandfather, but for the other characters, the show translates in a more creative manner. If the scene involved all Cantonese speakers, the language would automatically switch to English for the benefit of the viewers. This made watching the show a lot easier, by not having to spend as much time reading subtitles.

Conclusion

Overall, I thought the series is excellent and definitely worth a watch for those who enjoy action-filled shows with good storylines, choreography, and engaging characters. Feel free to check it out for yourselves and let me know in the comments what you think.