The Reel Rejects - IRONHEART Episode 4, 5, & 6 Marvel Breakdown & Review!!!

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

MEPHISTO IS HERE!! Ironheart Full Reaction Watch Along:   / thereelrejects   Visit https://huel.com/rejects to get 15% off your order Ironheart Reaction, Recap, Commentary, Analysis, Spoiler Review, Breakdown, & Review!! Greg Alba, Coy Jandreau (DC Studios), & Aaron Alexander react to Ironheart Episodes 4, 5, & 6 (season finale), where the Marvel Cinematic Universe finally reveals Mephisto (played by Sacha Baron Cohen from Borat, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Les Misérables) and unveils Riri Williams' (Dominique Thorne – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) new Ironheart suit and origin of The Hood (Anthony Ramos – In the Heights, Hamilton). This Disney Plus Marvel series continues to expand the MCU with key players like Parker Robbins/The Hood, Mephisto, and the Wakandan legacy of Ironheart. Also featuring Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story), Lyric Ross (This Is Us), Shea Couleé (RuPaul's Drag Race), Harper Anthony (Vengeance), Manny Montana (Good Girls), and Regan Aliyah (XO, Kitty). The story dives deep into technology, magic, grief, legacy, and identity. This season ties into Thunderbolts (just covered on our channel), as well as setting up for Avengers: Doomsday, Avengers: Secret Wars, Young Avengers, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Daredevil: Born Again Season 2. Ironheart’s new suit is a fan-favorite moment, while the Hood’s origin and Mephisto’s long-awaited appearance are game-changers for the MCU's mystical future. Follow Aaron On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealaaronalexander/?hl=en Follow Coy Jandreau:  Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coyjandreau?l... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coyjandreau/?hl=en Twitter:  https://twitter.com/CoyJandreau YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwYH2szDTuU9ImFZ9gBRH8w Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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More on them in just a bit. Well, hello there, citizens of the reject nation. We are here to continue Ironheart for Ironheart 4, 5, and 6. So thank you to our Royal and Righteous Rejects for helping keep this channel aflo, baby. We just watched episode 4 of Ironheart. I think comfortably my favorite episode as we hoped. It would go directionally. Before we dive into it, I want to thank the fine folks of Prepper for editing this down.

So you love all these can see the highlights on YouTube. It is a very tricky thing, all the editing, so much love to Prepper. Also, please, while you're pressing buttons, press the like, leave a comment. I want to talk about this episode because to me, this is, this felt like Ironheart. Like, this found its way. So please leave a comment. Let's talk all about it. I start with you with the top.

I started with you with Greg. What you think? All right. Here we go. Okay. yeah uh is my favorite one of the four uh easily easily my favorite of the four i found myself emotionally invested from beginning to end it's great whenever characters emotional struggles are dictating the trajectory of the plot versus do plot and then try to figure out how do we

squeeze an emotion this was a a very natural progression for the character and it doesn't feel it feels like such an upgrade from the previous episodes a lot does have to do with the direction in the editing that was one of my main complaints with the last three episodes and they got a different director for this one and infuse a lot of personality infused a lot of style and infuse a lot of momentum and then it made the emotional moments actually really hit you know like i i love that the show is breaking re-read down in a way like this is such an anti-marvel show in a lot of ways because there hasn't been much action um when there is is not like the greatest action but there's not much really not much of iron heart doing action you know with the suit and they they've just been

showing like everyone around her like she's being becoming more and more isolated as this keeps going she came back home to rebuild herself and as she's now she's back home and she's made things so much worse for her and i like that the show is directly calling it out it's very intentional like everyone has pretty much called her manipulative at some point or some variation of being manipulative and i i think the way they've done it is really three-dimensional because obviously she's not intentionally manipulative obviously she's not um ill intended you know it's one of those things where you end up doing it without realizing like oh shit i have been manipulative oh way that was a bad thing to do uh that probably wasn't the most ethical approach or this is a bad thing so i i like that

it feels very nuanced. You know, I don't think you can discredit the show for that. It's incredibly nuanced in what they've been doing with her character. And then letting that flesh out the dynamics of the relationships, like with the boyfriend. Not that, I keep calling on the boyfriend, but he's not the brother. That was an expected reaction. And again, that goes into the debate of the situation. Natalie developing more as her own becoming more sentient and her even, her even abandoning R-Re.

in the end is a poignant moment uh anthony ramos is starting to feel like actually villainous and what they've done with this like team up thing which we've seen in comic books that's a comic book movie trope and but it feels like we got here in a way that was unexpected i thought i didn't see it coming in this way so i don't want to take every talking point here i think everything's been really good awesome use of the magic so yeah um i'll keep it very general language that for you now. Aaron? I really, really like this episode.

I think that, you know, the first three were already getting better each episode. And I think it's not an accident that they released the first three as like a chunk because the story really starts to kick in in that second half.

And that the second half feel, at least this fourth episode feels like something worthy of watching week to week. Whereas the first three, even though there were individual episodes, I feel like it takes the momentum of those three to swing you into this new point of conflict, which is really strong. I feel like the fact that we have now introduced, my favorite scene in the episode was when they went to the magic shop. And it felt so authentically black, but also authentically MCU and specifically

like the magical area of the MCU. And they did it in a way. way where you could you could watch an entire spinoff least i felt that way where you like seeing you know these people that are like um black american in the city of chicago now dealing with these these sort of things and i like that there's just like this connection there and you know we don't really see that in a lot of um mainstream media like the like the the spiritual crystal black girl the only thing i've seen that in recent memory is uh ciza in in one of them days and which is like a whole like you know it's i feel like just there are a a spectrum of different type of black people and i'm happy that we are now getting

this represented and in a way that it feels authentic i think just also seeing re-re go through this struggle and have her own flaws pointed back and reflected at her i think is really interesting i i'm kind of tired of us getting heroes that are flawed but in a way where it's like oh we we sympathize with them i'm happy that we're finally getting a hero that is we're we're giving them an arc where they're doing things that are unlikable for them to get to a point of being more altruistic and being more um of a hero like so far she's been straight up a criminal and a thief and you know doing it for uh for the point of trying to what she's telling herself she's doing it for good right

or doing it as a means to an end. But now we're getting all those things as, you know, the consequences of those actions, consequences of making an NIA, the consequences of getting involved with a criminal are now falling on her and the weight of those things are becoming too much and she's losing everybody as a result of it.

