Details: Released in 2017. Aired on FX. Eight episodes this season at around forty minutes per episode. Stars Dan Stevens, Rachel Keller, Aubrey Plaza.
As always, no spoilers in this review except a few sentences on the premise.
This show is exactly what I needed. After the disappointment of Iron Fist, I needed some superhero goodness. This show isn’t only a comic book show, this show plays homage to a lot of imagery from film history and provides cinematography that comes close to the Avant Garde films of old but stays coherent enough to tell a thrilling, fun, trippy-as-hell story.
Details: Airs on Cartoon Network. Each episode is about twenty-two minutes long. Each season has about eleven episodes.
On April 1, I was looking forward to watching the newest episode of Samurai Jack. I’m a long time Samurai Jack fan. To my surprise and to the surprise of viewers everywhere, the newest episode of Rick and Morty aired instead of Samurai Jack. I’ve never watched Rick and Morty before, but I’ve heard good things. I didn’t watch the episode that night and, instead, binge watched the first two seasons of Rick and Morty before eventually watching the newest episode, “The Rickshaw Redemption.”
Details: Two hour-long shows of Dave Chappelle doing stand-up comedy in front of a live audience. Aired on Netflix.
I recently watched an interview on Jimmy Kimmel of Dave Chappelle for his new comedy specials that are now on Netflix. In the interview, Chappelle says that the specials were filmed a while ago and not specifically for Netflix. If you watch the shows, you can tell that the issues and headlines referenced are somewhat old. Even still, this was a great two shows. Additionally, Dave Chappelle got paid sixty million dollars from Netflix for these two prerecorded shows and for a third show that has yet to be made.
Details: Airs on the CW. About forty-five minutes long, not including commercials.
I’ve been looking forward to this episode ever since I heard about it. I love musicals. I also love superhero shows. Smashing the two together is something that appealled to me.
Details: Airs on Disney XD. Each episode is about twenty-two minutes long.
I just finished watching the finale and I think it’s safe to say that this season was the best season yet of a Star Wars animated show. The finale of season two stands out in my mind, but the rest of season two was not as good as that finale. A lot of the episodes in this season were great.
Details: Aired on Netflix. Thirteen episodes at about an hour each.
The unfortunate part about Iron Fist and its most attractive quality is that it is part of the Marvel cinematic, superhero universe. People like watching Marvel superhero stuff. Unfortunately, when compared with the other Netflix/Marvel superhero shows, this is clearly the worst of the bunch.
The story is about the return of Danny Rand. Years ago, Danny Rand and his parents were all presumed dead after their plane crashed in the Himalayas. Turns out that while his parents apparently died, Danny survived and became a martial artist with the power to turn his fists into indestructible weapons. Now he returns to New York City to find his place in the world and fight new threats.
I think the primary reason why this show is lacking compared to Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage is because there doesn’t seem to be any goal for the show to focus on. With Daredevil, they already established a kick ass, gritty, martial arts, action show. With Jessica Jones, you had this focus on a Noir, detective story with superhero twist and also told from the perspective of a victimized woman who’s been raped in body and mind, but tries to overcome it and empower herself. Luke Cage is your attempt at a black, crime drama, similar in tone to The Wire or Empire, with a superhero twist. I think the draw of the Netflix superhero shows was that they took a genre of fiction and injected superpowers into them. That made the shows familiar, yet new and interesting. It also helped that comic book fans got to see their favorite superheroes in live action.
And now we land on Iron Fist. What’s the twist here? What’s the focus? I’m not sure what tone or atmosphere they were trying to achieve here. There was some articles written on how Iron Fist should have starred an Asian protagonist. It could have gone into what life as an Asian immigrant was like and how having super powers would spin that. It certainly would have made sense and shown yet another side of the Marvel movie universe. It would also go along with their themes of diversity (Daredevil is disabled; Jessica Jones is a woman; Luke Cage is black).
However, that’s not what we got. Everything I saw in this series I saw done better in Daredevil. The whole series felt like Daredevil-lite. There were a lot of action scenes, but they felt slow and empty. The action, the acting, and the story were not impressive. I’m not saying this is an awful show, it’s just cringy and not at the level of the other Netflix superhero stuff.
I think the primary problem here is the casting. The performances and dialogue made me cringe many times. None of the people here were too great and they didn’t really fit… which I guess leads to the writing. The motivations for a lot of these characters were hard to believe. The whole story felt mostly pointless, which would be fine to me if only the action scenes were better choreographed or had some emotion in them. Unfortunately, they did not.
Overall, Iron Fist isn’t great. I was mostly bored. It might still be worth watching if you’re bored and need something to pass the time. Otherwise, I think you can just skip it.
A while back I decided to stop writing reviews for individual episodes because there were just too many and there aren’t really that many developments between episodes. This review is an exception because the episode was unusually good.
In this episode, the rebel crew discuss the discovery of the Darksaber, an ancient weapon that symbolizes vast political power on Sabine’s home world, Mandalore. With the saber, Sabine can rally her people can gather an army with which the rebels can use against the Empire. To do so, Kanan must train Sabine to use the Darksaber so as to defeat those who would challenge Sabine for the political power the Darksaber grants.
This was a great episode for many reasons. Firstly, they went into aspects of Jedi and Star Wars history that go as far back as thousands of years. This was such an Easter egg for fans of the Knights of the Old Republic video games because references are made to the Jedi- Mandalorian war, arguably turning a large portion of the video games into canon.
Secondly, we get to learn about Sabine. Sabine’s back story has not truly been delved into to this degree and her story is heartbreaking. It’s the story of how those you love ignore you and abandon you no matter how loudly you try to protect them. It’s a story of how your family ignores you. It’s explained in a few lines, but I found it moving.
Lastly, I enjoyed the relationship between teacher/mentor/master and student/mentee/apprentice. I love these types of stories. Most of the time when you think of relationships between people it’s familial or romantic. The relationship between a master and an apprentice is so similar yet so different. There is nothing romantic or sexual about it. The relationship is in a big way selfless. This is a relationship where one person tries to truly teach and help someone else. Unlike many relationships, it’s a relationship that tries to grant power rather than take it. And through this training, both teacher and student perhaps learn truths about themselves. It’s a unique bond that I enjoyed watching very much.
Overall, a great episode and I can’t wait for the next one. I’ll still write an overall review for the season, but I just wanted to comment on my enjoyment of this episode.
Muse Bank 