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It was a fun ride. I liked it. First half was pretty much set up. Getting all the balls in motion. Though I did get a bit dizzy as Walker and Joy switch from side to side to side.
I wonder if there's a chance of Danny and Ward running into a guy named Shang-Chi as they tour Asia?
Yes! This is purely comics discussion, but I'm going to put it behind spoiler just in case it's where the show is headed next season...
The guns, and channeling the Iron Fist power through them, are the signature ability of Orson Randall. Their apparent owner in the show, from whom Danny and Ward stole them. Randall is the Iron Fist of the the First World War, and has used his power to live an unusually long life. He rejected his responsibilities to Kun Lun and went his own way, and had been living a life of adventure and mischief until he re-entered the scene in the present day. He came to Danny to help teach him about the long legacy of the Iron Fists (such as Wu Ao-Shi, the Pirate Queen of Pinghai Bay, referenced in the show as well).
Basically, the comics used Orson Randall to show how little Danny truly knew about the mantle he held, it's secrets, it's history, and it's true power.
It's all contained in the truly excellent Immortal Iron Fist run by Matt Fraction (initially co-authored by Ed Brubaker, of Winter Soldier fame). Absolutely worth reading, probably my single favorite solo Iron Fist run ever.
Ah, thank you for those insights. I know more about Typhoid Mary from a single issue of Spider-Man in the early 90s than I know of the entire Iron Fist lore (beyond what's covered by the show). Good to know that that reveal has direct comic basis and it's not something that's just simply...ridiculous. As for the rest of the lore you discussed, I'm actually intrigued to learn more about that in the show.
Having watched the entire season there is definite improvement from s1, but fight scenes with Colleen still look much better than Danny fighting.
This is a comics spoiler since I talk about Orson Randall
I think it was pretty obvious that Colleen is descended of the Pirate Queen who was an Iron Fist, but what if she is actually descended from an Iron Fist on both bloodlines and her father is Orson Randall? Jessica Henwick is visibly mixed so Colleen appears as such as played by her.
Alternatively Randall who used his powers to slow his aging could be her Grandfather(Father's side since her Mother's Father raised her) or even great grandfather.
It’s s she calling herself Nightwing? I pretty sure that’s taken.
Mary is a intriguing character. Sounds like she could make a interesting Punisher foe.
I don’t seem Colleen keeping the Fist for long. Something will happen which will cause her to lose it or give it up.
All we need now is for Danny to join the Avengers so we can get this line:
Just finished it. I thought it was a major improvement. I see a lot of reviews saying that Danny himself is the weak link, but I think this season finally advanced Danny in a meaningful way by having him finally recognize how his sense of entitlement and his drive to get what he wanted led him to make mistakes and run roughshod over others. He finally gained the maturity to look past his own wants and defer to others.
And I never expected the season to go the way it did.
Even after Danny convinced Colleen that she needed to claim the Iron Fist, I assumed that something would happen to prevent it, that some twist would lead to Danny getting it back and the status quo being restored. So I was thrilled and impressed when it ended with Colleen actually getting the Heart of the Dragon. (Although they did kind of undermine that a bit by having Danny inexplicably get Orson Randall's two-gun power.) As CBR's review pointed out, how often does a TV series actually change the identity of its title character?
I was also really pleased by how much we got of the Daughters of the Dragon, the pairing of Colleen and Misty. I was afraid we'd get something like Luke Cage season 2, where the guests from the other show are in only one episode each. But Misty was here for 6 out of 10 episodes, and they went all-out teaming her with Colleen, even putting in a nod at the end to Knightwing Restorations, Misty & Colleen's detective agency in the comics. They did make a terrific team.
In fact, the whole cast was more consistent than usual for Marvel Netflix. Usually, the supporting cast members will fade in and out and only the title character and maybe one or two others will be in every single episode -- presumably a way of saving money by limiting the number of appearances each actor gets paid for. But here, aside from Simone Missick, the whole main cast was in all 10 episodes.
Sacha Dhawan was excellent as Davos, a truly deranged character who nonetheless sincerely believed he was doing good. He's a bit of an odd choice physically, since he's fairly small in stature, but both his physical performance and his acting made him effectively intimidating nonetheless. I do wonder how someone born and raised in K'un Lun has such a strong Manchester accent, though. (Mank'unlunian?)
The real revelation was Alice Eve as Mary Walker (based on the Daredevil villain Typhoid Mary). This is only the third thing I've seen her in (after Men in Black 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness), so it's the first time I've really seen her play a character role like this. She crafted a really fascinating performance, and the writing of the character was impressive too. At first it looked like they were going for the unfortunate cliche of portraying a mentally ill character as creepy and evil, what with the scary music when Mary saw the Post-It notes and ran the water and so forth, but they ended up taking a surprisingly matter-of-fact, non-judgmental view of her DID, with nobody stigmatizing her or doubting her ability. (Also, she had heterochromia, one blue eye and one green, and no character ever commented on the fact; it was just left for us to notice on our own.)
