Episode 349 - Conversations on Iron Fist Season 2
On this episode, Jeremy is joined by Sensei Jaredd Wilson and Sensei Scott Bolon for a Conversations on Iron Fist Season 2.
Conversations on Iron Fist Season - Episode 349
Conversations on Iron Fist Season 2
Once again, Jeremy, Sensei Jaredd Wilson, and Sensei Scott Bolon talk about the Iron Fist Season two and how it's not renewed for a new season. On today's episode, the trio dissects the failures and good points, if there's any, of the Iron Fist Season 2. Listen to find out more!
Show Notes
You can read the show notes below or download here.
Hey everyone, thanks for coming by. This is whistlekickmartialartsradio episode 349. Today, got to sit down with a couple friends and talk about iron fist season 2 from Netflix, but not just digging in the show correctly not going to give you any spoilers and in fact it turns into a great conversation about martial arts cinema and television. So stick around if you're interested in any of those things. If you're new to the show you may not know my voice my name is Jeremy Lesniak, I'm your host for the show I’m the founder at whistlekick and I love the martial arts so I turned into a business and you can check out everything we make at whistlekick.com and if use the code podcast15, you will save 15%. You check out the show notes for this episode for all the other episodes all for free at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. But now I just can step back, and I’m gonna let my friend Sensei Scott Bolon introduce our conversation, so take it from here Scott.
Scott Bolon:
Hey everybody, this is Scott Bolon, and I'm here with Jeremy Lesniak and Jared Wilson and we're gonna be talking about some iron fist season two and kinda how it relates to the martial arts world and martial arts and cinema and things of that nature.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But I mean, It got canceled so hopefully we can draw some non-correlation..[00:01:37.06]
Scott Bolon:
That's the show folks were done.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Fastest show ever thanks for listening, go buy some things at whistlekick.com.
Scott Bolon:
Oh that was beautiful, great timing everybody.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, I’m gonna take the smallest of tangents and let everyone know that the three of us talk fairly regularly because of martial Journal not so much in voice but in typing and of course there are others and this is what our chat is like constantly.
Jaredd Wilson:
I can verify that yes it is very much like this.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It is the adult's digital equivalent of the of a fraternity.
Scott Bolon:
That's actually very very apt. Yeah so I got it got canned.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think we should start there. Let's talk about that
Scott Bolon:
Yeah obviously we should.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I think the biggest take away for the entire thing. For the entire for season 2, the ending is that it ended and it..
Scott Bolon:
Well, it ended with so much promise and so much..
Jaredd Wilson:
Openness of plot...
Scott Bolon:
Well yeah it was showing you so many different tangents that it was prepared to go into that were quite frankly interesting if you spent the time to watch all 10 episodes, you were already invested. And if you know anything about any of those characters which was never big iron fist comic book reader but I understood the character I need some generalities about it and you know some of the other characters that were related. Yeah I was kind of excited to see where they took it and well, well I guess not.
Jaredd Wilson:
It could be that Disney to get back is what could be...
Scott Bolon:
Well it's funny you say that because to this day, what is this, like couple weeks since they announced it or week and a half or two and not a single person you know there's lots of places that dedicate themselves with whether on YouTube or in written form to talking about the ins and the outs and the innuendo and then the rumors and all the stuff of what's, who's going where and what's doing what, no one seems to know what the endgame if there is an endgame is. No one knows whether Netflix is going to repackage the shows into take these characters and then kinda just put them together and it is not a spoiler to say, you know that and talk about heroes is for hire for a long time where Luke cage and iron fist are together. And then there's been talk of daughters of the Dragon with Misty Knight and [00:04:23.16] so are they gonna do that or did Disney say you know, there ours, we're done. How does this work and nobody knows anything about that it's almost dead silent which I'm surprised at.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And I think it is important, you know just in case someone is listening and they don't know that Disney owns the right to Marvel, to everything of Marvel to the whole lot of it. And of course there are contracts that have been signed going out for who knows how many years on movies and other things. So there are things that Disney can't do but Disney is also in the midst of launching their own online streaming platform. If you take a look at Netflix, the one catalog of content that is noticeably absent is pretty much always been absent is everything that Disney owns. And so Disney is getting going and when we as adult men cause we are adult men, think about Disney what do we think of first and foremost? We think of kids movies, we think of child entertainment. But if all of a sudden it was children's entertainment and all of the marvel stuff, well now that's far more compelling as a family platform and that very well may be entering in.
