Marvel's Iron Fist - Episode 1 Review

Marvel's Iron Fist has been met with a rather negative critical reception since its released on March 17th. The fourth of Marvel's Netflix collaborations, Iron Fist is a martial arts show focused around the character of Danny Rand (Finn Jones) who returns to New York fifteen years after being presumed dead in a plane crash along with his parents. However, his former friends Ward (Tom Pelphrey) and Joy (Jessica Stroup) do not recognise him, and things have certainly changed. His father's former friend Harold Meachum (David Wenham) is officially dead, but hiding away from public view, as Ward runs Rand Enterprises. Despite seeking help from martial artist Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick), Danny finds himself virtually alone in a changed New York.
For many shows, the first episode is usually a bit of a rough patch. A whole 45-60 minutes of setting up a whole show can be daunting to both writers and viewers, and its easy to see why many people have preferred binge-watching shows in recent years, giving people more of an opportunity to get into the show before deciding whether to pursue it or not. Netflix has done this with many shows, with the first episode of Luke Cage being far too much focused on set-up to really achieve much plot or character development, and Jessica Jones taking a bit too long to get going. Iron Fist's first installment is noticeably slow, and perhaps could have done with a prologue to set everything up, but I've definitely sat through worse pilots.
If there's a real problem I have with Iron Fist is that it lacks style. The direction feels a bit flat throughout this first episode, and the whole show looks quite bland in its cinematography. While Daredevil capitalised on strong reds and yellows in its look, and Jessica Jones on blues and purples, Iron Fist just looks quite grey. Maybe this will be contrasted when the show introduces other locations down the line, and the night-time stuff still looks quite nice, but otherwise it doesn't do much to grab you. The title sequence is a bit uninspired, with the theme sounding a bit too much like Daredevil's for my liking. The whole show does feel a bit seen-it-all-before, especially as someone who's a fan of Daredevil and Arrow (Iron Fist feels like the two mixed together), but I'm hoping later episodes lead the show somewhere new. The cast equip themselves admirably, and while Finn Jones feels a little weak for a lead, he is admittedly playing a difficult character to get right. You get the impression that he's working on weak direction and isn't being told when he's over or under playing his role, which leads to some awkwardly humours moments. That being said, some of the dialogue in the episode is quite weak to say the least.
Overall, Iron Fist is off to an okay start. It's nothing particularly brilliant, and perhaps lacks the style of its predecessors in the Netflix canon, but it's certainly not as awful as some of the critics have been saying (11% on Rotten Tomatoes?!), and is worth a go.

Marvel's Iron Fist is available to watch on Netflix.