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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 328890" data-attributes="member: 23">Iron Fist This Deadly Secret / Target: Iron Fist / Heart Of The Dragon / The Dragon Dies At Dawn / Morning Of The Mindstorm / Citadel On The Edge Of Violence / War Without End continued There's  been a second  “real life issue” thing with Ward’s addiction. He’s been attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings this season. As with Mary’s DPD, I’m sure there are liberties taken that are somewhat inaccurate. Like Ward’s sponsor being a predatory, manipulative woman who evidently preyed upon a vulnerable and wealthy man, grooming him into sleeping with her and quickly becoming pregnant by him. I have grave doubts that this (largely) accurately reflects how these groups work. All the same it is refreshing to see this kind of situation shown with a manipulative woman in a position of power (she’s both his sponsor and the chair of the meetings, controlling what’s said and turning the spotlight on whomever she pleases). The Hollywood stereotype is for the man to be the predator and the woman the victim, which gets tiring, so I give the series points for that. Also, Ward's continued to be extremely unlikeable, while still getting the viewer's empathy, which is great. The scene in the bar where he drunkenly decided to fight the big hunky bearded barman who tried to settle things peaceably before landing a few power packed punches on Ward reminded me very much of the kind of situation Gary Ewing would have found himself in. Joy’s been harder to get a handle on this season, stuck as she’s been in a storyline with dull Davos. As the season nears its end she’s heading towards redemption and I’m getting her again. She was one of the better parts of Season One for me, so I’m glad she’s back to wrap things up, even though she’s now been seriously injured having been pushed from a great height by Davos. Joy’s betrayal of Davos and her collusion with BB to steal back the bowl had an exciting undercurrent (it could have been absolutely thrilling, but didn’t quite get there). I was sorry to see BB get killed off since he was so likeable. He felt like the kind of Jimmy Olson-ish supporting player who’d make it to the end, which is what made his demise so effective. It’s notable that in talking about all these episodes’ plots, I haven’t once mentioned the leading character, and have only mentioned the primary antagonist in passing. And that’s Iron Fist’s biggest failing. The primary hero and villain are extremely uninteresting. Neither commands the screen. Quite the opposite. Their laboured performances drag the series down. It’s definitely largely down to the actors (Finn Jones’s overdone accent and embarrassingly bad “injured acting” hobbling certainly haven’t helped, and he’s had a couple of gravely earnest monologues during which I’ve found myself tuning out and thinking of something more interesting). But I don’t know if part of the blame also lies with writing for these characters (Davos actually used the word “merely”, like a a 1960s comic villain. With his Manchester accent it sounded nothing short of ridiculous). Or perhaps it’s just the characters themselves that don’t work. Whatever the case, Season Two has had its moments, but it really does feel as though it’s diluted a lot of Season One’s goodness in an attempt to make it go further. Despite its shorter-than-usual episode count, and mercifully brisk episodes (each episode is averaging less than 50 minutes, which is how all these shows should be in my opinion), it still feels overlong. To my mind, they could have condensed the best of Season Two’s story into a two hour special and delivered a really decent Iron Fist. As it is, I’ll plod on and get this series over with.</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?