I am excited to watch this show and share it with you. As a kid, I watched Kung Fu (1972-1975) with David Carradine. I also watched Kung Fu the Legend Continues (1993-1997), again with David Carradine, and Chris Potter who played his son. I have heard that this is a continuation of the show but we will see.
We open to Nicky Shen explaining who she is and where she is from. She ran away and started training with Pei-Ling at the monastery. Pei-Ling encourages Nicky to make peace with her family. Shortly after they are raided and the women of the monastery are forced to defend themselves. Zhilan finds the sword she is looking for. Ultimately Pei-Ling dies at the hands of Zhilan and Nicky does not recover the sword. Nicky must return to whence she came.
Nicky returns to a mixed welcome and finds out her sister Althea is getting married. Her brother Ryan is not happy with her and her mother says she died. Her father begs her to stay and not run away again. She goes to see her ex-boyfriend. I think he has mixed feelings too. She tells Evan about what happened. Nicky wants him to use his connections to help her. She finds out he has a new girlfriend who lives with him. Feeling adrift she goes walking. Her Shifu, Pei-Ling, talks to her from the other side. Again, Pei-Ling urges her to heal her family. She gets to the family restaurant in time to save her father.
At the hospital, when Nicky tries to figure out what happened, her siblings have no idea what she is talking about. Ryan, her brother, walks away from her, still angry about her leaving. Her sister Althea decides Nicky is staying with her. When Nicky and Ryan are on their way to play some ping pong, Nicky is stopped by a guy who wants to hear about her Shaolin training. I think he is attracted to her. Ryan is pissed off at Nicky because they were close and she ran out on him. He feels she abandoned him. They seem to make up.
Later, Nicky tells Henry, the cutie that stopped her in the hall, about the Shaolin sword. He has heard about it and tells her what he knows. Henry is completely excited. He gets to use his schooling to help Nicky. Ancient Chinese history is his passion. At her father’s bedside, Nicky asks what is going on. Her mother walks in and tells them that she took a loan from Tony Kang. They have seventy-two hours to repay the money, a total of $100,000.00, or Nicky’s father dies and Tony takes over the restaurant.
Nicky wants her and her siblings to look for other victims of Tony Kang so she can back him off and make him pay. They are going to do it. She wants to take the case to her ex-boyfriend Evan. They are met with silence. Pei-Ling, tells her not to give up. Henry and Ryan also struck out but Henry has information on the sword. Men approach Henry, Ryan, and Althea inquiring if they are asking about Tony. Nicky’s brother and sister finally get to see how badass she really is.
When Nicky’s mom tries to scold Nicky, Ryan, and Althea, Nicky points out that her secrets got them there. Nicky follows her mom into her room. She learns that her mother didn’t do what her family wanted. Nicky points out that her mother did the same as her grandparents. The gal from the store where the siblings were attacked shows up wanting to help. Nicky goes to Evan with the information they have. Evan lets the help and Althea finds a lead. Evan wants to turn it over to the cops. Ryan is pissed about it.
Do they turn it over to the cops? Does Mr. Shen survive? I really liked this. There is no mention of Kwai Chang Caine or Peter Caine, David Carradine’s and Chris Potter’s rolls respectively, in the previous Kung Fu shows. For that reason I am disappointed. Maybe it will come up later. I am a sucker for good action though. The parts that had the action are really good but because this is the pilot, there was a lot of setting up the story to do so the action was not so prominent. I am eager to see how this goes. Have you watched the earlier Kung Fu shows? Let me know in the comments below. Until next week…
