1x02 Shadow Hawk Takes Flight

[5.8/10] The major problem with “Shadow Hawk Takes Flight” (which should be the name of some mid-grade punk revival band) is that it centers on two questions -- is this guy actually Danny Rand and is he telling the truth about being the Iron fist -- that we essentially already know the answer to.

Theoretically, the show could pull a Swamp Thing-esque swerve and reveal that the protagonist just thinks he’s Danny Rand, and has instead been brainwashed or replaced by the monks or The Hand or somebody, but that seems pretty unlikely. By the same token, we know he’s the Iron Fist, because otherwise there wouldn’t be a show. The upshot is that the episode spends a lot of time focused on these questions, and they’re not particularly interesting because the answers seem obvious.

The clear solution to this problem, which the episode half-attempts, is to have “Shadow Hawk Takes Flight” be less about whether our hero is truly Danny Rand and/or the Iron Fist, but the process of him convincing others, and other people realizing that he’s telling the truth. The problem is that we don’t really care about these characters yet, and so the lot of them trying to come to terms with who this guy is doesn’t register.

It certainly doesn’t help that the scenes in this episode take forever. This is a show that absolutely cannot maintain the sort of energy necessary to stretch a single story, one with a pretty minimal amount of incident, into an entire hour’s worth of runtime. (It didn’t help that I watched Better Call Saul shortly thereafter, which, despite the handicaps of lacking in magic and superheroes, packs far more excitement and intrigue into 45 minutes than this episode did with 60.) Conversations repeat the same points over and over again. Characters take forever to either make the point or realize the point in a given moment. The whole exercise is just plodding.

Again, this is an episode where nothing much happens. I don’t even mind that necessarily, but it puts a great deal of pressure on the actors and writers to make the characters’ internal journeys interesting, and that just doesn’t happen here. It’s particularly rough for the show’s lead, with Finn Jones clearly not able to carry a scene all by himself. But really, nobody stands out here. Ward Meachum’s half-Kingpin/half-American Psycho routine is pretty dull; Joy Meachum gets one decent moment with the M&M trick where she truly believes it’s Danny; and Harold Meachum is still a big ham without enough joie de vivre to make that sort of outsized character work.

The only decent character we have so far is Colleen Wing, and even she’s a stretch. The routine early in the episode where she has her students try to attack her and then she chastises them for their shortcomings was pulled right out of the cliche piggy bank. And the fact that the fight itself look like something out of an early episode of Power Rangers didn’t help either.

Still, she’s the only character who has an interesting decision here, whether to take Ward Meachum’s money and play along with the effort to keep Danny committed, or stick to her principles and help this guy out. What makes it interesting is that there are legitimate points on both sides for her here. Danny did seem somewhat creepy, and even delusional, and it’s not wild to think that (a.) this isn’t her problem and (b.) he may very well need the sort of help he’s getting. On the other hand, Ward Meachum just oozes unctuousness and the pieces start to fall into place that enough of what Danny’s said is true for things to add up. She is the only character with an interesting decision and interesting story here, and it made me wish we got more from her perspective that Danny’s.

It also doesn’t help that Danny’s whole deal is kind of goofy. I’m willing to cut the show a bit of slack in the casting of its lead based on the source material, but that just means you have to be extra judicious in how you portray him. The image of that piece of curly-haired cornbread sitting on the mountainside in monk’s robes looked straight up ridiculous. By the same token, the titular shadow flock crossing the moon out the window, and glowing yellow hand bit came off more hokey than cool. I’m sure to some extent, Iron Fist is shackled by the comics, but it feels sillier than the more down-to-earth powers of the rest of the Defender shows, and that definitely hurts.

To be frank, it’s hard to talk about what actually works on this show. Again, there’s something somewhat interesting about Colleen Wing, thus far the only character whom I want to know more about. There’s something intriguing about the “Where Did You Go?” handprint on Harold Meachum’s window, presumably connected to him wanting to use Danny to try to fight The Hand. Hell, even the psychologist, who is part of more than a few excruciatingly long scenes, has something to him in that he actually asks the questions the Meachums should have been asking in the first episode...eventually.

But for the most part, “Shadow Hawk Takes Flight” is just a weak, abbreviated One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest routine that can’t find anything interesting to do inside our outside the mental institution. The scary patient, the helpful patient, the gruff guard, and the well-meaning therapist are all there, right from the stock character file. Danny’s confinement doesn’t pay any emotional dividends given Finn Jones’s underwhelming performance. The whole thing is competent enough, but still something of a dull misfire.

I don’t want to just rag on this show constantly. I’m hoping it finds its voice and finds a way to be good. But more than that, I’m just hoping it finds a way to be interesting. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and the second season of Daredevil all had their hiccups, but each at least had its thrills or instances of things that were so ridiculous you could at least laugh at them. So far, Iron Fist feels like the show’s fight scenes -- just going through the motions.