Iron Fist - Netflix most abhorred series by the critics

[ctg]

After being declared dead 15 years earlier Danny Rand returns to New York. But his welcome is a far cry from he'd hoped.

Here we are, March 17, the date when Iron Fist became available to the large audience. Not just critics, because they've had this series in their hand for couple of weeks for them to write reviews and possibly build up hype.

There is no hype. Just like there wasn't when Luke Cage appeared on the small screen. Back then Luke Cage shared same anonymity as Stranger Things and it took a bit of bravery to look at something that wasn't as main stream as Daredevil, Spiderman or the Avengers. Most of the people might have seen Iron Fist in comic book cover but never bothered to open a page and read it. I personally fall in that category.

So for me, this is the image I've retained over the years in my head.

I bet it's the same thing for many people. So it's really interesting to see how this series is going to flop, because the critics who has called this as "first Netflix big flop" is going to develop as I expect the Iron Fist to dive deep and deliver same kind of feelings as what I'd with other Netflix Marvel series.

What do you think? Is it worth it?

 

[ctg]

You wouldn't think a bare feet man walking down 42nd street would be a billionaire who has own company smack in the middle of the business heart of New York city. But thing is, most rich people aren't well dressed bankers, but ordinary people. The one percent, when you look at them in documentaries, they like to dress casual. In Danny Rands case, the casual has been taken to an extreme level.

What else would you expect from a man who everyone thought to be dead? Danny never made it to private schools, yachts, universities and nine-to-five lifestyle. His parents plane went down in the mountains, and since then Danny was on his own.

Well, almost, if you don't count in the monks and monasteries in far side of the world, which seems to be popular as there's Doctor Strange's place at Napa Valley and everything else that mysterious in Marvel Universe.

It's just first giggles I got were from security trying to stop Mr Strand from entering his own building. They should have known better from the moment first guard was mashed on the wall that they were dealing with an extraordinary character.

But that is it. Everything extraordinary has been filtered out from the business culture. There is no room for individuals. Not even though New York City is supposed to be full of them. So I'm kind of glad Danny didn't become a d1ck like Tony Stark. He's much closer to normal guy than the other rich geezers.

To be honest Iron Fist goes faster into the story than Daredevil, Jessica Jones or Luke Cage. You're smack in the middle of it before the half an hour is full. If you're like me, you love this but if not, you might as well listen to those other critics, because this series isn't going to hold your hand. It expect you to know at least some of the stuff that has happened before in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

IF there is a problem, fear nothing, because I will voice it.

 

[ctg]

I'm at the end of second episode and I'm all ready hooked into it. The mystery behind the Iron Fist is that he is supposed to be enemy for the Hand. Luke Cage never saw them, Jessica Jones might have got something from the connection to Murdock&Nelson. But the real thing is the hole in the middle of the hell kitchen and the Hand Daredevil has been dealing with since the season one.

So maybe the problem critics have had is that they aren't as connected to the Marvel Universe as rest of us. Maybe they don't see the connections and they assume straight away that it's the smelly stuff. Which makes this interesting as a geek, reading geeky sites, the critics are almost always opposite to what I think when I get to see the product.

To me, Marvel's Iron Fist is a perfect product. It connects me as a viewer to so many other things that are real in the Marvel's Universe. And the disconnection with Spiderman, X-man and Fantastic Four is really troublesome. But that's what the business deal with the Sony and Fox has got us.

We geeks can only hope that one day Marvel and DC are as joined as the Star Wars Universe is if you count in all canon material. But in the meantime I'm glad to explore these minor characters I've never picked up from the comic shelf.

If you're first time viewer, Iron Fist isn't a bad choice because it will lead you to other Netflix stories as it explains along the way how it all happened. Even without the connections I was hooked by mental hospital scene and how well the story plays out as it's as unpredictable as the other Netflix Marvel productions.

 

[ctg]

Oh the rattle between the boys. It's makes me chuckle. Good stuff. Also best hiphop riffs to go in rhythm with the hits.

 

[Susan Boulton]

The continuity is the first show was crap, the appearing and disappearing backpack for one.

