When genius meets grief and magic, what you get is Ironheart. And trust me when I tell you, it’s a trip, and an experience you’re not ready for. This show might be one of the best installments in the MCU in a very long time.

It’s been a minute, and I’m excited to be back, because I love being here and talking to each and every one of you. But mostly I’m excited because this show doesn’t suck. Are you serious? Everything I thought this was going to be, it turns out it’s not. If you haven’t watched it, please go watch it. I think you’re going to enjoy it.

The first stretch of this is light on spoilers. After that I’m spoiling the whole premiere, and I’ll tell you when.

Nothing Goes Right for Riri

The show is good. I think it’s very good. I’m impressed. It has vibes of Hawkeye, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Ant-Man. There’s a heist element, so there’s a lot converging in this series, and it has a very Ocean’s Eleven feel to it. They even name-drop Ocean’s Eleven at one point.

When all was said and done, the thing I found myself asking was why on earth they didn’t release this. Maybe there were changes and machinations that ultimately got them to this version, because this version is really, really good, so maybe the previous one wasn’t. But my understanding is this show’s been filmed since 2022. I don’t know if it was in the can, finished and posted and everything. I’m blown away by it either way.

There are some character beats that they don’t miss, but at the same time they feel awkward. It’s nothing terrible. Any issues I have are mild criticisms.

I called Gonzo, and he says to me, “I don’t know, man. You tend to like all kinds of things. You’re easily entertained.” And I had to tell him straight up. I was like, “Bro, f you. This show is fire. Trust me.”

I love everybody who’s in it, the acting, the characters. And I’ll tell you off rip, Riri is not a Mary Sue of any kind. She’s not a girl boss. She ain’t none of those things. There’s nothing that goes right for her. It’s all bad, and she’s got nothing but her brain to sort through it. I’m here for it.

There’s an intensity to her. In the very beginning I found myself wondering why everything feels cranked up to 11 for her. As a high-functioning ADHD person, when I’m in hyperfocus mode, I feel like everything’s cranked up too, so that’s kind of my interpretation of it. She’s clearly trying to recover from trauma, both what she’s been through historically, which we find out, and the events of Wakanda Forever.

That’s about the only connective tissue you get to Wakanda Forever. They show one clip from that movie. Past that, don’t expect any more references to Wakanda, because you’re not going to get them.

She goes to school at MIT, and she gets expelled. That’s in the trailers. They show the AI the school provided her, and it reminds me of the old paperclip guy, or almost Mr. DNA from Jurassic Park. It’s actually just a giant pencil. “Sup, I’m Trevor, MIT’s teaching robot and virtual operational resource and your very own AI assistant. Please say or enter your student ID to proceed.” It’s hilarious. It’s wonderful.

She makes her own AI sidekick after that, and that’s where the spoilers start. There’s magic, too, but it doesn’t become a thing until the end.

Trauma Plus Ambition

Spoilers from here on.

The show has a very grown-up and grounded tone. Like I said, it feels like Hawkeye meets Winter Soldier, with street-level stakes. The whole thing takes place in Chicago, which is totally going to tickle Mrs. Know-It-All, because she’s from Chicago. There are all these landmarks. They show the L, which is a train, for those of you playing at home.

Riri’s arc is basically trauma plus ambition. She still has all the ambition she had in Wakanda Forever. They’ve now wrapped it in this trauma egg roll, and I’m like, okay.

So she gets expelled. “Given your history here and the financial impact of yesterday’s incident, it’s too late.” “You’re expelling me?” “Effective immediately.” It’s so funny, because she’s sitting on the sofa just talking to the dean, and it’s that guy from Community, who I believe was also in Captain America: Civil War.

I was afraid she was going to end up being Tony 2.0. She’s a grief-ridden teen who has to deal with a lot because she has vision, and everybody keeps asking her the same question. Why a suit? Why a suit? And she keeps telling them, because I can.

There’s a deeper meaning there. I firmly believe that once you start getting her backstory, her extraordinarily traumatic backstory, it gives you the answers and clues you need. She clearly has something to prove, and that’s evidenced by her actions. This show is written so well.

Her stepfather and best friend Natalie were murdered in a drive-by. Her stepdad had his own garage in their neighborhood, an auto mechanic shop, and she was always working with him. They give you that backstory between the two of them. He’s the one who got her motivated to want to build stuff, and they always talked about Stark.

Natalie and Miss Ronnie

To get the suit working she’s trying to recreate the Wakandan AI they put in her previous suit from the movie, and this is the second and last time you’re going to get a reference to Wakanda. She puts these things on her head while the suit’s charging up. The machine is using her brain scans to create an AI to control the suit, because she needs some form of Jarvis, obviously.

When she wakes up, at the end of episode one, it’s her best friend. And the AI didn’t just take the form of her. Somehow Riri’s brain scans, with her memories, have imprinted onto it. It’s named Natalie, her best friend’s name, written N.A.T.A.L.I.E., an acronym for something. Riri is immediately like, oh my god, I can’t do this.

This is the most interesting relationship in the show, and there are a lot of other interesting ones. You’d expect a show like this to really fall into the tropes, almost Tyler Perry tropes. It doesn’t. Her mom’s a working mom taking good care of her. She has her friends. When Riri comes home from being expelled, it’s because she flew the suit, the school took away her clearance, and she crashed it. Her mom’s a normal person who’s dealing with stuff.

