Further Thoughts on Iron Fist

I’ll be upfront:  I know that #AAIronFist affected what enjoyment I might have had in Iron Fist as the series actually is.  And it’s not just about the discomfort of the White Savior/Orientalism notion, although that’s definitely a factor in the series (Danny lecturing Colleen on martial arts inside her own dojo made me want to punch him – is that what they were going for?)  It’s also because the storytelling ideas put forth by people pushing for an Asian-American Danny sounded so cool to me, and no matter how Iron Fist starring Finn Jones had turned out, I would’ve been disappointed not to get that story.

And yes, I love the hell out of Lewis Tan’s all-too-brief performance as Zhou Cheng.  Knowing the background of Tan having auditioned for Danny, I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like for him shooting with Jones – when I see the two of them onscreen together, I can’t help but think, bitterly and ungenerously, “Right, ‘cause it’s not like we’d want martial arts skills or charisma for the lead of our martial arts show!”  I also think Tan has done a good job with press since the show dropped, handling things diplomatically even when his interviewers give him the perfect setup for honesty that’s a lot more brutal.  I’ll admit that I’ve spent more than a little time wondering what the action scenes might’ve looked like with Tan in the lead role.

However, having seen all of Iron Fist, I can say that casting Tan (or another talented Asian-American actor with a martial arts background, but since we have Tan on the show, I’ll stick with him for my hypotheticals) would’ve technically been a #AAIronFist, but it wouldn’t have been the #AAIronFist that I fell in love with when I was reading the initial arguments for the casting move.  Furthermore, while casting Tan would’ve helped (dramatically) increase the quality of the fight scenes and smoothed over the uncomfortable optics of Danny’s interactions with Colleen, it’s not a one-stop fix that would’ve cured Iron Fist of all its ills.

Casting an Asian-American as Danny could’ve been a great move.  But creating a #AAIronFist like Keith Chow imagined would’ve called for more than just a deliberate vision for casting:  crucially, it would’ve also required writers that could handle the type of engrossing storytelling he, and others who supported #AAIronFist, envisioned.  The casting choice can combat the problematic racial dynamics in the source material, but it takes a writer with skill, care, and craft to follow this story to its full potential.  I have no confidence that Scott Buck and co. would’ve taken any advantage of the different lens an Asian-American Danny could’ve provided (I’m relatively sure that they’re not aware of how the more problematic scenes with Danny look, so I can’t imagine them handling the identity of an Asian-American lead with much nuance.)  No, to really bring this vision to life, we would’ve needed someone different both in front of and behind the camera.

Never mind the creative ideas put forth by the #AAIronFist campaign – Scott Buck and co. don’t demonstrate much care or craft in the more straightforward story they do tell, which brings me back to my second point.  Casting Tan as Danny would most probably have helped with certain aspects of the show, but it wouldn’t have automatically flipped Iron Fist from a bad show to a good one.  More entertaining fights, no White Savior optics, and the freshness of having an Asian-American superhero – all good things, undeniably.  But it would’ve still had clunky dialogue, pacing issues, and unfocused plotting, and while losing the White Savior angle would make Danny marginally less annoying, he’d still be a frustrating character.  He’d still be an aggravating flip-flopper who insists on taking the lead even when he has no plan, has no concept of other people’s boundaries, and doesn’t seem to have any clue about what he really wants.  Some of Iron Fist’s problems stem from its racial issues, but a lot more are simply baked into the storytelling.  This, to me, is not a good show, to the point where I think Tan might have been better off getting one amazing scene as the awesome Zhou instead of 13 interminable episodes as the annoying Danny.  (Honestly – Finn Jones doesn’t do much to win me over in this series, but I can concede that, as written, Danny is an albatross that Jones would’ve been hard-pressed to make work under any circumstances.)  As disheartening as that audition experience must have been for Tan, I hope the exposure he got here, as one of the few consistently-praised aspects of the show, helps land him larger roles in projects that are more up to snuff.