Kung Fu: The Complete First Season (DVD)

There is no real mystery as to how "Kung Fu" became so popular back in the early 70s seeing how it may be one of the most original story ideas of all time to that point, and even now. Who would have ever thought to bring to life the story of a white man, Kwai Chang Caine (Carradine) schooled in the Shaolin priesthood, finally forced to walk the land running from those who want him for the murder of the Emperor's nephew after a failed attempt at killing one of Caine's masters.

All that said my initial interest in "Kung Fu" was that I absolutely loved Kill Bill, and Carradine's performance as Bill in Volume 2 spoke volumes about his ability to act and peaked my interest in seeing this series. Unfortunately the series doesn't translate well to this day and age where we have come to expect so much more from our hour long dramas.

"Kung Fu" is a tad too slow for me seeing how all the action scenes are either cut short or always placed into an endless amount of slow motion that really shows just how bad the moves are. Another item that really shows how old the shows are is the poor attempts they take at showing flashbacks. Although the flashbacks back to Caine's early training by his blind teacher, Master Po, play directly into the scene currently at hand, they really seem to get in the way and after a while quite redundant.

On the other hand, it is pretty cool to see David Carradine at such a young age acting and using the same mannerisms as he does now, too bad Caine is so quiet, not giving Carradine much of a chance to give it his all.

Another bonus is that Jodie Foster has a guest starring role on the episode titled "Alethea" where Foster plays a little girl who plays part in a testimony leading Caine to be tried for murder. You get a chance to see that Jodie Foster, same as Carradine, has been the same as she is now ever since she got started.

Speaking of bonuses this collection has two special features giving you a couple behind-the-scenes looks at "Kung Fu" including interviews with several cast and crew members.

The first feature, titled "The Tao of Kwai Chang Caine: Production and Beyond", talks a lot about the items in the series that I already brought up such as the look of "Kung Fu", the guest stars, set stories and the story behind Carradine walking away from the show.

The one part I found most interesting was the section discussing the look of the show where they touched upon the slow motion issue I had with the fight scenes as well as the flashbacks. It was also funny to hear the creators discuss the massive appeal audiences had to the title of Grasshopper for Caine, and how they said it was just a coincidence and was never meant to be something for audiences to focus on.

The second feature is called "From Grasshopper to Caine: Creating Kung Fu", which is pretty much your standard "making-of" featurette that covers writing, directing, acting and casting. It is not as interesting as the other feature, but the one thing I took from it was when David Carradine says, "It's an anti-revenge television series." While it isn't exactly the most memorable quote, I thought it summarized a lot of what the story is about extremely well, you can find a lot of meaning in the quote.

With the recent arrival of Tarantino's Kill Bill films David Carradine is back in the limelight, which is obviously one of the contributing factors to bring this series to DVD at this time. With that said I would urge Kill Bill fans who have never seen this series before to think twice about buying it if they are looking for the Carradine they see in the film.

"Kung Fu" is a pretty cool series, and a bench mark for many television shows to come after it, but I found myself dozing several times while watching the episodes as they are very dry and can become extremely monotonous.

Now on the other hand, if you have seen the show and love it, then this is the collection for you as the digitally remastered picture looks great and the discs are quick and easy to navigate. Each episode is a story in itself and you are never left hanging from one episode to the next so you can watch whatever episode you please and I can guarantee whether you love the entire series or not, you will have your favorite episodes.