Then a guy shows up who wants Riri’s help, because he needs a new tech person to do these heists. She’s going to go meet him, but she doesn’t want to take the AI with her, because she doesn’t know how to deal with that. So she traps the AI on her laptop, and the AI manages to funnel itself into her mother’s projection television.

“Get behind me, Satan.” “Miss Ronnie, I’m not a ghost, just an AI.”

And they start talking, and it’s the most natural thing. It’s funny. You can call it fake and contrived, but bro, think about who Riri’s mom is. This is someone who’s had to deal with an awful lot. She’s seen her daughter practically blow up the neighborhood. She’s seen her daughter go off to Wakanda and fight Atlanteans, or whatever Namor’s people are. Then the kid got the Stark fellowship to MIT. Her mom rolls with the punches pretty well.

A little later Riri comes home after one of the heists, and her mother looks at her and says, “When we going to talk about your little friend?” They talk, and she says, “Can you make one of Gary?” That’s her late husband.

It hurt my soul, because that was such a sincere, honest and frankly realistic thing to ask. This is a prescient show, and by that I mean it feels very relevant right now. People are using AI to bring old pictures to life. You have people saying, we didn’t have video cameras, I only have a couple of pictures of my parents or my grandparents, and they’re using AI to bring family members back. This felt like that conversation, and it’s such a today conversation to have. I dug that. I really did.

A Wholesome Bunker

She gets the job, but first they trap her in the elevator. You saw it in a clip that was released. They tell her she’s going to choke and die if she doesn’t break the code, so she breaks the code and gets the elevator up.

Then Riri has to fix the suit, because part of the reason they’re hiring her is her brain, but they also want the suit involved. Luckily Natalie helps her track down a guy. “Just show me what you found.” “Okay, here’s a list of black market shoppers in Illinois. Closest address is registered to a Joe McGillicuddy.”

The minute you hear that name you’re like, okay, that’s fake sounding. And Joe McGillicuddy is played wonderfully by Alden Ehrenreich. He plays this character amazingly.

“You’ve got the wrong guy. Maybe whoever you’re looking for lived here before me and forgot to change his address on the black market.” “I didn’t say anything about the black market.” “It’s the criminal store. I made an educated guess.”

He’s quirky, but apparently he has an underground bunker. “Shady bunker.” “My bunker is not shady. It’s wholesome. A wholesome bunker.” It looks a lot like Tony Stark’s garage where he first built the suit, that whole concrete setup.

Later on you find out his real name is Ezekiel Stane. Remind you of anybody? Obadiah Stane. Yeah, man. This is his kid.

Riri’s doing all this illegal stuff, and along the way she helps inspire him to stop letting himself get so kicked around. But when he finally sticks up for himself, she’s right there saying, I need to borrow this, I need to do this and that, and he knows she’s doing something illegal. That’s when he comes clean and tells her who he is. He tells her she came in there with that same energy, meaning his father’s. I love the connective tissue to Iron Man. Very well done.

The Hood, and Why I’m Calling Mephisto

They don’t say the Hood. They don’t say it. But at one point dude hangs up his cloak and hood in this vaulty closet thing, and that’s exactly what it looks like.

I believe we’re going to get Mephisto. I hate even saying those words, because fans have wanted Mephisto for a long, long time. But there are so many things that hint at it.

At the very end, his cousin is dead, and he’s angry and upset and asking why. He’s talking to somebody, and that somebody shows him his cousin dying, and then shows him a shadow. To my way of thinking, and tell me if you saw the same thing, it was Riri’s shadow. Whoever he’s made a deal with clearly wants him to know Riri’s the problem, and that he’s got to go after her.

I’m telling you it’s Mephisto. I guarantee it. If it’s not, I don’t know what I’ll do, but it can’t not be. When you see that stupid cape, you’re going to say yes, that’s Mephisto’s cape. Trust me.

The cousin dies because one of the heists goes badly, and they’re doing several of them. Riri and Natalie have a plan to steal a piece of Hood’s cloak in order to analyze it. As it stands, Natalie can detect some sort of energy coming off of it, but she can’t figure out what it is yet. Anthony Ramos is awesome in this thing, by the way.

So Natalie’s up at the crow’s nest in the suit, the hologram controlling it, while Riri has hidden herself so she can steal part of the cape. John, Hood’s cousin, finds out and wants to take her out. All hell breaks loose. Everything goes bad. She sends Natalie to save everybody else, and she ends up having to face John herself. John’s done for. And it’s so bad. This whole situation is just crazy.

The Verdict

Ironheart’s three-episode premiere is an 8.5 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.

Everything in me wants to give this a 9 out of 10. Everything in me. But I refuse, because I can’t get my hopes up. I’ve got to keep my hopes grounded. So I’m giving it an 8 and a half, and at least indulging myself a little bit, because this is so good and I keep asking how it’s that good.

The advertising has been atrocious. They haven’t told you anything about this thing. And their introduction of the character was lackluster, not as good as her introduction in the comic books.

But Dominique Thorne is magnetic, for sure. Alden Ehrenreich and Anthony Ramos each elevate their roles. They’re stupid good. The action lags in a couple of places, and tonally it sort of wibbles and wobbles, but I was able to keep up. It’s a dark, daring path. She’s Ironheart 1.0, and it’s clear.

I appreciate what they’re doing, and I’m going to be here next week for the next part. I’m hoping it doesn’t turn downhill, man, because I’m super hopeful for this. I told Gonzo this gives me feelings like Andor did, which is only to say: where did this come from? Because this is really good.

What did you think of the first three episodes? And is this the right course for the MCU to be charting? The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.