The Warrior (Season 3)
Young Jun: Look. I’m not going to make you come. No one should have to kill their own family. But if there’s any part of you that’s thinking about trying to save her, I’m gonna stop you right now.
Ah Sahm: She’s my sister.
Young Jun: And we’re your brothers. It’s time to make a choice, Ah Sahm.
Ah Sahm: OK.
Eh, my “The Warrior”… aka Bruce Lee meets “Peaky Blinders”. A top-notch series that has all elements for quality content. But it didn’t have too much luck, because cable TV “Cinemax” ran into problems and couldn’t continue developing this series (as well as many others). However, since it gained a solid fan base, “HBO” jumped in, so we managed to get the third season too! 🙂
And what madness it is!
As you may remember from previous episodes, the situation escalated quite a bit when the entire Chinatown had to temporarily unite in battle against enraged Irish and police. However, there’s no truce here, neither between races nor between tongs.
Mai Ling (Long Zii tong) factually nullifies the truce with Young Jun and Ah Sahm (Hop Wei tong) attempting to sell opium on rival territory, which again leads to escalation into which police (again) meddle. However, the situation for Hop Wei isn’t great at all. While acting mayor Buckley subtly protects Long Zii and their territories from police, meanwhile he squeezes Hop Wei by the throat, closing shops in their part of Chinatown, which makes life harder for the population, and Hop Wei’s cash flow from “protection” of shopkeepers in their part of town, which makes Young Jun increasingly nervous and feels he’s not getting the respect his father had.
Meanwhile, the situation isn’t any simpler for others. It was expected Bill O’Hara would become new police chief, but instead Buckley brings a man named (i.e., surnamed) Atwood, who begins his function with aggressive raids in Chinatown and reign of terror, which forces Bill to start questioning his future in the police, which also hinders his relations with family.
Meanwhile, former policeman from the South, Hing Li, works in one bar and thinks he’s (finally) found his peace and love (but headaches still torment him both figuratively and literally). However, it seems his sins from youth still don’t leave him in peace.
Our mediator/entrepreneur Chao still tries to balance between all factions, but it seems even he won’t be able to enjoy the privilege of neutrality much longer.
Acting mayor Buckley tries to fight in upcoming elections so he’s no longer just acting and gets some unexpected allies.
Leader of (Irish) workers, Dylan Leary now tries to “swim” in the sea of politicians, while fighting for his Irish to find work, and tries to see if there are potential allies among them or not.
And on top of all that, a member of secret police arrives in San Francisco, because of information that a machine for printing counterfeit money is located in this city, which increasingly circulates the city, and makes someone increasingly powerful.
And meanwhile, Mai Ling tries to absorb smaller tongs into hers aiming to strengthen her army, and moreover tries to establish (financial) contacts with certain American businessmen.
And how they’ll untangle this complicated tangle (if it can even be untangled), you’ll find out in the third season of the series “The Warrior” (in further text: “The Warrior (Season 3)”).
The series continues at the same (excellent) pace as previous seasons. At first glance many actions happen in parallel and soon become intertwined and complicate everyone’s life. At every corner conflicts will break out, conspiracies, (temporary) unexpected (and most often unwilling) alliances will be made… all aiming for survival, whether of life or business.
Of course, the rival relationship between brother (Ah Sahm) and sister (Mai Ling) is still very tense and no one knows how it will (and if it can) be untangled.
Action is still at top-notch level, with excellent fight choreography, especially where central characters Ah Sahm and Li Yong (Mai Ling’s bodyguard and lover) are, whether we’re talking about duels or “one against all” showdowns.
Visual and musical quality from previous seasons is preserved.
The cast also did an excellent job and I won’t list them all again, but I’ll just mention characters who were most memorable this season, and those are definitely Ah Sahm (Andrew Koji is still brilliant), unlikeable Buckley (Langley Kirkwood), measured Li Yong (Joe Taslim), quirky Hong (Chen Tang), lost Bill (Kieran Bew), resourceful Chao (Hoon Lee) and Irish fist Dylan (again excellent role by Dean Jagger). Of new characters, Mark Dacascos (eccentric killer from “John Wick 3”) absolutely deserves mention as Kong Pak, leader of one smaller tong who joined Long Zii tong (and who’s an old friend of Li Yong).
Although the series is (at least to me) top-notch, the fact is its future is uncertain. “HBO Max” did cancel the series after this (third) season, but its chance (which it truly deserves) lies in “Netflix,” which plans to buy rights to broadcast all three seasons and give the series a chance to show itself to a larger audience. And I’m optimistic the series will appeal to a large number of viewers who didn’t have the chance to follow this title. Who knows, maybe fans, like with the series “Lucifer,” will launch a #savethewarrior storm on the internet.
I really don’t have much to add. “The Warrior (Season 3)” turned out excellent.
And if you like the idea “Peaky Blinders set in San Francisco in the 70s into which Bruce Lee arrives,” then you don’t have much to think about whether to watch or not. 😊
Dear reader, have you by now had the chance to watch “The Warrior (Season 3)”… but also the previous two seasons? 😊
Trailer | Imdb | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic
Release Date: 2019 (third season came out 2023) | Number of seasons: 3 (third season has 10 episodes) | Average episode duration: 55 minutes
