“I am the Iron Fist. Protector of K'un-Lun. Sworn enemy of the Hand.”
(WARNING: Minor Spoilers Ahead!)
In a few days, the long-awaited crossover that many of us have been eagerly anticipating since the Spring of 2015 will finally be upon us. I’m, of course, talking about The Defenders, the fifth series in Marvel Studios’ line of shows produced exclusively for the streaming service Netflix that will combine all the main protagonists of its four predecessors in one epic miniseries. Just like their film output, Marvel’s Netflix shows have turned out to be quite exceptional, thanks in no small part to their well-layered characters and excellent action sequences that aren’t afraid to go beyond the usual PG-13 rated affairs of the MCU films. And it looks like this will continue with The Defenders, but until then, I’ve got one more Marvel Netflix show to review before the big crossover arrives on the scene. First, there was Daredevil, which was then followed by Jessica Jones, which was then in turn followed by Luke Cage. Now, there’s the immortal Iron Fist, which I’m 99.9% sure will be another solid success for the studio… (*looks at the Rotten Tomatoes score for this season*) …oh dear! Yes, folks, unlike its predecessors, the first season of Iron Fist did not fare well with critics. With a measly 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it is the worst rated Marvel Netflix/Marvel Studios project to date, as well as the first Marvel Studios project ever to have a rotten rating on that site. So, with all this in mind, is Iron Fist truly Marvel Studios’ first major critical dud? Well… not entirely, as it still carries quite a few of the strongest elements that made its three predecessors so successful. Although, with that said, I will admit that this series’ shortcomings, at least when compared to those in the previous Marvel Netflix series, are perhaps the most prominent out of everything we’ve seen to date from Marvel’s Netflix output.
As the series begins, Danny Rand (Finn Jones), son of billionaire Wendell Rand, returns home to New York City for the first time in 15 years. However, he initially has trouble proving to people that he’s really who he says he is, particularly his old friends Joy (Jessica Stroup) and Ward (Tom Pelphrey) Meachum, the children of Wendell’s business partner Harold Meachum (David Wenham), who now own their parents’ company. The reason why is because, for those past 15 years, Danny had been presumed dead after a plane crash in the Himalayas that killed both of his parents. Eventually, though, Danny manages to convince everyone that he is truly Danny Rand as we begin to learn more about what happened to him during those 15 years away from home. After he miraculously survived the plane crash, Danny was rescued by some monks from the mystical dimension of K’un-Lun, which only appears on Earth every 15 years. There, he was trained in martial arts and was selected to become K’un-Lun’s greatest warrior, the ‘Iron Fist’. Capable of manifesting the mystical energy of the Iron Fist within his own fist, Danny proclaims that it is his mission to take down the sworn enemy of K’un-Lun, the criminal organization known as ‘the Hand’ (whom we, the audience, had been previously introduced to in Daredevil). Realizing that the Hand is currently operating in New York, Danny, along with the aid of dojo owner Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick), embarks on a quest to eliminate them once and for all. Along the way, Danny also begins to investigate further into the cause of the crash that killed his parents; however, the truth behind the incident forces him to question the true motives of those closest to him.
One of the most common criticisms surrounding this season of Marvel Netflix has been its pacing, namely due to a very slow start. And… yeah, that is exactly the case here, headlined by what is arguably the weakest pilot episode of any Marvel Netflix show to date. Literally all that happens in that first episode, ‘Snow Gives Way’, is that Danny goes around the city trying to prove to people who he really is to no avail. Now, with that said, I do feel that there was some potential in terms of the whole plotline of having Danny trying to prove to people who he really is… for just one episode. Heck, maybe even part of the second episode if handled correctly. But that’s not what happens here; instead, that aspect of the series is dragged out way too much. After getting drugged by Joy and Ward at the end of Episode 1, he ends up spending most of Episode 2, ‘Shadow Hawk Takes Flight’, in an insane asylum. He manages to break out by the end of the episode, but he isn’t fully reinstated as the majority shareholder at Rand Enterprises until Episode 4, ‘Eight Diagram Dragon Palm’ (by the way, I love this show’s episode titles). And really, even though I just said that there was some potential for this plotline, it’s made quite clear at the beginning that it’s really Danny and not some phony impostor, partially because they keep cutting back to a flashback of the Rand family’s plane crash. I mean, aside from this, the show does do a solid enough job of setting up the main characters and their roles in the overall story. However, all of this is still burdened by the series spending way too much time on the ‘is this really Danny Rand?’ plotline, despite the predictability of it only warranting about a single episode worth of material.