I think that's great. And I like that we are finding ways to distinctly make her different from Tony Stark, even though their technical abilities are the same, but they're doing it in a way where it makes her interesting to watch without you necessarily having to think of Tony the entire time. I feel like the first episode referenced Tony a lot and granted open-dye is saying its office connection to Tony,

but it doesn't feel like it's trying to be Iron Man 2.0. It feels like it has its own voice, which I really appreciate. I agree with all of that. I also want to take the comic perspective, and not only was this my favorite episode by a comfort, margin. It is the comic. This is what I was wanting from the show. I think Dominique Thorne has like the pantameter down and she's got the energy down and I think she's getting so much of the heart down. But I knew, I thought she'd have that. Like that was what I was waiting for

these three years since C-23. What I loved about this episode was the anxiety when you read the comic book is so like you're reading so it's in your head and I have anxiety like crazy. Like I have really crippling anxiety. I've had panic attacks. I've had these feelings. And this felt like those moments of reading it and identifying with it. And this also, like, her doing a bunch of experiments in the lab and like just being stressed and frazzled, that was in this episode. We got like, you know, a villain origin moment that if we hadn't had as much time in chill, conversational mode between Ezekiel and Riri, I think if we just started there, that would have felt so cheesy in early 2000s comic book movie. But they've planted enough seeds and that's what Marvel does best.

Marvel's doing best, it's when they're able to go like, we're going to give you a little bit, little bit, little bit, and then they go crazy. Like, you've got to earn the plausible deniability. His arc has earned the point where we ended with him. If we hadn't had those first three episodes of the grounded, it wouldn't have worked. And I feel like we're about to get

that with Anthony Ramos's hood, where I loved Hood a lot in this episode and had all the emotional heart tying into the cousin and all those things. But now they can do a little bit more edgy imagery. Now the suit, the hood bothers me a little bit in the first episode because it was so brightly

lit and I was just like, I don't know if I buy that plastic hook. And then this episode was like, oh, ominous. Like, Greg even pointed out at one point, like the, all of the things that I was struggling with are kind of paying off to make the juice worth the squeeze and the first five minutes of this episode.

I was like, oh, they directed it. Like, in the opening, I commented on the directing because from the moment this started, it had flavor as well as the payoff of all the things we've been waiting for. And then as a comic fan, it had that on top of it. So when Marvel lets the TV shows feel serialized, trusts in the audience,

lets their actors flex, that's when I think the serialized TV is stronger than some of the movies. I think Loki is stronger than 90% of the MCU movies. But I think the Disney Plus shows are in the bottom 60% most of the time because it doesn't always let it be like this episode. And I hope this doesn't end with people punching. It will have punching, but I hope it has emotional punching too

because that's what I find Marvel often drifts into so this is when Marvel's doing their best TV stuff for me as an episode. I would point to this as like if I was going to point at 10 best episodes of all the shows this would make that 10. Yeah, because I think the emotion is so is very nuanced in the dynamics with people too. Like none of that is one note.

If you take the mom relationship, for example, when that starts off like the way they brought it back around with the cage and the wall, watches and all that paranoia that she was having but then the mom goes to comfort her and that way she can actually be a mom to her daughter then it leads into

a completely different thing by the end of their conversations for those two characters where they are lashing out at one another and you're looking at re-re I really understand and identify with the idea

of you know when you lose a family member you don't if you're having a hard time facing or grieving you actually avoid your family because they're the ones who can be the closest to remind you of that thing you are you don't want to think about and it's that there's a palpable distance in their dynamic i really felt like i've really felt for all the relationships a show you need to have connection to relations i even kind of like the fucking group of bad guys I feel like you have to care about the relationships with people. And this was the first episode where I'm like every relationship I was interested in. Even the introduction of Zelma and her mom. That was so funny as a comic fan to be like, this is going to be exciting. And you guys like, is this?

I'm like, just wait, just wait. And then it was immediate. They excelled where the first three episodes I thought were, did not excel. where you're like all right i guess i'll wait a few episodes before i kind of give a shit about these people this one's like right yeah exactly right away you get who these characters are you understand the way the mom and daughter are you can feel there's some type of history with them they're a different unique interesting i i really thought that was like a perfect way to introduce those characters and really good writing like this to me was a really well-written episode i i said

it before i thought like the i didn't think any of the three episodes were great I would say like this is a great episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I really like this one. I think three bordered on grade for me. This one is comfortably great. Like, yeah.

I think three might have been great because of association, which is what I said when I reviewed it. This one, I think even if I didn't love Dominique Thorne's take on Ironheart would be great. Yeah. I mean, there's still some scenes where I felt like could have been a little bit stronger. Like when when Hood goes to see Stain,

I felt like that scene probably could have been a bit stronger in the way it was executed. But for the scenes that really count where you have to get the, the audience and the feels I was like they're they're really nailing like it's a drama they've made a drama with like a weird

even someone like the cheesy horror mislead to the top when she's like interacting with her mom and they do the music cues and someone like I don't know it's kind of fun to me you know

yeah I feel like this episode found a good line between you know character development and plot and watching each character deal with their own thing like Hood dealing with the loss of his cousin and then his descent into darkness and then stain feeling this resentment towards Riwi and then Ruby's loss and I like the fact that

I don't know if this is intentional or not but you know we we dabbled with the idea of Tony started dealing with anxiety in Iron Man 3 but we kind of just forgot it by the time we got to age of Ultron and never really entertained that again but I like that Rui's anxiety the legacy character of someone like Iron Man is dealing with with that heavily and it's been a recurring thing and getting worse by the episode. I feel like it's a thing that makes us endeared to her because a lot of us do struggle with anxiety and hers is, you know, her fears and paranoia are coming from a really understandable place. Like, oh, I have this magic guy who's acting weird who's definitely wants to mess with me.