Scott Bolon:
Well I mean between them buying up Lucas film, Marvel now Fox. They bought up everything a fox that doesn't involve sports or news. They have made a... For me personally video is but
Jaredd Wilson:
They own [00:05:58.14] at this point
Scott Bolon:
Yeah well did the Disney name is just one facet of the entire you know, mega monolith. It's gigantic now.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It is very powerful mouse.
Scott Bolon:
Yes that mouse has been to the gym and has been pumping some iron. But so you know the future is extraordinarily up in the air as far as where these characters may go but I think talk about broader thanks for sure.
Jaredd Wilson:
Well I think it's you know just go back to beginning with it. The fact that they gave a martial arts superhero his own platform to use the term, is pretty incredible. Netflix has been doing pretty good with the martial arts in general they had, they were the main financiers behind the Crouching Tiger 2 the green destiny movie. So, they been putting out a bunch of good stuff they just recently, couple weeks ago this point said they're gonna do the live-action avatar which you know about kid stuff, that thrills me.
Scott Bolon:
And then they've got that they just released The Night Comes for us with basically anybody and everybody you've seen in the two raid movies and if Iko Uwais has been in it, a bunch of his friends are in it too. And it's extraordinarily heavy martial arts. It's a little on the gory side and I’ll plug Martial Journal, Tristan Glover he put out a YouTube video and he's actually gonna be releasing an article here real soon for it. So.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Now when think about iron fist, when we look back let's, you know we talked about the death and I'm sure that we'll circle back to that because it’s hard not to. But we talk about season to versus season one, I think when three of us have been chatting in and talk about what we wanted to talk about this evening, that was a big piece that kept coming up was the contrast between season one and 2. So what do you guys see as the major differences between the two seasons?
Jaredd Wilson:
I'm gonna put it this way, iron fist got his black belt. In season one he kind of knew that he knew some stuff but, I called the work syndrome, you know it is like warp on Star Trek was this big huge Klingon guy but as soon as and he could beat the crap out of anyone until another Klingon showed up, that was an iron fist. He was this huge powerful martial artist until another martial artist came and then he got beat up. So in season two, they kinda got past that said well now he has the skills and now he's kind of maturing and trying to figure out what it means to have those skills.
Scott Bolon:
Yeah actually my thoughts kinda somewhat parallel there. I always kind of, I kind of felt like and I’ve said this in another venue before but when someone asked about it, I said in season one he kinda reminding me like a yellow/orange belt you know. One or two belts in knows a few things a whole new world is opening up to him but he thinks he knows a lot and then finds out typically often that he doesn't really know that much. And then I kind of felt like in a between the defenders and his appearance in Luke Cage, maybe less so the Luke Cage, but in defenders I kinda felt like he was you know, mid mid high rank he's definitely kind of calm down with you know I am the immortal iron fist you know, telling everybody what he is although he still told lot. And then in this one yeah I felt like, I felt like there was kind of almost a black belt level there like when you find out you get a black belt thinking that that's the pinnacle and then you realize actually that's just a stop on the way. You know, and you feel you realize how little you actually truly do know.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Now we talk about that I think we’re really talking about the writing and the way that the writing went. Now, when we did our conversation around season one, we did, we did do that I'm not imagining
Scott Bolon:
I don't think we actually
Jeremy Lesniak:
Didn't I talk to somebody? Jaredd did I talk to you?
Jaredd Wilson:
No it wasn’t me.
Scott Bolon:
You had a short episode about a just talking about what it was...
Jeremy Lesniak:
Did I talk to myself?
Scott Bolon:
I thought I thought you talked about...
Jaredd Wilson:
There was an article that we did on martial journal.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We'll figure out I talk to somebody somewhere about something related
Scott Bolon:
I think it was actually one of your regular interview episodes were you guys ended up talking about that for a decent chunk of their time, you got into it.[00:10:54.06] apparently I don’t know who that was or what happened. But anyway when I think about season one, my number one take away is that it seemed rushed and we did have documented proof that what's his face, what's his name?
