Iron Fist Iron Fist FULL SEASON ONE Discussion Thread (NO SPOILER TAGS NECESSARY!)

[flickchick85]

Discuss the full first season of Iron Fist here.

Beware, SPOILERS GALORE!​

 

[TheVileOne]

The show definitely had some pacing and story problems this season. I couldn't keep The Hand and Madame Gao loyalties straight.

Just for example, in Daredevil S1 Gao was defined as separate from The Hand. She was even part of Kingpin's Cabal which involved the Hand. Yet here, she asserts herself as The Hand and one of its leaders...but it was apparently a rogue faction? Then why was she dealing with Nobu and his cohorts?

Also what about Bakuto? The Hand clearly aren't gone from New York. Bakuto is likely still alive if he still had the Hand's resurrection trick. How do we even know Ward's dead?

So all the rumors about Shang Chi were bogus. The other cool hero that was talked about was Davos. Not sure about the actor cast as Davos yet. But weird note to go out on with Davos and Joy, made no sense.

Weird cliffhanger ending as well.

Lack of a costume was garbage. He should've gotten a costume. The only costume we get was that film reel footage and it wasn't Danny and we barely even see it.

The villains were a little half-baked. The problem is we couldn't really get one central villain throughout the first show. First it was like Ward, then it was Gao, then it was Bakuto then it was Meachum. Plus all the convoluted rogue Hand faction business. Then we have The Hand that's run like a Scientologist cult which is far different from anything we saw with them previously.

 

[righthooksrus86]

2 episodes in and yea this is definitely my cup of tea. I don't care what the critics say, I think a lot of them are blinded by the so called "whitewashing" and it keeps them from enjoying the show. I'm asian myself and I dont mind that Danny Rand is white, he is in the comics so what the hell's the problem? One aspect of the the show I like a lot is the connection to the other Netflix shows. I can't wait to see Danny Rand team up with Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Daredevil. That Tai Chi super power of his is badass to me I can't wait to see more of it.

 

[Dasher10]

Finished the first 10 episodes. Not as bad as it's made out to be but the first three episodes were rough. The show lacks direction and keeps changing plots.

Zhou Cheng, Bride of Nine Spiders and Davis are clearly being set up as future antagonists.

The show treats Chinese and Japanese cultures as interchangeable and often has inconsistent characterization with shifting motives. That's just poor writing.

Episode 2 was pure filler.

Otherwise, the show was good. I liked the score. I thought the acting worked but Davos was miscast since his British accent felt out of place.

 

[Dasher10]

Finished the first 10 episodes. Not as bad as it's made out to be but the first three episodes were rough. The show lacks direction and keeps changing plots.

Zhou Cheng, Bride of Nine Spiders and Davos are clearly being set up as future antagonists.

The show treats Chinese and Japanese cultures as interchangeable and often has inconsistent characterization with shifting motives. That's just poor writing.

Episode 2 was pure filler.

Otherwise, the show was good. I liked the score. I thought the acting worked but Davos was miscast since his British accent felt out of place.

 

[TheVileOne]

Eh I dunno. Zhou Cheng and Bride of Nine Spiders came off like one-off characters. It definitely didn't look like they were set up as major antagonists down the line. Not saying they will never come back, but they were more or less just there to fight Danny and give him some sort of challenge.

Zhou Cheng could be dead for all I know.

And yes, there are inconsistent characterizations and motivations. I blame stuff like that on Scott Buck.

 

[BlueLanternKal]

Not gonna lie, I like IF better than Luke Cage and I liked Luke Cage (watched it twice). Still ain't messing with Daredevil. But critics are off on this. This show's crime is that it isn't 'bingeable' like the others. It's a slow burn, but when it got lit it got lit. Favorite eps were 6, 8, 12, and 13. And people saying Danny Rand is "boring"... really? He's a Buddhist monk, you want him to act like Han Solo and ****?

 

[TheVileOne]

I liked Danny because he's sort of very childish naive and immature. And I enjoyed having a Marvel hero who is very emotional and still doesn't know how to properly process everything. Finn Jones gives Danny a nice sense of earnesty. In this cynical age, people don't like others who aren't cynical like them.

