New miniseries a clumsy examination of the cost of ambition

It’s hard to root for Riri Williams. 

The titular protagonist of the new Marvel miniseries “Ironheart,” played by a blazingly defiant Dominique Throne, is undeniably brilliant, ambitious and snarky. She’s also childishly petulant, defensive and myopic, willing to rationalize anything she does and step over anyone in her way in order to achieve … well, the show never really answers that question. In fact, every act of genius, every feat of engineering, every choice of consequence boils down to: “Because I could.” It’s not exactly the stuff of heroes.

The six-episode “Ironheart,” now streaming on Disney+, takes place after the events of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which introduced Riri, a brilliant Massachusetts Institute of Technology student with a penchant for building Iron Man-like armor suits and doing other students’ homework for cash (which then went into buying suit parts; you can see the loop here). Within the first five minutes of the first episode of “Ironheart,” she’s expelled from MIT (it seems she was just using the school for its resources, since she’s told that she’s nowhere near graduating even after four years) and told to go back home to Chicago. She does so — in very Tony Stark-esque style, taking her latest flight-capable suit and blasting off. (Another stylish thing? The creative title cards in each episode.)

Read the full review at The Seattle Times.

Two malfunctioning stars out of five.