Scott Bolon:
Finn Jones
Jeremy Lesniak:
Finn Jones had like seven minutes of training before he got on camera and actually did work.
Scott Bolon:
That's actually pretty close to the truth right there. It was pretty close He said constantly he was learning stuff right before shooting.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right and we take that into account I thought season was quite good. But it would not surprise me that if his training was rushed everything was rushed, the writing was rushed, all of it was rushed. And with season it didn't feel rushed, it felt nuanced, it felt like there was depth to the acting, to the character development, to the storyline and even to the fight scenes to me. The fight scenes had this nuance, this
Scott Bolon:
Emotional content?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah it wasn't just punch, punch, kick, kick, fall, block, get up, bleed, right like there was, there was more, they were thought out. It was how do we make this different and better and you could tell the people sat around the table and chatted about it.
Scott Bolon:
I totally agree. I didn't hate season one, as much as some did. It was slow the pacing was very off there a lot of time spent talking about things that you know they could've just elaborated on briefly somewhere else. It didn't, we didn't need to spend that much visual time on certain things. But again rushed, it felt rushed. Despite 13 hours of run time it felt rushed.
Jaredd Wilson:
Well I think in season it had to do the origin story too. So that ate up a lot of time, iron fist isn't the hugest name in the Marvel universe and I think in season two they're like, okay good we're done with that, everybody knows everybody is okay let's fight.
Scott Bolon:
Yeah well there was that too. But I feel like, I feel like to what Jeremy said, that the fight scenes there was a point, there were stakes in the fight scenes. They weren't just there as some kind of, hey we got a, this is getting boring we gotta make sure we throw a little flash on here. You know, if the everything not perfectly of course mean I'm sure I could get into a gripe, but it had emotional content, it had it had stakes. Which the first season didn't feel like the stakes were really there when they should have been.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Should we think about season one as almost a prequel?
Scott Bolon:
I can get down with that if you called it that, I would probably buy it probably would critique it a little less harshly.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Because what I hadn't considered until Jaredd said it was the idea that very few people know who knew who iron fist was prior. I didn't. I enjoy, you know, I read some comic books as a kid and I was aware of some of these characters by name but I definitely didn't have body of knowledge that some of my friends do when they you know jump into an Avengers movie or whatever. So I wonder if that was part of the dilemma that they really wanted to get to the defenders, they said oh crap we have to give a back story iron fist who nobody knows
Jaredd Wilson:
So let’s do that in 13 episodes quick.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah okay find a guy well and not Asian at all and give him 7 minutes training
Scott Bolon:
Well, they kinda botched it to be honest if you think about it because you know, daredevil, kid loses his sight and his other senses sharpened. Jessica Jones she was possible experimented on same on, same for Luke cage. Iron fist he defeated and punch the heart of an immortal Dragon in a magical city, you can see where they struggle to figure out how to pull that one off.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But is that their fault? Isn’t that the canon?
Scott Bolon:
Well, I will say, I would put it on their doorstep in the sense that it was known that from the very beginning that iron fist was gonna be one of the four when they first announced the deal let alone the [00:15:20.15] you know as far as coming out. And they just they just screwed around so long and then they had to rush it because they had figured out I'm in it they bought themselves some extra time by doing a second season of daredevil.
Jaredd Wilson:
There's a lot to suspension of disbelief, a lot more with Iron Fist.
Scott Bolon:
It's a little bit of a tougher pill to swallow compared to the other three which are extraordinarily grounded in a pseudo-reality setting versus iron fist which are getting in fantasy. But that being said I still think that they did leaps and bounds of evolution between defenders, his one episode, a full episode cameo in Luke Cage season two and then into his own season but they, I mean I would and I give them a couple good claps there, like good job, you guys really fixed it and then now.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We are going to cancel it.
Jaredd Wilson:
So when you think of a fix because I think that they did a lot of good things with season one that don't get shown in martial arts movies all the time.
Scott Bolon:
Such as?
