Ironheart: Will the Real Natalie Please Stand Up? review S1E2

Will the Real Natalie Please Stand Up revealed a potentially major flaw with Ironheart. Riri Williams/Ironheart has to share way too much screen time with an exhaustible amount of supporting characters.

This isn’t a flaw uncommon to many of the Disney+ shows, but it feels particularly egregious with Ironheart as lead Dominque Thorne is so good in the role.

Riri doesn’t have the benefit of starring in four or five Marvel Cinematic Universe films before getting her own series. The rush to overpopulate her world is coming at the cost of that important getting to know all the ins and outs of Riri. Want to introduce a literal gang of supporting characters? Awesome. Just save it for a second season.

It feels like the Ironheart showrunners would have been better served taking a page out of the Netflix Marvel-era shows, which kept the focus on the hero and a limited supporting cast. With family, best friends, a quirky genius ally, school officials, a potential love interest, her mom’s friend group and a gang of likely eventual enemies, Will the Real Natalie Please Stand Up has far too much going on.

The episode really works focusing on that narrow sphere of Riri, her mother, Ronnie (Anji White), and Natalie, whose essence Riri essentially ported over to an AI program like Tony Stark’s J.A.R.V.I.S. Any combination of these three characters makes for solid, character development moments. There’s just not enough of them.

Last episode ended with Natalie’s arrival to the shock of Riri. Lyric Ross brings plenty of personality to the role of N.A.T.A.L.I.E. and she plays off Thorne particularly well. Ironheart introduces a male best friend with Xavier and a quirky eccentric ally in Joe McGillicuddy (Alden Ehrenreich, Solo: A Star Wars Story), but at least for this initial arc of episodes, all the supporting cast friend time should have been devoted to Riri making sense of ‘resurrecting’ Natalie.

Parker gives Riri the details on their next strategy session and introduces her to the crew. Beyond Parker and his cousin, John, there’s Slug (Jaren Merrell), Jeri (Zoe Terakes), Roz (Shakira Barrera) and Clown (Sonia Denis). That’s too many characters to give some screen time in a six-episode season. And that doesn’t account for the kid who keeps helping Riri transport her suit all around.

Riri is having some issues with the armor suit she’s trying to finalize and needs the help of someone with access to the kind of tech she needs. Natalie tracks down Joe, a perennial doormat who won’t even push back against his neighbor whose dog keeps using his yard as a toilet, so it doesn’t mess up her new flowers.

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For a would-be hero, Riri does kind of push Joe around like everyone else. Their bonding over Alanis Morrisette’s classic Jagged Little Pill was…unexpected, but it felt more crafted to be a bizarrely funny scene and instead simply isn’t funny. This dynamic in general feels forced likely because Joe is so excessively timid that he doesn’t seem capable of talking back to his shadow.

Natalie doesn’t have that problem, which makes her so much more engaging as a supporting character. She learns how to text and has a nice bonding moment with Ronnie, who is amazed that Riri could create something on this level. Instead of being angry and outraged, Ronnie asks a heart-wrenching question: can Riri make one of her slain husband? Diving into Ronnie and Riri’s shared loss could have been an easy foundation for this season.

Joe’s got a bunker full of weapons and illegal tech, which he says makes him feel closer to his father. Folks who got an early preview of the show couldn’t wait to spoil Joe’s actual identity, but for at least one more episode it’s a mystery.

Parker and his crew are taking over TNNL, a Chicago-underground rail system. Parker’s crew thinks its creator is only interested in a big payday and his crew wants their cut. With the only adversity here being if Natalie can get the kinks worked out in Riri’s suit it’s up to the crew to handle the ‘action.’ Again, for these formative episodes in the series, it should solely be about Riri/Ironheart.

Riri’s big challenge is getting past a security guard. Seeing the gun causes Natalie to freak out. An AI who glitches over guns due to the source’s death is a compelling subplot. Parker mysteriously appears thanks to his hood keeping him hidden until he bends a bullet that incapacitates the guard.

John is worried about Parker’s ever-spreading tattoos, but Parker insists he’s fine. So far, Parker hasn’t gotten enough time to truly care about what’s happening to him. Can the series drum up that interest with only four episodes left?

Will the Real Natalie Please Stand Up is a great showcase for Thorne, Ross and White, but they’re not given enough screen time. Joe could be an interesting addition to the cast, but only if he starts to show a more dangerous/reckless side besides clipping his neighbor’s flower bush.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Photo Credit: Disney

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