Iron Fist Season 1: Not That Bad

I’ve got a confession to make, not only did I find Season One of Iron Fist better than Season Two, I watched it twice. Embarrassing, I know.

First, I must say I was pretty impressed with how the writers adapted the source material. I never read the comics, so I’m basing that on what I read in Wikipedia. Smart move not including the connection between Danny’s father and K’un-Lun. We wouldn’t want one more white person traipsing around a mystical Asian city, especially will all those enlightened folks that immediately yelled “Whitewashing!” because a white character was cast with a white actor. Anyway, I really was glad they changed it because that backstory is way too convoluted, like comic book characters’ backstories are wont to be. It was also better to have the people of K’un-Lun train Danny and let him become the new Immortal Iron Fist because they expected him to stay and guard the city. I also liked how they linked the Hand to K’un-Lun – it actually makes a lot more sense for a bunch of supernatural ninjas to be linked to Iron Fist than Daredevil. The show’s stunt doubles deserve a special mention, too. I was impressed with how they threw themselves on the floor and did several backflips to make Danny look like the great fighter he’s supposed to be – that can’t possibly have been easy.

Now, let’s get the bad stuff out of the way. Season One dragged at times with all the corporate drama – which I fast-forwarded through on my rewatch –, I’m sure they didn’t get all the spiritual stuff right, and Finn Jones wasn’t the best fake fighter. However, Season One also had a personality, Madame Gao, who’s awesome, Howard scooping someone to death, and, as much as people (including me) criticized the fight choreography, Danny’s relaxed style at least set him apart from the more bruising, punishing Daredevil types. My hopes for Season Two were that it would ditch the Meachum family drama, namely Ward, and improve the fight scenes within that same style.

In between seasons The Defenders happened and… yeah, it didn’t bode well. The writers decided that the only way to include Danny in a group of dark, angsty characters was to make fun of him, even though after the attack on K’un-Lun Danny should be as dark and angsty as everybody else. Also, for the writers to have people making fun of the same mystical stuff that they chose as the basis for the plot of their shitty miniseries was pretty dumb.

The whole thing gets more frustrating when you ignore the comics and just look at what we were given. Jessica Jones and Luke Cage were just superfluous and the attempts to link them to the Hand’s masterplan felt forced. If the writers really did want to include everyone, they should’ve come up with a different story. Again, ignoring the comics (and this is something I rarely say), you could’ve had the same plot with just Daredevil and Iron Fist, and used the remaining screentime to develop Elektra’s motivation and explain what a white woman, a black man, and a Hispanic man were doing, thousands of years ago, in a magical city inspired in Chinese mythology which connects with our world somewhere in Tibet. And they weren’t just there as guests, they were leaders. Look, I get that Sigourney Weaver is a legend, but come on! The little we see of K’un-Lun isn’t exactly ethnically diverse, and what little diversity there is makes geographical sense. I know that in the comics the Hand has its origins in Japan, but at least it’s the same continent. Those three could’ve easily just been the current leaders of different factions of the Hand, there was no need to make anyone immortal.

And given how Danny and Elektra were meant to be each other’s enemy’s special weapon, I expected their confrontation to be more interesting. Instead, she just tricked him into punching a wall. Because that’s the only reason the Hand needed Danny: to punch a wall. Seriously? Ugh! The miniseries also finally brought together Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Misty Knight, and Colleen Wing. In the comics, Danny and Luke are a team, Danny and Misty are a couple, and she and Colleen were also a team at some point.

The Defenders suffered from what I like to call Vampire Vikings in Virginia syndrome (in honour of The Vampire Diaries). It applies whenever a show must stick to one place and turns it into a hotbed of ancient mystical locations and magical artefacts. In TVD, it was Mystic Falls, in The Defenders it’s New York, because apparently the only character who has the ability to leave the country is Danny. So, much like TVD had things that should’ve been in Europe in Mystic Falls, The Defenders had a magical portal hiding a dead dragon in New York, when it would’ve made a lot more sense for it to have been somewhere in Asia.

