Surprise! Iron Fist Season 2 is…good?

Iron Fist was the weird sibling of Netflix’s stable of Marvel superhero shows. While the others were gritty, adult dramas centred on New York, Iron Fist was a weird often goofy show that might, on a whim, send the cast off to fight a drunk Australian in China (no, honestly that happened). The casting of the central character, Danny Rand and the basic premise of the character caused both mockery and concern even before the show was released. I didn’t find it as bad as others but it required effort to like it. Danny Rand aka the Immortal Iron Fist had a second outing in the crossover series The Defenders and a cameo in Luke Cage season 2. Both outings were not as weak as the main series but nobody went away thinking “Danny Rand was the best bit of those episodes.”

It is no exaggeration to say expectations for Season 2 were low.

Before I continue, some caveats and a spoiler warning. The warning is that there will be some minor spoilers in the review but mainly for season 1 (and to be honest I’d recommend just reading plot spoilers for season 1 rather than watching it). The caveats are manifold:

1. If you don’t like the other Marvel Netflix shows then there’s no reason why you’d like Iron Fist 2.
2. Like most of the other shows (the exception being Jessica Jones) the show rests on a 1970s/80s perspective of New York as a city on the perpetual brink of warfare between criminal gangs centred around ethnic groups. Yes, Luke Cage and Iron Fist are trying to play with 1970s genres in themselves but they carry with them tropes soaked in all kinds of prejudices about race, immigration, crime and social class.
3. The basic issue of Danny Rand son of a wealthy New York family being the chosen-one style saviour of a Chinese religious order remains. Actually it gets a bit worse as the bad guy for this season is Davos – Danny’s friend-brother-rival for the title of the Iron Fist (played with stoic menace by Sacha Dhawan).

So, if you are already at ‘nope’ for Iron Fist then fair enough.

Having said all that, yes season 2 was actually not just better but arguably one of the best of the Marvel Netflix shows.

The core cast was the same but better deployed. Finn Jones either was getting better direction, a better script or had worked out how to play the character with the same naive earnestness but less annoyingly. He wasn’t always likeable but the character made sense.

Joy and Ward Meachum were given interesting story arcs (Joy’s being a somewhat implausible journey into revenge). Misty Knight was used to good effect as supporting character and a bridge to the Luke Cage series.

The supernatural aspect of the show was still there but dialled down a few notches. Still lots of glowing fists, weird rituals and scrolls in ancient Sanskrit but better balanced within a frame of fighting organised crime in New York.

The smartest move though, was spotting that Colleen Wing was a character who deserved focus. Often operating as the main protagonist in episodes and driving events alongside Danny Rand, Jessica Henwick’s performance was one of the best things about season 1 and season 2 uses her to much better effect.

The basic story template isn’t anything new or particularly novel but it is well executed. Notably, instead of 13 episodes (like Luke Cage), there are only 10 and it makes for a tighter story with less padding. By episode 8 a direction to the story starts becoming clear which is smart both as a narrative and for a show fixing up its fundamental problems.