‘Iron Fist’ season 2 review: Still the worst Marvel Netflix show

Netflix

• In its second season, “Iron Fist”
  is still the worst Marvel Netflix show.
• The show’s dialogue is cringe-worthy, the plot is
  boring, and the main protagonist lacks charm or
  personality. 
• The fight sequences are impressive, but don’t save the
  show.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for “Iron Fist”
season 2.

The first season of “Iron Fist” was met with terrible reviews and
scored a dreadful 19% on Rotten Tomatoes, easily the worst of the
Marvel Netflix shows that also include “Daredevil,” “Jessica
Jones,” “Luke Cage,” “The Defenders,” and “The Punisher.”

The second season, which premiered Friday on Netflix, tries to
correct some of the problems critics had with the show the first
time around with a new showrunner, Raven Metzner, and fewer
episodes. The first season had 13, while the second has 10.

But despite some impressive fight choreography, “Iron Fist” is
still a boring mess in its second season, with awful dialogue and
a main protagonist with zero charisma. Halfway through the
season, I saw no reason to continue. Since the first season was
so bad, the second needed to swiftly capture my attention.
Instead, I was coasting through each episode, wishing for them to
be shorter than they were.

The season finds Danny Rand, a.k.a. Iron Fist (Finn Jones),
tasked by Daredevil to protect New York City. The crime
organization known as the Hand has been wiped out, but that’s
left a power vacancy for control and a war is brewing between
those who wish to fill it.

The main problem with “Iron Fist” is that its lead is so stone
cold. Jones (also of “Game of Thrones”) has the unenviable task
of bringing to life a character little known outside of the comic
book community. But the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which the
Netflix Marvel shows are loosely connected to, managed to do it
with a number of characters on the big screen. These street-level
characters — Iron Fist, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones —
should benefit from the television format, but Iron Fist just
can’t seem to find the sweet spot. 

While their big-screen counterparts in the MCU bring distinct
personalities to their roles, it’s hard to find any sort of
personality in Jones’ portrayal of Rand — unless you count
cluelessness as a personality. Rand might be the most oblivious
superhero of all time.

One of the main storylines involves a mysterious woman named
Mary, played by Alice Eve, spying on Rand for Joy (Jessica
Stroup) and Davos (Sacha Dhawan). Rand doesn’t suspect her at
all, even though he has only met this woman a few times, he knows
nothing about her, and she’s given off some serious bad vibes.

But it doesn’t help that the show seems to be written by a
college student who still thinks it’s cool to fall back on cliche
stereotypes about men and women, and some of the dialogue is too
cringe-worthy to believe.

A perfect example: When Ward (Tom Pelphrey), who may be even less
likeable than Rand, suggests having dinner with Joy and Davos,
Rand says he has to ask his girlfriend Colleen (Jessica Henwick)
first. Ward makes a whipping noise as if anyone above the age of
20 still does that, to which Danny replies, “Hey man, don’t be a
d—” with a huge grin on his face like they’re a couple of
college roommates.

Speaking of Colleen, in the first episode, the script makes her
say to Rand: “How about one last heroic mission before we get
some shut eye?” Spoiler: She’s talking about sex. Who talks like
that?

It’s these instances and more that make the show agonizing to
watch, and the monotony of it all just makes it worse. The show
features some engaging fight sequences, but they don’t convince
me the show deserved a second chance.