And on to Season Two, with a new showrunner and a new fight choreographer. It shows. A lot. Danny became just another Daredevil type and Iron Fist lost whatever different feel it had, turning into one more superhero show with few special effects. There were also a lot of weird choices, especially given that one of the criticisms of the first season was that it was boring.

For some reason, the show decided to keep pushing Joy Meachum into her comic book storyline, even though it makes no sense for this Joy to blame Danny for what happened. Besides, if there’s one Meachum sibling who would blame others for their problems, it’s Ward. But Ward is now Danny’s buddy and is also given his own storyline struggling with addiction. Why? Who the hell asked for this? WHO? And are we supposed to forget that this was the same Ward that was stealing from the company’s pension fund, and had Danny locked up in a psychiatric hospital even though he knew he really was Danny Rand? Teaming up with Joy is Davos, who blames Danny for the destruction of his home and believes he was entitled to become the Immortal Iron Fist. This actually makes sense so, yay? Colleen and Misty also team up and sometimes sound as if they’re old friends who’ve known each other for years. I know it’s different in the comics, but there’s no basis for this in the show. Much like with The Defenders, it feels as if the show gave up on Danny and is looking for ways to side-line him.

The main plot of Season Two somehow manages to make the Hand’s plans in the miniseries even more ridiculous. Because now we’re told that you can just steal the power of the Iron Fist. Why didn’t the Hand ever try to do that? It would’ve saved them a lot of trouble. That’s how Davos plans to take Danny’s power and he succeeds! That was surprising. Powerless Danny, who in case you forgot was considered the best fighter in K’un-Lun before he faced the dragon, now needs Colleen to train him. Hmm, why? He should be able to fight without the power of the Iron Fist. In fact, he did just that throughout much of Season One, probably due to budgetary reasons. Look, I too think Colleen is awesome, but this and what follows feels like nothing more than fan service. Or maybe M Raven Metzner was trying to compensate for the shitshow that was Sleepy Hollow. Really, if they thought Jones was that bad, they should’ve just recast the part. Then again, recasting Danny Rand wouldn’t make him any less male or white, so…

The season ends with Colleen having the power of the Iron Fist, even though she didn’t have to face any dragons. But that’s okay, and even probably meant to be, because we later find out that one of her ancestors was the first Iron Fist. So, when Davos says he’s entitled to it, we’re meant to think he’s wrong because that’s something you must fight for, but in the end, we’re meant to accept that Colleen deserves it because of her lineage? It already felt like too much of a coincidence that the second person Danny met in New York in Season One was a member of the Hand, but now she turns out to be the descendant of the first Iron Fist?! And wasn’t there a prophecy about Danny being the next Iron Fist? So, he was just a middleman? Seriously?!

Another issue I had with Danny letting Colleen have his powers was that he had been having regrets about becoming the Iron Fist. Instead of accepting his responsibilities, he just passes them onto someone else. Colleen too is struggling with what to do now that she doesn’t have her school anymore. Being handed superpowers is an easy way out. Ward also ditches his messy life in the end and hops on the plane with Danny, because clearly the only way to get rid of Ward was for the show to get cancelled. Weirdly, Joy is the only one who accepts responsibility for her choices and tries to do something to fix the mess she helped cause.

And now, Season Two’s main addition: Mary Walker, aka as Typhoid Mary, aka Bloody Mary, aka Mary. How do you ruin this character? Why, by letting the same guy who wrote Elektra write her. Again. Still, if Simon Kinberg can ruin the Dark Phoenix Saga twice, there’s no reason why Metzner can’t do the same to poor Mary Walker. This version of the character is bland, has no superpowers, and only shows two personalities – Mary and, I’m guessing, Bloody Mary. In the end, they realize that there’s a third personality, who would probably have turned out to be as bland and uninteresting as the other two if the show had been renewed for a third season.

I know people thought that the ending with Danny with the pistols and Ward was really promising, but after what came before, I seriously doubt it would’ve been any good (seriously, fuck off, Ward!). So, you know what? I don't care about what critics and other viewers say, Season One of Iron Fist was way better than Season Two.

By Danforth