Jaredd Wilson:
Well they did a lot with you know they kinda skipped the training montage idea and the actually showed some training aspects for example you know, it was about what's in season one Colin Wang had a dojo and she was training students.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And they showcased the relationship between teacher and student in a way that I don't think we've ever seen in Western produced media.
Scott Bolon:
What about, would you agree that that's maybe the first time we've seen, in a big way and a big show, an actual dojo master student relationship, so to speak or should I say a student-teacher relationship since the karate kid.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yes
Jaredd Wilson:
Pointed out you know they're hey this is the special place where they do the training yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah and I think more so there were things that you were never going to get in the karate kid because it was one of one. There's a dynamic that happens that you know all three of us are used to experiencing that most people listening are used to experiencing that occurs only because there are others in the room.
Scott Bolon:
I get you the group setting.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yep and when I think about season 2 again, one of my favorite things when I reflect is again the relationship between Danny and Colleen that in season one, it's teacher-student, in the beginning of season two it is not teacher-student. It is very clearly not teacher-student and they talk about that because it transitions back into teacher-student and they address that. And you know what a lot of us have been in schools where the instructor is dating a student.
Jaredd Wilson:
And it never goes quite that well
Jeremy Lesniak:
And its messy and we all gonna talk about it
Scott Bolon:
I feel like we should've called and reported Collen and Finn on that one, we should've reported them to whoever the sensei is at the dojo because you're just not supposed to do that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And we're you know, were not going the route of spoilers but it is the most honest account of what I feel it needs to be in that case. There was a separation. She said yeah well I'm done being your girlfriend while were training and then she proceeds to whip his ass.
Jaredd Wilson:
In season one there was also really nice scene where Danny walks in and they’re practicing the students are and he's, basically just give him crap because they're not training hard enough to be warriors and start to beat the crap out of one of them with a shinai, and she comes around goes you know what you doing? And that is a really good job of showing different training styles, different goals of training that we normally see. Kind of come head-to-head that way. It’s like these guys are here just as you know, they're in that social we wanna learn something is a group thing rather than we are training to try and kill people.
Scott Bolon:
Yeah it's you know, we don't train to survive battle in the way that we might've 50 - 100 - 200 - X number of years ago. You know, it's just not the same and you can, and then then I think they did, I agree that I think they did a good job of showing that difference, that old school hard beat up your students until they learn approach, versus basically how a lot of training goes today which is you can't do that because you'll get sued and shut down.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hopefully.
Scott Bolon:
Most of the time
Jeremy Lesniak:
So what what else did we like? What else did we like in season two that you know we've got, people that are listening fall into one or two camps, they either haven't watched it but they're interested or they have. So what would be say to the people who are kinda interested maybe they watched season one they're like, I don't know if I want to give up another 10 hours my life.
Scott Bolon:
Well I would say it in and try and kind towards answering something Jaredd had said before, was kind of challenge me what I'd like better. The other characters, like in season one I was interested in what was can happen to you know that Danny Rand and I was interested in what was gonna happen to Colleen Wing beyond that, the rest of the tertiary, the rest of the supporting characters I almost didn't care what happened to them and sometimes I found them just plainly annoying. Not because they were acting that good to make me dislike them but because I felt like their characters were bland, boring, poorly written, you know, paper thin. In this season everybody has at least the level of an arc. Everybody had stakes in one way shape form or another and that's what I was impressed with, that's when you see good writing as you know you got a writers room that can figure how to juggle all these characters and not lose them in the whole deal.
Jaredd Wilson:
What I think they did, Actually I like this in both seasons but I think they did a really good job of showing good and bad motivations and reactions from all the other people as well. I am talk about specifically the Meachum family [00:22:27.17] it's been long enough but you know the I can’t remember his name, not Harold, the son
Scott Bolon:
Ward
Jaredd Wilson:
Thank you. Ward, his character goes back and forth and how much you like him on every episode. He's this corporate shill and that's all he cares about to okay there's reasoning and her things he's doing and he is almost a victim you feel bad for him and he stands up for himself and that doesn't work out for him. And then ends up being the bad guy again but the is very and still the good guy so I think they did a good job of showing that and they kinda continued with that aspect in season two.