And I think that the way we build upon that and Dominique Thornt's performance of that is just really top tier really excellent like when Zequel goes to see her Xavier Xavier goes to see her at the junkyard she just looks tore up dude yeah I'm like oh man I really feel like you are not okay and I like that we're seeing that progression and again I think a lot of these

characters in the Disney Plus shows don't really allow the characters to go there to that extent and I feel like I don't know if it's this thing of not wanting to show true vulnerability or not wanting our characters to like somewhat unlikable but I'm happy that this show isn't afraid of of going there well I think the anxiety is really relatable like uh man I had a panic attack last week I was on the ground and I had to call my wife it was really bad so and the and the way they the way they handle the anxiety of like when she you brought at the scene when they're trying to do the control yeah that one

really got me and like with people with anxiety a lot of the times it's a struggle what you're a lot of times with anxiety it's a it's a control problem that's happening some issue of like try to and sometimes to calm your anxiety you try to take control of something you try to take them more or yeah and then it gets worse because you've got like five fires yeah and because a lot times anxiety also stems from fear of of something that might happen and you're watching that happen with her throughout this whole episode she's worried this is going to happen she's afraid this is going to happen her thoughts are racing or racing thought like i get it i get it i like really was like fuck this this is portrayed in a way that feels real um the performance feels very real so

yeah when she can't control this understanding of the magic and she's and that's it made sense to me of like this is her breaking point yeah which is like i can't do this i'm a failure i got to go like i was like that's the right moment for her to fucking call quits right right there also lyric ross who plays uh natalie i think it's cool to see her progression as a more sentient being and also like having like you know not just attitude but like the divisive attitude and like their interplay is still so good uh then the last thing i want to say because we got to wrap out of here is uh i really like when a universe is so flesh out that you can name drop like Cree and Pym and all that and have that emotion and be excited

to hear those things, but it doesn't feel like a crutch. This episode had a lot of like Dr. Strange mentioned all that stuff. And there were times, there's throughout the MCU, there are times when they say a thing. And I was like, we good. This did not feel like that. And that was really cool because this show has been a drama. But when they say, Dr. Strange, it just, it gives you that little like, he-he without it feeling like, okay. Yeah. We got to name drop Thor and Eternals for no reason. We're not pausing to have that. Yeah. Like, we're not breaking the fourth one. to say Cree, it fits because the universe like it's us talking about our world. So I thought that it also a good job of this tech and magic stuff is feeling more and more cohesive.

Definitely. Definitely. Thanks. So yeah, that is going to do it for episode four. I am now genuinely, just generally excited for episode five. Reject Nation. I've been following a specific macro plan all year. Well, at the end of January. At the end of January, I weighed 218 pounds. Here's a photo. And as of this week, I'm down to 173. and here's a good lighting photo. It's coming in. I'm so close. I've got to do a photo shoot.

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okay let's talk about it all right ladies and gentlemen we just watched iron heart we've completed the series there'll be one major talking point on the internet for everybody that's a bet bet bet it will be All right. Well, if I break a pole stick in half, it's the review first. Aaron, go for it. I go first. I really enjoyed this show. I think that for the type of story it was, for them trying to balance a character that is inherently a legacy character to Iron Man,

while also infusing elements of magic into that and it being authentically, weirdly street level and, you know, very much about the immediacy of her world and her community, what they're taking place in Chicago. I think they did a really great job. I think that the showrunner did a really good job of understanding and allowing you to empathize with free, re-without you inherently needing to agree with her choices.

And I felt like that was something that was strongly consistent throughout the entirety of the show, and then buttoning that with her ambition being something that Mephisto would latch on to as I thought was really intelligent. It was really well handled. And I liked the supporting cast. I thought they all felt very real

and very much something that helped her in different ways, you know, and were there to be a big, pose her and her character and then highlight different aspects of who she was and I feel like they they cast that very well and all of them had a really great chemistry and I'm sad that they released it the way they had because I feel like the show has a lot of potential to be something really awesome in the future and for as many delays as the show had I don't feel like it it justified the stuff around it making it seem like it was going to be like a dumpster fire or seemed like this is something that Marvel wanted to sweep under the rug.

And having after watched it in its entirety, I was like, why did they do this to this show? I don't work in Marvel. I don't know the methodology of how they go about releasing shows, but if like this show deserved better. And I am sad that it's not getting the eyes that it deserves, and it's getting a lot of external unnecessary hate. Because this is, yeah, this is both authentically black. and what it's like to be someone from the streets and get kicked out of a school and the way that her community really plays into the story

and then just building her and making her a better protagonist I thought was really compelling, honestly. And, yeah, the note of having Mephisto and finally confirming that after years of fan speculation, I thought that was awesome. I think they did a really great job of incorporating him, Sasha Baron Cohen had a very menacing presence and a very persuasive, seductive presence. And I hope that, you know, this show can maybe get some legs or get some good word of mouth so this can get a second season and get to continue re-restory and the continuation of that deal.

