“The Pasty Dude with Crazy Hair: What You Might Be Missing on NETFLIX”

“The Pasty Dude with Crazy Hair: What You Might Be Missing on NETFLIX”

IRON FIST

(2017, TV-MA, 13 episodes approx. 1 hour each, NETFLIX ORIGINALS/MARVEL TELEVISION)

Finally—the martial arts show we’ve all been waiting for (but didn’t know we wanted…)!

After the near miss which was “Luke Cage” (really, how do you kill off that good of a villain halfway through the freaking season?!?), Netflix tries to redeem itself with the story of a man returned to New York after a fifteen year absence.  Before we get into the meat and taters of this review, though, we need to clear a few things up.

First of all, the Iron Fist of Marvel comics fame (or not—if you are like me, all of the characters Netflix has introduced us to, besides Daredevil, has been a mystery to me) was a pasty Caucasian dude.  The character was never Oriental.  So everyone can just drop the whole “he’s supposed to be Oriental” crap, because NO, he isn’t.  However he does have an impressively hot Japanese girlfriend on the show, so, yeah…

Secondly, the show is not slow.  This is a character that not many people are familiar with, so the first season is going to be heavy on character development.  There is action—very well-choreographed, I might add—several scenes of which almost try to out-epic the last.  Slow, it is not.

However, it does like to take its time and, on occasion, leaves you wanting in what it omits from the storyline.  Like: backstory.  I fully expected to see more of the training of the Iron Fist, more flashbacks.  That can become an overused plot device, but sometimes it is necessary, and here it is truly a missed opportunity.

In what at times feels like a normal network show—out of all the series produced thus far, this one feels more like episodic TV than any other—Netflix, understanding that a pasty dude with one singular and not seemingly spectacular ability might get a bit stale, amps up the time spent on the minor characters.  There are a few stereotypes and re-hashed ideas here: the son seeking fraternal approval at any cost, the stranger in a strange land concept, the mysticism of the Orient and the seemingly evil nature of most of the characters from there.  These are most supported by the supporting cast, and do illicit an eye roll or two.

The other glaring problem for me: Danny’s sudden turn to anger.  At first he seems to be an innocent lost in a corrupt landscape, but with little explanation or reasoning starts switching mental gears in a way which is unexplained and unexplored.  Think of it as another missed opportunity.  Sometimes, you really want to root for Danny, and at others, you don’t really get his emotional motivation.  This is almost distracting, when you consider the time Netflix took with “Jessica Jones” and Cage. 

But enough about the bad; the things you should keep an eye out for are: Stan Lee, the worst abuse of a stress ball, an interesting series-long imitation of Agent Smith from “The Matrix”, zombie dads, cool tattoos, characters from other shows (apparently there is only one nurse and one attorney that work in the entire city), actors doing their own damned stunts, Renaldo from “The Wire”, and the actress that is a spitting image of a young Lindsay Wagner.

This is entertaining television, but, like “Cage”, I would not recommend binging it.  Oh, and don’t expect a big reveal for the upcoming “The Defenders” at the end of this one.  The biggest tease you are going to get is the last minute of the show, and it has nothing at all to do with the next link in the Netflix/Marvel chain.

Series Grade: B-

The Netflix/Marvel Scorecard According to Yours Truly:

Daredevil Season I: A-

Daredevil Season II: A

Jessica Jones: A-

Luke Cage: C

Iron Fist: B-

-- T.S. Kummelman