 

[Connavar]

I saw almost 11 eps straight yesterday and i think the critics are lame, looking for Marvel's first Netflix flop because Daredevil is huge name in comics, earlier film, Luke Cage was the marvel black hero, Jessica Jones was the only female PI in Marvel, that used rape, other violence against women issues well. Calling Iron Fist predictable is stupid because every popular hero almost is a white billionare like Batman, Iron Man.

Im big fan of Daredevil in comics so i know Iron Fist since he is a close friend that works in the similar street level corner of MU. I always enjoyed his Kun Lun mythology, kung fu, Bruce Lee 70s background to IF. I read only one series of IF in mid 2000s because it was the same writer that wrote DD.

For me i enjoyed alot of this show so far, the same thing i like about DD, human street level hero fighting huge crime group like The Hand, awesome martial arts, young hero learning to grow mentally with his abilities. Big difference is the clear superpower, mythology of Immortal Weapon, the fire of Iron Fist, much more mystical than DD. I think Netflix has showed everything i always wanted when i was looking for in seeing Immortal Iron Fist.

The first two eps was slow just like every Netflix marvel show made for 13 hours of bing watching like a long form storytelling. I enjoyed seeing the lonely, desperate for connection Danny Rand before he in later eps found love, comfort in Colleen Wing and destroying The Hand like he was meant to be. Colleen Wing is awesome by the way, the actress playing her is very good at being hardcore fighter, a teacher, also a cute girl when she and Danny got close.

I have the last two eps and i will never believe the critics dissing a show because it is NOT Daredevil. Because there is no built in hype of bigger superhero name.

 

[WaylanderToo]

I've just started E4 and I am enjoying it. Some interesting stuff and I'm very curious to see how it all pans it.


Cool seeing this chap as something else...

 

[ctg]

I saw almost 11 eps straight yesterday and i think the critics are lame, looking for Marvel's first Netflix flop because Daredevil is huge name in comics, earlier film, Luke Cage was the marvel black hero, Jessica Jones was the only female PI in Marvel, that used rape, other violence against women issues well. Calling Iron Fist predictable is stupid because every popular hero almost is a white billionare like Batman, Iron Man.

Exactly and like you I watched most of the episodes on Friday and finished it on Saturday. Iron Fist wasn't predictable. It held my attention firmly to the end somewhat bitter end. But I couldn't stop myself from think American Psycho when I watched male Meachum's acting like lunatics. The only one who had a brain was Joy but even then she made very questionable choices and she showed a real darkness inside her. And in regards of the money everyone in the New York seems to be so flush with it.

You read today reviews on the show and you see big critics blaming that nobody acted like a hero. Almost in the level that when you can, you should blame the white guy for being white, while Luke Cage was full of exposing urban black culture. Thing about that is that these critics are barking on wrong tree. There was nothing wrong with this series.

I tried my best to look for the problems. I even avoided hyping it up after I'd done my reviews to give you readers a chance to see it. All that found was a Dark Urban Fantasy, where characters were well written, believable and one of them were again the city.

I'm sorry that we live in a world that is so polarised that everything that used to be good are now rotten. We hate bankers. We hate the City. We hate those that make money and live in a lifestyle, where they can ignore rest of the people.

I personally don't like Mr tRump very much. But that's the life.

The life inside this series was well crafted to show what's it about to live at top of the world. To show that the billionairs aren't bad. That some of them are actually good and they try to do their best.

Finn Jones played the role very well and what has not been written about is the Hand. It is in the screen a lot more and in times you might wish that Claire would have gone to her other clients to ask for their help. But that's why we get the Defenders this year and rest of the cast might then make small appearances in the other Marvel Netflix shows.

This is the best they can offer, while CW keeps holding firmly on the best superhero shows in the small screen. That is the only thing I find strange. Iron Fist is a very good show and it will probably continue receiving hate from the main street critics.

