Watching episode #2 now. First impression: if the Marvel movies are like ivory, this show is like cardboard. The lead actor Finn Jones is great, he's making the show. But so far the other actors just aren't. Sorry.

Jessica Stroup is a pretty face that knows her lines, but doesn't demonstrate even the tiniest bit of character depth. It's like she comes to the studio, plays her part, and leaves without giving it another thought.

Tom Pelphrey, well I know he's a good actor, he was great in Banshee. But over here, in the first two episodes he's such a superficial character, it doesn't do him justice so I hope that will change as we get further along. Because he needs a character with a proper backstory so he can show his talent. Like the guy he played in Banshee: it wasn’t even a main character really, but even so, he left me wanting and wondering. It takes talent to be able to pull that off. He’s got it.

Anyway. Iron Fist. The storyline so far is lame. I won't give spoilers, except for maybe one word: [spoiler]Arrow[/spoiler]. Generally, it gets really cheesy and full of cliches we’ve all seen a thousand times in various movies and series already. [spoiler]Psych ward[/spoiler], really?

The lines and story details are lame. Who in the world would not [spoiler]recognize a childhood friend 15 years later[/spoiler]?! Only in Netflix land do these things happen. And you can almost predict what the characters are going to say next, like all the time.

I’m doing my best to not give you any real spoilers here, but ffs, no sensei in the world would [spoiler]call themselves a master[/spoiler] and then [spoiler]go out to teach their pupils martial arts by letting them try to mug the sensei[/spoiler]. And a real sensei would never [spoiler]talk down on their students[/spoiler]. What were the writers thinking?!!

Choreography... It’s like they didn’t even try to make an effort. Not impressed at all. It's easy to imagine where the jump ropes were used.

Camera work.. let’s just say they do use nice color filters. That’s not a compliment. The staff knows what they’re doing, but here it shows in a bad way, like how bored they are after making the umpth Netflix tv show.

And finally the set like most of the walls are made out of cardboard. Sounds like it too. Audio quality (from boom mics) is horrible.

All in all.. well like I said, I’m only two episodes in. So it might get better. But that being said, it does have a really cheap taste to it. This is not the Marvel I’m used to. It has all the elements except for the most important one: soul. It lacks a soul.

So here’s to hoping it’ll get better. Would I recommend watching it? Yes. You might be less critical than I am. If so: great. Hope you enjoy every second of it. After I finish writing this, I’ll do my best to enjoy it too.

But I just had to get this off my chest first, and if you agree with my review, it’s time for more of us to start voicing this stuff to the degree that the studios will listen. Because we want quality, but what we get is cardboard box degraded entertainment. It’s not worth ploughing through if this is how it stays, so the rest of the story better be damn good, it’s a Marvel’s show for heaven's sake, not DC Comics!

If things stay like this though, I predict that I’m not staying a Netflix subscriber for much longer. Because if there’s any general indication to quality running down hill with them, this show proves how sloppy they have become.

Come on, tv show makers, at least try to make an effort, please!

-- DISCLAIMER: THIS BELOW IS ENTIRELY MY PERSONAL OPINION, YOU MIGHT NOT AGREE WITH IT --

- This comes from a Marvel die-hard fan that read comics since he was able to read at all. I follow most current comics Marvel is releasing, I obviously have read and reread all the most famous one and I am watching the entire MCU in the exact timeline events ordered. All these opinions you will read weren't taken lightly and without thought. -

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- STARTING THOUGHT:

When you're used to the level of the MCU, such as like: Daredevil, Jessica Jones and even Luke Cage, you go in with such high expectations for the next one that it's really easy for them to make simple mistakes.

But here I won't be talking about simple mistakes, I'll talk about HUGE mistakes.

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- IDEA OF THE SERIES:

Danny Rand is the Iron Fist, a child survivor of a plane crash that killed his whole family, gets adopted by mystical monks on the Himalayas that train him in every combat style, armed and unarmed and make him "The Living Weapon" or "The Iron Fist", bonded to a lifetime duty to protect the monastery.

You might say: "There's nothing wrong with that", and I fully agree. Iron Fist's background, and development, and history has been one of my favourites to read in Marvel Comics.

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- SHOW REVIEW:

In this TV show, we get an underpowered, discredited and frankly... with not that much screen time Iron Fist.

