Shaun Munro reviews the eighth episode of Iron Fist…
At one point in Iron Fist‘s eighth episode, Ward comically laments to Joy, “It’s cliche! It’s pathetic!”, which ironically feels like a frequently apt descriptor for the show’s writing, especially in this tremendously disappointing follow-up to two rather solid entries.
“The Blessing of Many Fractures” hits the ground running with a clumsy opening fake-out that scarcely makes any sense (why would Colleen grab Claire’s phone?). Logic isn’t much better a few moments later when Claire decides to join Danny and Colleen on their adventure to China to chase down Gao, despite outlining how borderline-suicidal the mission is a minute earlier.
Ah, China. If you need any more proof that Iron Fist was shot on a budget, just try and be fooled into thinking that the hilariously unconvincing location doubling – which amounts to putting a few Chinese signs up and changing some car license plates – is in fact Anzhou instead of New York.
Episode eight really struggles momentum-wise throughout, largely because seeing the heroic trio chase down Gao’s heroin trade is pure crime procedural fluff. In addition, most attempts to further the Danny-Colleen romance play more as cringe-worthy than cutesy, especially an eyeroll-inducing “third wheel interrupts a tender romantic moment” gag as the mission kicks off. Thankfully the romantic nonsense is fairly subdued for the most part.
Instead, corporate boredom dominates, taking the place of some much-needed action in basically the way that the Star Wars prequels were way too concerned with trade routes and senate hearings. A heavy-handed comparison perhaps, but both instances have resulted in the audience not getting what they signed up for.
For fear of sounding like a record broken beyond all repair, Ward and Joy’s business failings remain will-to-live-drainingly tedious, and even a well-intended, somber heart-to-heart between the two ends up feeling overly expository, because she states facts to Ward that he’d clearly be well aware of. It’s laughably contrived, and moreover, incredibly patronising as a viewer.
It gets worse, though, with the introduction of a ploy by the siblings to blackmail the other Rand Enterprises board members to win their spots back. It’s horrendous lame duck storytelling that would feel much more at home in an actual soap opera. A little more effort is put into Ward’s increasingly disturbing hallucinations – including one very Kubrickian moment where blood starts leaking out of an elevator – but for the most part these affectations feel jarringly goofy.
There’s little in the way of impressive action here, aside from a swordfight between Colleen and one of Gao’s badass female security guards and a silly-but-fun showdown between Danny and an eccentric, inebriated security guard by the name of Zhou Cheng (Lewis Tan), who honestly has a ton more charisma than Finn Jones (and in fact tried out for the lead role).
However, the gonzo fun of the prior two episodes feels mostly evaporated, as episode eight bogs itself down in feckless, low-effort filler subplots instead.
Shaun Munro
Originally published March 24, 2017. Updated April 15, 2018.