Scott Bolon:
I think they took it to the max in the second season personally.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Am I the only one that thinks that Simone Messick the woman who played Misty Knight deserves her own show somewhere in some way
Scott Bolon:
You are not the only person.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I mean She is about as powerful a screen presence, I think has existed in Iron Fist.
Scott Bolon:
She chews it up for sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And she does a great job in Luke Cage, I mean she is solid, she is compelling. And you know it if
Jaredd Wilson:
Comic book wise, she gets her own kind of thing going anyway so
Jeremy Lesniak:
Does she? Okay, well hopefully she's a tremendous actress
Scott Bolon:
What are you talking about daughters of the Dragon?
Jaredd Wilson:
Well, she's a, again its comic books so it depends exactly what time here you're looking at but she is in one of the versions of heroes for hire as well she's kind of the most recent one
Scott Bolon:
Because you know the whole talk was hoping that Colleen and Misty would get their own show in daughters of the Dragon and I would be ready to sit down and watch that like you know as two minutes from now you know totally.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Now the other piece I wanted to bring up character wise or actor wise was somehow I missed it because I'm a fan, Alice Eve showing up.
Scott Bolon:
Oh yeah and the characters she portrays which
Jeremy Lesniak:
Which I felt she did a great job, she plays Walker, Mary Walker yeah and you know I think we would run down the list every single person that was in daredevil with the exception of Deborah Ann Woll who plays Karen, when we look down the entire cast of Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, I mean Jessica her character, I forget her name Ritter, Christian Ritter? She has done some stuff but of the entire of this segment of the Marvel universe, Alice Eve was the only one is really done anything big and so for them to include her in Iron Fist which was aren't easily the weakest of the four says something to me and I don't know what it says but it says something because [00:25:46.03] doesn’t it?
Scott Bolon:
Yeah absolutely. She didn't just show up and you know do whatever and drop her lines, she did a disturbingly good job.
Jaredd Wilson:
And that's exactly the words I was gonna choose
Jeremy Lesniak:
It was a tremendous role, she played it well, I suspect that she took the role for the role, not for the compensation or for the exposure
Scott Bolon:
She took it very seriously. What was so amazing was you didn't realize how good of a job she was doing until later.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, she is a a very underrated actress. So we’ve talked about a lot about what's gone on let's talk about what could have been. Right if we if we could rollback time, there's almost a song, and we could go to Netflix and say No, there will be a season three, what would we want to see change to season three? You know what would our goals be?
Jaredd Wilson:
Okay so here's a theory. My wife and I talked way too much about you know, character development and stuff like that. And in female characters is getting really archetypical but you know, we'll get academic [00:27:16.09] in female characters there's kinda three positions that they could have, they can have the maiden, the mother and the crones its usually the way it's phrased. That's kind of you know, [00:27:26.14] like that. But you never hear about that in male character. So I’ve come up with, there's basically [00:27:33.27] there is the apprentice and the hero and that's the only two that males get. So I think in season one we had the apprentice version of him where he was still learning things. In season two we had the hero version of him. So again without giving spoilers away the only thing that could really progress next would be him becoming a teacher himself, the Mentor character.
Scott Bolon:
I was gonna say there are there are times when you've seen a fatherly mentor type character before and in in a various media whether be TV or movies, that’s why I was kinda thinking that there should be that one out there not you know there's the apprentice, the hero, but then there's also that mentor-type character who is past its prime but he's obviously, I mean the Miyagi character [00:28:30.22] I don't know though if I think he was the true hero character I think he was the hero character at times in the second season. I don't think he was always the her character and I cannot go farther than that without getting into too much. But, he was
Jaredd Wilson:
At times, he almost verged into anti-hero.
