Look, I don’t necessarily need Marvel’s Iron Fist to be illuminating or even original, as long as its entertaining. “Shadow Hawk Takes Flight” fails on that front. The premiere might not have been groundbreaking television, but at least it (mostly) avoided being boring, which is the greatest sin committed by “Shadow Hawk.” It tries to spin a mystery, but the audience already knows the answers, so it’s more or less an hour of people dancing around information that’s pretty obvious to any viewer.
To be fair, “Shadow Hawk” would have made a decent premiere, as it answers the question of “Is this Danny Rand?” pretty expediently. As it is, the episode feels like the second half of a two-parter, which makes it so that Iron Fist has a first episode that’s two hours long.
Danny has been committed to the Birch Psychiatric Institute, and his stay there actually starts out pretty interestingly. Danny’s doctor tells him that his best course of action is to kill himself, and even tries to murder him, but to the surprise of no one, the man is actually a patient named Simon. Even less surprisingly, Simon immediately becomes nonthreatening and becomes Danny’s only friend in the hospital (although, in a nice touch, he’s the only one to use Danny’s name).
Danny goes through the usual Danny Rand stuff, which after only two episodes is already old hat. He tells people he’s Danny Rand, they don’t believe him, someone gets in his face, he handily beats the guy up and gets in trouble for it. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s most of what we saw in “Snow Gives Way.”
Ward Meachum continues to underwhelm as a villain, probably because he’s actually a henchman, but not as insidious as Daredevil‘s Wesley (in a nicely patronizing line, Ward’s father affectionately tells him, “You are one of my guys”). He offers Colleen fifty grand to sign an affidavit saying that Danny threatened her, and Colleen refuses the money in the end, which seems dumb. Colleen, you need the money; your dojo is headed for chapter eleven because you’re charging students to take part in interactive karate street theater. (That sentence is only slightly dumber than what actually happens, because at least Iron Fist gives us a brief but not altogether terrible fight scene.)
Harold Meachum, however, could become interesting, if the show would let David Wenham, one of the great underused hams, really ham it the fuck up. I don’t think he’ll join the ranks of Daredevil‘s Wilson Fisk, Jessica Jones‘ Kilgrave, or Luke Cage‘s Mariah Dillard, but his cold, businesslike demeanor could be a nice contrast to Danny’s wide-eyed spirituality (I also love that Harold has an in-house manservant whom he alternately relies on and abuses). On the other hand, I’m sick to death of seeing evil businessmen in Marvel properties. But I’m not writing Iron Fist so it’s not really up to me.
I will give credit where it’s due, though – the way Joy establishes Danny’s identity is pretty clever and sweet. Finn Jones does a good job conveying Danny’s elation upon receiving the bag of M&Ms, taking it for the gesture of kindness that it is. “Shadow Hawk” is a pretty repetitive episode, mostly involving people (four or five of them) accepting that Danny is who he says he is, but Joy’s reaction is by far the best. Harold’s is the most promising, though.
When Danny’s doctor tells him that he believes his story, Danny kind of immediately ruins things by saying that he’s also the Iron Fist, sworn enemy of the Hand, in a textbook example of things not to say when trying to be released from a mental institution. Not to keep going back to Batman Begins, but when Bruce Wayne did this same thing, he didn’t tell anyone about the Thai prison, or the monastery, or the cabal of ninja assassins. And do you know where Bruce didn’t end up? Arkham. When Harold hears Danny speak of the Hand, it piques his interest – he knows something we don’t. Granted, this might go the regrettable route of Daredevil‘s lame-ass ninjas in its second season, but it’s a glimmer of hope.
Look, guys, “Shadow Hawk Takes Flight” is a pretty boring hour of television, and all it really serves to do is establish something that everyone already knows. I just want this goddamn show to get going already, but at least we got to see Danny use a magic fist to punch a door out of a wall. That was pretty cool.
A Few Thoughts
- Jones did a fine job with his monologue about the plane crash and his rescue by the Order of the Crane Mother, but you know what would have even better? If it were done as a nearly-wordless prologue to episode five or six.
- “You move about as fast as a pig…swimming…in gravy.”
- The Rands are super bland (better call them the Blands), but watching Danny’s mother getting sucked out of that plane is nicely jarring.
2/5
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