Marvel's Luke Cage (Netflix series)

Agreed about the Hand stuff. They were far too vague and faceless in Daredevil, and if there was more foresight for what they were going to do with The Defenders, maybe it could've been improved. But as it was, there's too much "Uhh...what?" that goes on with them and Elektra for me to get invested. I particularly didn't like the whole Black Sky thing and how Elektra just seems predisposed to be into killing because...just because? (Plus, I think all the stuff with Elektra and the Hand made Matt seem like a dumber character by proxy too, save for another thread)

I mean, turning Karen's trauma over Wesley into a gun rights advertisement wasn't the smartest move. Honestly, that whole plot beat felt more like a plot device to justify keeping Karen around for a few more episodes and satisfy the dreams of a certain shipper fandom (and at this point in time, I feel like Karen is valued more as a self-insert for that ship I'm not naming than she is as a Daredevil ally), and give Frank a reason to get involved in the Lewis storyline.

I would say that with Daredevil season 2 and The Punisher, people are pacified enough by the shallow action of "badass character doing badass things" that they're willing to forgive the flaws. Compare that to Luke Cage season 2, where I can distinctly remember each of Luke's fights with Bushmaster and the ways each fight differs (and I do include in that count the "fight by proxy", where Bushmaster has his henchpeople fight Luke and has Sheldon videotape it all with an iPhone so he can study his opponent's fighting style). Indeed, Luke Cage arguably did a better job at balancing out new characters and their storylines with the continuing storylines of returning characters, better than Daredevil season 2 pulled it off (where Matt was basically the third wheel in his own show, the plot revolved around him reacting to events put in motion by other characters, and a lot of it was, again, setup for two spinoffs) or even Jessica Jones season 2 (where it does seem at times like Jessica's mostly reactive, and Trish is the one doing the plot driving, while with Jeri, instead of her subplot feeding into the main plot like in the first season, it's more like the main plot is the launchpad for her subplot).

Edited by dmcreif on Jul 10th 2018 at 4:24:49 AM

What really bothered me is that I really, really liked Elektra before they revealed the hand stuff. Then she jumped from being interesting to being incredible boring.

Anyway, what I really like about Luke Cage season 2 is that it feels like a concluded storyline, but there is still enough to hint for an interesting 3 season. Misty has now her personal enemy, and I bet she will be back. Tilda I think will try to take the Club from Luke (who know, he might just give it to her in the end). And I wouldn't be surprised if Shades will find a way to wriggle out of prison again. At least I hope so...he is actually my favourite of the villains in Luke Cage so far.

Shades has this interesting old-school mentality towards gangster life. Comanche doesn't understand why Shades hasn't made a move to become king of Harlem, and Luke thinks that Shades wants to be boss. But without saying it out loud, Shades shows that he thinks (or knows) that a Latino can never be king of Harlem. Comanche and Luke see beyond race (or labels in general) but Shades still deals in that old way of being a gangster ("you can't be gay/bisexual and be a gangster", "you can't be king of Harlem if you're latino"), that's why when the Rum Punch Massacre happens, he just breaks, he sees that people don't respect the old ways and he's out. It's a new game and he's not sure he wants to (or can) play anymore.

Alternately, Shades just believes that the Stokes family are the only family that should be allowed to run Harlem. Harlem thrived when Mama Mabel was in charge. When Cornell started to become unstable, Shades found a way to get Mariah to step up. He wasn't interested in putting Diamondback on the throne even though he worked for him, after all. He was loyal to the Stokes family because of what Mama Mabel did for Harlem.

Edited by dmcreif on Jul 10th 2018 at 11:46:29 AM

Finished watching this. I definitely prefer it to the second season of Jessica Jones or of Daredevil.

I found both Bushmaster and Mariah to be compelling villains. Bushmaster wasn't overly complicated - he wanted revenge, and nothing else - but I enjoyed the contrast between being able to see him both as a feared gangster, and as a kid being lectured/chewed out by his uncle. Even if a character isn't especially complex, being able to see him from the point of view of several different characters adds dimensions. I enjoyed the way the Jamaicans talked, although I don't know whether it was authentic or accurate.

Mariah's...shift in direction midway through the season felt a little overly sudden, but in retrospect it does make sense. She'd always been pulled back and forth between the life of a respected politician and community leader, and the life of a gangster, and when the latter was definitely taken from her - as a direct result of her attempt to get out of the crime business - she went all-in on the gangster side of things.

As much as I generally enjoyed the story, I had one serious problem with the overall tone of the series. If it wasn't a show with an almost-entirely-black cast, I think it would be more noticeable that a whole lot of the tone and messaging was basically Trumpist. It cast immigrants as some of the main villains, and Bushmaster was ultimately dealt with by driving him back to the country he came from. The only times "black lives matter" was referenced was when criminals were exploiting it to avoid being brought to justice. Their answer to a cop trying to outright frame someone for a crime wasn't that it was wrong, it was basically "well, it's complicated". They had Luke - Luke - saying something along the lines of "making Harlem great again". I don't clearly remember every moment in the show that troubled me, but it felt like an undercurrent of something ugly, the whole way through. (Season 2 of Jessica Jones felt the same, in a different way, with its core theme [w.r.t Trish and Malcolm] of "people who say they want to do good and make a difference are just egotists trying to feel good about themselves" - that's basically an anti-"social justice warrior" manifesto.) It feels like diversity is being used as a smokescreen for right-wing politics.