EDIT:

FYI,

Sacha Dhawan is the actor who plays Davos. So they cast an actor of Indian descent to play Davos. He's never referred to as the Steel Serpent, but he does call Lei-Kun his father. Hoon Lee makes one appearance in visions and flashbacks as Lei-Kun in episode six.

So Davos is the new heroic character everyone talked about. Shang-Chi rumors were just speculation.

 

[NJCaliboy]

It's interesting how when a lot of critics were at odds with DC hardcore fans, how the fans reacted and blamed all the negative opinions on "other"things and had a hard time accepting that critics geniunely just didn't connect w/the material. And here we are with Marvel fans now getting a taste and pretty much acting the same exact way. People all throughout this thread are dismissing negative reviews and trying to connect them w/this "whitewashing" controversay...lmao. I mean, what's so hard to believe?? After watching 8 episodes I will say it does get better and better with each episode, but if i had to grade the first 6 episodes it would probably get a "D".

The stuff Danny mentions that happened to him during his journey to become the Iron Fist sounds amazing and proabably would have made for a great show, but instead we get boardroom drama and focus on Danny trying to get control of his company.. WTF!!! BORING!! I could care less about that stupid company, I mean it's worth telling, sure but that could've been done in one episode.

Danny being locked up in a mental instutution felt like a bad episode of 'Days of Our Lives'- it was so contrived. ANd don't get me started on how when the Dr. was finally believing him, Danny mentions visiting another dimension- just too riduculous for words, why on earth would he do that. At times he seems naive- but other times not so much, it's very inconsistent.

My main issues were it focused on stuff i didn't care about too much in the begenning, mentioned some awesome things that I wish they would have focused on, it was very predicatable and contrived... (the first 4 episodes really).

As I said, it does get better and I'm finally connecting with it, this is going to be a show where the second half is waaaaaay better than the first half!

 

[TheVileOne]

I understand some of the negative reactions. The show is very flabby at the front end and kind of meanders around. The show is flawed. It's far from perfect or as great as Daredevil.

 

[Dasher10]

I liked Danny because he's sort of very childish naive and immature. And I enjoyed having a Marvel hero who is very emotional and still doesn't know how to properly process everything. Finn Jones gives Danny a nice sense of earnesty. In this cynical age, people don't like others who aren't cynical like them.

EDIT:

FYI,

Sacha Dhawan is the actor who plays Davos. So they cast an actor of Indian descent to play Davos. He's never referred to as the Steel Serpent, but he does call Lei-Kun his father. Hoon Lee makes one appearance in visions and flashbacks as Lei-Kun in episode six.

So Davos is the new heroic character everyone talked about. Shang-Chi rumors were just speculation.

I'm currently on episode 11 since I just watched Logan for a second time but Davos better become a villain and then later an anti-hero. He also wasn't really angry that Danny was a white guy who got the fist when that's his defining motivation in the comics.

And Zhou Cheng better just be knocked out since he's a major villain in the comics and we never saw Chi Lin manifest inside him which is the whole point of the character. Bride of Nine Spiders also becomes a major supporting character in the comics and is needed for Iron Fist's best and most famous story. The problem is that both of them were underdeveloped and that's the fault of the writers. They should have done more with them.

The cast was too large in general for 13 episodes. And Harold Meachum was killed off pretty early in the comics and got too much screen time in the series at the expense of other characters who deserved it more. I could care less about the resurrection arc since the moment he came back to life is the moment that I stopped caring, plus it derailed Ward's arc and he just stopped appearing after that. Like really strange storytelling like that.

And then in Episode 11, I literally just heard Danny, a Buddhist monk, just tell Harold to kill in cold blood. Scott Buck doesn't get characterization.

 

[TheVileOne]

Yeah I doubt we ever see those aspects. Also here, Bride of Nine Spiders worked for Madame Gao.