Because, yeah, I walked away more, enjoying it more than I thought I would. And it goes to show that when Ryan Kozor's name is attached to something, that it does have meaning to it. And I see the authenticity that they wanted to put on display with this show, making it both very authentically black and very authentically MCU. So, yeah, that's my first impressions. Corey, speak on how it's authentically black and authentically MCU. Well, as the voice of both those things in this trio, I was really impressed with the second half of this show. I agree with everything I was saying about the release model. And to be honest, the first half was like I get in the first two episodes, it not popping in the same way that some of the other MCU shows had.

But I still thought it was worth putting out there. Like even the episodes I thought were lesser, like the first two, I was very public and very, clear to you guys like i some things are working for me the rhythm feels off it doesn't feel very directed it feels like just a frame and like it didn't feel very lived in the characters felt interesting but i didn't connect to the show but even then i would have thought okay maybe that's why they're releasing three together because by three i'm in i said as much four five and six are great like they're not good they're great i would put the back half of this show in the top half of Marvel TV and so where it lands is really interesting because it's kind of the opposite of

most Marvel shows where you had me in the first half not going to lie and then you drop me and I'm out like I think I think Hawkeye ends rough I think Wanda vision is is 89% perfect and then the ending makes it not higher I think um I think they have an ending problem I think echo even had somewhat of an end problem um I would say this is the opposite where it only gets better. Each episode is better than the last. I think two is better than one, three than two, four than three. And so if this was week to week, they would have had a week of everyone losing their mind over Mephisto. Now, that would have been the biggest talk of everything three years ago. It even now, with where the Marvel brand is, would still be huge.

Now they're going to have three days, maybe. And that is really interesting considering how long this was set up, considering what this sets up, considering what this follows. considering how good it is, if you take away the MCU conversation, this show by itself is still very good. So I wish it got its chance to have its voice told for at least five weeks. You know, I wish it at least had the run of that experience because I think this is up there with Miss Marvel as the best supporting cast of interesting dynamics.

I think this is up there with Miss Marvel as a conversation that needs to be had. We do have, luckily, you know, so much more black representation than we did 10 years ago. We have so much more exposure to culture in general, not just black culture, but culture, than we did 10 years ago. But if you look at the volume of the ratio, it's still skew in one certain way. And so when a show is authentic to the point that Aaron can speak to in a way that I can't, but I can speak to feeling a connection to these characters and feeling as someone that hasn't lived this that I'm relating to it.

That is important because that's how you solve some of the crap we have in our world is by going, hey, you haven't lived this, but why don't you relate to it? So maybe next time you're about to say or do some dumb shit, you can go, oh, I'm a person that's some empathy. This is why we need art. And so to have a show that does accomplish that,

to have a show that does have you understand where this girl's coming from, and she's not your stereotypical hero. She's not someone that just has everything handed to her once she's heroic. She got to be a hero and then had to fight. She got all these things and then had to struggle after the victory lap. That is so much more interesting than someone just, like, coasting and having their victory laps forever. You are still, life isn't, you achieve something, and then you're good. Life is a series of highs and lows and plateaus and climbing.

my whole career has been like oh I can't wait till I accomplish that thing and then I get there and I'm like I guess that was that felt good for a second but I moved on to the next thing like I have no sense of victory laps I have no sense of crossing finish lines as soon as I'm close to the finish line I move it

this poor girl got what she dreamed and then the world came crumbling down and it took losing everything for her to even realize it I think that's important for a new generation to see I think especially a generation on the internet it needs to see that you hit 10,000 subscribers you're not going to sleep better at night you had a hundred thousand like this is an important message and then to use mephisto in a show about ambition in a show about trauma in a show

about loss that is incredible i thought it was going to be hood and her to set up doom i had heard rumors of mephisto obviously we all had i think mefisto was better used here than i expected so you've got the hook uh with you know the character you've got the the big marvel moment with Mephisto. You've got all of the action that actually looks amazing and the way that Ironheart ends up looking by the, like, Ironheart looks stunning in this. And you've got a very interesting supporting cast. I didn't like the criminals in the beginning. They got to the point where I liked it, love for her family, man. So you had a great show. And then you went, hey, what if it came out in two weeks? We just drop it. So it's a little disappointing. But I think

Dominic Thorn deserves better. I think Lyric deserves better. I think the showrunner and the team behind it, I think Anthony Ramos deserves better. So my two cents is I'm really glad I got this, but I'm afraid because they felt like they rolled it out that the audience that wanted it to fail is going to get to have a lot of fun and the people that deserve it aren't. Yeah.

That's great. Great way to say that. Wow. Wow. I feel the fervor exuding from both of you right now. Love to hear it. Love to feel it. Well.

Tried not to talk about the one thing about what he's going to talk about. I'm going to bring the mood down a little bit here. I'm definitely not as high about it as you two are. I'm more like 70% into it by the end result. That's my opinion, though. I mean, I've been a champion for Dominique Thorne since the beginning, and I feel like she has maintained that.

And the way she has carried this show, I've talked to a lot of people who really don't like Reveport. really it was like people i respect and admire and they're like i just don't like the character riri williams i've heard and i'm like i i personally do and i think that this show aimed to bring a level of drama that i think they succeeded a good amount of the time especially for her and having to deal with consequences lack of accountability this uh inability to face one's own trauma And the whole thing with her mom dynamic, I thought, was really strong. Who's the witch girl in the candy shot?

What's her name? In the show, it's Selma. Zelma, I think, is a great addition. Sort of processing, excuse me. Brain's a little fried. So I'm just going to try to just speak some stuff out and see what comes out. And I'm a little bit uncomfortable because you two are so high that I don't want to be the buzzkill. So I'm a bit uncomfortable right now.

I'm going to let you know. I give it like an eight and a half just so you're not too far behind me. It's high, but... I think there's a lot of intentionality that you both are speaking on, and I feel like the execution is where I'm much more mixed than both of you. Like, I do think the pacing of this is not strong. I think the pacing of it is kind of... I think it kind of drags stuff out a little bit.

