Originally published March 29, 2017. Updated April 11, 2018.
Shaun Munro reviews the season finale of Iron Fist…
It’s been a tough slog riding out Iron Fist‘s awkward, often straight-up boring first season, but can it end strong and deliver an entertaining send-off for Danny Rand ahead of his appearance in The Defenders later this year?
Despite the urgency of Danny being set-up on drug charges by Harold, “Dragon Plays with Fire” unfortunately emphasises our hero’s naivete, even his idiocy, more than anything. Danny somehow doesn’t see Harold’s duplicity coming from a million miles away despite it being a comically obvious ploy, which makes Danny look supremely foolish in spite of his enormous power, and not in a way that eventually builds his character or proves at all rewarding to watch.
The daft Harold-Danny dynamic is further wrinkled with the arrival of a howlingly predictable additional twist, one that was basically obvious from the series’ first few episodes if not right away. At least amid all this, David Wenham gets to finally go full ham with a perversely enjoyable, swing-for-the-fences villainous performance he’s clearly been holding in all season.
The finale at least concludes with a sharp assault sequence, as Danny finally gets one awesomely over-the-top superhero moment that long-suffering fans have been waiting far too long for. In the end, though, it’s a single bravura action beat from thirteen hours of television filled with oft-awful combat. From the evidence here, it seems that Danny’s evolution to fully-fledged badass is going to plod well into season two, which may seem like a rather optimistic bet at this point.
On the plus side, Jeri Hogarth returns to help Danny out for a spell, and there’s a nice scene of cathartic payoff between Danny and Ward, but the climactic, game-changing reveal isn’t really as exciting as one might hope, and may leave some fans wondering whether they’re really invested or intrigued enough to sacrifice another 13 hours of their life to such a low-effort, mediocre product.
The lack of a compelling sequel hook is somewhat appropriate given Iron Fist‘s poor critical reception and the fact he’ll next be seen teaming up with Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage instead. One suspects he’ll be much more comfortable as part of an ensemble, where the shoddy subplots are (hopefully) shed away and he’ll have three awesome, well-established heroes to bounce dialogue (and fists) off. After all, another Iron Fist season is certainly not guaranteed, and with his Defenders pals all due another go-around before he gets a second stab at it, Marvel and Netflix could very well decide to bury their single critical foible to date.
Though there were some suitably epic moments in this season finale, and overall it’s probably one of the show’s better episodes, it’s still hardly the potent sign-off most were hoping for. If you left the show feeling rather fatigued, know that you weren’t alone.
Shaun Munro
