Television series

Warrior

Name: Warrior
Genre: Drama, Action, Crime
Released: 2019
Cast: Andrew Koji, Jason Tobin, Olivia Cheng, Dianne Doan, Kieran Bew

Warrior turns Bruce Lee's unproduced pitch into a swaggering, blood-soaked serial about a martial-arts prodigy pulled into San Francisco's Chinatown tong wars. It's gorgeous, brutal, and unashamedly pulpy — fight choreography that stops conversations, politics that bite harder than expected, and a cast of hustlers and lawmen circling each other like knives. Watch it for spectacle with a spine, not subtlety.

TVMaze rating

8.0

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Deadwood2004

Same lawless boomtown energy — a frontier settlement where law arrives late and money writes the real rules. Deadwood's filthy poetry and moral murk make Warrior's Chinatown feel like a cousin city.

But The dialogue is dense, Shakespearean profanity that takes real patience; if you want fast fights over slow talk, it'll test you.

Peaky Blinders2013

Family loyalty, gang economics, and impeccable style collide in Birmingham the way they do in Chinatown — brothers doing violence to protect a business that's really about belonging.

But Its slow-burn seasons and heavy accents can be a hurdle, and the show leans more melodrama than martial arts.

Banshee2013

Pulpy, brutal, gorgeously choreographed fights wrapped around a small-town crime saga — Banshee shares Warrior's love of violence as spectacle and secret identity as engine.

But It's trashier and less interested in politics than Warrior; some will find it all muscle, no message.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Chinese Exclusion Act2017no page yet

Warrior fictionalizes the exact racial legislation and violence this documentary documents factually — same history, opposite register.

The real law and rage behind Warrior's fiction — this documentary traces how America criminalized Chinese immigration, giving weight to every slur and shakedown you watch onscreen.

But It's a sober historical documentary with no fights, no swagger — pure context, not entertainment in the way Warrior is.

Into the Badlands2015no page yet

Wuxia choreography meets serialized drama in a post-apocalyptic feudal America — proof that Warrior isn't the only network show betting big on fight scenes as storytelling.

But The mythology gets baggy by season two, and the worldbuilding is thinner than the fights are good.

Justified2010

A charismatic outsider navigating entrenched criminal hierarchies, snapping one-liners between bursts of violence — Justified's swagger and moral shading echo Ah Sahm's own tightrope.

But It trades martial arts for gunplay and Kentucky drawl for Chinatown grit, so the flavor is genuinely different.

Boardwalk Empire2010

Same era-adjacent immigrant hustle and political corruption, on a bigger canvas — Boardwalk Empire shows what happens when Prohibition-era gangs get HBO's full budget and patience.

But It's slower and more novelistic; if you came for fights, you'll wait a long time between them.

Sons of Anarchy2008

Brotherhood, turf, and blood loyalty tearing a community apart from the inside — Sons of Anarchy runs the same engine as the Hop Wei and Long Zii, just on Harleys.

But It's melodramatic and occasionally over-the-top in ways Warrior mostly avoids; your mileage on soap-opera plotting will vary.

The Shield2002

Corrupt cops and gang politics locked in an ugly, symbiotic dance — The Shield's moral rot mirrors the compromised lawmen circling Warrior's Chinatown.

But It's grittier and more procedural, with none of the stylised fight choreography that makes Warrior sing.

Kung Fu2021no page yet

A modern, more optimistic take on Chinese-American identity and martial arts heroism — a gentler companion piece if Warrior's violence wore you out but you still want the kicks.

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The Assassin2015no page yet

Same martial-arts-as-political-intrigue engine as Warrior, but slowed to a whisper — proof the genre can hold its violence in instead of spending it.

A hushed, painterly wuxia film where violence is rare and devastating rather than constant — it's what Warrior's genre looks like stripped of pulp and turned into pure atmosphere.

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Wu Assassins2019no page yet

Same setting, same community, same fight choreography lineage — just transplanted to the present day and dosed with magic.

Chinatown crime, ancient mythology, and martial arts collide in modern San Francisco — a trashier, more supernatural cousin to Warrior's tong wars, same city, different century.

But The mythology is silly and the acting uneven; it swaps Warrior's political texture for pure genre comfort food.