The whole thing with, like, Riri constantly having to, like, build shit, and we don't really i know that's part of the character that's part of the comics and whatnot it's it's a big part but at the same time at a certain point i'm like i'm just kind of watching this person like do this repetitively over and over and over and over again i don't really know what she's doing you know other than i know there's an end result where she has to have a suit at some point um the yeah the the the hood grew on me more by the final episode it took a long time for me to really get connected to Anthony Ramos because I was like, yeah, it feels like cosplay a lot of the time with him. And then I think the show was trying to say that's intentional by the time we got

to the final episode with Mephisto and seeing how he is just this wounded boy. I like that. I kind of feel like we needed that a little bit earlier in the show. I don't disagree. And the suit I think was supposed to show us that more. But instead, I think the average audience member is going to be like Aaron where they're like, is that as cost or? like where they're going to assume until they know why that it's meant to be special and instead it's like it's meant to be him i'm a big tough guy like but you don't unless you know it's posturing bravado yeah so i eventually caught on to that all the error wreck i feel like uh absolutely slayed the entire time i wish we got a little bit of an end result here

because we didn't get an end result uh he's it just ends on him falling asleep and we don't really know what happens with him afterwards well he's like i'll get you next time like just because he's not controlled doesn't mean we're done so yeah but i thought it's performance all across i was very much connect like the the the the the lot of the characters are supposed to care about i i did care about uh that yeah the i think the visual effects were so much better than one would probably anticipate especially coming off at the heels of black panther wakonda forever that being said though there were like the the action scenes for the most part never really felt anything behind it like the whole white castle fight scene i just kept going

okay i don't know how these guys are like losing i don't understand and on top of that too i just felt like no intensity no suspense nothing really behind it for me personally on an emotional level not i mean i'd say i wouldn't say the same thing when it was like her and all the air rike fighting but you know that i never really grew attached whatsoever to the the hood's side And so there are pieces that I feel like coming at the end, towards the end of episode five and a lot of episode six that I feel like should have been a little bit more clear and up front, kind of sprinkled throughout a little bit clear. Like, I like the intention of what the hood is going for against his dad, but that's the way the scene was written. I just felt it was kind of flat. Like, I'm getting information here, but there's something about the execution with the pacing and the way it's shot.

in a lot of these scenes that I just felt like kind of, it all felt a lot of first draft to me in the way how a lot of it was being done. While you would still hop into certain scenes that were like, oh, this is cool, this is enjoyable. Like the, you know, even though I was kind of like talking about how I thought this whole like building, building, building was a little repetitive. The montage that felt like a music video when they are working in the garage

and the symbolism of working in the garage of her dad I thought was really strong. and you know I actually like the choice that she does make the deal with Mephisto even though it's not really like I thought she doesn't really get like the character arc then that you would expect where she's facing it taking her own agency dealing with the fact that she can't have everything and that I kind of wanted a little bit more of a conversation about the ethics of having Natalie the AI around yeah I think they didn't really do much as much as they could have like they kept posing a question but not really exploring a debate around it. So I just think there's so much more ideas and intention that I liked more when I credited and think about it more than I did the actual execution of how a lot of this went down. You know, like you're speaking about being like authentically black.

I'm not a black person, so I can't. I'm not really going to connect with that side of it. And so I'm glad you were able to. but I think I've seen other things that are black voices behind it that I really do connect with and so to me it really is more like the filmmaking behind it that I just wasn't connecting with that kept me more detached not as emotionally invested as I wish I could have been so yeah I mean but you know Dominic Thorne's great and uh a freaking Sasha Baron Cohen after all these years of Mephisto buildup and like how would you do Mephisto I like the like seductive

type of approach that he brings to it. The accents were cool. The different accents, the different types of jarring, editing to keep that supernatural element around him, the distortion of the sound effects, the bass, the booms that they would provide with him. I thought like they provided a lot of style. And I just found myself kind of going, I wish they sort of did some little restructuring here in their execution. Because I can imagine a lot of people are feeling like me were, I kind of wish they had this quality. because I started feeling like

oh this is sort of the ramp up this is sort of the emotional pace that I was that I feel like they've been trying to get to this whole time and they finally get to it in the final episode and I wish they were kind of getting there more at the halfway point because I loved episode four episode four is my favorite episode is still episode four

that's the one I loved and then episode six I would put as a the more exciting one and you know and also but you know in terms of fighting i thought the fighting with um hood and and her was a was a really the reveal was really clever yeah because we saw the tech and we just yeah that that was a good bait switch i think that like they cut but there is a bit of a dragging out of certain things that i could feel that would sort of

weigh down even when the stuff that i was liking was being affected by this stuff that i felt was kind of weighing the energy down but obviously that's just me Trio of us. Yeah, that's just my opinion, you know, and I hate being like a buzzkill, and I don't like arguing with people about, like, difference of opinions, you know? No, I can agree with both of you. I feel like the high stuff, the team stuff was the least developed as far as, like, them as individuals and really getting to know them.