Scott Bolon:
To a point, I don't think he went fully that direction but there's almost as you know, we can liken it to having a black belt when all the sudden you have that weird feeling like that everybody's looking at you very differently today and Friday you had a color belt on but Monday and people are asking you to show them how to do something and your thinking like you've never asked me to show you a thing before. Like why are you asking me now like it this just we just had a weekend, that's all we had. And so you kind of uncomfortable with that new feeling that way and I felt like maybe they were playing around with that trope a little bit, I don't know that they were purposely saying hey how does a black belt feel let's try that out but that's what I took from it.W well, one thing to remember about everything in season one is socially and mentally Danny's a 10-year-old kid. Because that's when he stopped growing essentially. He came back to the world, he was behaving just like he was when he was 10. He was expecting the world to behave just like it was when he was 10. So I think in season two they gave him time to become an adult so to speak and start to make his own decisions.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That's a good point, I like that. What about the kinda subplot within the villain and the martial arts school that they open. Seems a lot of parallels with Cobra Kai there right?W yeah that was my thought on that too.
Scott Bolon:
So that's a hard R version of Cobra Kai right there I think. Yeah I mean it's definitely showing a different way so to speak much much like we you saw whether it's, you know Miyagido versus cobra kai dojo or various other things like we talked about with Danny coming in season one and try to beat up all these kids.
Jaredd Wilson:
Warrior gets into him
Scott Bolon:
Yeah and then calling her waving different. Yeah I think they showed that very differently, training for a different purpose of course so your training would be different depending on what purpose your training for. You know, yeah I know that I think they did a very good job of of showing that and then of course you have a may be a two students in the same, coming up in the same school together. That's not a spoiler I mean if you've seen season one they blatantly alluded to that, going that route. You know, you got two students who may be vying for the same title or mantle in this case the iron fist and of course one getting it and one not getting it. I mean, sometimes whether you see that maybe with the two the top students wanting to take over the dojo work or have it willed to them and only well only one gets it and the others disenfranchised, I think they played at that route real well too.
Jaredd Wilson:
It is without being a superhero trope, you always have to have the billing that has the same powers as you but does it differently. So you know green lantern has got sinestro, he's got same essentially the same powers he just as different motivation. So you always be that dark mirror character and I think they did a great job with that
Scott Bolon:
Yes I agree.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Great point. So we've spoken to the people who are interested, right, we've given them some reasons, we've spoken to the people who you know have watched it you know and they're probably listening and thinking hey you know I want more detail and this may be the time to let them know that you too are gonna have a separate conversation where you know you dig in and you give some spoilers and we'll post that. That'll happen somewhere I assume Jaredd that'll happen over on your site on Marshall thoughts so don't look for that on martial arts radio. Because I'm not good at talking at that level. You guys have watched, have you guys both watched it twice?
Jaredd Wilson:
I watched season one twice and see then I was getting ready to jump into season two so I re-watched season one to make sure cemented everything in my brain.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Oh you are more committed than I am
Scott Bolon:
I have only watched both one time. I could not possibly pull it off again because there's too many other things with daredevil out now and then in a bunch of other shows going on. So I did you know YouTube certify myself and get refreshed and get my mind back to where everything was. So, I did that, I did the cliff notes version.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So I just want to kinda go back and you know my, to me the most important piece about iron fist is that there was an attempt however successful or unsuccessful you may view it to present martial arts and martial arts relationships, student-teacher, school etc. In a way that we do not typically see and it was trashed. And I came out you know, this was... I started this narrative prior to the first season of into the Badlands when I said look guys, if we want martial arts content we have to support it when it's here. And we didn't and now it’s gone. I suspect it's going to take something pretty compelling to get a studio to take a risk like this again.
Scott Bolon:
Well to what you're saying there are other things coming out. Iko, I believe Iko Uwais is working with Netflix on a TV series, or an episodic series, I guess it's not TV, it's Netflix whatever. I sound so old-fashion we say that way I know that there is Cinemax is doing something with the Bruce Lee foundation called warrior...
Jaredd Wilson:
Yeah his original idea that became Kung Fu
Scott Bolon:
Yes it's based off as an original idea, before it turned into yeah, before it turned into Kung Fu. So there's that, I personally think we’re getting, my personal feeling is I think we’re in a bit of a renaissance and if we if we supported were going to get more. We got season two of Cobra Kai. Cobra Kai was amazing, I'm sorry it was
Jeremy Lesniak:
It was.