Edited by Galadriel on Jul 10th 2018 at 6:29:20 AM

Yeah, ironically Shades is a piece of shit with no moral at all BUT he has a strange sense of honour. But then, I am actually not sure of his lack of morals is actually real, or if he just feels that he shouldn't be bothered by his kills and hence shut down all feelings related to them. He is a complicated character, which is why I enjoy him so much.

Tbf "make x great again" was a fairly harmless statement until Trump made it so poisonous.

I love the way season 2 has made use of flashbacks when the characters were recounting an event that happened in season 1. Being 1 year and 9 months since the first season of Luke Cage, and with so many characters to keep track of across so many seasons of these shows, it’s easy to forget some events that happened. I hope they continue to do this in other series when the characters reference an event that may be forgettable to the viewers. (For example, if Karen comes clean with Matt about killing Wesley in Daredevil season 3, flashbacks might be necessary because by the time Karen is describing to Matt what happened, it'll have been three-and-a-half years since it happened onscreen)

Another thing I love about Coker's direction is that his handling of the secondary characters in Season 2 is much better than in Season 1. This is really best demonstrated with secondaries like Sugar, Comanche, and D.W. They have a more noticeable screen presence this time around. Here, they truly feel like supporting characters, rather than extras. I think part of the reason why is because they're interacting more with the main cast, such as D.W. interacting prominently with Luke, Sugar interacting prominently with Luke, Mariah, and Shades; and Comanche interacting with Shades and Mariah.

Likewise, I found myself engaged when Bushmaster interacted with his family and friends. They weren't just faceless goons to him, they were his loved ones. It's also helped by the fact that Bushmaster is an interesting character.

Having such noteworthy secondary characters is important to the show's setting. It also makes their deaths have more of an impact with the viewer, as is the case with Piranha, Comanche, Ridenhour, the Rum Punch Massacre victims (especially poor Anansi), and Alex.

Sheldon tearing up when he hears news about the Rum Punch Masaccre and struggling to articulate it to Bushmaster was a pretty memorable scene for me.

He's just Bushmaster's Shades narratively, but they are childhood friends and he had family at the restaurant too.

I actually thought that "making Harlem great again" was a deliberate choice to show that Luke is moving towards a dark path.

I mean, he basically just shuffled the crime into the other part of New York...more work for Danny I guess….

I mean, he basically just shuffled the crime into the other part of New York...more work for Danny I guess….

More work for Matt, too. Since Donovan still has Fisk for a client, and Rosalie is appearing in Daredevil season 3.

Although it's not like additional crime has been created

Luke just restored the Stokes status quo

There's something to be said about both Misty and Luke's arcs teaching them that a perfect victory is too unattainable and embracing compromises they once scorned

It's a bit opaque because Misty got to have her cake and eat it too when Mariah's death let her comeuppance Shades but he was on the verge of getting away with everything to capture the bigger fish

No, more work for Danny, because he currently does Matt's work too…

Thinking of it, when exactly because Danny the guy to take care of everyone's problems? Between Misty needing an arm and Luke needing a hideout and him taking over for Matt he was pretty busy in the background….

If it helps he has completely given up on actually managing the company he fought so hard to get back and then lost interest in five seconds later.

It was never about the company. It was always about his identity.

Can the record firmly establish whether Luke is faster than Usain Bolt or not?

Is it just me or was way there way more music this season...

There was less. The first season had at least one song per episode.

I have to wonder, would Luke have gone down the path he did at the end of season 2, if Claire stuck around instead of leaving? Like, imagine that she abandoned her plans to leave town when the viral video of Bushmaster attacking Luke hit the airwaves. Would Luke have made many of the same choices he ultimately made in the actual timeline, or would things stay mostly the same?

And, almost done.

Hrh-hrm.

• Carl Lucas is now the Luke Cage Who Laughs
• Team Barbershop is fractured. If Bobby Fish had stayed things might've been different.
• What's Tilda planning? Is she bitter over Mariah valuing Luke over her?
• IIRC Bushmaster didn't actually die.
• I was hoping Mariah would have some sort of correspondence with Fisk in prison.
• I hope Shades does.
• Some were saying it felt lame to see LC follow JJ's Downer Ending, but I don't know, Season 2 out of 3 seems like the right time for a Diabolus ex Machina or Start of Darkness for the hero
• Depressed that Luke's dad's actor passed away - that last scene was very powerful
• I was getting kind of sick of Mariah - she didn't have the sort of class or commanding presence that Cornell did, but I started to like her after Bushmaster tried to burn her alive
• that shiv scene with Mariah was great

One has to wonder, when Luke and Danny went by Harlem's Paradise in 2x10, what would've happened if they'd gone upstairs and found Mariah was holding Anansi captive there. Would they just scoop him up and take him out of the club without Mariah being able to do much or would she and Shades have put up a fight? For that matter, would Luke and Danny still be focused on hunting down the lab making the nightshade, or would they shift gears to spending that time trying to protect Bushmaster's family and friends from retaliation by Mariah?

Okay maybe I missed something here but why does Luke think his meeting Pop got him killed?

Because Luke was the one who brought Chico to Pop's. Pop asked him to, of course, but still.

Also a bullet possibly ricocheted off of Luke into Pop, I don't remember

Overall, I really enjoyed this season.

Edited by windleopard on Jul 23rd 2018 at 5:51:36 AM

This occurred to me while reading the fridge brilliance example discussing Cottonmouth's speech about "foreign interlopers, strangers with arcane abilities". This very much applies to Bushmaster in season 2, a Jamaican man with powers of ambiguous origin whose goals for Harlem are a lot more sinister than Luke.