I think the drama with her mom and her, the brother and then stuff with Natalie, her having anxiety, all that stuff was great. so like if this wasn't a comic book show and it was about this girl getting kicked out of school having to confront these different things and somehow this friend comes back I think that in of itself is compelling but the way they're able to infuse you know these little flourishes of MCU knowledge was was really strong but but the thing with the brother if I can speak really quick on that is like I thought that was such a strong thing they set up in episode four I did not like how quick that paid off and then the way it was just kind of was over the next episode because that was the part of the debate whether they're sending up about the ethics of the and and this is so much about her having to face the reality of of how she's really feeling yeah and to have natalie around with this like a i memory thing i'm like this is not healthy like this is not good and they're gonna where she died yeah yeah yeah yeah on that front it's like the six episode model doesn't really service it as well as it it could have as as far as that arc

i would have kept it but i mean potentially still six episodes but I would have leaned out those first two and then had the Mephisto reveal be in four and then I would have had a lot more of the questioning of AI be the last half of the show because then you're looking at like what she's willing to do what she's willing to like throw away and then that makes the deal with the devil a lot more interesting because she's you're already seen the test you've seen throughout the show the tendency to just do go her own way but if you add an AI conversation about like no no I need her back like I don't care about the morals and the ethics and blah blah blah then the deal with the devil feels like it's been more set up and

i loved the montage of like the cut in the conversation so you don't know if you did it and then the payoff and the touch all that was i thought genius but i would have liked a little less of the crew and the crime stuff in the beginning and a little bit more of the debate and then then still that ending exactly at it as it was yeah so i think six could work but i would have trimmed up the first two yeah maybe consolidate all the crime stuff into like an episode just something different because i just i feel like they were meant to be compelling if they weren't everybody else was yeah like i like the intention too of like the the three main characters alden aran rike anthony ramos and and dominic thorne dominey thorne lost her dad uh he uh

anthony ramos lost his father in a sense um stain lost his father as well so there were like these threads that i could see them them thematically going for yeah and it just there's something about the the unison of it that didn't fully feel like a a payoff and that's what i mean is like the Mephisto stuff was so interesting, but it kind of became, it kind of overshadowed a lot of the stuff that I thought they were needing to pay off on the dramatic side of the storytelling. I think, I think the reason I, I am a lot more happy with the show overall is I think the

messaging of crime being something that is some people's only option and that not making them inherently evil kind of pays off fascinatingly with then choosing evil on top of that. I really like that I don't demonize people for having to do desperate things and then she literally then has to deal with the demon. I like I really like the

metaphor and I really like the messaging there. So I don't disagree with what you're saying as far as your experience but I think the juice is worth the squeeze of those flaws being flaws but I kept being like what a take and so like I you know what I mean like I kept like being happy enough with like

huh they're doing that yeah because I never Mephisto has nothing to do with Ironheart in the comics. So like I was never gonna i i literally thought it was gonna be a show because everybody kept saying mephistos and iron heart i thought it was going to be using the demon element of the hood and a post-credit scene where he like comes out of a portal and goes like boogoo like so instead to make it thematically demons yeah i'm i'm into it yeah i don't want to see him a little red though like that spoon that's cool that was cool i got excited i got a little pop for that spoon

i'm a pause oh yeah yeah but it seems like marvel is weird weirdly dropping their supernatural side. If we're looking at the MC, like, we're doing Ironheart in and of itself, if we look at the MCU side, moon night just seems like nothing's happening to it. Werewolf by night does it seems like nothing's happening to it. They're dumping this.

They can't even get blade off the ground, you know? And I feel like there's like a third show where I'm like, nothing has been. Midnight suns is come and gone like 18 times. Yeah. I feel like there's like a third show. I'm like, nothing's really become of this third show. There's definitely like another one out there.

and i i i do think though what the biggest hamper that has happened with marvel and why we probably don't hear about a lot of this shit is because of king like i think it's weird i think a lot of us seem to forget that but there was a whole plan oh 10 years of just yeah and now that king is not here um which the idea was to unify all these storylines including the shows now we have to like ignore a lot of shit that's going on yeah because that King thing is not happening anymore. And now they're trying to, like, scramble and do all these, like, Plan C. So it's easy to, like, rip on Marvel, but they had a very unfortunate real-life situation with an actor that hampered the situation.

And a pandemic and a strike. Yeah, all these other things. But, like, on top of those things. Pandemic and strike affects execution, but the Johnson Major situation affects plan. Yeah. I mean, there's so many projects in development at the same time. I can't imagine a world where we get. all different 26 properties to come together with their each uh each chapter of something to make it

to a larger thing especially with because dr doom doesn't seem like it's gonna be a supernatural thing of course oh eternals is that's another thing oh yeah that's the one oh yeah that's the one eternal's is the one also it seems like the thing at the end of uh shang chit isn't gonna be no that was definitely a king thing yeah because it was going to be shung chich too leading into the king dynasty Oh, it was a trilogy. Oh, wow. Because it was like Captain America that led into Civil War.

Like, that was kind of to be Chung Chi. That's why we haven't seen Plus Titor's ACL. Marvel will be having problems. Damn. But I actually prefer that they released. You guys were seeing that you wish they released it weekly.

And I think this works better as... I would have loved a week between the Mephisto reveal in the actual episode. And I would have loved a week between episode four and five for the audience. Have that experience at Alden's moment. I mean, that is true. There's like certain moments.

But if we're looking at, you know what happens we're looking at what happens in a lot of these episodes though i think it wouldn't have generated excitement and there would have been more fall off because of how a lot of these episodes actually play out that they're not like the most exciting or the most i never consider i i it's funny i consider the the numbers and viewership because i think show than business but as soon as you said that before you even finish the sentence i was like oh yeah people wouldn't tune in the next week necessarily so that's true but i feel like them dump again all at once is is a vote of not confidence that speaks louder than that.

You can't really win. Yeah, yeah, you can't really win. I think that's where I was kind of business side. They're like, so I think you're right. Hopefully it does have some viewers. And then like, let's, because here's another thing I've heard a lot with people is a lot of us. I mean, I don't know if you did Aaron, but like, coin I definitely heard so many people have been like, but episode six. Like that's what it was.

