Netflix Luke Cage

[Kamandi]

Jessica Jones was a better written series, including Luke's role in that series. JJ was disturbing, engrossing and a real mind-***k at times. The Luke Cage series was good but far more predicable and formula.

DD is unquestionably the best so far. Bring on The Punisher.

 

[Victοr]

I'm 5 episodes in and... I'm really not feeling it. Not as super-heroic/artsy as Daredevil, and neither as engrossing as JJ. LC is just... there. The best part so far has been Jidenna's "Long Live The Chief"...

 

[karamazov80]

Jessica Jones was a better written series, including Luke's role in that series. JJ was disturbing, engrossing and a real mind-***k at times. The Luke Cage series was good but far more predicable and formula.

DD is unquestionably the best so far. Bring on The Punisher.

I agree that JJ was much more disturbing, and this was more by the numbers, but I'm OK with these shows having different tones and approaches. Though also, Cage is in the HBO vein of having some unexpected twists and deaths, sort of like Daredevil, which I would also consider pretty predictable in some ways (even though I really like DD). I would put JJ as the best so far, all things considered. If you could have condensed the DD seasons down, particularly the supernatural junk (even though I know they're setting up Defenders, which will hopefully have a better payoff than we've seen so far), it could easily be my favorite. Much of season 1, and the first 5 or 6 episodes of season 2 are so damn good.

 

[Shawpaw]

Daredevil is still my favorite but Luke Cage has been enjoyable. Here's to hoping Iron Fist is good.

 

[evenflow]

Longest its taken to get through a Marvel Netflix show. Only on episode 6.

 

[GodzillaSpawn]

Yeah Luke cage while still good I felt was the the least addicted I've been to a marvel netflix show. Daredevil is still king. Season 1 especially.

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[FirstPick]

This was enjoyable. Wasn't the best action and for a character like Luke Cage, they found a way to make him vulnerable. I enjoyed the look into Harlem and black culture. We don't get enough of that. It made the series interesting even if an episode wasn't great.

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[Sidewinder]

So will the show follow the comics and have Luke and Jessica together or will he stay with Claire? Claire and Luke really seemed to have a connection by the end of this show, Jessica was considered a rebound after Reva. I don't know if the black guy choosing the white woman over the black woman is really going to go down very well.

What road do you think they'll take with this?

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[Victοr]

The LC/JJ thing in the comics never really felt "real" to me. I mean, sure, Jessica was an OC and a blank slate, but the way the whole relationship was developed was... strange. LC ****ed Jessica in the arse 'cause she "wanted to feel something", then they ****ed some more times, Jess got knocked up, and then they went "yeah, I like you". It was... eh. At least Bendis didn't use Spider-Woman like he wanted.

In general, the whole relationship felt more like a case of "I want to do it, but I don't really know how". And the shows didn't do anything notable either. They hooked-up because they were both supers, but... that's it. Marvel is pushing the marriage a lot though, and is using their daughter as a Future Captain America, with a starring role in U.S.Avengers, but to me it feels more like "welp, that's done, so, uh, let's keep it that way".

I've grown to dislike Claire after IF, and LC is rather boring a character, so eh, I wouldn't complain if they paired up. That leaves Matt free to go at it with either Elektra or Karen, so it's a bonus for me. Danny & Coleen are eh, but I don't care about them as characters, so I'll say the same thing I said about LC & Claire: I wouldn't complain, 'cause I don't care.

All of that leave Jessica alone, and honestly, I can't see her with any of the already intoduced character. Maybe if they do a Johhny Blaze Ghost Rider show, she and him can bond over being utterly miserable screw-ups who hate their lives. IDK, really. But I think the LC/JJ ship has sailed.

 

[meanstreak]

JJ should get with Trish

 

[guy66657]

Yes. Protect Trish Walker at all costs.

 

[Sidewinder]

Haha yeah I'd be all for that!

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[RIDDICK]

Started LC last night.
First four episodes were pretty good.
Even tho the main lead is meh he's still has some charm to his act.
The rest are very solid and entertaining to watch.
The story, the style and the tone are cool.

 

[RIDDICK]

Finished it. Loved it.



So far this is the second best Marvel/TV thing after Daredevil S1.
Great story and beautiful soundtrack.
Just wish Diamondback was wearin' a less silly lookin' helmet...