Really, of the three Marvel Netflix second seasons I've watched this year (after Jessica Jones and Luke Cage), I think this has been the most satisfying, and certainly the first that was an improvement on the previous season. The Fist is finally in good hands. Or... hand... or whatever.
Sacha Dhawan was excellent as Davos, a truly deranged character who nonetheless sincerely believed he was doing good. He's a bit of an odd choice physically, since he's fairly small in stature, but both his physical performance and his acting made him effectively intimidating nonetheless. I do wonder how someone born and raised in K'un Lun has such a strong Manchester accent, though. (Mank'unlunian?)
Oh, I didn't realize. Still, it's a choice in that they didn't try to hide it with contact lenses, I guess. I think they hid it in Into Darkness, giving her two blue eyes, but it's hard to tell for sure from the screencaps.
In Into Darkness, Eve was playing Carol Marcus, who had two blue eyes in The Wrath of Khan, so I thought they might have wanted to match her look. Then again, they didn't bother to change any of the other actors' eye colors to match the original cast. (And yes, I know they didn't match her accent either, but an accent is not a biologically determined attribute.)
But I think it's plausible that the casting people for IF might've thought that Eve's heterochromia would be a nice bonus feature in a performer they were casting to play a dual personality. It might even have been an influence in her casting, although her performance was certainly more than good enough in itself.
Episode 2 features Hoon Lee (the voice of Splinter in Nickelodeons TMNT series) side by side with James Saito (Shredder in the first live action TMNT movie). Thought it was pretty neat.
What a massive improvement this season was. They got rid of most everything that didn't work in season 1 and actually tried making a show about Iron Fist instead of Danny Rand the billionaire. And with the way it ended, it looks like they're ready to take a deep dive into the Iron Fist lore, especially as it was established in the Fraction/Brubaker/Swierczynski run. I hope this means they'll actually introduce the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven and the Immortal Weapons.
Finished watching it today. Really liked it. And now that I'm reflecting on it many hours later, I think I like it even more!
Perfect? No. Huge improvement? Of course. Finn Jones is still a bit of a weak spot for the show, but they did an amazing job of featuring all the other main characters this season, and finished with a very strong story direction for Danny. I really want to see season 3 now, as we're going to watch him actually earn the power and history of the Fist.
Loved just about every character on the show, but I have to admit that the biggest surprise was Mary Walker. I loved just about every scene she was in, and I absolutely want to see more of her. The show earned it too, with some great character build-up.
For a show that cut down from 13 to 10 episodes, they managed to cram an impressive amount of development in for just about all of the characters. I seem to recall that Ward was my favorite character from season 1, and he didn't disappoint in season 2. Both he and Joy had some great family moments. Though Joy was a bit too villainous at the start of the season. Though I can see why she'd feel hurt, that was just too extreme. I suppose the show just needed her to fill that role in the start of the season, as it paid off a lot in the second half of the season, most notably when we thought she'd been killed.
And yeah, the quick healing was also a bit tough to swallow, maybe it's easier when you actually have to wait a week between watching episodes as opposed to bingeing all at once.
Also, that Stan Lee cameo was by far the hardest one ever to spot. I wonder if there was a scene that got edited out that featured it a bit more prominently.
So as I'm sitting here dwelling on it more and more, I think I'm going to say this: of all the various Netflix MCU seasons, I think this one had the best ending of them all. Colleen getting the fist was a huge surprise, even after Danny suggested it in the prior episode. (I totally want to call her the White Crane or something like that.) And then when she powered up her sword! And then Ward and Danny spent some serious quality bonding time together in Asia, and not only were successful in their quest so far, but even got Danny some version of the IF power back! And even Mary had a bit of a happy eneding. Yes, that was a very satisfying final epsiode of the season, it worked for me.
And speaking of the MCU, this season felt much more connected to the movie MCU than many of the other Neflix shows. Pretty much because of Sokovia, but go figure. And speaking of the Sokovian Accords, I wonder if we should just assume that the Netflix MCU shows will all take place in a timeframe that's before Civil War, and then after Avengers 4.
Anyways, yeah, I quite liked it. I'm totally looking forward to more Iron Fist. And Colleen. And Mary. That's the sign of a good show. I want more.
Well, that sucks. Guess the first season really soured people who never bothered to watch season 2? Anyway, I'm all for moving Danny over to "Luke Cage" to shift towards a Heroes for Hire show, as well as a Wing/Knight spin-off.
