(series review) - Ironheart

 

To be clear, Disney-Marvel has made some questionable decisions lately. When I say of late, within the last six years. For me, it stemmed from a scene in Endgame (so obviously longer than six years), but there was a moment when all the women came together to fight. It had nothing to do with women coming together to fight, but more about the heavy-handedness of it all that even the show 'The Boys' made fun of it. With that said, it is all about directives and execution. Ryan Coogler had directives for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and under the circumstances, his execution was near flawless, considering the challenges he faced. Bringing a character like Riri into the MCU is obviously something they wanted to do, a black girl with intellect on par with Tony Stark, Bruce Banner and Shuri, so in Wakanda Forever, she goes. It was not an excellent fit, but Ryan made it work the best way he could. Riri was a decent addition to the movie, but was ultimately not needed; it drove the plot along. So here is the series, something they mentioned many years ago, which was in production and finished many years ago too. Under the mandate of Bob Chapek, formet Disney CEO who wanted everything out quick and fast and also onto Disney Plus, this show was struck with issues like a few movies and other shows of thay era, but the show...well, whilst not amazing or great, I still had a great time with it.

The first episode sets us up with what this story is going to be about: Riri dealing with her lost best friend and trying to find a different type of hustle to raise money to build an Iron suit. She finds a group of "Robin Hood-esque" people led by The Hood, aka Parker, where she feels she will be able to get money fast.

The second episode introduces Riri's AI N.A.T.A.L.I.E, who looks just like her best friend. While they both try to figure out how the AI came into being, Riri wants to complete a couple of missions for The Hood and his gang, but Riri needs more components for her suit when the 1st mission is complete. Riri also tries to figure out how The Hood uses his powers or where they derive from.

The third episode introduces Joe, a guy who has been living under the tech radar with his own dreams of being a revolutionist, but wants to stay as far from his father's endeavours as possible. He helps Riri, and Riri can continue with the heist, but things go wrong when the lab starts to lock down.

The fourth episode leaves Joe in a situation where The Hood helps him out and offers him assistance with his tech. Riri seeks help from her mother and her mother's friend at a magic shop that realises the nature or origin of The Hood's powers are rooted somewhere unfathomable. Xavier, Natalie's brother and Riri's friend, is forced to confront Riri's AI.

In the fifth episode, The Hood's gang decide to leave Parker to go on the last heist alone. Angry, Parker brings Zeke along with him, and Riri decides to armour up against The Hood to fight magic with magic.

The sixth and final episode gives us the origin story of The Hood and the deal he made to become who he is. Riri and The Hood battle it out, but ultimately, neither of them becomes the victor.

In short, the show was entertaining. It had its shortcomings with some of the story beats, the pacing, some logistics and The Hood's crew, but other than that, I really enjoyed the show.

Riri is a great but flawed character. She is acted very well by Dominique Thorne, and she is very relatable, other than the fact that she can build iron suits and is super intelligent. She is someone who, like most of us, runs away from things they do not want to face head-on. She makes silly decisions, but ultimately, she is a good person. Seeing Riri have panic attacks due to her realisation and the weight of her actions is very real and relatable. The N.A.T.A.L.I.E AI played by Lyric Ross, for me, steals the show. With so much personality and youthfulness, the AI is different to ALL other AIs in the MCU and stands apart by being just as clever as Riri but also acts as Riri's best friend. Their interaction and chemistry are undeniable.

Parker, aka The Hood, played by Anthony Ramos, is not one-dimensional. When we get to the latter episodes, you see where he has come from and why he is the way he is. He is not necessarily a bad person, as he also has layers like Riri, but is easily manipulated due to his drive and goals. His cousin John, played by Manny Montana, is loyal and faithful to Parker. You could see him as the person pulling the strings because he has a quiet demeanour about him, and he isn't just a henchman. He looks out for his cousin and protects him no matter what. All these characters and the acting from the actors are great, with zero flaws.

The Hood's crew. They are just in the show to act as Parker's henchmen to do what he asks them to do and to help pull off the heists. It is possible Parker could pull the heists off by himself, but he also wants his friends to earn money. None of these characters really stand out, nor do you care about them. You might want to know the backgrounds of maybe 2 of them. But ultimately, they are in this show to help build it out and flesh out the world. They are not important, even if one of them does mention a place we have heard before a few times in the MCU. Another character who was great was Joe. The chemistry between Dominique and Alden works well! His character is great, and he plays the character great, but going forward, it would be great to see more of Joe.

The mother, mother's friend and daughter are side characters I wish I got more screen time with and found out a bit more about them. Even the dad was great. Maybe after Doctor Strange 3, we might get something that has been mentioned (rumored) and an interesting and different Marvel show rather than film is defintely the way forward here, and maybe it can open up to a lot of possibilities epecially with fleshing out the MCU even more, but they were great side characters.

The show, as stated earlier, was entertaining, and it did act more like a show than a film spliced into six, but with that said, the show felt a little rushed to me. There seemed to be no sense of time passing, so the show feels like it spans a week, if that, rather than maybe two weeks or a month. Maybe it does or maybe it is shorter, but it seems like a lot gets done within hours from when the show starts to when it ends.

The music is great, and the special effects for a TV Show are great. The Iron suit looks great on screen, and it really pops. A lot of money has gone into it, and it shows.  It is a very high film quality, and the Iron suits look amazing, especially as they are all different from one another.

Although this show is likely to get mixed reviews over a myriad of reasons, ultimately the show is heading places that require a season 2 or the story to continue elsewhere. How the show ends is very ballsy for Disney and is all in line with the character. It had been a while since we had seen a flawed character like Riri, and this type of storytelling needs to continue within the MCU. If you have not seen it, give it a watch; it is not that demanding of your time, and it is entertaining. Hopefully, we can see more of these great side characters to open the doors for something else. Considering this show was delayed and chopped and re-written and this and that, the end result was not terrible, and for those who think it was, maybe consider Secret Invasion, or Echo or She-Hulk or Hawkeye or Moon Knight! I enjoyed Echo. She-Hulk, Moon Knight and Hawkeye were ok, but I do believe people are quick to say something is trash, forgetting other shows they called trash that came before it. It is not top quality and needs a bit of work here and there, but we have a good show with a great character and supporting characters, with an ending that needs resolving