CW’s ‘Kung Fu’ is Exactly What it Sounds Like and Exactly What You’d Expect

I have no recollection or attachment to Kung Fu (1972) that this current remake/re-imagining is based on. That said, a cursory look at the history of the original indicates that it starred a white man playing the mixed Chinese-American lead so with the 2021 version starring an Asian woman, we’re at least starting with some (very basic) good graces if nothing else.

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If you have seen no other information about this series before this review, I shall provide you the same basic information that the show kindly provides the moment you start the pilot. Nicky Shen was raised by her parents to go to Harvard from the moment she was born, and after going to a trip overseas to China ostensibly to connect with her heritage, actually to find a nice “Mr.” to go with her eventual Harvard degree, she ends up hopping in the back of a truck and gets taken in by a Shaolin monk and spends three years training in explicitly-stated-not-to-be-mystical martial arts before the monastery is attacked by a mysterious assailant and kills Nicky’s master. Alone with no one to guide her, Nicky makes her way back home to San Francisco where she has to deal with three things: her family, the local Triad, and the looming presence of the mysterious assailant.

Kung Fu — “Pilot” — Image Number: KF101b_0352r.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Olivia Liang as Nicky Shen and Shannon Dang as Althea Shen — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW — © 2021 The CW Network, LLC…