TV Review: Iron Fist
Updated: May 28, 2019
So we have had the next installment of Marvel Netflix series drop recent in the form of Iron Fist. Now Iron Fist started off with some horrible reviews and flak from critics and I could only take it with a grain of salt because they were griping that the actor (Finn Jones) was white. It just goes to show how much the critics pay attention or how many of them have read an Iron Fist comic in their lives because wait hold on… He is white! Morons. I could rant further but I will leave it at just this, do some research and get some background first before you shit on it. At least when I know there is some sort of background like a comic or a another movie I will try to get the lowdown from previous iterations and make comparisons.
Iron Fist starts out pretty slow and builds a lot of characters between Danny Rand and the Meechums (Joy, Ward and Harold). Of course his later on love interest Colleen, Claire and a few other supporting characters as well. I was okay with the slower build up, I know a few others who didn't care for the opening couple of episodes. More than likely peoples expectations were that it would be more action based because ‘Hey Iron Fist knows martial arts’ which probably means a lot of cool fight scenes. Now the fight scenes that were in the show I thought were very well done but they didn’t need the constant action for the direction it went.
Now I was glad that they took the serious approach to Iron Fist as opposed to the Deadpool-esque comedic style of the recent Power Man and Iron Fist comics. Maybe they will play upon the comedy when they introduce The Defenders with the back and forth between Cage and Rand. But for this particular introduction to Iron Fist I do believe the serious approach was the correct move.
The series begins when Danny Rand returns from K’un-Lun 15 years after his crash in the Himalayas when he was just a kid. He finds out that his close friends from when he was a kid have taken over Rand Enterprises thinking that his entire family was dead. He finds also out that their father faked his own death as well and deals a lot with the relationships between Danny and the Meechums.
Danny realizes that The Hand, his sworn enemy has infiltrated a lot of New York and Rand Industries included and begins to remove them from the equation. I really liked the introduction of Bakuto as Colleen’s sensei and the leader of the off-shoot of The Hand towards the end. It really drove home the internal conflict of Danny Rand that in my opinion was the true focus of the series.
The struggle of him leaving K’un-Lun in the first place, finding out what happened to his parents, finding love, being betrayed by his first love, dealing with the Meechums. The conflict causing confusion and issues with his inner balance and chi leaving him without the power of the Iron Fist for some time. But it leaves a solid background for the character of Iron Fist leading into ‘The Defenders’ that will be coming soon to Netflix as well.
Now after the end of this series it certainly leaves it open for another season which could lead into a more action packed season between Iron Fist and the Hand and the search for K’un-Lun. I can see this particular season getting some truly mixed reviews due to its lack of action throughout however, I enjoyed the series as a whole. Was it Daredevil or Jessica Jones good? I don’t think so, but I think it was a solid series even with its slower start. It is giving me the itch for ‘The Defenders’ which has just wrapped up filming and is scheduled to be released mid-2017 with ‘The Punisher’ shortly thereafter.
3.5 Beards out of 5