Age Rating: Violence
Cast:
Finn Jones as Danny Rand/Iron Fist
Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing
Tom Pelphrey as Ward Meachum
Jessica Stroup as Joy Meachum
Sacha Dhawan as Davos
Simone Missick as Misty Knight
Alice Eve as Mary Walker
Created By: Raven Metzner

Danny Rand (Finn Jones), the Immortal Iron Fist, has left behind the day-to-day oversight of Rand Enterprises, throwing himself into his mission to defend New York City. But when an old friend returns with twisted intentions, it threatens the fragile peace Danny maintains within his community, and within himself.

Note: Features spoilers for Iron Fist Season 1

Iron Fist Season 1 was quite a misfire when it released, with it being widely known as the worst season of the Netflix Marvel shows. I myself didn’t hate the season, going through it all the way and found it to be okay with some good elements but it was really flawed and it had a ton of issues. Still, it managed to get a second season. However with this second season things were looking up this time, with the showrunner changing from Scott Buck to Raven Metzner, which was a really wise move. I’m glad to say that Iron Fist Season 2 is a massive improvement over the first season. It still doesn’t reach levels of some the other shows’ seasons like any of the seasons of Daredevil but on its own its still pretty good, and it’s a shame that we won’t be getting a third season, especially with the way that things end this season.

Netflix Marvel Shows (even the better ones) do tend to have the problem of having the season drawn out for too long at 13 episodes (with the exception of The Defenders which had around 8 episodes and was too short). Netflix this time decided to focus up the season by making it 10 episodes long, and it really works. It doesn’t really drag (except for maybe some of the earlier episodes) but it doesn’t feel like anything’s rushed either. Compared to some of the other shows like Daredevil, there isn’t really anything quite deep or thematic with what’s going on in the story. So in comparison it just feels like we’re watching a story play out, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does separate it from some of the better seasons from Marvel Netflix. However it gets really good towards the last episodes of the season, as it takes some surprising twists and turns. You really feel the lack of showrunner Scott Buck this season and that’s a good thing, the writing is much better in comparison. Iron Fist Season 2 ends on a pretty jarring and exciting cliffhanger, which would no doubt lead into a very interesting and different next season. Unfortunately we won’t find out what that’s all about because of the show’s cancellation, which is a colossal disappointment, more so than Luke Cage because that show seemed ended by wrapping up its last season. Here it introduces a whole new plotline that intended to explore.

With every season appearance, Finn Jones as Danny Rand improves as a character. In The Defenders, Rand wasn’t the overly serious “I am the Iron Fist, sworn enemy of The Hand” and annoying guy from the first season and he was more likable. He improved even further in his one episode appearance in Luke Cage Season 2 and he improved even more here in the second season of Iron Fist. With that said, it still does feel like the supporting characters do shine more than him. Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing also once again is really good and is one of the best parts of the whole show. Tom Pelphrey as Ward Meachum in the first season started off being really unlikable but towards the end of the season became one of the best parts about that season, having a really interesting story arc throughout. He’s great here as well, Ward once again goes through a troubled arc but this time we are rooting for him instead of wondering why people keep putting him on screen and he’s more entertaining to watch. Joy Meachum played by Jessica Stroup is also in an interesting position, with her being at odds with Danny and Ward (which was implied at the end of the first season) and her teaming up with Davos (Sacha Dhawan). It was interesting to see where she was at and how she changes over the course of the season. A returning character that’s not from Iron Fist is Simone Missick as Misty Knight, who is from Luke Cage. She’s not just a cameo or anything, she plays a rather large part in the story. Maybe the show could’ve swapped her out for any other cop character but I’m glad that it was her that popped up instead, she does add to the season quite a bit. Especially as it’s someone from a far more grounded world coming into a world with glowing fists of power and all that, its nice to see someone who’s in a slightly more grounded world come play a part in this story. I do also feel like they brought her into this season to tease the possibility of a Misty Knight/Colleen Wing team up and I’m on board with that, I’d like to see that happen.

A new addition to the Iron Fist cast is Alice Eve as Mary Walker, who’s a welcome addition to the show. This is a minor spoiler (but it’s revealed reasonably early on and it’s an aspect with her character in the comics) but she has double personalities, and it was interesting seeing that come into play with the story, and Eve does a great and convincing job with both personalities. The season ends with her seeming with her character about to be explored in a further season, and I hope somehow in another show they could do that. The last season was pretty uneven with its villains, with there being like 3 of them. This time there is one clear main villain with Sacha Dhawan as Davos, who was introduced towards the latter part of Season 1. Davos is a really solid villain and a big upgrade over Harold Meachum in the previous season (the only reason Harold wasn’t completely bad was because actor David Wenham managed to give a solid enough performance). Davos has some ties to Danny and physically they are at the same level, and you can also see why Davos does the things he does, he’s not just doing it to be evil or anything. At the halfway point however, he stops really progressing as a character and stops being interesting. He doesn’t downgrade from that point but he just sort of stays the same until the end of the season. However he still feels like a real threat throughout and was effective enough.

The overall feel and direction is similar to the first season’s but overall it is a bit better. The action has also massively improved over the previous season. Most of the action problems in the first season was surrounding Finn Jones not given enough prep time for fight choreography. In the first season, he would pretty much get 15 minutes to learn the choreography before they actually started to film, leading to the fight scenes he’s involved in requiring a jarringly amount of cuts. Both in The Defenders and here he’s much better since he’s actually allowed a lot more prep time. There are some really good fight scenes here and great uses of the Iron Fist as well.

Iron Fist Season 2 is pretty good and much better than the first season. The tighter season runtime of 10 episodes helped keep the story moving at a efficient pace, the characters are all quite good, the writing has improved, the action is solid and its just quite entertaining overall. It’s not one of the best seasons of the Netflix Marvel shows and it can leave you annoyed at the end since you know the exciting cliffhanger it ends on probably won’t get addressed. But all around I had a good time with this season. If you really didn’t like the first season, don’t let that hold you back from watching the second season, give it a chance, it’s a considerable improvement. It’s not great and definitely isn’t among the best of the Netflix Marvel shows, but it is pretty solid and worth a watch.