Seriously tho, I really enjoyed it.

 

[MegaPrime33]

I think the soundtrack for this show made it so much better. A chunk of the season really was just mediocre but the music made it great.

 

[GeneralZodLives]

I loved the whole soundtrack and the first half of the season. The second half seemed like a chore to get through for me.

 

[RIDDICK]

Heard a lot about the second half but was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It was much less about the superhero and more about how people perceive and react to superheroes. And the whole Judas thing made me very tense, I was actually afraid for his life there. Claire's development was perfect too.

 

[Bravomite]

Sorry for the long post!

I felt the show took a huge nose dive once (in my opinion) the most interesting character was written out. I realized after finishing the series that I had only really become invested in that one guy. A combination of brilliant acting and intriguing flash back sequences carved out an interesting and conflicted character and I was rooting for him. Alas no pay off at all as the character development was entirely wasted in order to put over another character and create a new 'badder' villain (which came across as unearned and left me feeling similar to the way I felt last weekend watching Undertaker put over Reigns in what turned out to be his last match).

I couldn't get back into the show afterwards and took a break for a few months. I recently forced myself to watch the second half of the series before Iron Fist dropped to make sure I did not miss anything of relevance to the wider Marvel Netflix shows. This is a real shame because I had previously been addicted to DD and JJ, staying up stupidly late to watch as many episodes as I could in one sitting. LC started out the same way but by the end I had to force myself to sit through all the remaining episodes one weekend when I was feeling under the weather and literally had nothing better to do.

I've tried to work out why Luke Cage didn’t work for me after the mid-season 'surprise' when other shows like Game of Thrones do that sort of thing all the time and are stronger for it. In the end I came up with two reasons (your mileage may vary):

(1) Luke Cage as a series did some good world building in its creation of 'Harlem' but it failed to fill it with enough interesting characters. Once the few interesting characters it created started to get bumped off the show ran out of steam; and

(2) I just didn't find the Luke Cage character (as written in the Netflix shows) that interesting or engaging - he is really good in a supporting function (e.g. Jessica Jones) and I think he will likewise be an asset to the Defenders but for me he could not carry a 13 episode series.

My main issue with Luke is that he came across as a fairly one dimensional good guy who lacked any real character arc and as a result wasn’t that interesting (it's the superman curse, straight arrow invulnerable good guys are difficult to write). Sure the show writers tried to create a conflict within Luke by showing his initial reluctance to be a hero (something we had already seen in JJ) but this fell kind of flat for me. The 'conflict' was driven solely by a desire to not to draw attention to himself because his 'shady' past might be exposed which would challenge his legitimacy as a 'good' guy (and make him go to jail). It was not borne out of a question of morality (whether it was the right thing to do) because Luke's outlook on right and wrong never changed throughout. This lost further weight when his 'shady' past was revealed to not be shady at all. Luke was always a good guy and his actions were always morally 'right'. Maybe that's just who he is in the source material (I haven’t read much LC so I don't know) but over the course of 13 episodes that formula became pretty stale.

In circumstances like this where the main character is more or less a constant (like Supes or in this case Luke) you need to push and develop the rest of the cast around them. In my opinion the Luke Cage series made some mistakes in this department. I felt that Misty Knight's character was sadly underdeveloped which is probably because Nurse Claire was given such a prominent role in this series because shared universe reasons. The really interesting 'villain' was squandered and the big push was instead given to another character which felt forced and unearned (also we did not get enough Shades!). The show then tried really hard to force another even 'badder' villain into the second half of the series and retroactively build in a back story between him and Luke which felt rushed. Worst of all I felt nothing at all during the big show down in the final episode or the final scene of series because Luke Cage as a series had failed to make me care about the characters.

This is a real shame because the show is shot beautifully and the soundtrack and cinematography are great.

In my opinion Netflix would do well to put Luke and Danny together in a series 'Heroes for Hire' style rather than renew both separately for a second season.

 

[RIDDICK]

Season 2 is official!

https://ew.com/tv/2017/08/29/misty-knight-bionic-arm-first-look-luke-cage-season-2/

Better look at her arm:

Spoiler

 

[yodasan]

Edited