But while the show does start off on a slow note, I will say that things do get better as the season goes on. For one thing, while some have criticized the show’s fight sequences, there are some genuinely solid fights during the latter half of the season, like in Episode 8, ‘The Blessing of Many Fractures’, when Danny and co. head to China to try and stop the Hand’s drug operation. Sure enough, this was ultimately my favorite episode of the season, and who directed it, you ask? None other than Kevin Tancharoen, brother of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. co-creator Maurissa Tancharoen. And if you’ll recall my last three season reviews of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., you’ll know that any episodes of Marvel TV that he directs are amongst that show’s greatest. However, while the latter half of the season does make up for its slow start, that doesn’t mean that its pacing issues are fixed completely. Because even after the series reaches the halfway point, it still takes its sweet-ass time to develop the plot. As such, it doesn’t really do a good job of balancing out its main plotlines; namely, Danny’s quest to defeat the Hand and his efforts to find out the truth behind his family’s plane crash. Ultimately, the latter of the two ends up getting the most focus, which unfortunately overshadows the ‘defeat the Hand’ plotline even with the implementation of an allegedly ‘good-willed’ faction of the Hand led by the charismatic sensei Bakuto (Ramón Rodriguez). Then, there’s also the addition of Danny’s old friend from K’un-Lun, Davos (Sacha Dhawan), who comes in to try and get Danny to return there before the gateway to it closes for the next 15 years so that he can serve his purpose as the Dimension's protector. In other words, ‘story structure’ is this season’s biggest shortcoming, as some plotlines are either rushed or used as a set-up for Season 2, sort of like with Luke Cage and the introduction of Diamondback.
The casting of Game of Thrones alum Finn Jones in the lead role of Danny Rand AKA Iron Fist has attracted a considerable amount of controversy by fans who have accused the filmmakers of whitewashing. Now, I’m not going to delve into that aspect of the controversy because, as those who have been following this blog for a while know, I don’t like to discuss race-related casting issues like this on this site. Simply put, there are just people out there who are better at discussing this kind of stuff than me. However, there is one criticism of this casting that I just don’t understand. Noah Berlatsky of Quartz.com stated that the show proved that Marvel is ‘obsessed with rich, white men’… and yet that’s been far from the truth when it comes to Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, admittedly, I’m not denying that the studio’s efforts to incorporate a more racially diverse cast of characters into their lineup have been rather slow-moving. Still, that doesn’t mean that they haven’t been doing that already, especially in terms of their TV shows. Two of the main female leads on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Ming-Na Wen and Chloe Bennet, are of Chinese descent. And just a few months back, we had Luke Cage, which was the first big Marvel TV show based around an African-American protagonist. And as for that whole thing about rich, white men in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? The only other lead superhero in the MCU who even fits into that category is Tony Stark. Sure, Dr. Strange was a rich and successful doctor at the start of Doctor Strange but he ended up losing most of his money in his efforts to fix his hands. Even Danny Rand’s fellow Defender Matt Murdock is established as someone who’s often just trying to get by financially. Now, admittedly, this argument of Marvel’s ‘rich, white men’ has also been attributed to the MCU’s collection of villains… but even then, not all of them fit that bill.
Ultimately, though, regardless of the whole whitewashing debate, Jones has not gotten a lot of positive reception regarding his performance as Danny Rand. However, I don’t think that he was ‘that’ bad. Granted, I still think that he’s the ‘weakest’ of the four Defenders leads; that and there are times where Danny is a bit too impulsive in terms of his actions. However, I’m not writing him off just yet because based on the trailers for Defenders, it seems like he’s working quite well alongside co-stars Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, and Mike Colter. Ultimately, though, the biggest standout of this show’s cast is Jessica Henwick in the role of Colleen Wing. Colleen may arguably be the most badass female lead yet in a Marvel Netflix show and she also gets some of the most interesting character development in the entire season, especially when a game-changing twist is put into play regarding her true allegiance. As for the main supporting cast, Jessica Stroup is fine as Joy, who’s shown to be the more compassionate of the Meachum siblings, but Tom Pelphrey is occasionally a bit wooden as Ward. This does, however, confirm a new theory of mine that if your name is Ward and you’re a character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe… you’re one of the villains. Now, granted, this changes a bit by the end of the season but for the most part, Ward serves as somewhat of an antagonist towards Danny, as it’s well established that the two were often at odds with each other when they were younger. There’s even some interesting character development surrounding Ward’s mental state, which gets worse as the season goes on. The other big standout of the group is David Wenham as Harold Meachum, one of the primary villains of the series. Despite some of the show’s narrative shortcomings, it does continue the trend of Marvel Netflix’s excellent array of villains, as Wenham fully succeeds at being a manipulative and charismatic antagonist operating behind the scenes. And this is primarily because it is established that Harold, like Danny, has been presumed dead for years after supposedly succumbing to cancer; instead, he was granted ‘immortality’ by the Hand albeit at the cost of being separated from his family (save for Ward, who’s one of the few people to know about this).
