Kung Fu: Season 3
Based on: 1972 series of the same name by Ed Spielman, Jerry Thorpe, and Herman Miller
Developed by: Christina M. Kim
Executive Producers: David Madden, Martin Gero, Sarah Schechter, Christina M. Kim, Greg Berlanti, Robert Berens
I'm proud to say this show hasn't dropped in quality over any of its three seasons!
The series stars Nicky, a young Chinese-American woman who studies Kung Fu for three years in China before returning to her family in San Francisco, where she and her friends fight local corruption. Since establishing these roots in season 1, the show has grown and matured by giving its initial antagonist Zhilan an impressive redemption arc and exploring the roots of the family's mystical ancestry. This has included revealing supernatural abilities held by Nicky, Zhilan, and a few other members of their family, which by season 3 they've grown to understand and use in their battles.
One thing I've been impressed by across the whole series is how they've kept Nicky's family, the Shens, fully relevant. Her parents, Mei-Li and Jin, not only remain important by default as the family heads and as owners of the family restaurant where the characters frequently meet, but they take an increasingly active role in Nicky's battles. In the season 2 finale they were active participants in Nicky's plan to take out the "bad guys," helping Nicky procure items and access locations. They also had their own individual journeys, with Mei-Li tackling continuous problems their restaurant faced with corporate and customers alike, and Jin taking a more political role in fighting the same corruption his daughter is. Her other siblings Althea and Ryan, and all their spouses or significant others, brought other skills to the group like medical, computer hacking, and law expertise.
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I've also been impressed with how the series has handled magic. It hasn't been overt and it's not even something the characters focus on, study, or train in to be better at. Instead, it's simply innate to Nicky and a select few others in the show. It gave Nicky a slight edge in her combat, but barely enough to be noticeable. The most prominent way it appeared was changing the battlefield and forcing the characters to adapt to meet new challenges. This became the most prominent in season 2; with Zhilan's threat out of the way, we turned to the source of much of the family's internal problems: an Alchemist known as Xiao (Jennifer Khoe) who lived hundreds of years ago and created people known as warriors and guardians to watch over a powerful series of weapons. Amid season 2, Nicky discovers that her family is the latest in the line of guardians and Zhilan is a descendant of the warriors, which contributed to their conflict in season 1. Season 3 sees Xiao, who was trapped in a mystical dimension, fighting her way into the physical world at the expense of Nicky's Shifu (teacher), Pei-Ling.
This made season 3 particularly great, in my opinion. The mystical bloodlines created by Xiao bring the Shen family together this season in a very person, magical, and intimate way, forcing them to delve more deeply into their ancestry and family lore to learn how the guardian power affects them and what power Xiao has over them. Zhilan's warrior bloodline also brings her to the Shen family for the same reasons, giving them a deeper sense of sisterhood and a personal reason to fight the common foe of Xiao--driving home Zhilan's redemption arc from her villainous beginnings in season 1. Additionally, another young woman we meet in season 2, Mia (Vanessa Yao), is discovered to have guardian and warrior lineage, making her a combination of the two and creating a much more present and personal consequence to the battle.
The only complaint I have about this season (and this series, really) is the somewhat larger cast became hard for me to keep track of. I found myself lost between some significant others, like Nicky's ex-boyfriend Henry and Althea's husband Dennis. I began to lose track of who was who between the many young men in the series! I suspect this may have been a consequence of their personalities being very similar, whereas the young women of the series all felt like they had much more distinct personalities.
Although the series has had neither a season 4 renewal nor a cancellation, season 3 (sadly) seemed to wrap up with a very pretty ribbon. Every character was given a great and personal ending for their individual arcs, even Nicky, and all of them had positive future prosects. Every villain was defeated, and there was no cliffhanger or setup for a season 4 plot. While it was heartwarming and gave me all the good feelings to see these characters who I've grown attached to get endings they deserve, it'll be sad for such a great show to come to an end.
I'll also add that I do think there's room for a fourth season. Even while the plots are tied up nicely, the ending they gave Nicky provides fertile soil for more of her own adventures, and I would be enthusiastic to see them, should the CW or any other network see fit!
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