Binge watching Iron Fist

I've liked it well enough so far (still got a few left) but it's nowhere near the heights of the first seasons of the other three 'Flix shows. There are, unfortunately, too many parallels with other comic shows and movies for this to stand out. The action isn't great, including the fighting which is baffling for Iron Fist -vthis should have the best choreographed fight scenes of all the shows but it pales next to Matt Murdoch's corridor and stairwell fights.  The best thing about the show is Coleen Wing who is almost a co-lead in the show and gets as much action as Danny Rand. I like Finn as an actor but I'm not sure he's the best lead they could have gotten for this. He's never bad but doesn't have anything in his locker to elevate the material in the way that Charlie Cox, Kristen Ritter and Mike Colter have. They were magnetic leads but Finn seems like a character actor being asked to be the leading man and struggling with the change up.

There's a surprise bit of casting, which hadn't been announced before broadcast, later in the series - it's an actor I've heard more than a few people suggest for the 13th Doctor, too. Betfair have this person at 9/1 for the Who job FWIW. Spoiler tagged for those that don't want to know.

I'm actually enjoying it much more than Luke Cage, which for me was a 7 episode story told over 13, and all actual tension ended with Cottonmouth. Danny's not had the angst nonsense the others had (well, he has but he's not grown up so being a kid is still fine for him) and while the fights could be tighter I was reading it as he hasn't been going looking for trouble like Matt and unlike Matt those fights he has had are easier for him, so don't look as tense and taut.

And he IS a pacifist. Let's see how HE handles the costume!!

I'm not sure it's completely different at all, that's part of the issue. It isn't different enough to what's been done in similar shows and doesn't really try to break any ground. There's a LOT of things in this that have direct parallels to season 1 and 2 of Arrow for one, and not just the "billionaire heir returns to civilsation" story - whole scenes are played out in later episodes that have happened with Oliver Queen from his press conference to sleeping on the floor. The big fight in Ep 4, while cool, is very much a rehash of the most popular fight in the first Daredevil season and of course the martial arts and enemy are the same as DD.  Sure, a lot of tht is source material similarities but taking elements of The Living Weapon and the Claremont run would have let this show establish more of it's own identity.

At least the tepid response from reviewers means we can shut down any "Marvel pay reviewers" nonsense everytime a DC film or show is bashed while a Marvel one praised.  It's solid enough but just not as good as the admittedly very high standard of it's 3 predecessors. It's not as visceral and fresh as Daredevil, not as gutwrenching and personal as Jessica Jones and not as political and relevant as Luke Cage. This doesn't elecit ny big emotions like those series did, it' struggles for fresh themes. A big part of the criticism from most quarters has been that if you take the fighting from Daredevil, the plot from Arrow and the structure of Batman Begins, you've really already seen this show. Hard to disagree too much with that, sadly. 

Admittedly though, I thought Luke Cage was terrific throughout while most people thought the big twist halfway through killed it stone dead so I may not be 100% in step with fan opinion on these shows even if I think the reviews are pretty on point for this one.  As usual I've seen people oline blaming reviewers for having agendas - funny how you never read fans saying "I don't bother with reviews, I make my own mind up" when something gets critically praised.

I am up to ep 5.. I don't care for reviews.. There's a whole bunch of people out in internet land that base their viewing experiences from Rotten Tomatoes website.. Not having that, I will read reviews but at the end of the day I will watchin full then make up my mind. I have been reading/collecting comics since the early 80's - I am so excited we are getting smashed with tv shows and movies..

Haven't watched it yet. But a number of friends of mine who did were frankly underwhelmed. I imagine I'll get to it eventually.

Apart from awful pacing, a monotonous tone, more than a couple of miscast lead roles, unoriginal writing, derivative fight choreography, a lack of understanding of the source material and poor characterisation ...it's OK.

No, while those are all I think very valid complaints about the show I've read - and mostly agree with -  it's....alright. Kinda. Sorta. For all the "Netflix gets away with a lot that Network TV couldn't" chat, there's little here that couldn't be on ABC. The bigger issue for me with Iron Fist is it did nothing new, broke no new ground for the Netflix shows. It was really feeling like early 2000s version of what a comic book show is which, if you were there, isn't a positive. There's a lot of nonsense about "critics have it in for the show" but, look at my opinion, , look at Ela's friends and if your FB is like mine check that for a very mixed response too - there are certainly more fans dissenting here than on the other shows. Hopefully it's teething trouble and we can have a better season 2 thats as universally liked as most other shows in this Netflix continuity. It's too late to change anything about Danny in The Defenders since that was filming before this aired. 

I'd be wary of doing too much if it meant Marvel still only had 2 or 3 slots a year, though. We'd be waiting 3 or 4 years for the next season of our faves and I cant imagine any actor signing a deal for that long and having massive gaps. I'd guess we'll see team up shows to get them out faster - Iron First and Power Man is the most obvious.

Moon Knight.. The Batman/DD combination character- that would be great to see..

I'd kinda like a Black Cat show. She'd be very different to what we have already but there's only so much you can do without changing the formula. Having her would mean you could do a Prison Break style show early on and transition to a glamourous jewel thief show. Would be quite different to what we've got. Plus she's a legit Hero For Hire alumni along with Misty and Coleen though much more compelling as a solo act.