Review: Ironheart, “Will the Real Natalie Please Stand Up?” | Season 1, Episode 2
Ironheart finds its tone—and that tone is supremely corny
While there’s an overall house style to Marvel’s Disney+ shows, they have generally been better at offering actual tonal variations than the big screen outings do. WandaVision was a trippy sitcom riff, Loki was Douglas Adams meets Doctor Who, Hawkeye was a Chris Columbus Christmas romp, and Ms. Marvel was like a John Hughes teen coming-of-age story. After a bit of a soft launch in the premiere, Ironheart finds its own tone in this second episode. And that tone is a supremely corny ’90s genre show—like one of those Star Trek: Voyager episodes where they time traveled back to Earth and had to learn to fit in.
While I suspect that corniness might be off-putting to some people, I’m actually kind of digging it. Even more so than Ms. Marvel or Hawkeye (which also had some corny family friendly vibes), Ironheart reminds me of a Disney Channel Original movie like Smart House or The Cheetah Girls—one that didn’t really capture the reality of being a contemporary teenager but sort of created an alt universe with its own slang and emotional logic.
I really felt that in the scene where Riri’s mom and the N.A.T.A.L.I.E. artificial intelligence casually bond over how difficult it is to breakthrough Riri’s hardened exterior. Instead of being totally freaked out that Riri has RECREATED THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF HER DEAD BEST FRIEND, Ronnie totally takes it in stride. Though this episode features a literal tech ethicist, the point here is clearly to tell a kid-friendly emotional story, rather than a thinky adult one.
