Iron Fist S02E01 Review: Danny Bland

Iron Fist, Season 2, Episode 1: The Fury of Iron Fist

Mmm, I was initially unsure if I was going to do just a single review for the entirety of Iron Fist season two, or if I would do it per episode... and then I watched the first episode and realized that there was no way I was going to watch it all in a single sitting (or several sittings, anyway). The thing is that without other characters to play off of, the character of Iron Fist as he is in Marvel's Netflix series is pretty shit. Finn Jones is an amazingly charismatic actor and probably the only reason why the character feels like a bumbling idiot with a huge inflated sense of ego, but ultimately with a good heart instead of a pompous jerkwad. I could be here all day shit-talking Iron Fist's first season and how badly it's stacked up -- if I ever bother to revisit the first season of Iron Fist I would have a lot more vitriol and a lot stronger language to throw in this show's way. 

And honestly, as someone who was outright offended by the sheer lack of cultural insensitivity that Iron Fist's first season has, the news about a change in direction and Finn Jones' performance in both Defenders and Luke Cage has caused me to give this show a second chance...

And... and it's still pretty fucking bland. No, it's nowhere as mind-bogglingly banal as the first season, thank god, but it's honestly nothing particularly new. The fact that we're actually going back to Danny's utterly insipid self-indulgent attempts to balance "something that matter" and working as a high-ranking member of Rand Industries that doesn't want or care to learn about the responsibilities that it entails and just brainlessly throw in the towel with any decision that 'feels' good honestly isn't something that is a charming trait at all. No wonder poor Ward Meachum has to go to therapy! (The Meachums are also a lot less bizarre than their first season counterparts, definitely a plus)

At least this time around, the show seems to want to challenge that aspect of Danny Rand, accepting huge responsibilities like being the main shareholder of Rand Industries or the bearer of the Iron Fist without actually doing anything meaningful about it and kind of running around being naive. So kudos for that. And seeing Danny actually struggle to maintain the idealistic lifestyle is a lot far easier to root for than the moron we've seen in season one that throws tantrums whenever everything totally doesn't go the way he wants to. 

The show quickly establishes that the power vacuum left by the hand has caused the gangs and triads to get more brutal in enforcing protection money, with the return of recurring minor villains the Hatchet gang. We also get a subplot starring Colleen Wing discovering a mysterious box with her family sigil on it, and her search for answers ended up throwing her and Danny smack dab in the middle of the triad war. 

The other plotline is the vague thing that Davos and Joy Meachum are cooking up. Joy buys out of Rand Industries, with the ever-gullible Danny falling for it (and presumably going to be punished for it, yay!) while Davos is going around beating up Hatchet goons and shit-talking the air of corruption in New York City. Davos ends up meeting up Danny at the end of the episode, getting a conversation about Danny, again, abandoning his post and leading to K'un Lun to be destroyed. Thank god the writers actually allowed Davos to actually sound reasonable instead of just twisting the not-Danny side to just being "but you kill people, so you are evil FULL STOP". 

Oh, and there's this one photographer lady that kind of gets a scene with Danny, and then gets another scene where she goes insane. Totally going to be important in some way. 

There's definitely improvements in a lot of things -- we're thrown straight into the story instead of spending an episode in an asylum for no goddamn reason at all. The action scenes look a lot better from the brief kung fu bit we have between Davos and Danny, and the bit with Danny punching a truck at the beginning of the episode is definitely welcome after the first season of Iron Fist went for an utter tragedy of the "less is more" approach. Both Colleen and Davos are definitely a lot more intriguing than Danny, though, and I still feel that's easily the weakest part of the show. Still, it has a wee bit more potential than I would've given it credit for... but it's still the first episode. So.