Luke Cage - General Discussion

[Certainly Ken]

Hi - typo in the header, but Imma let it stand because who doesn't like Cake?

[JBC344]

Actually not naming any of the "movie superheroes" is apparently a "condition" with the Marvel shows.  None of the shows it seems are allowed to mention the movie counterparts.  If you watched Daredevil and Jessica Jones, the events of the Avengers movie are referred to as "The Incident".  None of the Avengers are ever mentioned by name.  It is always "the big green dude", or the "guy with the hammer", etc. 

At first it seemed like it started as a way for the Netflix shows to carve out their own identity without having to rely on the movies, but since then Kevin Feige who runs the movie side and Ike Pearlmutter who runs the tv side hate each other now so I think most of it is a concerted effort to intentionally keep the two sides from referencing one another, and if they do it, it will be vague no name references.

[lulee]

The bird is a plover not "flubber." Flubber is the bouncy stuff from the Disney movies.

[Ottis]

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Hmmmm  . . . how is it that Stryker is still walking around at the end of the episode without so much as a limp after falling out of a balcony and being thrown through a wall by Luke?  He's not an enhanced individual.  More hand-waving required.

Stryker was limping. Almost staggering.

I find the endless, connecting Luke/bad guy back story annoying. Can we get it out on the table and move forward? I keep hoping Daredevil drops in.

Unlike others, I didn't find Cottonmouth interesting. His back story was decent, but he never seemed especially competent nor dangerous. Mostly he failed.

I also find the music weird and distracting. Not the acts at the club. The background music during scenes. And is it required that everyone say "Luke Cage," vs. just "Cage?"

[Kel Varnsen]

18 hours ago, JBC344 said:

Actually not naming any of the "movie superheroes" is apparently a "condition" with the Marvel shows.  None of the shows it seems are allowed to mention the movie counterparts.  If you watched Daredevil and Jessica Jones, the events of the Avengers movie are referred to as "The Incident".  None of the Avengers are ever mentioned by name.  It is always "the big green dude", or the "guy with the hammer", etc. 

At first it seemed like it started as a way for the Netflix shows to carve out their own identity without having to rely on the movies, but since then Kevin Feige who runs the movie side and Ike Pearlmutter who runs the tv side hate each other now so I think most of it is a concerted effort to intentionally keep the two sides from referencing one another, and if they do it, it will be vague no name references.

Do you have a citation for that or is just your suspicion? Because Agents of SHIELD (not to mention Agent Carter) is produced by the tv group just like Luke Cage and those shows don't have a problem making direct movie references. That makes me think it is more of a writing choice. Now if the Nextflix shows could just show Tony Stark's tower in the Manhattan skyline I would be happy.

[AKA...CJ86]

Don't really enjoy flashbacks but loved this one just for the tiara......and learning more about Reva

...and again, the music...this is now the soundtrack to my life...

[JBC344]

17 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Do you have a citation for that or is just your suspicion? Because Agents of SHIELD (not to mention Agent Carter) is produced by the tv group just like Luke Cage and those shows don't have a problem making direct movie references. That makes me think it is more of a writing choice. Now if the Nextflix shows could just show Tony Stark's tower in the Manhattan skyline I would be happy.

Actually Agents of Shield is a little different in that that particular show actually is rooted in the plotlines of the "movie verse" if you will.  Agents very heavily uses the plotlines of the movies as an overreaching outline.  They also will use Agents as a bridge with either previewing plotlines in the movie or continuing smaller plotlines of the Marvel movies.  So Agents in a way is very much a companion show to the Marvel movies. 

The Netflix shows don't use any of the continuity outside of "The Incident" and every once in a while we will get a reference to a character or plotline like we did tonight with "Justin Hammer", a character from Iron Man 2.

I agree with you that it was a writing choice at first for the shows to be able to "stand" on their own but considering that the feud between Ike and Kevin has forced the two divisions to actually separate within the company has a lot to do with how things are handled moving forward.  You're more than welcome to Google their very public disagreements.  There is no love lost between either men.

If I'm not mistaken I thought there was a brief shot of Stark tower in the background of the first episode of Daredevil.  I could be mistaken though.

[Ottis]

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Can't wait for Luke to take down Mariah and Diamondback. The episodes are getting better and better!

Glad you are enjoying them, but I find them becoming more tedious. "Luke Cage" (you have to say both names, apparently, no one calls him "Cage") has an endless succession of bad guys and girls, each of which seems to be related to him, or each other, by blood, marriage or budding love. Meanwhile, nothing gets any better. And now we have my least favorite plot device - the framing of the good guy. So we have to wait this out before we can return to our regular programming.

Can we have Luke defeat someone, make a few decisions and roll on?

[Ottis]

Yawn. A big mistake to bog this down in a hostage situation. Snore.

"Stop meddling and let us get to work?" The whole situation is so half-assed and implausible. And so very, very slow. 

This show repeats a lot of odd lines. "Lay in the cut," or "stalking" something. 

I guess you are required to say "Misti Knight," as well as "Luke Cage." No partial names. 

This show has become less and less interesting. 

Edited October 15, 2016 by Ottis

[wanderingstar]

RIP, Candace. But why couldn't Diamondback be dead. He is so damn dull and repetitive.

This was a solid ending to the season, and there were some nice Luke/Claire moments. Misty was great as well. She looked stunning at the end.

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I enjoyed it and thought it finished strongly. 

Me too. The middle episodes dragged for me, but I thought the last 3 were good.

[Kel Varnsen]

Diamonback's power suit looked ridiculous. I know this show has its roots in the 70's but even by those standards it looked bad. Even the Mark 1 Iron Man suit looked better. They should have at least tried to make it look like some off brand knock off Iron Man suit rather than whatever that wss with the stupid helmet and visor.

[AKA...CJ86]

Can I just say I love Claire's mom...

[WatchrTina]

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From the recap:  There is just some clunky-ass writing going on. Like, you're still driving your Mom's 1995 Ford Taurus clunky. Nobody is expecting Shakespeare, I know, but I also don't want to get pulled out what is otherwise a great show by some freshman year Intro to Scriptwriting dialogue. Get it together, writer's room!)

I'm expecting Shakespeare.  Ever since the HBO show "Deadwood" came along and introduced a character (Al Swearengen, played by Ian McShane) who could deliver a line heavily laced with the word "cocksucker" and make it as potent and memorable as the motherfucking Saint Crispin's Day speech in Henry V, I've expected Shakespeare from good TV shows.  This show has NOT lived up to my expectations.  The dialog, it is lame.

I binge-watched three episodes last night after getting home from the Austin Film Festival where I saw a panel consisting of four people involved in the Marvel-verse (Movies and TV).  One of them was a very young writer who landed a gig on Jessica Jones.  Best line of the whole talk was him reenacting his reaction to hearing that this iteration of Luke Cage was only going to be mostly bullet-proof. "Say WHAAAAT?"  Great talk.  I skipped a screening of a mediocre film to come home and resume my binge.  But I'm afraid to comment more because I might spoil a later episode.

Edited October 21, 2016 by WatchrTina

[theatremouse]

I thought the no-specific-names thing was more so a "Netflix vs not" issue than a "movies vs TV" issue, hence Agents of Shield falling on the "names names" side.

[WatchrTina]

Okay, I am pausing my viewing of the last episode to come here and make a comment about the opening credits.  There is a shot where the image of a bridge is super-imposed over Luke's back.  The metal girders of the bridge look like scars on his back -- like he's been cut or whipped.  The steel beams look like gouges in his flesh.  It grosses me out EVERY SINGLE TIME.  You'd think I'd be over it by now.

I'm a big Outlander fan, currently re-reading book three where we run into a lot of characters with horrible scars on their backs -- maybe that's why I'm overly sensitive to that shot.  But Damn!, I hate it.

[Boundary]

From some video I saw on Youtube, Jeph Loeb was talking up Jessica Henwick as much as he did for Simone's performance, and all reports indicate that the audience at NYCC thought she stole the show, from the clips they saw.  If she lives up to the hype, then that definitely sets up the Daughters of the Dragon, which leaves me with a couple of questions. If Misty and Colleen get their own show, where would that leave Luke Cage (the show)? Misty was a huge part of it and I thought she had more of a bone to chew with Mariah than Luke. Alternatively, the Daughters of the Dragon could set up shop in one of the shows, either Iron Fist or Luke Cage. Considering that the comics have her romantically linked with Danny Rand, could Misty be about to emigrate?

[theatremouse]

On 10/9/2016 at 4:56 PM, DearEvette said:

Son of Preacher Man?  Really show?  Isn't that a bit too much on the nose?

Personally I find the entire latter quarter of the season a bit too on the nose.

Edited October 16, 2016 by theatremouse

[theatremouse]

I actually kind of appreciated how silly the suit looked. It had a prototypey vibe, to me, which I found appropriate.

Edited October 16, 2016 by theatremouse

[theatremouse]

I was distracted the whole time Mariah was in interrogation...if they thought they really had her, did they not get a search warrant? Were they not searching her home while she was there? I mean, I can buy there weren't, but we saw the scene with Shades giving her the super-incriminated-plastic-wrapped bottle earlier. We never saw her destroy it and he seemed to be handing over his leverage so I thought for sure the point was now she has physical evidence to doom herself just sitting in her house...and thus the cops should find it. But, nothing. I really was expecting that to be Chekhov's bottle.

[WatchrTina]

On 10/4/2016 at 4:18 PM, dwmarch said:

Diamondback (who actually had a diamond on his back, clever) wasn't powered? He just had that suit? In that case his organs should have been liquefied when Luke did the Hulk smash on him. And Luke noticed that diamond (which was the control unit for the powered suit) way early in the fight but didn't even try for it. I think they might have been trying to say that the suit was absorbing the energy from Luke's punches so he had to power it down by letting Diamondback beat on him and only then could he smash the thing. But it wasn't very clear.

Thank you!  That scene makes so much more sense now.  I spent the whole fight going "Rip the power pack off his back!!!"  Then I couldn't figure out why the last punch was any different from all the others.  

 

On 10/4/2016 at 10:26 PM, Xenith22 said:

Also did she actually have waitress girl's information clearly labelled on it...because I would think you would keep police contact under hard to decipher code names or something?

I'm sure she had a code name in the phone book but if the most recent texts weren't erased it would be easy to figure out which phone number led to the witness.

 

On 10/4/2016 at 10:26 PM, Xenith22 said:

Do you actually have a right to decline handcuffs from federal agents?

Only if you are a superhero who can easily tear them off.  Superman wore cuffs in one of the recent movies and obviously he was just humoring the cops.  Luke ain't got time for that shit.

All in all I enjoyed the ride.  I think there was a lot of fan-service in there that went over my heads because I never read the comics but I still had a good time.  I like Luke and want to see more of him.  Mariah is a good villain (Shades, not so much).  Clare is awesome.  And as much as Misty fucked up in this episode I still like her though I appreciated the dressing down she got at the hands of her superior -- who also grew on me when she left sorority-sister Mariah cooling her heels in an interview room for a good part of the episode.  And can I just give a "Hell Yeah!" for all the grrrrrl power in this series.

I hate the idea of a bullet-proof Diamondback -- won't that just lead to a re-hash of his conflict with Luke in this season?  Or of the Hulk movie with the bigger, nastier hulk-like creature?  Or Batman vs. Superman with the bigger, nastier superpower Hulk-like creature?  Oops, that's DC.  But you know what I mean.  I'd be happy not to see Diamond back again.

Loved the tease when Claire took the self-defense flyer phone #.  I don't know who "IronFist" is but I know a show by that name is coming so I presume Claire will turn up there as well.  And she "knows a good lawyer."  I guess this means I have to watch Daredevil after all.  

Last thought -- WTF was that shit painting Maria hung in her office?

[spaceytraci1208]

On 10/11/2016 at 1:51 PM, DearEvette said:

This is my favorite of the Diamondback era episodes, largely because of everyone else. He remains a discordant note in the show for me. I mean the man wore a tomato colored coat! He's such a cartoon and that is saying a lot in a comic book tv show.  Damned poor man's Samuel L. Jackson.

Yesssssss! LMAO 

[WatchrTina]

Bottom line:  I liked it fine and now I'm invested enough in the 'verse that I need to got back and watch Daredevil seasons 1 and 2 because I skipped them before.  It's not must-see-TV for me.  I stopped in the middle of a binge-watch of both Jessica Jones and Luke Cage and almost forgot to go back and finish.  But I dd.  So far everything coming out of the Marvel-verse has been worth watching (though the jury is still out on GhostRider turing up in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

[JBC344]

Well Agents of Shield and Agent Carter are unique in that they are/were both primetime shows that are not only rooted in the plotlines of the movies but they are also in the same tone of the movies.  The Netflix shows are much darker and have a completely different aesthetic and tone to them.  It is also my understanding that the producers of Agents of Shield are a little more "supervised" with their shows in the sense that their is a major stream of continuity that runs through their show and the movies so they have to be "lined" up and on the same page.  The Netflix shows don't have that.

[JBC344]

On ‎10‎/‎4‎/‎2016 at 5:30 PM, ribboninthesky1 said:

I disagree, as the flashbacks were from Cottonmouth's perspective and it was his words that were the catalyst for Mariah's actions. Her rape was a plot point to incite his death and set Luke up, in my perception.   It's Cottonmouth's death that changed the course of the show, as the focus shifted from his conflict with Cage to Stryker's conflict with Cage. 

See, I took it as her rape is what helped incite his turnover as a young man.  The scene where he was being "forced" to shoot his uncle started out as Ma Mable making him do it but the surprise for me is when Mariah came around the corner and revealed he had been molesting her.  Cornell wasn't surprised so I assumed that once Ma Mable had decided to have the uncle killed she and Mariah told Cornell as a way to get him to pull the trigger. 

Then to have Cornell sort of use that against Mariah was the ultimate betrayal.  It seemed like the uncle's murder is probably what fully bonded them as youngsters.

[maczero]

On 10/1/2016 at 10:34 PM, Enigma X said:

Mabel Stokes was all sorts of fucked up! As are her grandchildren.

I liked Mabel.  She actually reminds me of Black Mariah from the comics.

On 10/3/2016 at 3:43 AM, Racj82 said:

People keep pointing out the names thing but why would the general public know the codenames of the avengers involved in the incident. Two of them are spies, one is basically a god that barely spends time on earth, hulk is barely called hulk. Iron man has no secret identity so he would just be called Tony often. 

It depends on the timeframe.  If this takes place after Avengers 2 then there is no way the general public wouldn't know the Avengers by name.  I'm fanwanking that it's only 2013 in the Netflix universe (less than a year after the incident).

On 10/4/2016 at 2:36 PM, RainbowBrite said:

The most confusing aspect of this episode for me is why the stakes are so high for Luke, when Cottonmouth threatened to out him as Carl Lucas. I can't imagine that he would go back to jail willingly; how exactly does Cottonmouth think that would work?

Luke wouldn't go to jail willingly but I'm guessing he doesn't want to be running from the cops for the rest of his life.  Also, he's not invincible (as we learned this episode).  If law enforcement starts hunting him, they're going to have access to stuff that can stop him.

[Kel Varnsen]

On ‎2016‎-‎10‎-‎10 at 1:43 AM, thuganomics85 said:

Claire talking about how she knows a lawyer was great, although I wonder if she was referring to Matt or Foggy.

He might be better off calling in a favour from Jessica Jones and getting Jeri Hogarth to represent him. Because I think that is the lawyer I would want.

On ‎2016‎-‎10‎-‎11 at 5:39 AM, Spaceman Spiff said:

I also found the supporting cast of villains underwhelming. Cottonmouth, Mariah, and Shades didn't have the impact like Fisk's Wesley, Madam Gao, Leland or the Russian brothers. I felt this was the weakest of the Marvel Netflix series. Enjoyable to an extent, but a let down mostly. The action sequences were muted as well, with Luke just walking and bullets bouncing off him while he is tossing people left and right.

Yea I had the same issue. The problem I found was when you have a guy like Cage who is super strong, almost unkillable and has almost no connections to anyone, you need to put him up against a compelling villain or it gets boring watching bullets bounce off him. Once they killed pop, it seems like it should have taken Cage an afternoon to shutdown Cottonmouth's organization. But it didn't and it kind of dragged, especially since even in episode 10 you had Diamondback's goons trying to fight, or shoot Luke. By that point it was frustrating. And Diamond back being kind of a crappy villain (who tried to fight Luke with strength) didn't help. At least the Jessica Jones writers were smart and made her nemesis a mind control guy not someone else also super strong.

I think it would have worked better if the show was a few episodes shorter, and then once Cottonmouth died, make the only villain Mariah and have her use her influence to turn the cops and society against Luke.

[Kel Varnsen]

My big issue was that Luke was way too powerful compared to everyone he was up against. People shooting at him or trying to fight him got old pretty fast. At least with Daredevil his powers don't make him unbeatable, just equalize things so that he is as good as a really good martial arts guy who could see.

[Kel Varnsen]

I think it is just a writing choice to show how people on the street see The Avengers. I mean thinking of Civil War did anyone actually call Cap, Captain America? His friends called him Cap or Steve, and the media called him Captain Steve Rogers. So I can kind of see people on the street having various names for him.

[ribboninthesky1]

I just watched that scene again - perhaps Mable was killing two birds with one stone, as it were.  Shooting the uncle seemed to be more about him betraying the family by meeting with the Puerto Ricans.  Either way, Mariah's rape was cannon fodder for Cottomouth's flashbacks and used to set up Diamondback as the main villain for the latter half of the season.  We didn't get to see young Mariah's pov because that was never the writers' intent. 

[theatremouse]

For the relative-invincibility really just made the fight scenes feel too-long, too-fast, especially towards the tail of the season. But I don't know that he was necessarily too powerful in general for me. I can't say I enjoyed it, but I suppose I appreciated that what we've been presented with was this literally bulletproof guy, and people keep coming at him with bullets, and dropping buildings on his head, and all sorts of other violence, and from that he comes out relatively unscathed, yet they still managed to create a sense of "how can he possibly win".

Usually when a character is too invincible it gets boring because you know he'll win, but in this case not bleeding to death<> win. He still had to worry about all the not-bulletproof people nearby when maniacs started shooting at him. He still had to worry about things like police and evidence and being believed. It was an interesting juxtaposition for me that the whole series, here's this guy who you can't stab if you wanted to, and while many people would fear violence and thus think him invulnerable because violence (except the Judas bullets) can't do squat to him, he was continuously vulnerable. He was continuously hurt.

They couldn't do away with the fight scenes entirely, because for a long time in theory his enemies did not know he was bulletproof (or didn't know the person they were shooting at was him), so it wouldn't make sense for them not to try to shoot him. But it does mean a lot of those scenes could've been a lot shorter.

Like Mariah, I wonder if he can be poisoned, drowned, etc. She poses good questions. So I anticipate in future seasons now that people who know he's bulletproof, his enemies will probably try to come up with some other means of killing him. They've established the Judas bullet so I suppose they can't put that back in the bottle, but it'd also be boring if everyone just constantly shows up with those, every criminal mastermind buying them. So I expect the villains to branch out. Plus if they just keep going into bigger-badder-better weapons, it turns into infinite oneupsmanship, which is pretty much kiss of death boring bossfight.

[AKA...CJ86]

I love the female characters this show introduces.  

Hated seeing the Captain get booted.

[AKA...CJ86]

Well, Mariah mentioned killing Candace if she folds...

...she isn't too much longer for this series.

[AKA...CJ86]

So... Mariah's party rival... he's goner right?

[Margherita Erdman]

On 10/2/2016 at 7:21 PM, Tvtimebomb said:

Plus, why is there so much use of the n-word?  It's overused in my opinion. 

 

On 10/2/2016 at 7:26 PM, Nanrad said:

I don't think the n-word is overused. 

I'm torn on this point. It's realistic slang. There's no need for code-switching when so few white people are around, right?

And yet — my 13-year-old son has really been looking forward to this show (after being forbidden to watch Jessica Jones), and for his sake I was really hoping it would be a return to PG-13 like Daredevil. So far it looks that way except for the n-word. which encompasses multitudes he is not yet capable of understanding.

[Kel Varnsen]

9 minutes ago, Margherita Erdman said:

 

I'm torn on this point. It's realistic slang. There's no need for code-switching when so few white people are around, right?

And yet — my 13-year-old son has really been looking forward to this show (after being forbidden to watch Jessica Jones), and for his sake I was really hoping it would be a return to PG-13 like Daredevil. So far it looks that way except for the n-word. which encompasses multitudes he is not yet capable of understanding.

Daredevil was PG-13? I certainly thought it would have been R rated (had it been a movie).  Just thinking back to some of the memorable violent scenes in season 1, like the bowling alley fight or Kingpin decapitating a guy with his car door, I think it would be R rated had it been a movie. The violence in Luke Cage has been far less brutal.

Edited October 22, 2016 by Kel Varnsen

[maczero]

 

On 10/9/2016 at 10:55 PM, Kel Varnsen said:

I liked that although a reference to Iron Man and The Hulk destroying a whole section of a city in Age of Ultron would have worked better for me.

I said it before and I'll say it again.  The only way I can fit the netflix shows into the MCU, is if the netflix shows take place only a few months after the first avengers film.  Too many people seem to only barely know the avengers and the invasion of ny is still seems so fresh in the public's memory.

Although there is an mcu event that I think should've been mentioned by Mariah.  One of the Hulk's first rampages happened in harlem.

Quote

Also how does Stryker make money selling those bullets? I thought that was Justin Hammer tech. Why would he be selling weapons to cops using a gangster as a middleman?

I don't believe the bullets were hammer tech.  Yes, Cottonmouth was selling Hammer tech guns but Shades said the bullets came out of eastern europe (most likely reversed alien tech).  

[AKA...CJ86]

Loved that Colleen Wing tease with Clair!

For me the highlight... and what I think I enjoyed the most were the various female characters introduced in the series.  And yes, even Candace... poor, poor Candace.  I knew it was coming... but to wait that long to get there... I thought for sec she might just make it.

The weak link for me was Diamondback.  I found him very corny pre-power suit and even cornier, which I didn't think was possible... with the power suit.  I enjoyed the series but for me, Diamondback was the one blemish.

Totally shipping Mariah/Shades...

Edited October 23, 2016 by CyberJawa1986
Edits and stuff, yo'...

[Captanne]

When you meet a guy wearing a tie in a comic book-based series under a bridge at night alone and his name is "Scarfe"?  Probably best not to let him get behind you.

 

ETA:  Plover:  

Edited October 23, 2016 by Captanne

[JBC344]

On ‎10‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 4:57 PM, Kel Varnsen said:

I also just remembered, the funniest part of the episode. During the rally someone was holding up a sign that said something like "the only super freak we like is Rick James".

OMG, I totally missed this, but hilarious.  I want to go back and watch just to spot it. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Luke: Dumb men like little girls.  Me? I ponder a woman. 

Tone: Who is "we," you fake ass Ray Charles?