Now, some of you might recall that since Season 2 of Daredevil, I’ve been rather critical of these shows’ minimal efforts of tying their storylines together save for a few select cameos. And sure, this happens yet again with Iron Fist. Carrie Anne-Moss’ character Jeri Hogarth appears in a few episodes, in which it’s established that she used to work for Danny’s father. And, of course, Rosario Dawson is back again as Claire Temple, who for the second Marvel Netflix season in a row is given a nice, substantial role as one of Colleen’s students. The series also sees the return of Hand leader Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho), who had previously appeared in Daredevil, in what is easily her largest role yet in these Netflix shows. However, this time around, I didn’t really mind too much that the show didn’t do any major crossovers with the other Marvel Netflix shows. And that is because it surprisingly manages to have quite a few notable references to the other main protagonists of this franchise. At one point, we see Claire reading a letter written by Luke Cage; heck, she even quotes his famous line (‘Sweet Christmas!’) a few times. And in Episode 8, Joy reveals to Ward that she managed to get incriminating photos of their co-workers thanks to a private investigator who’s most dependable when she’s sober… guess who that is? As I’ve said before, I’m not completely against these shows’ efforts to not go down the same exact route as the MCU films in terms of having main characters appear in other shows. However, after Defenders, I hope that we do get more crossovers given that, by this point, the four leads will have already teamed up together onscreen. Have Luke Cage appear on Iron Fist or Daredevil appear on Jessica Jones (or vice versa). The possibilities are endless at this point and I bet that these crossovers can be well-implemented into each show’s narrative.
In conclusion, while it did have some notable problems, I still thoroughly enjoyed season 1 of Iron Fist. It reminded me a lot of Season 1 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., as both shows went down similar paths. Both started off rather slow before regaining momentum by season’s end. Now, for the record, I’m not saying that Iron Fist had as great of a turnaround as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. did. It did start off on a very slow note, mainly due to it stretching out a plotline that didn’t need to be stretched out beyond one or two episodes. And even after it does get back on track, it still suffers quite a bit from juggling a few too many plotlines; thus, some of them feel more like set-up for the recently confirmed Season 2. However, at the end of the day, I can at least say that I wasn’t ‘bored’ by this show because it still managed to maintain some of the strongest elements of any Marvel Netflix show, from some great supporting characters (i.e. Colleen Wing) to a highly memorable main antagonist in David Wenham’s Harold Meachum. And despite the controversy surrounding his casting, I do think that Finn Jones’ Danny Rand is a solid addition to Marvel’s Netflix lineup. Thus, I’m still looking forward to Season 2 of this show, which will see a change in showrunners from Scott Buck (who’s now working on Inhumans which, for the record, does not affect my anticipation for that show despite all the backlash that it’s gotten) to Raven Metzner, who co-produced the hit show Sleepy Hollow on Fox. And overall, I bet that this will result in a much stronger sophomore season (disclaimer: I’m aware that Metzner co-wrote 2005’s Elektra but that was back in 2005). But, of course, first, we’ll be seeing ‘the kid with the glowing fist’ team up with ‘the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, the smart-ass detective, and the righteous ex-con’ in the highly anticipated 8-part epic that is The Defenders. Bring it on!
Season 1 Rating: 4/5
And that concludes my review of Season 1 of Marvel’s Iron Fist. I’m glad that I managed to get this one out before The Defenders premieres this weekend, especially considering that this is the second time in a row now that I’ve admittedly been behind on reviewing these Marvel Netflix shows given that this show first premiered back in March. On that note, I assure you, folks, that I will try my best to get through Season 1 of The Defenders as quickly as possible so that I can hopefully have a review of it done by the end of this month. Until then, feel free to look back at my reviews for the previous seasons of Marvel’s Netflix shows, the links to which will be provided below.
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