I started the show, AT LEAST, expecting sick fighting scenes, I mean, these are people trained to become warriors, skilled in every combat art.

And what do we get?

SLOW FIGHTS. actors CLEARLY WAITING on set for the counterpart attack to resume the fight, almost EVERY fighting scene had terrible choreography. There was nothing put into it other than a few sick jumps and two punches done right using a body double.

Really, if you pay attention and put aside the hype of seeing Iron Fist fight, these scenes are all terrible.


This story is filled with mental diseases from everyone.

Danny seems like a bad version of Batman with rage controlling issues. As I said before he's WAY UNDERPOWERED. He can only light up one fist, break one gun, take down one wall, or one door at a time and then going into the LONGEST cooldown humanity has ever seen. In the comics he punched a helicarrier so hard he made it "land".

Ward's character is a mess of... paranoia and frustration, but there was really nothing put into him other than daddy issues, there was no depth to the character at all other than a constant jokerish attitude, making jokes about everything that made him feel uncomfortable, and the stupid ass "drug addict" attitude, not to mention the [spoiler] UNEXPLICABLE hallucinations he's getting for some reason that didn't get explained, and... the murdering rampage, obvious as a blue sky. [/spoiler]

Joy's is plain as cardboard as well, same daddy issues Ward's got. The PERPETUAL struggle between dark and light inside of her. Doing bad stuff with her company, and crying and complaining for two straight episodes afterwards. [spoiler] Then, when she gets a possibility to make everything right, to change life, build something she likes, nah, she banters that she feels useless, that she wants to keep the company because it's something she made. After 9 episodes of seeing her cry and conflicted for working that very same job. [/spoiler]

Claire and [spoiler] Gao [/spoiler] took the entire first season on their backs and kept it there, if it wasn't for them I wouldn't have kept watching. [spoiler] Gao's [/spoiler] malicious as fuck and the actress like in the other MCU series did a marvelous job. [spoiler] Claire had better fighting scenes in those 10 seconds she did than Colleen and Danny put together for 12 episodes. [/spoiler]

Colleen is a mystery to me. Looks like she was placed there to be the girlfriend, that's it. I didn't like the Karate Kid sensei attitude she had, I didn't like her [spoiler] inexplicable idea to go fighting in the cage [/spoiler] after literally one episode before she was bantering one of her students not to. Also... why the hell doesn't she use her katana in 8 episodes? Like... WHAT?! Bushido my ass Colleen.

I'm not even going to talk about the other characters, because they were utterly useless, the had no impact at all in the entire season and they shouldn't be mentioned for that very same reason. They were there to say a few words and go out. Yes, I'm also talking about Ward's and Joy's father.

The story is very predictable, there's no cliffhanger, no unexpected twist, it's all out there waiting for you to think one second and reach to the same conclusion you will later see. At episode 8 it got so boring I've fallen asleep for a while.

Also, some scenes look like they were taken out of the Power Rangers. Sometimes the audio was clearly changed in different recording studios, you can clearly hear the actor's voice changing in echoes and quality. Sometimes it's simply plain and with no effect that should emulate the room they are in, in the episode. Sometimes new b level actors pop up with stupid lines put there just to extend the episode's length, with plain "I'm on camera" looks on their faces. I'm just... blown away.

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- ACTORS REVIEW:

All MAIN actors aren't that bad really, this was just poor writing, poor character placement and not a lot to work with. There's no synergy, no connection at all between then, this was just terrible.

Finn Jones doesn't really get the character to a point where he could just simply take the entire series on his back, just like it happened with Luke Cage. He's got the looks and the chest tattoo, but nothing more.

Tom Pelphrey is pretty good I gotta admit, even with his stupid ass character, his acting skills where very emphatic, I felt his fear, his frustration, his rage. And I gotta admit it made me uncomfortable.

Jessica Stroup is a beautiful face that couldn't do more than the character they gave her.

Jessica Henwick is a mystery to me.

Thank you Rosario Dawson and [spoiler] Wai Ching Ho [/spoiler] for saving this entire horrible first season.

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- FINAL THOUGHTS:

So, all points concluded I gotta vote this series no more than 6.
This was WAY below the level the other series put up front.
Even whilst Luke Cage lowered that level a lot, this still wasn't as near to it.

All considered this seems way more of a... "transitional series" to what will become either a very budget powered Iron Fist or a fantastic Defenders series. We will see.