Scott Bolon:
It was just, it could've been so many different versions of bad and campy and it was just flat out great. We've gotten I think the raid, those movies, I really don't think that they can be overstated as to how they've changed and quite frankly I think they've shown hopefully they've shown directors, maybe specifically speaking American directors, how to direct action. I mean you know they they have some of the longest unbroken cuts that I’ve ever seen on film and then you get Iko Uwais and he comes over in Mile 22 and his talent is wasted, it's absolutely wasted on screen. They do that hyper fast almost nausea inducing editing, that you can't even tell where he's at it looks like they just took a bunch of random scenes and smack them together. And then you get something like The Night Comes for Us which if anybody seen it back to that higher bar of martial arts and cinema. John wicks.
Jaredd Wilson:
That was what I was good to mention yeah
Scott Bolon:
We have to support it. You're totally right Jeremy we have to support it otherwise let's go through another what was that sentence let's let's go back into the B-movie basement with our toys and pack them up and go back down there in our grandma's basement watch bad movies hideous scripts maybe some decent action but you know or we can support this and maybe we'll get more.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right. Now while you are speaking just because I hadn't heard of this this Netflix project for for Iko Uwais, it’s called Wu Assassins
Scott Bolon:
Yes that's it
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's airing next year 2019 on Netflix and despite it be called Wu Assassins, RZA is not showing up anywhere in the cast. Because you totally would've expected him to be there and it looks like it's 10 episodes.
Scott Bolon:
My understanding is it's actually a period piece it actually takes place in like, 40s 50s 60s San Francisco that's my understanding. That's setting the bar there I think of production value. Yeah it's I mean maybe I’ll maybe I’ll set up a few rigs in my house to constantly watch that show on repeat
Jaredd Wilson:
Just to get the download numbers up?
Scott Bolon:
Just so I can get the download numbers up going yeah the stream numbers make them, pump them up.
Jeremy Lesniak:
That sounds insane.
Scott Bolon:
Sounds insane and
Jeremy Lesniak:
[00:39:01.11] funds towards electricity
Scott Bolon:
I won't do it but it you know maybe that's the way to go. I don't know. I'm just grumpy that iron fist got canceled.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah me too. Alright, what final thoughts that we have as it regards iron fist as we say our communal goodbye to Finn Jones and Danny Rand having their own series.
Jaredd Wilson:
I say if you haven't watched it is worth it, it's worth your time to go through season one and season two. If you don't like the martial arts from season one at least the story and the presentation of martial arts is good. Season to the fights do get better and the story still gets better.
Scott Bolon:
Yeah, I have to agree with that I mean for me it's almost, hey if this is it, if this is the last time we see at least this incarnation of of Iron Fist and Colleen and whatever on screen, good job. You really did, you guys really did fix up a lot of things that were rushed, hurried maybe poorly executed in the first season, not that I think it was terrible, but there was a lot of things that could be critiqued and you took a character that you fixed it up, you polished it up you did a good job.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah I’ll agree and if nothing else we met we can call Finn Jones a martial artist now because he had learned some stuff.
Scott Bolon:
He definitely learned some stuff because you could tell they weren't hiding him as much
Jaredd Wilson:
There's not so much of the hoodie of doom any more.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Cool why don’t you wrap us up Scott
Scott Bolon:
Alright well thank you for listening and you definitely, definitely should check out Iron Fist season two, maybe if they see the numbers go up maybe they decide to repackage them, I don't know considering the fact that nobody knows what's really going on behind the scenes of Marvel, Netflix and whatever but going forward, if we get martial arts content on film, TV, stream, we should really support it so that's my parting thoughts, thank you for joining us.
Jeremy Lesniak:
As I'm sure many of you can tell I love talking about martial arts, and I love talking about martial arts with friends. Here, two friends that I have only because of this show. So thanks guys had a good time, we'll find an opportunity to do it again. Head on over to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com for the show notes and head to whistlekick.com to find the stuff that we make. Don't get code podcast15 gets 15% off everything no matter what is. You can follow us on social media we are at whistlekick and you can email me if that's your referred Way, Jeremy@whistlekick.com. I want to thank you for your time thanks for joining us today and until next time, train hard smile and have a great day.