DANNY RAND AND CO ARE BACK: IRON FIST SEASON 2 REVIEW…

Sitting back on our comfy couch, Culturedemandsgeeks can’t wait for the return off Danny Rand and co, and with many questions, does Iron Fist Season 2 improve on its lackluster first outing? Does the Netflix show finally addresses the controversy from whitewashing the beloved characters?

Your enjoyment of Marvel’s Iron Fist Season 2 will largely depend on what you saw and latched onto from the first series…

Season 1 of Iron Fist had its problems and was so riddled with controversy that it’s hard to even remember how the show held up next to its elite MCU brethren on Netflix. Centering on Danny Rand (Finn Jones), a wealthy New York City kid who was the sole survivor of a plane crash in Tibet and then trained by an order of monks to wield the mystical powers of the Iron Fist with which he returns to save New York, the show pulled from ’70s comics canon too literally to make a big splash.

In what could be considered both a bold opening and finishing move for the Marvel property, Marvel execs and Iron Fist Season 1 showrunner Scott Buck chose to stick with the comics and keep the ethnicity of Rand — a superhero who traffics in Pan-Asian myths, legends, and spiritual powers — a white man.

For better or worse, it’s not going to change, (get use to it, folks!) Finn, as a white man. Is here to stay for the long-run. It’s just a fact and a reality and will not change, unless, the script writers kill poor Danny Rand.

Iron Fist second season falls prey to the same issues as the other Marvel series on Netflix, which stubbornly refuse to change their formula, or acknowledge the problems that should be fixed. You might be forced an overly long runtime, but there are ways to make it work.

That starts with populating that time with more story than these series ever do, cutting down scene length, adding in more dynamic soundtracks and editing, and taking a pause from gritty street-level realism to actually have some fun with, y’know, these superheroes.

Having said that, Iron Fist does actually make a few key adjustments (under a new showrunner, Raven Metzner – Sleepy Hollow) that help its cause. Series lead Finn Jones and his stunt double are much better at selling the longer, more intricate fight scenes, with far less obvious swapping out.

The Meechums are still essentially just well-dressed mannequins in a shop window, but Tom Pelphrey and Jessica Stroup do what they can with their thin material (Stroup’s Joy, in particular, seems robbed of a good storyline that’s teased early on). But Joy is partnered with Davos to pursue a mysterious agenda!

And once again, there are a lot of nameless and faceless red shirts of the city’s various gangs that are dispatched of pretty easily.

The main problem with the series is it lacks a compelling lead.

The reason Jessica Jones works as well as it has is because Krysten Ritter is so dynamic in that role — always moving, always willing you to watch her to see what she does next. She plays Jessica as restless, haunted, and driven.

Jones’ Danny is supposed to be a zen master, but that’s, err… very dull.

It’s why Season 2 allows Colleen to take over more of the story, which includes a decent side-plot early on with her fighting and bonding with some street kids.

Jessica Henwick, of course, remains a big draw (and now acts as a full co-lead, especially as Colleen Wing swings into action in some of the better melees (or when she is triggered by too many references to her having become “domestic,” oops).

Henwick is also much better with her fight choreography than her co-star, which she gets to show off a lot!

Another problem is… when Danny’s former-brother-turned-rival Davos (Sacha Dhawan) comes back into his life by making the case that Danny is a terrible Iron Fist, you think, “well … he’s really not wrong.” Davos points out that not only did Danny allow K’un-Lun to be destroyed — literally his one job as the Immortal Iron Fist — but he also doesn’t really wield the fist’s powers judiciously, nor seems to understand what the role requires of him.

Unfortunately, unlike Wilson Fisk, Kilgrave and Cottonmouth, Iron Fist’s villains have so far lacked the gravitas to make a mark in Netflix’s corner of the MCU – you might’ve been hard-pressed to remember the names of Harold Meachum and Bakuto (we won’t give Iron Fist credit for Madame Gao, since Daredevil introduced her), and Davos is similarly unremarkable – lacking the screen presence or chemistry to establish himself as a worthy foil for Danny.

When the show flashes back to Danny and Davos’ time in K’un-Lun, it gains a little energy (and offers Davos far more character motivation than Danny has been given thus far), but in the present day, their rivalry pretty much ends up feeling like a chest-thumping contest

Davos is jealous, sure, a nutcase too.

There’s the hint of something interesting here, that Danny has to lose the gift of the Iron Fist to really appreciate it, but not enough to justify ten episodes of watching him do it.

Alas…

It falls upon the women to pull the show out from the depths of a deep, dark murky hole of boredom.

Henwick, Stroup and Simone Missick (whose arrival as Misty Knight in Episode 4 is so welcome) to deliver most of this Marvel/Netflix series’ very sparse humor. (“You have an Iron Fist, I’m very happy for you,” Joy at one point quips. “Every god boy deserves one!”) But even Colleen gets bogged down by the looming threat of a gang war. Her very own micro-storyline, meanwhile, is barely brushed up against in the first five episodes of six that were made available for critics.

Lastly, there’s the “Typhoid Mary” situation, with Alice Eve arriving in Season 2 as the DID-affected Marvel Comics baddie.

Why keep us guessing as to what/who drives her, and to that end she speaks in endless riddles (and not the fun, Edward Nygma kind). It’s a patience-testing storytelling decision (accompanied by what I felt was an overly modulated performance), and only by the end of Episode 5 does it begin to deliver any sizable payoff.

Danny’s worst and best trait — his optimism which comes with the headstrong belief that there’s little to no grey areas in life — comes through full throttle in Season 2.

In fact, the best moments of Iron Fist Season 2 happen when Danny’s not on screen at all. There are beautiful little flashes of character development for everyone around him. Misty and Colleen team up to deliver the Daughters of the Dragons spin-off we’ll never get, and with it comes some of the best banter of the MCU.

Season 2 of Iron Fist is really for the Marvel completionists. If you’re one of those folks who needs to make sure you catch every tie-in, every easter egg, every loose plot hole that might turn into a series arc in Defenders Season 2, then this show if for you.

Still, this sophomore outing does allow Danny to grapple with the reality of what it means to be a hero, bringing him far closer to his comic book counterpart than we’ve seen thus far, and giving Jones much more opportunity to demonstrate his range – both emotionally and through the confident fight choreography.!

And while the show may still be the weakest of the bunch, the shortened episode order and a more personal villain help maintain the show’s momentum.

3.3/5 STARS