Nicely balanced review Cas.
I get they want to re-balance things but my goodness female characters run amok in this. Misty pisses me off no end (with her unfunny Eddie Murphy-lite) and ultimately her wanting to use the Iron Fist to control Luke Cage, when she feels the need, further got my goat. Women do the heavy lifting mentally and, somewhat, physically more and more, and when the men do it's time to apologize - something of a theme in the Marvels, like a bad marriage.
Henwick's state-to-state floating accent had me raising my eyebrows as she couldn't seem to decide where to stake her flag but went all 'New Yoick' in supposed rattled/ballsy scenes more. And as the story progresses she steals ever more of Danny Rand's thunder by making her mark whenever. Finn does a better job with his character in this run, no doubt in part to the writing, when he's allowed to climb out from under all the women characters. But I agree with you Cas, Dhawan is bloody awful, to the point there's no real feeling of fear from his character or, somewhat, slight physicality. He comes off more as a petulant teen that needs to be sent to his room or he won't get pudding and not a real threat. And for someone supposedly trained in a mystic martial arts world, he barely gets away from his arse being kicked with regularity.
But Alice Eve, for me, was the best thing in it. Eve really brought the goods with her personalities by showing onion-like levels of emotional states. It was easy to feel sympathy one moment and fear the next as her character switched in it's own uncertainty of how to act in any situation.
It turns out that Danny and Ward, if only given the writing, have more gravitas, are fun together and, all but too late, work as a roving duo. It would be cool were we to get rather more of them in season 3 - I assume there will be one, what with the intriguing reveal ending.