TV Series Review | Marvel’s Iron Fist
I was super excited about Iron Fist getting his own series. Netflix has done such a great job of bringing out the best in some of the more sidelined heroes of the Marvel Universe. The thought of the zen martial arts master coming to the virtual screen for his own 13 episode adventure sparked new life into my Marvel and Iron Fist loving heart. I expected action, excitement, a few laughs and most of all I expected Iron Fist to finally shine in a spotlight all his own. Sadly, my expectations were set too high as Netflix managed to deliver a good series, but nothing worth bragging about.
If you didn’t know going in, Danny Rand is a young billionaire to be who is the lone survivor of a plane crash which claimed the lives of his parents and stranded him in the Tibetan mountains. He was rescued by monks from The Immortal city of K’un-Lun where he was given sanctuary and trained in martial arts. Danny eventually earns the power of the dragon warrior, the Iron Fist, which imbues his fists with mystical energy that makes them near indestructible and enhances the power of his blows to super human levels – He basically has two yellow glow sticks for hands that can smash through anything.
Marvel’s Iron Fist begins when Danny returns to New York city 15 years after the plane crash, seemingly because he misses his home and wants to reconnect with the family he still has, the Meachums, who are now running his family’s company, Rand Enterprises – told you the guy was a billionaire to be. The first few episodes of the show introduced to the character line up and there is so much potential. The episodes do a really good job of establishing the ‘right now’ of the Iron Fist portion of the universe with Danny’s early run ins with show stealer Colleen Wing and her struggling dojo, Joy Meachum the savvy business woman with a heart and her messed up brother/father combo,Ward and Harold – seriously, these two have been running a race to see who could be the most sketchy, morally ambiguous, outlandish bastard from episode 1 and spoiler alert!, Harold wins.
Awaken the Dragon?
The show slots in perfectly to the MCU and the established events of the previous Marvel Netflix series. Recurring characters like Jeri Hogarth, Madame Gao and everyone’s favorite night nurse Claire Temple slide in perfectly with the events of the Iron Fist series without feeling forced, showing some growth from who we knew them to be. Jeri is a bit nicer than the last time we saw her, obviously affected by the traumatic events of Jessica Jones. Our favorite drug dealing puppet mistress Gao is still up to some of her old tricks, quickly reminded us all why she is not to be toyed with but also showing us that she is a lot more powerful than we though. As bits and pieces of her own shadowy past comes to light one thing is certain, Gao definitely looks great for her age.
All the little hints and news headlines are cute but we all know the show wouldn’t be tied int the Netflix-verse without Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple. We love Claire, some people might say they don’t be we know they’re lying. Claire represents the little bit of normal our heroes need, that moral compass who tries to fix more than just their bloody wounds. In Iron Fist, Claire does more of the same for Danny after being drawn into yet another confrontation with The Hand. She is there to help Danny work out his emotional struggles and, this go round, kick a little ass herself. Claire’s presence while appreciated however, was not always necessary. Case and point, the episode 8’s mission to China.
Another point in favor of the series are its fight scenes. Every single fight in the Iron Fist series was impeccably choreographed. I’m not a martial arts expert myself but the moves looked really clean and really well executed, bringing me back to the days when Carl Douglas’ Kung Fu Fighting was the go to hit song and everyone wanted to be Jackie Chan or Jet Li. However, as far as fight scenes go, the bar was set with Daredevil and Iron Fist doesn’t even come close, which is where things started to go all wrong.
Every Netflix Marvel series so far has had its own unique flavor. Daredevil has a lot of high paced action and that question of how far is too far. Jessica Jones did the slow burn of an abuse victim working out how much doing the right thing is worth and being strong yet powerless all at the same time. Luke Cage, of course was the struggle of a black man with power trying to use it the right way in a world that’s not on his side. Every series so far has been unique and made its own statement and I for one expected the same of Iron Fist only to be met with a really awkwardly paced story that tries to do everything we’ve already seen done better before. The show very much feels like a stop gap between the end of Daredevil season 2 and Luke Cage which is meant to just fill space until The Defenders is released later this year. That’s not fair to the fans who love Iron Fist, the Iron Fist character himself or The Defenders series which admittedly, I’m a little less pumped for now.
The pacing of the story is so messy. Things start off slowly, dropping a lot of hints about these great developments to come and building the hope for this huge amazing climax. When things started to pick up around episode 6 and 7 when Danny has to face off against The Hand, it was like that first rain cloud in a drought. Seeing characters move into their own, watching classic Iron Fist villains like Scythe and The Bride of Nine Spiders make an appearance was exciting! It finally felt like the show knew where it was heading . . . only 
to slow back down for more lack luster “wow” moments, confusing Meachum family power struggles and Danny basically leading himself and his friends around in circles trying to figure out who he wants to be.
Many – and I mean many – times throughout the series, characters refer to Danny as a child and sadly , for a 25 year old billionaire monk chosen one, he really and truly is just that. It takes a while before it becomes obvious but Danny literally has no idea what motivates him and his thinking is simple and immature. The script didn’t help actor Finn Jones deliver anything but the angst of a petulant teenager. Danny actually manages to get tricked and manipulated by everyone – and yes, I do mean everyone. It took 13 episodes, being framed for a crime he didn’t commit and Gao actually spelling it out for him before he even considered the fact that Harold set up the plane crash. This is even after Gao actually told him point blank that Harold is the one who killed them just 3 or so episodes before only to have him refute it with the childish shouts of “That’s not true!”. One would think that wisdom would have been a part of his monk training . . . but apparently that is not the case.
Danny, though by far the worst, isn’t the only cringe worthy character. Ward’s drug problem was super cliche and his allegiances were like a leaf in the wind. And don’t even get me started on Harold. That Frank Stein joke? The murder by ice cream spoon? Who thought that these were solid enough ideas to base lengthy scenes setting them up? Thank the might Shou-Lao – who we sadly don’t even get to see due to budget limitations – for Jessica Henwick’s portrayal of Colleen Wing. Colleen Wing, her high impact fight scenes and believable growth and struggles as a character. Colleen Wing who pretty much could have stolen the show and had it named after her instead even with the surprising lack of background we found out about her.
Final Verdict
Truly, Marvel’s Iron Fist is cemented as the worst Marvel Netflix series to date. Finn Jones tried but the issues obviously started in the writers room. With lines like “Its not that bad” and “You are the worst Iron Fist ever” being thrown around you’ve got to wonder if the writers botched the show on purpose just to get the characters out there in time for Defenders?
The show isn’t particularly bad just alarmingly mediocre. It doesn’t stand up well against any of the other content in the Marvel Cinematic Universe gallery and was a disservice done to Iron Fist and Iron Fist fans everywhere. If the poor pacing and shoddy Danny Rand didn’t do you in, the rather anticlimactic climax was the toe over the line. While it did its job and moved all the pieces into place for The Defenders series this September, no one will really be watching for our K’un-lun Dragon Warrior and that is a crying shame.
