Has Calvin Found His Next MATADOR??

 

Set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the aftermath of the Civil War, Warrior tells the story of a young martial arts prodigy, newly arrived from China, who finds himself caught up in the bloody Chinatown Tong wars.

 

The over Americanized introduction of our hero aside. I might have found something goofy enough to find that rare place in my heart that I reserve for shows like Matador and Firefly. It's all very goofy and often poorly acted but the fight scenes are magnetic. And since it's on Cinemax there is plenty of blood and sex. I can see why the original Bruce Lee concept had to be sanitized. No room in the 70s for anything this visceral on TV. But I enjoyed the first episode as a throw back to the 90s when you could only see this kind of stuff late at night.

With the arrival of the long-gestating “Warrior” on Cinemax, justice for Bruce Lee has never tasted so bloody bittersweet. The martial arts legend pitched the concept for a series in which he’d star as a Chinese hired muscle in the Old West, but instead, the concept was tweaked and became the whitewashed “Kung Fu” series starring David Carradine. Nearly 50 years later, Lee’s original vision has come to television thanks to his daughter Shannon Lee, “Fast and the Furious” director Justin Lin, and “Banshee” creator Jonathan Tropper. As direct and forceful as Bruce Lee’s famed one-inch punch, “Warrior” is short on subtlety but delivers all the adrenaline-pumping martial arts smackdowns one would expect from both the master and from Cinemax’s brutal brand.