• Most new users don't bother reading our rules. Here's the one that is ignored almost immediately upon signup: DO NOT ASK FOR FANEDIT LINKS PUBLICLY. First, read the FAQ. Seriously. What you want is there. You can also send a message to the editor. If that doesn't work THEN post in the Trade & Request forum. Anywhere else and it will be deleted and an infraction will be issued.
  • If this is your first time here please read our FAQ and Rules pages. They have some useful information that will get us all off on the right foot, especially our Own the Source rule. If you do not understand any of these rules send a private message to one of our staff for further details.
  • Please read our Rules & Guidelines

Luke Cage

bionicbob

Well-known member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
8,265
Reaction score
2,389
Trophy Points
168
Sweet Christmas!!!! 

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytkjQvSk2VA[/video]

Will Jessica Jones make a cameo?

I love metal cuffs, a throw back to the old comic...lol.
 

bionicbob

Well-known member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
8,265
Reaction score
2,389
Trophy Points
168
So apparently LUKE CAGE was Marvels biggest streaming hit of 2016 on Netflix.

http://screenrant.com/luke-cage-netflix-ratings-viewership/

I found it a very mixed bag of a show... an incredible cast, beautiful cinematography, an amazing soundtrack... all hampered by serious pacing/plotting issues.   The show felt very slow at times to me and didn't fully grip me... in the past I have binge watched Daredevil and Jessica Jones within a few days but Luke Cage took me a couple of weeks...lol... (wow, how the tv viewing world has changed.... I still remember only 3 networks and 25 episodes stretched over 10 months...hee hee)

I still have not figured out why I did not love this show more.  Is it possible for a show can be too character driven?   Or attempt too hard to go against expectations?  Not sure.  While I loved and was genuinely shocked by the big twist at the midpoint, in some ways replacing the richly complex and fascinating Coppermouth with the more one dimensional comicbooky Diamondback felt boring to me and a step backwards.  Though on the flip side I did love the big final comic book style street brawl in the end.... it was unfortunate Diamondback was not as developed or complex as the other characters in the series.   

So I am really torn on this series.   Enjoyed it but did not love it.

Next up, Luke Cage's fellow Hero For Hire, Iron Fist....

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sEJeWB3RA8[/video]
 

ssj

Well-known member
Donor
Faneditor
Messages
3,883
Reaction score
2
Trophy Points
53
i gave up on luke cage after the first 10 minutes. was hoping the show would pull me in, but the pace was snailish.
 

matrixgrindhouse

Well-known member
Messages
2,388
Reaction score
111
Trophy Points
73
I liked the show, but less than the other Marvel Netflix series.  It has a lot going for it.  Likeable lead.  Awesome soundtrack that evokes that classic Blaxploitation sound - one of the composers worked on Black Dynamite, after all.  It's a surprisingly slow burn.  The early episodes have a questionable lack of action for a show about a man with unbreakable skin.  Not that I didn't enjoy the dramatic side of things, but that fantastic title sequence sometimes felt a bit too promising for what was to follow.  The villains are merely adequate.  Better than most MCU movie villains, but they're a far cry from the likes of Killgrave and Fisk.  It was a good season, but not great.  Looking forward to seeing Luke's return in The Defenders.
 

Gaith

Well-known member
Faneditor
Messages
5,785
Reaction score
291
Trophy Points
123
I'm part-way through episode 9, and I think I'm done.

*reads spoilers*

Mild spoilers for all Marvel/Netflix shows:
... yep, I'm done. I liked Pops, and Cottonmouth was a mesmerizing villain, and the early eps actually had bystanders walking around, before all of New York's streets became weirdly empty following Cottonmouth's death. Meanwhile, Misty and Mariah are playing their same two notes over and over and over and over, and I could not give less of a shit about this new guy being Luke's old high school buddy from small-town Georgia and the secret "author of all his pain" all along if I tried.

