Netflix Cancels Iron Fist-THANK YOU

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 This Friday Netflix announced that it’s cancelling Iron Fist, one of the five series based on Marvel Comics superheroes on the streaming service.

And I’d have to say this was a mercy killing. After completely emasculating Danny Rand over the course of 10 episodes there was place for Iron Fist to go after Season 2 but downhill.

It’s hard to find a reason to keep watching a show after the lead character has been turned into a complete BITCH. Danny Rand was too PASSIVE to be a hero, letting every character push him into the background of his own show. And when he gave away his own power to Colleen Wing, it just was the last straw.

The show was supposed to be called IRON FIST. But Danny Rand acted like IRON WIMP. Instead of having BALLS of STEEL his NUTS were crumpled like TIN FOIL and dropped in a pocket of Colleen Wing’s purse.

Yeah, Season 3 promized Orson Randall and the Immortal Iron Fist. But the problem was Danny Rand wasn’t presented to be the MAN he needed to be in the first two seasons. For all the setups, there was no PAYOFF in Danny learning how to be the MAN who used his martial arts skills to protect those in his community from those who would threaten it.

It was hard to see Iron Fist someone as a hero when he couldn’t even protect himself. When writers have Iron Fist, the world’s greatest martial artist hiding behind WOMEN and having women help him fight his battles, viewers has no reason to CARE about watching his series.

The biggest problem with Netflix’s Iron Fist is that the writers just didn’t understand MEN. From the start, Danny Rand was written from a gynocentric perspective and that made him too passive and too unassuming to be a hero. He radiated no masculine energy and had no masculine presence.  Heroes are supposed to be written with confidence, self-assurance, and intelligence and even a bit of cockiness.

Yeah, I get that Danny Rand is supposed to be this Martial artists raised by humble disciplined martial arts masters. But I’d like to believe even the most disciplined American martial artist would have some swagger. Former Power Rangers, Austin St. John, Walter Jones, and Jason David Frank are humble guys. But they still had swagger. Confidence. And their strong masculine presence gave us a reason to watch Power Rangers in the 1990’s. 

When I think of Iron Fist I think of type guy in the style of Austin St. John, Jason Frank, or 1980s B-Movie star Michael Dudkioff’s Joe from the American Ninja movies. Joe was the kind of guy who was quiet and humble, but could throw out some playful one-liners as he used some oldschool American resourcefulness in his martial arts fighting style to beat his foes. Like Joe in the American Ninja movies we needed to see Iron Fist BEATING THE SHIT out of 20 guys in 10 seconds, in fast-paced martial arts sequences like Austin St. John, Walter Jones and Jason Frank did on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

With Iron Fist I wanted a show that was 1993’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on steroids. A show that featured fast paced marital arts and BIG action sequences with lots of chumps getting WRECKED and boss villains getting their asses kicked. A show that spent its three episodes showing how a lost Danny Rand wound up in K’un L’un, grew up being taught by those Masters the discipline he’d need to get home, working towards EARNING the Iron Fist. Then as the season progressed, he’d leave K’un Lun, return to earth making money in cage fights, starting a dojo with Colleen Wing tagging along as he actively laid out a strategy to take his company back, then started dealing with the Meachums using strategies he learnd from those masters.

Then as season 2 went on we would have had the Steel Serpent Storyline. With a big muscular Tong Po looking dude from the 1980s Kickboxer movies playing Davos, not that Beta Incel they cast to play him. After Danny beat Davos with the help of Shang-Chi he would learn about Orson Randall coming to the city looking for him.

That show would have EASILY gotten a season 3. But because the writers wrote Iron Fist as a passive, unassuming Beta Male who let himself get overshadowed in his own show by EVERY MEMBER of his supporting cast that’s why Iron Fist got cancelled.

The lesson here for Netflix and Marvel Studios regarding the failure of Iron Fist is to let the HERO be the CENTER of his show. If a show is called IRON FIST we need to see IRON FIST doing all the cool shit, not side characters like Colleen Wing. People want to see the MAIN CHARACTER doing THEIR THING in a show with their name on it. In an ACTION show we want to see the HERO being ACTIVE taking the LEAD and TAKING CHARGE in their OWN STORIES. 

What’s sad about Iron Fist is that the show never actualized its potential because the writers and producers couldn’t execute on concept. Every episode of Iron Fist should have been a martial arts movie with big superhero movie special effects, but the producers just gave us a meandering cop show with no story and no substance. Then as the second season progressed they decided to push girl power on Danny Rand’s show, minimizing and emasculating their own hero.

Giving us every reason to Change the channel. Or click out and watch someone else like Luke Cage. Everything Luke did in Season 2 Danny should have been doing in Iron Fist.

Iron Fist should have been an action packed martial arts show with fast paced martial arts, intriguing stories about an American applying far eastern philosophy in the west as he adjusts to life in America. With the right writer Iron Fist could have been a martial arts classic. But due to incompetent showrunners with a jumbled vision all we got was a mess of a superhero show. Thankfully, Netflix put this show down before viewers could suffer another season of terrible writing, terrible acting and piss poor production values.

I want to thank the executives at Netflix for cancelling Iron Fist. You did us all a great service by ending this horrible show. When a TV show shows no signs of improving you just pull the plug.