 

[Dave]

I've watched two of these and it definitely gets the from me! On the other hand, I can probably see why the critics are so critical. I have never read comics, so maybe Iron Fist has a very long history, but in my ignorance, the premise appears to be a cross between The Champions and Kung Fu TV series that I watched as a kid. And his superpower, a "good right arm" does seem a little limp However, the story was interesting - how would you really prove who you were if you had been pronounced dead 15 years earlier and you had no relations or friends? Maybe the psychiatric hospital story went on too long for the critics too, and the special effects on the hand are a little weak. (I expect this improves when the drugs wear off.) However, the characters interest me, though maybe the Meechams as villains are too evil and the Dojo girl just too good to be true. I'm hoping that it is also explained why father faked his death for a life of boxing a punch bag and watching cctv. He must be using a sunbed because he has quite a tan without ever going outside during the day. I didn't notice a problem with the backpack.

 

[Dave]

When I mentioned the sunbed, I hadn't yet realised he actually had one. There are a lot of tropes in this series - the thirteenth floor (not that old one, please), people coming back from the dead, fathers pretending to be dead - but I was quite surprised that they killed off one father again.

A few nits to pick - the backpack actually didn't bother me as much as - the twelve year-old sister helping her seventeen year-old brother with his Calculus homework (she just doesn't appear to be that bright) - an airplane flight from the USA to Guangzhou went via the Himalayas (maybe they just wanted the view.) Okay, from New York, I guess they might have gone via the Atlantic and Europe. On the whole, the NYPD are depicted as fairly useless - all kinds of mayhem down on the docks, three bodies in a pond; another found in, and various disturbances in parks, riots inside psychiatric hospitals, but not a single cop ever seen.

 

[ctg]

On the whole, the NYPD are depicted as fairly useless - all kinds of mayhem down on the docks, three bodies in a pond; another found in, and various disturbances in parks, riots inside psychiatric hospitals, but not a single cop ever seen.

Against a superhero and evil ninjas what they can do? Thing is they were never there when they were needed most. When I walk around London it's same thing. They are never there. Not everywhere. But sometimes I see them sitting inside minibusses wearing riot gear and when something has happened, (as often does in our pedestrian square), they are there very quickly. I bet it's the same thing in New York City. To me their absence didn't bother me.

Madama Gao however, for most of the episodes I thought she was a dragon disguised in human form. And to my knowledge that small Chinese woman isn't it the comics.

 

[ctg]

I love Iron Fist, so of course I watched the new Netflix series Iron Fist. I’ll withhold comment on whether it’s any good because I’m a physicist, not a TV critic. But I will say the show provides some fun opportunities to look at physics with questions like how much energy he packs into his superpowered punch. One in particular involves

Iron Fist Can Totally Break His Fall With a Pole. Physics Says So

According to NASA data on the human tolerance of acceleration, this should be survivable. Of course, this calculation is just for the average stopping force and the average stopping acceleration. The real acceleration wouldn’t be quite so constant and probably would peak at some higher value. Still, Iron Fist is a superhero and can do things you can’t, so I’m going to say surviving this fall is plausible if you’re Iron Fist. Anyone who isn’t Iron Fist probably shouldn’t try it.

 

[ctg]

Seeing as Iron Fist has now been out in the wild (on Netflix) for almost a week, we reckon is finally okay to talk about Davos. If you don’t want to know about Davos, look away now.

To mark the series’ release, we spoke to Davos actor Sacha Dhawan, whose role in the film was kept super secret until he finally appeared out of nowhere in episode nine, ‘The Mistress Of All Agonies‘, about playing Iron Fist’s friend-turned-foe and trying to keep it under wraps…

SciFiNow: How does your version of Davos differ from the one we know from the comics?

Sacha Dhawan: He’s more complex. In the Netflix series, he’s not an outright villain. He’s Danny’s best friend and brother. He trained with Danny in K’un Lun, but unfortunately Danny was chosen to fight Shou-Lao the dragon and went on to become Iron Fist. In the comics, it’s pretty clear that Davos was really upset about that. In the series, Davos is actually proud that Danny is the Iron Fist because he’s his best friend. What he’s upset about is the fact that Danny has abandoned K’un Lun and just gone to New York. Davos goes to New York to bring Danny home, really. His loyalty lies with K’un Lun.

