Did Iron Fist Forget the Most Important Element?

Marvel's Iron Fist has debuted recently to not-too-stellar reviews. One would think that with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage paving the way, they would have a reliable pattern to build on. Curiously, though, they seem to have made the worst choice in almost every situation. The preceding three series were all criticized for moving their stories along too slowly so rather than quicken the pace, Iron Fist decided to double-down and slow their pace down to glacial levels. Daredevil was criticized for not introducing the hero's iconic costume sooner so, of course, Iron Fist decided not to introduce it at all in the first season.

The biggest criticism leveled at the show, however, was that of a certain tone-deafness when it comes to Asian stereotypes and the "whitewashing" of the main character. Casting a white actor as the main character, however, does not bother me at all (and I say this as someone who is married to an Asian woman, whose children are of mixed Asian-Caucasian race, and who would love to see more Asian representation in film and television). This doesn't bother me in this instance because I am also a believer in staying faithful to the source material and in the comics Danny Rand has always been white. So I would have been okay with the casting either way they chose to go.

What I find less forgivable, however, is casting an actor with no appreciable martial arts background as a character who is supposed to be the greatest living martial artist. What Hollywood often fails to grasp when it comes to portrayals of the martial arts on screen is that it is something that cannot be adequately faked. Perhaps this is a matter of being personally sensitive. As someone who has spent over 20 years training in the martial arts, it is often glaring how fake most supposed martial arts scenes are in film and television -- much like a professional musician can easily notice if an actor is only pretending to play the guitar. The fact is that skill in the martial arts requires years of training and cannot be short-circuited. It cannot be accounted for by a few months of intense training, clever editing, or the use of stunt doubles. The missed opportunity here is that Marvel had the chance to stand out from the crowd of other superhero shows and films by producing a show that takes the fighting to a whole new level. That is what Iron Fist should represent. Unfortunately, they forgot to pay much attention to the "martial arts" part of their martial arts show.