Marvel’s Iron Fist is finally finding its footing with “Rolling Thunder Cannon Punch” (my misgivings about the show notwithstanding, the episode titles are pretty great). Unfortunately, most of what’s interesting about the episode seems to happen in spite of the protagonist, not because of him. Three episodes in, there’s no real conflict, at least not one that can sustain a season’s worth of episodes, but we’re getting somewhere at least.
That’s not to say the episode gets off to a great start, though. Some men break into Colleen’s dojo to warn her about Danny, but not before engaging in a pretty lackluster fight scene. I’ll be honest, the fight scene sucks, and calls to mind similarly disappointing combat with the Sand Snakes in season five of Game of Thrones. And why does no one keep the guns taken from people they beat up? I think if I lived in the Iron Fist universe I’d have enough guns to become a neo-Nazi and sell them to Michael Douglas in Falling Down. Also, Danny and Colleen get into a kung fu fight, which is supposed to be dangerous and sexy, but instead comes off like obnoxious mansplaining.
But! Things are finally start to get interesting on the villain front. Don’t get me wrong, we need to see the Hand, and soon, but I’m starting to really enjoy just what a condescending weirdo Harold Meachum is. Ward comes upon him sleeping in what looks like a glass coffin, which isn’t commented upon and thus becomes bizarre enough to be cool.
Apart from Colleen (and sometimes Joy), Harold shows the most dimensionality of anyone on Iron Fist, which reminds me of Under the Dome, a terrible show occasionally elevated by the performance of the actor playing its villain. And to be fair, we do get a glimpse (somewhat) of the Hand, or what I’m assuming is one of the Hand’s envoys. A disembodied voice tells Harold that they’re disappointed in him, before commanding him to kneel in broken glass. It’s a nicely unsettling scene, one I really hope pays dividends.
Ward remains as boring as ever, but Joy is developing nicely (ew, forget that I phrased it like that). There’s a weird incestuous vibe between the two of them, and if Iron Fist wanted to get really weird, it would follow that thread to its icky conclusion. Joy is showing herself to be more and more of a Meachum, promising a kidney for a man’s nephew if he’ll sell them a pier. (There’s also a lovely image of Danny waiting on Joy’s doorstep, which he’s decorated with fruit, flower petals, and incense. It’s incongruous enough to be nice.)
The real success of “Rolling Thunder Cannon Punch” is that it actually advances the plot, which isn’t really something I should be celebrating three hours into a show. Danny is offered $100 million for his shares of Rand Enterprises, on the condition that he also change his name. He’s having none of it, so he goes to Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss) for help. This whole time I was expecting Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple, the only nurse in New York, to be the connective tissue between this and Netflix’s three other Marvel shows, so I was excited to see Moss show up. The reveal that she’s responsible for maintaining the Rands’ graves – even putting fresh flowers on them – is a nice, humanizing touch.
Danny taking the offensive against Ward and Joy leads to them trying to destroy his medical records, and therefore his existence, which makes them more active antagonists. The show’s pacing problems haven’t been solved – it’s still slow, to its detriment – but at least it’s starting to get a better sense of what makes it work.
Here’s the thing: we’re three episodes in, and we’ve gotten to the point that we have a better idea of who the bad guy is, and people have admitted that the main character is, in fact, the main character. For a show about a karate genius, this is very slow, which would be okay if it took the time to explore the tenets of the Order of the Crane Mother or the Hand. But it doesn’t do that. There are some decent scenes, some much-needed character development, and a not-terrible introduction of the villain, but it’s starting to get too late for Iron Fist to hit the ground running.
A Few Thoughts
- I liked Colleen’s fight in the ring, but I didn’t like her telling her student that he dishonors himself by fighting for money. Colleen, two people have offered you massive sums of money in the same week; that shit doesn’t just fall into everyone’s lap like it seemingly does into yours.
- We finally know that Harold is pretending to be dead to protect Ward and Joy. But from whom? If it’s the Hand, he’s doing a poor job, assuming that voice we heard was a representative of the Hand.
- Danny visiting his family’s graves, including his own, was a nice scene that we should have gotten earlier.
- Danny told Colleen he hasn’t broken any laws, but I’m pretty sure breaking out of a metal institution is against the law.
3/5
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