Zhou Cheng mentioned Chi Lin as his master, but his gimmick was that he was a drunken master. He doesn't have a second head.

Well apparently they are supposed to kill the hand. Davos showed up to the compound and was like, "OK let's kill all the Hand people as we leave." Obviously, K'un L'un monks are OK with killing. They aren't the same as Buddhist monks.

 

[Dasher10]

Yeah I doubt we ever see those aspects. Also here, Bride of Nine Spiders worked for Madame Gao.

Zhou Cheng mentioned Chi Lin as his master, but his gimmick was that he was a drunken master. He doesn't have a second head.

Well apparently they are supposed to kill the hand. Davos showed up to the compound and was like, "OK let's kill all the Hand people as we leave." Obviously, K'un L'un monks are OK with killing. They aren't the same as Buddhist monks.

Danny is explicitly stated to be a Buddhist. Breaking into the Hand compound and killing Gao is literally against his religion.

 

[McSir]

Having completed the season, I think I'm going to chalk this one up as a fail after all. I didn't think it was horrible, but there's nothing about it that stands out among it's Netflix peers. I really don't understand what the thought process behind mapping out this season was, because almost none of it came together in a satisfying way.

Skimping on showing Danny's background in K'un Lun was a huge mistake, and one that was avoidable. It can't be that much money to build a set for it. I thought all of the characters tied to K'un Lun were very poorly used, Lei Kung and poor Davos especially.

It was also a terrible idea to make the Hand the main villains for Iron Fist's first outing. There is no personal connection, we never actually see them do anything that menacing, and I thought that the whole rec center vibe that the Hand compound had was just completely atrocious, as was Colleen being involved in it.

The Meachums felt totally extraneous. Madame Gao's part in all this was very confusing. Rosario Dawson was asleep for most of her scenes.

I did like the fighting and I thought the season ended on a good note. I hope we get to see more Davos in the future. And for the most part I thought everyone put in a good performance.

The thing that really got me is just how morose and dour the whole season is. Maybe it's the pacing, but the whole thing just felt downbeat and sluggish. It's also way too long, but that's a common complaint.

This just didn't feel like Iron Fist too me. All the magic was sucked out of it. I mean, Danny barely even busted out his power!

 

[TheVileOne]

Danny is explicitly stated to be a Buddhist. Breaking into the Hand compound and killing Gao is literally against his religion.

I mean religious people doing specific things that go against their religion seem to go hand in hand do they not?

Also, it seems Danny broke a lot of the rules of his teachings.

 

[Dasher10]

I mean religious people doing specific things that go against their religion seem to go hand in hand do they not?

Yeah but plenty of characterization was annoying or wrong. Colleen can't tell that the Hand are evil and she spends time palling around with the guy whose sole purpose in life is to fight The Hand.

Ward Meachum kills his own father because he cut off his drug money when prior to that he was ruthlessly practical and rational to the point of sociopathy.

Madame Gao was with the Triads in Daredevil and gave Matt information on the Hand. Now she fights the Triads and stands with The Hand.

 

[Dasher10]

Colleen Wing refused to kill Bokuto so she offers to kill Harold Meachum? I literally laughed out loud at that scene.

Why did Marvel hire Scott Buck? And why did they introduce three major villains just to barely use them with Davos being more of an anti hero with no powers of his own?

 

[Dasher10]

And after 13 episodes, Ward - who is the least sympathetic character on the show - gets to be the hero... And Harold's death is less than fatal for him since he still has his head and I'm not sure if burning him works. And then Ward becomes Danny's business partner despite having no redeeming values as a character.

No Shou Lao. No costume. This series was horrible but I hope it does well enough for a second season since I want Marvel to get it right.

 

[Dasher10]

And how does Danny plan to return to Kun Lun when it only appears once every several years?

 

[Dasher10]

And then the ending is setting up Season 2 far more than Defenders.

