Warrior is a martial arts historical drama that began life on Cinemax back in 2019. It follows Ah Sahm, a Chinese immigrant who arrives in San Francisco in the 1870s looking for his sister. He gets more than he bargained for when he discovers that his sister, now going by the name Mai Ling, has attached herself to the leader of a powerful gang in Chinatown. Soon Ah Sham finds himself mixed up in gang life, all while dealing with local cops, union organizaers, aristocrats and more.
Cinemax canceled Warrior after two excellent, underseen seasons. The show jumped to Max for season 3, but Max canceled it as well. Now, all three seasons are available on Netflix, where a lot of people will probably get exposed to this for the first time. Since it dropped this past weekend, it's consistently stayed in the service's list of top 10 most watched shows.
Does this mean that Warrior could get a third lease on life? If enough people watch, who knows: maybe Netflix will revive it for a second time. Certainly a few of the cast members are hoping for that. While we wait for news on that front, let's celebrate some of the best episodes this show has yet produced:
5. Episode 206, "To a Man with a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail"
Warrior had a long-form narrative that carried forward through each new season of the show, but it got a ton of mileage out of episodes like "To a Man with a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail," which is a more-or-less standalone adventure cordoned off from the rest of the story. In this episode, Ah Sahm, businesswoman Rosalita and a couple of Ah Sahm's associates from the Hop Wei gang head to Rooker's Mill, a border town where the tycoon Elijah Rooker puts on fighting tournaments.
You couldn't ask for a better premise for a martial arts show, and indeed, we get plenty of great fight scenes as Ah Sahm climbs the ladder and inevitably wins the tournament. But it's what happens after that really elevates the episode. Rosalita reveals some surprising facts about Rooker's past, and pretty soon the gang is wrapped up in a noir western complete with greed, betrayal and death. It's a tight gem of an episode.
4. Episode 109, "Chinese Boxing"
Now we're back to the main narrative. For the whole of the first season, Ah Sahm has been trying to convince his sister Mai Ling to come home with him, convinced that her attachment to the Long Zii gang is just a passing thing. "Chinese Boxing" is a point of no return for both of them. Ah Sahm, as the best fighter in the Hop Wei gang, goes up against Li Yong, the best fighter from the Long Zii, to help the gangs settle a dispute about opium trade. Li Yong wins after a memorably brutal fight, and in the decisive moment, Mai Ling gives Li Yong the signal to kill her own brother.
Thanks to intervention from the police, that doesn't end up happening, but there's no coming back from this. Ah Sahm spends most of the rest of the episode convalescing under the care of the madam Ah Toy, where we learn a lot more about his past. Actor Andrew Koji, who plays Ah Sahm, gets a lot of credit for his martial arts abilities, but he also shines as a dramatic actor.
We have more episodes to celebrate. Click the button below for more: