Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Iron Fist Season 1

 


Iron Fist is another series in Marvel's NY-based series that originally aired on Netflix. The 13-episode first season was released in the spring of 2017. Like the other Netflix MCU series (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage), this is adjacent to, but not directly intertwined with, the MCU movies. It is directly tied to the plot of Daredevil season 2 and leads directly into the plot of The Defenders, the 8-episode team-up of Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. The series stars Finn Jones, Jessica Henwick, Tom Pelphrey, Jessica Stroup, and David Wenham.

The series tells the origin story of Danny Rand (Jones), the son of a billionaire corporate mogul. The family is involved in a plane crash when Danny is 10, and all of them are presumed dead. Danny mysteriously reappears 15 years later as a super-powered martial artist determined to take down The Hand, the shadowy organization involved in Daredevil. The ties to the other shows are the characters of Claire (played by Rosario Dawson) and Jeri, the lawyer from Jessica Jones (played by Carrie Ann Moss). The story alternates between Danny's reintegration into society and trying to uncover what The Hand is doing in NY. I will not divulge anything else so as not to spoil it, but it packs a lot of story into the 13 episodes.

The show got a lot of bad reviews that, in my opinion, are underserved. The acting is very good, and Finn Jones does a good job with the character Danny Rand. The show is definitely not perfect. One part of the story that I did find a bit ham-fisted was the whole arc with Harold Meachum, but overall I think I think the story of Danny trying to get his life back, reconnect with his childhood friends (played by Jessica Stroup and Tom Pelphrey), as well as trying to take down The Hand was great. The rest of the supporting cast, including Jessica Henwick and David Wenham, did well in their roles. While liking it is, of course, subjective, and for me, it was not as good as Daredevil or Jessica Jones, it was not as bad as many critics made it out to be. I definitely think it is worth taking a chance on.

It does seem there are a couple versions of the Blu-ray set floating around. I have the region-free version with no extras, just the episodes. You can stream it, for now, on Netflix, but given that Netflix canceled it, and all the other Marvel shows, along with losing the rights to the Disney content which will eventually be removed, that may not last. So even if you usually only get the physical discs when there are a lot of extras, this may be worth picking up anyway.

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