What we have here is the last show in the four planned Marvel shows that would lead into the big "Defenders" crossover event. I'm not going to mince words, I did not like this show.
Part of me was afraid I would be influenced by all the negative press this show had garnered before it was released. I was hoping it was all wrong and that this show would surprise me. Unfortunately, they were right. This is a bad show.
That statement isn't confined to just one thing. There are many things I didn't like about this show. Let me just say, I really like the character, Iron Fist. More specifically, I like the team he makes with Luke Cage. The Ed Brubaker/Matt Fraction years from a couple of years ago is required reading for Iron Fist as far as I'm concerned. So this show hurts.
First of all, the most egregious part of this show is that the martial arts is terrible. For a show that is about a guy who is a master of Kung Fu, this show fails to deliver on the most basic level of that premise.
The fight choreography is astoundingly bad. After watching a show like Daredevil, it's amazing to me that the show runners thought this was good enough. Every fight scene feels likes something you would film with buddies in your backyard. Everything felt floaty and lacking in impact. There weren't good transition moves and everything felt like it was done in half speed. Your main character, seems like the worst fighter ever. The fact that he struggles at the end of this show with an ordinary guy is sad. Not another fighter, but a regular guy. None of the actors come off as capable.
Another problem is that the main character, Danny Rand, is about as uncharasmatic as they come. A great actor can help to elevate the material. Finn Jones fails to do that here. He is full of childish angst that makes Danny Rand unlikeable. This is my own criticism, but he does this head bobbing thing every time he tries to deliver some serious dialogue. He is borderline unwatchable.
I wish I could say that Danny was the only problem with this show. This show suffers from a lot of bland characters. The only characters that are good in my opinion, came from other shows. To be more specific, Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson), Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho) reprised their roles from Daredevil and Jessica Jones. They were the bright spots. I've been an unabashed Rosario Dawson fan, but in this show she feels truly wasted. She outacts Finn Jones and Jessica Henwick (Colleen Wing) in every scene she shares with them. It is really jarring. Speaking of Colleen, I liked that the character was in the show and I did squeal when she went by the name, "Daughter of the Dragon" in the early episodes. Unfortunately, as her relationship with Danny grows, she becomes less compelling and is relegated to "worried girlfriend" status.
The villains of this show are also bland. All the Meachums are unlikeable in their own way. The brother, Ward, is like a Sci-Fi Channel movie actor. He's distracting in every scene he is in. Joy Meachem is wide eyed half the time and her supposed strength is hard to believe at times. Their father, Harold is also equally unlikeable and he hangs around more than he should.
If you think I'm done complaining about this show, I still have a little more left in the chamber because I haven't event talked about the plot.
Danny Rand appears out of nowhere after being gone for fifteen years and expects the world to believe he is who he says he is. We are never told HOW he left the mystical city of K'un L'un to get back to New York. We just have to accept it. That's a problem. The first fourth of this show is spent trying to prove he is who he says he is. This lasts way longer than it should have. He ends up in an insane asylum, which was actually a pretty interesting take, considering how he acted.
That is swept under the rug pretty quickly. After that and some corporate intrigue (where he tries to get his company back) we have to deal with the worst part of the second season of Daredevil. The Hand. I hated them being in Daredevil and I hate them here. It works as a concept in the comics, but it's overly silly in this show. The back half of the show delves into this more and it just gets more and more ridiculous. I won't get into it here, but there are basically two factions of the Hand and we get to watch all of them badly fight with each other. The last boss battle is also very anti-climatic.
I feel like I've said enough since I have just been dumping on this show here. At the end of the day, what really bothers me is that this show was a wasted opportunity. Each show so far has had their own feel and aesthetic. This show lacks any of that. We are told about K'un L'un, but never see it. We are told Danny Rand is the Iron Fist, but we see very few instances where he shows that he is actually skilled at what he is doing. In the very least, this show could have been done in the style of an old Kung Fu movie or show, modernized for today. This show instead turns out to be a directionless mess. It was just a means to an end to get to the Defenders, so it had to happen. I just wish they had done more with their opportunity. It is easily the weakest of the Marvel Netflix shows.