These Marvel/Netflix writers really need to take some introductory classes on blocking out a season-long story. With the exception of Jessica Jones, which was, like the others, 3-4 eps longer than it needed to be, but still managed to maintain interest and build to a wholly satisfying conclusion, these seasons have stalled out hard. DD S1 ended with a random and uninteresting fistfight in a dark alley with a completely unconvincing villain who was far too socially awkward to be a plausible crime boss. DD S2 became a total freaking fiasco during the Punisher trial, and its finale rooftop battle and least-shocking-death ever was laughably lame. Don't think I'll be giving that show a third chance, unless they really turn things around.

And now we have Luke Cage, which starts very strong, but apparently goes abso-blooming-nowhere. It's one thing to start a network season not sure how it'll end due to the demands of making 20+ episodes year after year; it's another thing entirely to fall completely apart when you're filming a whole season at once, and can release it pretty much anytime. (I know Netflix can do better, because I've seen both seasons of the excellent Bloodline.) And after the storytelling vacuum that is DD's treatment of The Hand, I'm supposed to be excited about The Defenders? Well, I'm not.

I acknowledge that in its emphasis on spy caper-style action and network restrictions, Agents of SHIELD doesn't ever dig nearly as deeply into raw feelings of grief, abuse, and fear of losing loved ones that these Netflix shows do, but ever since The Winter Soldier, it's been an unstoppable storytelling freight train, barreling through one compelling villain and gripping story arc after another, with no letup or weak spots at all. With these Netflix shows, however, JJ is the only season out of four I can actually thumbs up and/or recommend as a whole.

Do better, writers. A lot better.   :dodgy:



bionicbob said:
Is it possible for a show to be too character driven?

Of course! All storytelling is a balancing act, as the very existence of fan editing attests. ;)
 

mnkykungfu

Well-known member
Donor
Messages
2,279
Reaction score
747
Trophy Points
123
bionicbob said:
So apparently LUKE CAGE was Marvels biggest streaming hit of 2016 on Netflix.

http://screenrant.com/luke-cage-netflix-ratings-viewership/

I found it a very mixed bag of a show... an incredible cast, beautiful cinematography, an amazing soundtrack... all hampered by serious pacing/plotting issues.   The show felt very slow at times to me and didn't fully grip me... in the past I have binge watched Daredevil and Jessica Jones within a few days but Luke Cage took me a couple of weeks...lol... (wow, how the tv viewing world has changed.... I still remember only 3 networks and 25 episodes stretched over 10 months...hee hee)

I still have not figured out why I did not love this show more.  Is it possible for a show can be too character driven?   Or attempt too hard to go against expectations?  Not sure.  While I loved and was genuinely shocked by the big twist at the midpoint, in some ways replacing the richly complex and fascinating Coppermouth with the more one dimensional comicbooky Diamondback felt boring to me and a step backwards.  Though on the flip side I did love the big final comic book style street brawl in the end.... it was unfortunate Diamondback was not as developed or complex as the other characters in the series.   

So I am really torn on this series.   Enjoyed it but did not love it.

Next up, Luke Cage's fellow Hero For Hire, Iron Fist....

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sEJeWB3RA8[/video]

On paper, this show had so much going for it.  The music, the production, that CAST!  I struggled through the first season, and during the second season when I accidentally switched on the audio description for the sight-impaired, I left it on for the rest of the season!  That flat, stylish vocabulary with an unemotional delivery made me realize the problem with Luke Cage.  It didn't know what kind of show it was trying to be.  Part of an episode, it would be a dramatic character study, then another part it'd try to be a gritty gangster flick, then another part cheesy blaxploitation.  The disparate elements rarely came together, and the show never really found its own identity.  What it should've been, oddly, is film noir.  Gangsters making threats, developing complicated relationships with heroes, double-crossing each other.  I'm telling you, if they leaned in to the world-weary double-dealing downtrodden hero aspect, film noir would've been perfect.

If you get a chance, watch the Season 2 riverside showdown between Comanche and Shades.  The way it's lit, the subplot between them... turn on the narration and you'll get a taste of what that show could've been.
 
Top Bottom