But episode six. And I'm like, but episode four was great. Yeah. But everyone keeps hopping to you, but episode six. episode six and that's my point though is the last the the thing people look at moon night the first chunk ever like the the penultimate was one of the best marvel tv episodes they've ever done but then what was the lasting feeling left to that final episode you just talking about wandivision yeah yeah that last phenomenal in that last episode so when you dump it the last

it's the best episode so you're like you know what that show's actually not as bad as i thought it works i'm happy for it is an effect that could be positive you know because that's that's the thing is like i i don't want to play kate to the side that was going on rotten tomatoes hating on this fucking show before anything released like it was so stupid and uh i think that side of the crowd is as annoying and volatile and uh abusive and ugly so i really don't like that so i don't want to like come here and be like i'm going to rip this show apart to play as i'm not you're speaking polysyllobically those people don't know language that's fair um it's because like i would love to see what they set up here continue you know

lefisto of course i want to see dominique thorn come back uh and there's been no word about any of this uh you know and maybe maybe they're like five of the missing chairs in avengers to say who knows but i would love for them to be uh to actually be brought back especially with everything that they did set up and i especially feel like dominic thorne is so unfairly hated you know i want to see a lyric Ross chaired and I wouldn't have thought that before this show because I think she's great on this is us but Lyric Ross really stole a lot of it like she's Natalie and like what she brought

like man I but I don't see a place for her outside of an Ironheart too and I doubt we get an Iron Heart too so those threads I'm bummed about I'm not as bummed about the Iron Heart threat because I feel like she will get something but like do we get Alden again? Do we get any of the family again? I hope so

because it's weird that you said that this the lasting impression is that final episode right but is that strong enough to get us a season two because i feel like a lot of these things you're not going to have them explored outside of the tv realm because didn't they you guys correct me if i'm wrong on this but i think they're they made a distinction like okay the tv stuff's going to be over here the movie stuff's going to be over here and they're just slowing down on the tv stuff because thunderbolts is very much the tv characters they're just

slowing down on the tv stuff but that was greenlit i think isn't john walker the only one from the the shows on there? No, but I think the storylines factor in, though, right? I haven't seen the movie, so on top of you. Oh, no, no, no. Yeah. But I feel like the, the story, like,

do they factor in, like, the events of Falcon and Winter Soldier or the Hawkeye events with you laying out? I feel like those things are, yeah. That's what I was the first one. I didn't hear of rewatch anything? Fuck. It's been so much time. Watching the goddamn last couple episodes of Hawkeye.

I would say there. Maybe not bad. But I do, I do worry. Emulsion those things. also full disclosure between us filming and us filming the next batch the iron heart premiere happened which i attended so it was also really beautiful to see um the community that the family of the show had become like to see a cast like really bond you want more for them like to see a season two for the cast so like i save that for the end of this review because i know people are arguing i think i'm biased

but i truly love to see people find that rhythm so it's always great to have a season two with that rhythm already in place. I've got kind of that language and all that stuck together. Like, Alden said this is one of his favorite, like, it was such a great way to just, like, dive in. Yeah, he said it was, because Alden and I did Speed the Plow together. We did David Mamet play. We were in acting class together. Alden

and I go back, like a decade. So it was my first time seeing Alden at a Marvel premiere, and it was really fun because, like, my world, his world, I was like, ah, so Alden and I got to catch up in a really, like, you know, novel way where I actually took a picture, me and him known each other a decade, but I've never wanted to, like, take a picture with him, because

that's weird when it's like a friend but my little sister loves beautiful creatures but i was like hey man uh i've never asked because we were like in class between he's like yeah so we have like a picture and it meant a lot to me that we were both at a point in our career where i didn't feel like that was weird but also it was like marvel turf and it was great to have that validate everyone else's experience because lyric came over and lyric was just really excited to be at a marvel premiere met lyric's whole family her mom or dad flew in from chicago met her sister and the mom and dad were like is this what it's always like and i got to like tell them about marvel events and like The family was so special.

And then, like, it was literally me, lyric, Dominique, Ryan, and Brad Winterbaum came over, and I was like, I'm part of the Iron Hut family. And it was so cool to hear how much they had shorthand, how much they, like, loved working with each other, how much they had these dreams for season two. The reason I don't want things to get dumped is because it feels like when those moments happen, it's showing a lack of confidence to those people, for the talent behind. And that's the human element that we don't get to talk. about because how often do people reacting or to people watching trailers, people on Rotten Tomatoes, go to a premiere meet the whole family? Like, it doesn't happen. I love those events because I like the human element and the human connection. Like, I liked talking to lyrics dad about Chicago. So now when I'm

watching this, I'm like, how proud is that man? Like, all of that stuff is what I care about about art. But that's so hard to quantify. So when Marvel goes, here's your two episode, two, two release dates. To me, that's just hard knowing those people that worked so Yeah, that's fair. And also, you know, yeah, it also just feels a little strange, the fact that, you know, obviously, we made a joke about the, in the first chunk of episodes that, oh, technically Falcon Warner Soldier was the first black-led show, right? But they really barely touched on the fact that he was a black Captain American, like, the fact that he, what, they had that one scene were. Couldn't get alone. Yeah, he couldn't get alone, but also the fact that, you know, the police came by, and, like, is this man bothering you?

They touch on it. I think they touch on it. I think they touch on it way more than you actually think. I think they do a decent amount. Especially with Isaiah Bradley. But I will say a thing. I think they all, they, they have it as a reaction negatively. It's the things that are wrong and reacting to it.

