First up, I really liked Daredevil, even when it started to go a bit sideways during its second season when it was dealing with the Shadowland exposition. I think Daredevil season 2 is stronger then Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones. And a lot of that has to do with just how much I liked how both Elektra and the Punisher were handled.
I am just over two episodes in for Iron Fist. Everything about this show screams that they wanted to be Daredevil, but without any of the talent. Looking ahead on wikipedia, it looks like they roped in some talent for episode 4, and 6 (yes, I actually liked Man With the Iron Fists for what it is). The Immortal Weapons, the Heavenly Cities, these make for great stories. Whenever I read an Iron Fist comic, I got absorbed by the pure wuxia Iron Fist history, and got bored whenever they focused on the Rand history. I wanted Dragon Tiger Gate set in New York, but so far, I am getting the worst of Dexter. Everyone has been so focused on Danny Rand as a white boy in the press leading up to it, no one asked if the show actually could put forward good kung fu.
The hope is that it picks up. At least it is better then Arrow Season 3 (and I assume further seasons). Side note, still watching Legion, even with its one or two bad side characters, unlikeable main character, it is shot really well, design is top notch, and nothing else is like it in the realm of comic shows. When Legion tries to do hand to hand combat, it sucks, luckily it has more to do with astral planes, mental battles, warping reality and "imaginary friends".
EDIT 1: Up to Episode 4. For every five minutes of good, there's twenty minutes of plodding shit. Someone fucked up on this show.
EDIT 2: Got up to Episode 9. The writing on this show is terrible. But will have random side characters be more interesting, and charismatic then any of the main cast, and will throw a bone like the drunken master fight, which isn't the greatest action in television, stands in stark contrast to the rest of the show. I get that they didn't want Danny to be over powered starting out, but seriously, 9 episodes, and they aren't doing a good lot convincing that Danny Rand spent fifteen years perfecting martial arts, and was proficient enough to take on a dragon. I enjoyed watching the King of Fighters movie, or the Mortal Kombat Legacy series more then this show ... I kind of want this show to die, get Danny/Colleen/Davos/the drunken master in other shows, and at the right time, do the Heavenly Cities tournament as a plot for a miniseries. But I trust WR when they say the last three episodes are good ... so I guess we'll see.
Last Edit:Okay, Davos should have been introduced earlier, and actually can deliver the writing. I am more and more convinced that they should have started in K'un Lun. And I think all their posturing for a multicultural aspect of the city, they needed to show the training, the trial, the politics. They needed to embrace just how Chinese it is. Rand should have shown up in New York at the end of an act, or at the end of the season. They needed to embrace the old mentor, the best friend who goes evil, everything from the get go. They forgot the first rule, show instead of tell.
They needed to have dropped the Hand as the major villain, but just Gao. The Hand was lazy set up for the Defenders series, as well as Danny needing to learn how to harness his chi from the Hand. I realise now why it is so weird. The Iron Fist was introduced long before the Hand, and they started off as Daredevil, Frank Miller Japan obsession. It also lessons the Chaste vs the Hand story. At a certain point, it becomes clear that the showrunner didn't actually get the character, at any rate, the same way as the other Netflix shows. Bakuto frankly sucks, and diverted the story that needed to be told. Episodes wasted, and that was after he was introduced, which is much later after a bunch of wasted early material. Which at best needed to be pure immortal weapons, Davos/Yi-Ti, with maybe the Meechum/Rand bits. A couple of bit fighters that don't last a full episode are more fleshed out characters then Bakuto. The recruitment of the Hand was pretty much done ten times better with the Foot and the Ninja Turtles. They did too much for Colleen Wing, even if she is one of the better aspects of the show, it would be like if Elektra or Punisher were in season one of Daredevil. Though I guess that's why they couldn't actually embrace the Chinese aspects of the Iron Fist, because then it would have had China is good, Japan is evil undertones based on how they decided to focus on the Hand.
And I find myself routing for Davos. Gao is still one of the best things of the show. Another take on the show, here, even if I disagree with some points, others align. Like Finn's Danny Rand not actually being the Iron Fist we see in the comics.
Final Edit 2: In search to find better action, found this, a short film from the director behind The Raid films.
