Whoever decided Season 3 should be turned into some ridiculous scifi supernatural mish-mash destroyed this otherwise great show. Do yourself a favor and watch Seasons 1 & 2. They were excellent & noteworthy. Even creative.
Do yourself another favor & throw Season 3 in the garbage where it belongs. It is exactly why good shows get cancelled...Beyond awful.
I watch alotta TV...but that doesn't mean I don't have a job.
Agreed, from what I remember having re-watched it a couple of years ago. Had the expression been devised at that time, it would properly have been said that they "jumped the shark" in Season 3.
Maybe Season 3 should have been a different show, so as not to be confused with the original.
I wouldn't go that far, though I agree that there was a falling-off in the quality of many stories, simply because they were running out of strong material. I didn't mind a certain amount of the mysticism, as it was appropriate to the character. What was missing more & more was the ethical & philosophical aspect of the series, and its literate, poetic study of the human psyche. There was still some of that, but it had become rather uneven at that point.
An episode like "Cry of the Night Beast" actually works for me -- because where else would you see a protagonist risk his life to save a baby calf & reunite it with its mother? That is just so like Caine! :)
But the final episodes did feel rushed, as if they had to wrap it up without much prior notice. Even the lyrical camera work was missing by then. They were wise to end the series ... and the final scene of Caine literally bowing out is still effective.
Actually, Carradine ended the series. He wasn't in good shape and his body couldn't take the pounding anymore. It was still solid in the ratings. What's funny, when Kung Fu was on originally, I was totally religious to watching the 1st 2 seasons. Never missed an episode and even watched all the repeats. But for some reason the 3rd season came along, I just didn't watch anymore. Don't know why. The 1st time I saw a 3rd season episode is when I bought the DVD set.
Spenser with an "S", like the poet.
A smart decision on Carradine's part, then, both for himself & for the series. Too many shows go on too long & wear out their welcome.
The one exception to my criticisms is the 4-episode arc of Caine meeting-up with his brother. This actually gelled with the previous seasons & made sense. Nice casting, also.
I watch alotta TV...but that doesn't mean I don't have a job.
It went downhill as the final season progressed, so to speak. The show's time period,--the series itself, I mean--was an odd one, and it reflected the time in which it was produced. First season: Nixon, later Vietnam era, young America still in Counterculture mode (sort of); second season, Watergate, political corruption, social issues; and final season, Sixties really over, a diffusion of spirituality, with Disco AND Jimmy Carter right around the corner, confusion as to what path America should take.
Good post👍
shareI remember David Carradine said he wasn't surprised the series didn't last beyond three seasons. Towards the end the cast didn't get along that well, the series was losing its originality, the whole thing was running out of steam. It was symbolic of what was happening to the kung fu craze (i.e. super popular during the early seventies but losing momentum in the mid seventies and dying out by the late seventies).
shareThat's about right, especially as to the Kung Fu craze. The show rather road that wave. It was a good series, though, and truly "one of a kind", often with a somewhat off kilter, stoner-like ambiance. That style fell out of favor after a while as prime time reverted to more straightforward, easier to understand realistic narratives
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