It’s more interesting for me too in terms of him being Danny’s best friend and brother. There wasn’t any animosity or hatred there. But what you have in a very thin, underlying layer is the fact that Davos feels that he would make a better Iron Fist because he’s more loyal to K’un Lun. There’s also an underlying hint that maybe his father, Lei-Kung, who trained Davos and Danny, possibly favoured Danny more. There’s a really complex journey that Davos and Danny go on. It’s only really at the end of Season One where you go, wow, their relationship has changed forever.

WIN AWESOME POWER RANGERS GOODIES – IN CINEMAS MARCH 24

Has it been difficult keeping your role in the show a secret?

It has, actually, mainly because I’m so proud to be part of it. In terms of the whole casting element, I don’t think I’ve seen Marvel do something like this, and I really wanted to share that with people and celebrate it, and I’ve not been able to. Even from the moment I first bought the comics in London to do research, the people behind the counter, obviously comic book fans, were wondering why I was buying the whole collection and why I was asking so many questions! I just wanted to say, ‘I’m Davos! I’m going to be Davos!’ Even doing Wing Chun classes before I started filming and doing private lessons, they were intrigued as to why I wanted to do it and why I was so particular about learning certain fighting styles. Now, hopefully they’re going to see it and think, oh, that’s the guy! It makes sense! And my friends had also been wondering why I’d been in New York all these months!

 

[Dave]

...maybe the Meechams as villains are too evil and the Dojo girl just too good to be true...

Well, they do get less two-dimensional and less black and white as the series progresses. In fact, their motivations are quite complex and difficult to define. For a superhero TV series, it is quite refreshing that they are all so conflicted. I have felt that the series has run out of steam a little though. If Danny wants to stay in New York AND to remain The Iron Fist then his only excuse should be that instead of standing guard at the door against The Hand, he wants to take the fight directly to The Hand in the place where he knows they are active, in New York. He seems too reluctant to actually say this, and is conflicted over returning, or being with his family, despite how horrid they are. He also seems conflicted over Colleen.

It is interesting that they don't get the script: Iron Fist star Jessica Henwick on Asian stereotypes, fight scenes, and why Colleen Wing should team up with Misty Knight

 

[ctg]

he wants to take the fight directly to The Hand in the place where he knows they are active, in New York.

Well that's about the defender and the hole in the hell's kitchen. I did find it very interesting that DD's Stick and Shirte didn't come into the play as that organisation is directly against The Hand. Maybe they'll do something about in the Defender's, which is told be only 8 episodes long.

 

[ZombieWife]

I am watching the heck out of it so far.... (On episode 5).

I am trying to appreciate critics' perspectives, but I don't agree with them. All around, it's fun. I like the story. I am far more into this than I was Daredevil season 2. There is an innocence and fluidity to Danny which I think Finn Jones is really doing well with. He comes across as a guy who spent the last 15 years in a "magical" realm and wasn't socialized into a hard, business-like world as Joy and Ward were.

I love Danny's lawyer. =)

Can't wait to finish it! I also look forward to seeing Danny with the other Defenders. He will bring a nice balance, imho. Matt, Luke, and Jessica are big personalities. Danny is subtle. I like that about him.

 

[E.Maree]

I really tried to enjoy this, but gave up after the second episode. It bored the living daylights out of me.

 

[Stable]

For a show with a kung fu hero I expected better fight scenes. I'm watching Marco Polo instead (love the Mongols) and was amazed to find that it has much more interesting kung fu fight scenes despite that not really being the point of the show. Daredevil had fantastic choreography too, so I'm not sure what happen to the Iron Fist...

It's not awful, I enjoyed the first 4 or 5 episodes, but I think they haven't lived up to past form.

 

[ZombieWife]

See, I have heard that complaint a lot. I guess I'm missing why the fight scenes are so poorly done? Is it missing amazing super fastness? Or such? Danny comes across as making it look effortless and I guess I never saw an issue with that?

But, keep in mind, I am no fighting scene expert here!

 

[ctg]

I guess I'm missing why the fight scenes are so poorly done?

I have watched a lot of Honk Kong movies and to me the Iron Fist was on bar with many of their productions. But who am I to argue with you guys?