Black Lightning

• Surprised it took this long to do a Take That! against make "America Great Again". Then again, the actor playing Proctor did play a Trump expy on Scandal.

• The Pierces still don't know Gambi was working with Lady Eve. I feel that will bite him next season.

• And they don’t know about Kara either. Hope that plot point hasn’t been dropped.

• Did anyone feel tempted to make a Pulp Fiction joke when Whale opened the suit case?

• I can’t help but feel this was a missed opportunity to have Henderson discover who BL is.

• So is Lala dead?

edited 20th Apr '18 7:48:03 AM by windleopard

Little late to the party: The finale really didn't feel like one, at all. More like a penultimate episode.

Ditto. I didn't realize it was a finale until last night and it wasn't on the schedule.

Just finished watching this on Netflix, and really enjoyed it. It's leagues above the CW shows, and better than some of Marvel's Netflix stuff as well. (The antagonists weren't as good as the Marvel Netflix ones, but the protagonists were better.) It had a reasonably good plot and solid, three-dimensional characters, and nobody did anything unrealistically idiotic. (Jennifer going to a club owned by the 100 came close, but one instance of dumb behaviour from a teenager with very strict parents is realistically idiotic.)

About the only thing I didn't like was the music, and that's just a matter of taste.

Other things I liked:

1) It wasn't afraid to have white characters as the villains. Luke Cage was a decent show, but having one of the main villains being a black woman fighting gentrification sends an entirely different message from having one of the main villains be a shady quasi-governmental organization run by white people. It means that instead of "urban crime" being the culprit for all the bad things happening in Freeland, it's the intersection of deliberate governmental/societal/institutional oppression with urban crime, and the way that those oppressive organizations deliberately feed that crime.

2) Anissa. Pretty much everything about Anissa, especially after she became a superhero. I entirely endorse her going around knocking down Confederate statues with her powers.

3) I like the way that both parts of Jefferson Pierce's life - as high school principal and as Black Lightning - are necessary and valuable to the community. When I watch, say, Daredevil, there's always this undercurrent that Matt Murdoch spending time doing actual work as a lawyer is "slacking off". I don't agree with that perspective, but it's what the show communicates. But in scenes like Jefferson trying to help a kid get an education on Saturdays, we see that there are issues in the community that he can't address as Black Lighting and can address as Jefferson Pierce; and in other scenes we see issues that he can address as Black Lightning and can't address as a civilian. It's a valuable balance.

4) I basically liked Jennifer, and though the incidences of rebelliousness were understandable. Her life seems incredibly scheduled. She's a straight-A student and her parents still punish her for not having an extracurricular activity, and make her do unpaid work until she (re)starts one? That just seems over-the-top. If a kid gets good grades, what's wrong with letting them spend time after school hanging out with their friends, or playing games, or reading, or just relaxing? I was pretty much the world's least rebellious kid, and I'd have acted out too if I was treated that way as a teenager.

One other thing that struck me, because I started watching Season 2 of Jessica Jones right after this: the way Jefferson (and Luke Cage) are treated when they're arrested are strikingly different from how Jessica's treated. Jefferson is a highly-respected member of the community with zero criminal record and no known superpowers. He makes absolutely no resistance and yet is demeaned and humiliated through the whole process; there's a constant sense of him being in danger of death; and he's put in a cell with a crowd of other people and never provided with a lawyer.

Jessica has a history of violence (including an assault mere days or maybe weeks before her second arrest, and one case of what's generally interpreted as murder), is accused of murder with fairly plausible evidence, is known to have super-strength and a highly volatile temper, and mouths off to the cops. She's put in her own (small, but clean and neat and safe) cell, is not strip-searched or notably manhandled, has access to a lawyer, and is released after being moderately cooperative with the police.

It's a rather striking contrast.

edited 23rd May '18 2:58:08 PM by Galadriel

I didn't notice that contrast between Jessica's arrest and Jefferson's. Then again, I didn't watch them close together the way you did...and then there's the other reason...

...because she's white.

Then again, when Luke got arrested the second time, I don't think he got mistreated either, and he only went back because of the technicality of breaking out before and got a high priced Lawyer to bail him out.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that the "because she's white" is the reason for the contrast.

Which is really sad. I like Jess, but considering the points about what she did, her getting such...mild treatment is really hard to swallow.

Not that I want her to be treated the way Jeff was. I wouldn't wish that for anyone, but the unfairness of it is pretty blatant.

Are we sure Jessica didn't get a strip and/or cavity search, but they just decided not to show it? Granted, I have no idea how common such searches are in real life.

There is one really stupid moment in Black Lightning that really irritated me.

After the ASA figures out that Gambi is working with Black Lightning, they take both him and Jefferson prisoner, and threaten to kill Jeff if Gambi doesn't tell them who Black Lightning is. They escape, killing a couple ASA agents on their way out. Jeff seems to realize this makes him (and, by extension, his family) a target for the ASA. Even if they don't realize he's Black Lightning, he's still their best lead towards finding Gambi, plus he's a witness to their crimes. Jefferson takes this threat seriously enough, he moves his family to a safe house where the ASA can't find them.

Yet, the very next episode, Jefferson goes right back to work at Garfield High. So does Anissa, and Jennifer goes right back to class. And I'm like, "What?"

Who the he'll goes into hiding from a murderous government conspiracy, but still shows up for their day job at a public building like usual?

If they were simply not taking the ASA threat seriously enough, that wouldn't really bother me. But they clearly took it seriously enough to abandon their home, which makes the decision to completely invalidate that effort by returning to work so frustrating.

Black Lightning is as subtle as a parade. With Jessica Jones, procedure is implied. With Lightning, they show you every step to prove a point.

At that point they knew about the ASA kidnapping kids, right? Attending school was the best way to keep track of/help kids. Also, if the ASA themselves went in to work there would be an issue with exposing themselves. Hence the whole police and falsified evidence incident.

CBR lists some new faces that will be appearing in season 2. These include:

- Dr. Jace, an ally/villain to the Outsiders in the comics.

- A new love interest for Anissa

- A new principal for Garfield High.

https://www.cbr.com/black-lightning-season-2-outsiders-doctor-jace/

"A new love interest for Anissa"

So they're not even bothering to bring back Grace Choi, huh

I'm hoping the language is misleading and it will be more of a love triangle situation.

Did Grace even appear after, what was it, episode four?

She did not. A cursory scan of IMDB suggests she only appeared in episodes 2 and 4.

Yeah, the show completely forgot about her. Which is weird, because I felt she was initially built up to be more of a character

There's an episode where Anissa leaves a message for her on her phone. I think it's in the second to last episode.

So this is interesting. The guy who played Bushmaster on Luke Cage? He also initially auditioned for the role of Cottonmouth and also tried to get the lead role on Black Lightning.

https://shadowandact.com/luke-cage-star-mustafa-shakir-auditioned-for-this-marvel-film-role-and-this-dc-tv-role-before-landing-role-of-bushmaster

Edited by windleopard on Jul 10th 2018 at 4:18:41 AM

Yup, I heard about that.

Though he was great as Bushmaster, I think he wouldn't have fit either of those two.

New poster and some information on the second season

https://www.themarysue.com/black-lightning-grittier-feels/

Edited by windleopard on Aug 29th 2018 at 11:36:08 AM

So among other things, Grace is going to come back, that's good.

Jeezus, that was a tough opening.

Painfully real.

Alright!

Last season we had a hero!

That hero was black!

And now a new season begins!

Black Lightning is back!

Double post:

Wow. Lots of drama going on here.

Man, to think we went from an uplifting finale to this. The Book of Consequences definitely lives up to its name.