TV Review: Warrior

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Synopsis: Set during the brutal Tong Wars of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the second half of the 19th century and filmed in Cape Town, South Africa, the show follows martial arts prodigy Ah Sahm (Andrew Koji), who emigrates from China to San Francisco under mysterious circumstances, and becomes a hatchet man for one of Chinatown’s most powerful organized crime families.

Review: Cinemax has long been the home for more action-oriented series like Banshee and Strike Back which have not had the dramatic quality of shows airing on HBO or Showtime. With Warrior, from Banshee showrunner Jonathan Tropper and adapted from the writings of Bruce Lee, Cinemax has stumbled onto a series that blends the violence, nudity, and action that have become their trademark while also bringing a level of narrative drama that has been lacking in some of their previous efforts. A lot of Warrior doesn't work as well as it should, but for a cast made up primarily of Asian actors in a story that would never work on network television, this is an achievement worth checking out.

Bruce Lee tried to make Warrrior back in the 1970s about a Chinese martial artist in the Old West but it never came to be. If that concept sounds familiar, it was the very next year that Kung Fu with David Carradine premiered. It has long been the contention by Lee's widow that Warner Bros stole the idea and never gave him any credit for it. Warner Bros contends they had a similar idea in development and the rest is history. Lee's daughter, Shannon Lee, has been involved with bringing Warrior to Cinemax since 2015 and that long journey has finally come to an end. Warrior is a somewhat anachronistic drama where characters talk like they are in a contemporary drama despite the trappings of the late 1800s world of San Francisco's Chinatown. In many ways, this adds some distinct charm to the show but also is what holds it back from being taken too seriously.

While a good amount of the plot does focus on Caucasian characters like Mayor Samuel Blake (Christian McKay) and officers Big Bill O'Hara (Kieran Bew) and Richard Lee (Tom Weston-Jones), most of this story focuses on Ah Sahm (Andrew Koji) as he searches for his sister. Along the way Ah Sahm becomes embroiled with the Tong Wars. Aligning with one gang while his sister is with another, Ah Sahm serves as a avatar of who Bruce Lee would have played had this series debuted five decades ago. He is a master martial artist and even shares mannerisms with Lee. Yes, there is a lot of fighting on this show, but the martial arts are just a small part of it. Lots of swordplay, knifes, and gun violence permeate this show that echoes Western series like Deadwood and Hell on Wheels. There is a lot of nudity, too, which keeps it on par with other premium cable programs like Game of Thrones, but Warrior has more that tits and decapitations on it's plate.

Warrior wants to shed light on a chapter of American and Asian-American history that has never been the central focus of a television series before. Many Westerns have featured Chinese characters but tended to sideline them in favor of the main story, Here, China versus Chinatown is a central plot element with these characters repeatedly proclaiming that America is not the same as the Old Country. Hardly any of the Asian characters speak with accents (those are reserved for the Irish and Southern characters) which flips the expected dynamic we usually see in period stories like this. If Asian-Americans felt represented by CRAZY RICH ASIANS last year, Warrior goes even further to showcase them without making a big deal about it. This is a very Asian-American story but is more of Asian versus Asian-American tale than anything.

There is a lot to like in Warrior, especially if you like gore and nudity, but the dialogue often leaves something to be desired. When the various characters speak, it feels as if the Asian roles are all written to sound as if these characters exist in 2019 whereas everyone else sounds like they are in the 19th century. It is jarring since the profanity here is on par with Deadwood and yet somehow feels a little disingenuous compared to that series. Maybe it is not even fair to compare the two, but there are few series that one could really hold against this one for analysis. On it's own merits, the music and editing are top notch as do the production values. Over the eight episodes I watched, the quality stays consistent but spends a lot of time building multiple subplots which makes it difficult to really root for any one character.

I am not sure how Bruce Lee would have felt seeing this version of his story. While Lee's films had their fair share of violence and nudity,it pales compared to what Warrior shows on screen. The martial arts aspect and unique story make this a show worth checking out even if the execution is pretty similar to many shows that came before it. While I was entertained throughout the first run of the show, I am not sure it is going to have enough to keep me coming back for a second season. Seeing as the Tong Wars lasted well into the 1930s, there is plenty of room for this show to grow and tell more stories and that may be worth checking out.

Warrior premieres April 5th on Cinemax.