I think this was more of a celebration of the black experience. That's what I was trying to, yeah, that's what I was going to say. As a white. But yeah, like you get the celebration of these two black girls that are best friends. You know, I never thought I'd see, you know, a black woman going off with her, Palisanto in the house and like with her crystals and stuff I'm like that's in a Marvel thing that's awesome because that's that's part of my world and I know I know plenty of people that do that and I think that seeing in Hispanic culture a lot too

oh really I don't know okay but I think that seeing that in that representation is really important because obviously we don't see that a lot especially in mainstream stuff but the fact that it was released in such a quick way feels like a disservice because i feel like there's a lot of of uh wanting to be inclusive and want to to you know have diversity but kind of releasing it under the way under the table trying to get it out as quickly as possible just feels a little uh a little wrong to me i want in more community actually when i was watching especially because the first three set up like people know who re re-williams is this is kind of an intimate neighborhood and then i i feel like no one knows who

who Reeve Williams is and then by the end you know sometimes these fights on the streets and stuff I'm like what happened to like people there's like no people here I have that problem with all of the MCU yeah like I feel like ever since once phase one ended anytime there's something going on there's like no one yeah and I don't know if it's like a budget it's because they're filming the volume like I just I'm always just like so Chicago's pretty dense there's a population density so I have that issue with like most marvel shows not feeling lived in I remember that is probably the word I would say that it was my biggest criticism with i didn't feel like it was living something about it still felt like

a show yeah it didn't feel i never felt like it was it felt like fake a lot of the time to me or not fully there i that's what i meant by there was like a bit of like a certain parts i felt a little amateur filmmaking i feel like if they brought up that thing with the hood earlier i would have been less distracted by like there's something why is that man's outfit yeah oh because he's posturing yeah but yeah i mean overall no no i just my my last thought is overall i i i give a nice B and I like that it ended at an A so that the C minus it started at. I do

like your point of it ending strong and I think it's probably closer to a B minus but I will totally own that my bias towards the character towards the cast all that elevate it to like a B to a little higher B than it probably would be because I don't disagree with any of your thoughts but I also think

that there is a part of me that is I like comics for a reason I like stories that uplift the underdog. And so anytime I see assholes on the internet doing rotten tomato stuff or attacking a show or even in my comments on my

tiny little 50,000 person page, when I see people in my comments on this video going like, I just don't understand why she'd need to steal. Like she's so smart. Why didn't she have been something when the show's like here is the experience of someone not able to get things like when it's when it's so. Yeah, that's

the show. It's literally laid out. But I know that people calling her arrogance and calling her smar me Iron Man like Downey Jr. because he's a white warmonger no one criticized that and I don't know

I don't even think half the people in my comments realize that their comments come across that way because I don't think it's all intentional but the ones that are intentional or the ones that don't realize it I'm always going to give a little like I want this show to do well because of that so like I'm coming from a place of like

this is an important enough story that if it's got flaws it's worth it for the things that need to get told so I give it to be it's really strong really strong points yeah I do I really like the show for you know it's authenticity I think I can agree with you on your points on you know the some of your criticisms I feel like the the stuff I liked the stuff I enjoyed kind of outweighed the stuff I thought was a little not not problematic but that could have been better that white face seems weird I just

It just seems like the problematic, sorry. It sounds to me, like the things you felt, but you liked, you feel much stronger towards the things you like than, like, for me where I can, like, acknowledge, I like this, but I don't feel as strong about liking it. Your emotional attachment to it is much higher than me. Exactly. But, yeah, I hope it gets to season two. I like that, you know, we have to see a character who has anxiety as a part of a regular struggle of her life, to the point where she even throws up. but towards that's a good touch that's good touch and yeah i think dominic thorne and the cast uh deserve the best and i hope that they do get a season two because i really enjoyed this i give it f plus

uh this is terrible terrible yeah no i still would want i already said it i would love for dominic thornt to return and uh want the mafissa thing to pay off and also if they had greenlit a season two or some type of version of a season two i would be i would be i would I would be looking forward to it. I do think there's, like, improvement on filmmaking. But, you know, a lot of times in Marvel, they actually do, like, reshoots and shit like that. And I don't think they had a lot of that for this show.

I don't think they... It doesn't feel like. It seems like they let them shoot, and they're like, you know what? We're going to sit on this for 72 months. It doesn't seem at all to me that they gave them the opportunity to go back. And maybe there were reshoots I'm just not aware of, but it doesn't feel like there's reshoots in here. Normally, you could tell.

Yeah. And also, she's a kid, so she ages so quick. Yeah. Like, it'd be hard to do reshoots with some. months an actual teenager that's what i was questioning about the end with the uh with her her uh and natalie because i was like she looks so much older here so i was like kind of wondering if that part was reached the same yeah yeah yeah yeah just her hair just her hair made her make make her look older i like the look though when her hair's all like i like i like that she did

all the big comic looks she had like all of her made her looks hey she never actually got the iron heart name did she i don't think so no no i don't know she became a full-fledged hero by the end of the show but i mean i i would love to see a challenger show or a young avengers incorporate this continuing on. She could be in Young Avengers for sure. You know what I mean? Like I can see a superior Iron Man story with this in the Young Avengers and I'd like that. Yeah. I appreciate a lot of the drama that they were going for on the protagonist side. And I so am happy they didn't make all their right just like when he first showed up. I'm a bad guy. I was like, oh, shit, he's just going to be a bad guy. But when he let her go, I was like, oh, thank God. Yeah.

So there's a lot more nuance and intention that I feel like this show should get a lot of credit for. so overall yeah I'm like a B minus I guess I was we're closer than I thought okay I was B plus I was B 8.5 right in the middle I can appreciate a lot from in the mind

you're also in a position of two people that are speaking glowingly of a B and feeling like you need to counter that so I don't think you were like the villain arc when we're both like cinema it's it's a B I just had more to say positive and so did you so when you come in with your like

D plus energy I see the B i'm like a i'm like 8.7 so that's fucking awesome i don't know what a b minus is what is that uh anything under an a point three okay yeah so definitely like a 6.5 to 7 80s 8182 83 that's all b minus yeah i'm somewhere there all right let's know the comments what you think thank you guys for being here um we'll see you So thank you.