 

[pixen]

What a painful 13 hours to sit through. Scott Buck proved he didn't really care about the project. Issues with Gao's connections, unless we just want to assume that after Matt and Elektra raided the office in DD s2, that the Triads and Hand are one (That could be it). The entire season had no drive. It had no big goal. It didn't really have a whole lot to say. No costume either? Not even just the head covering to keep people from seeing Rand... This only makes Luke Cage's final arc seem like a good idea and make the entire Hand arc in DD season 2 equal in quality to the first 4-5 episodes of the season. If Iron Fist gets another season, I don't think I'll be able to sit through it.

 

[Heretic]

I liked Danny because he's sort of very childish naive and immature. And I enjoyed having a Marvel hero who is very emotional and still doesn't know how to properly process everything. Finn Jones gives Danny a nice sense of earnesty. In this cynical age, people don't like others who aren't cynical like them.

It was a repeated point in the series that Danny had spent over a decade mastering how to control his emotions and body.

If that was a positive aspect of the character for you, then it was a negative for the series itself because it was an example of the showrunner not having a basic grasp of who his lead character even is.

 

[flickchick85]

Ya know, two-thirds of the way through this, I was ready to say it pulled a reverse-Luke Cage, by having a weak 1st half but strong 2nd half, but then it had a rather weak ending which is starting to feel like the Marvel/Netflix way.

As a fan of this character in the comics, I really did not like this version of Danny Rand. The thing that makes Danny's more childish aspects endearing in the comics is that he's also very happy-go-lucky and charming in general, so it works. Here, he was still naive and childish, but that charm from the comics that made those qualities tolerable was replaced with angst and general whininess. And frankly, he seemed straight-up dumb as bricks at times. I also thought Finn Jones' performance was incredibly lacking, so that didn't help. I just feel like, race arguments aside (I was supportive of a white OR Asian actor for Iron Fist - didn't matter to me), he was still woefully miscast, as he didn't really look OR act the part well, imo.

On another note, I thought it was kinda cruel to tease us with a properly-costumed Iron Fist that wasn't Danny in low-res archival footage.

Despite all that, I really liked how this had a lighter tone than the other Netflix shows and enjoyed it far more than expected, based on reviews. I actually liked it more than Luke Cage, which I also enjoyed for the most part.

 

[Orba]

Ward Meachum kills his own father because he cut off his drug money when prior to that he was ruthlessly practical and rational to the point of sociopathy.

I didn't see it like that, it wasn't his drugs money, it was the money he was using to run away. I saw Ward as someone that was trapped in a relationship with a domineering abusive Father and couldn't even talk about because Harold was supposed to be dead. I saw the drugs as just a part of Ward's way of coping with the situation. I think Ward was honest when he said that the last time he was happy was the day Harold died, only Harold came back and turned Ward into his servant.

Ward had enough, he was running away to a new life, a fresh start (he had even asked Joy if she had ever thought about leaving). He had his tickets booked and was out the door when Harold emptied the account, and Ward snapped. Especially when he realised that even if he did get away Harold would just move on to Joy, forcing her to become involved in all of his schemes.

 

[Best]

I'm so frustrated with Buck. I had no idea what he was trying to accomplish in that 6-10 space. And who the heck was in charge of casting for this show? I'm mainly talking minor characters here, but I do include Finn Jones in my disappointment. He just couldn't sell himself through the whole thing. It's a shame. But yeah, the supporting actors weren't helping either, cringe-worthy delivery all around. It's like they were pulled from the production crew.

Davos' introduction and entry felt a bit tacked on until much later when Danny is forced to pay attention to him. Claire was... strangely annoying in this one. Maybe because she wasn't the love interest this time, so you don't sympathize with her. But she was just forcing herself into Danny's world. And, we get it Claire; you know some extraordinary people. She complains about it but the tone in her voice sounds like she's low-key bragging about it. Harold Meachum was barely more tolerable than Diamondback for me.

I'm ranting mostly, but I did enjoy it. The issues are just very glaring. And disappointing.

One highlight right now; seeing Lewis Tan get his ass kicked. Haha. What the hell was up with that bottle? He was like a weird, wannabe-hybrid between Eddie Gordo & Jack Sparrow.