5 Ways That Marvel And Netflix Can Make Iron Fist A Success

3) Tighten Up Your Storytelling

Let’s just cut to the chase here. Daredevil and Jessica Jones both felt way too long and ruthlessly padded to meet the eleven episode length. How many scenes in Daredevil had Karen, Foggy and Ben having what amounts to the same “we need to stop Fisk” conversation? And did anyone seriously care about the Simpson subplot in Jessica Jones, or any of the zillion tangents the show went on as a whole?

If Iron Fist really wants to present a step-up in storytelling, it needs to do one of two things: drop the number of episodes or make proper use of the full eleven. Craft an epic, involved story with very little “fat” that feels like it absolutely needs every single episode to accomplish what it does. Make every sub-plot and character crucial and integral.

Or, conversely, go the ENTIRE opposite route and do what very few shows are willing to do in this day and age: embrace the stand-alone episode. It’s been generally agreed upon that Fox’s X-Files revival hit its stride when it moved away from continuity-heavy episodes to stand-alone fare.

In a Netflix series that could be easily watched in one sitting, this is a massive gamble that could easily lead to filler, but stand-alone episodes that feel like a necessary part of a larger whole can absolutely be done. A good stand-alone episode can further things like character growth or lend some exposition to a given character’s perspective or backstory within the context of a fairly self-contained adventure. The “Stick” episode of Daredevil is a good example, or the “Fly” episode of Breaking Bad.

But again, this is an extremely risky route to take and can easily feel like filler if you aren’t careful. The safer route would just be to tighten up the serial storytelling in general. Ensure that each episode has a tangible beginning, middle and end to make them feel like distinct chapters.

Good serial storytelling isn’t just taking an eleven-hour movie and chopping it into one-hour chunks. Each piece needs to feel like it can function as a part of a whole while still functioning independently to a certain degree. Crime shows like Homicide: Life on the Street and he first couple seasons of Luther more or less have this down to a science, and that science should be the studio’s model.