Misty: Benjamin Franklin said, "The only way that three people can keep a secret is if two of them are dead." First Dante, now Shameek. Chico's the last man standing.
Rafael: Benjamin Franklin. Didn't he electrocute himself flying a kite in a rainstorm? I wouldn't base any theories on that fool.
Misty: Benjamin Franklin is on the $100 bill, Scarfe.
Rafael: So? He wasn't a president.
Misty: That's even more impressive!

Edited November 5, 2016 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I am not a Marvel Comics reader and the only Marvel stuff I have watched are Agents of SHIELD (which I began watching out of loyalty to Joss Whedon), Jessica Jones, and Deadpool, so I know very little about the Marvel-verse.

Jessica Jones really sucked me in with the first episode. I don't think Luke Cage succeeded as well at that, but I think that they approached the first episodes very differently. With Jessica Jones, the first episode was really about establishing Jessica as a character. With Luke Cage, the first episode was about establishing a world and a much larger cast. What I liked about the first episode of Luke Cage is that it gave us a very definite feel for the neighborhood and Luke's place in it. It also really helps that the rest of the cast is AWESOME.

When the guys were arguing in the barber shop at the beginning, it reminded me of the scenes in Coming to America and then I realized that Pops was Akeem and Sammi's landlord (I initially remembered him from The Wire). Mahershala Ali is perfect as Cottonmouth (I liked him on House of Cards but this role is so much more interesting). I have a soft spot for Frank Whaley so it's always nice to see him (although I feel like the last few roles I've seen him play are all law enforcement). And it's always awesome to see Alfre Woodard!

I liked Mike Colter on The Good Wife. He was menacing even when he didn't say a word. I was a bit disappointed in his Luke Cage on Jessica Jones, but I like him much better on his own show. He finally gets to have a personality and some spark. I felt like his character on Jessica Jones was too blank (as opposed to inscrutable which I guess they were going for?).

Loved the shot of Cottonmouth standing in front of the Biggie portrait with the crown on top of his head.

On 10/2/2016 at 0:16 AM, Bama said:

1 - Prison Luke

I'm guessing that Prison Luke is nowhere close to Prison Mike!

Edited November 3, 2016 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Rafael: You'd better shoot like Cheryl Miller, not Barney Miller.
Misty: Sometimes I forget how old you are.

Bobby: Took your rook, rookie.

Pop: Boys run. Men stand.

[Margherita Erdman]

On 10/22/2016 at 3:36 PM, Kel Varnsen said:

Daredevil was PG-13? I certainly thought it would have been R rated (had it been a movie).  Just thinking back to some of the memorable violent scenes in season 1, like the bowling alley fight or Kingpin decapitating a guy with his car door, I think it would be R rated had it been a movie. The violence in Luke Cage has been far less brutal.

You are right, I was dashing off a post and I should have been more clear that I was rating Daredevil only by my own lights. As I have had reason to discover, all of the Marvel Netflix shows are and will be rated TV-MA, but they have very different qualities, and because the Marvel name and cast of characters (and home-based accessibility through Netflix) are so attractive to the middle-school set, we parents of those middle-schoolers are trying to sift through the shows and decide one by one what we will let them watch. Just look at the reviews and recommendations on Common Sense Media (a site/app devoted to helping determine what media content is appropriate for what ages) for these shows and you'll see they range from ~11-18.

I totally get why Marvel wants to keep its blockbuster movie properties mostly PG-13 (saying no to Deadpool was also an unpopular decision in our house) and then create a space for consistently adult content in streaming, but it is a pain in the ass if you have a kid who's not a little kid but not an mature older teen, either.

So — Daredevil was a no for my son at first, just to be on the safe side, but then it became clear that most of his friends were watching it, not to mention a family friend was deeply involved in its production and to my Asperger's-type son it felt disloyal and hypocritical to avoid it (especially when said family friend has a son his age who had of course seen it all), so I finally caved and in the end decided that while violent, Daredevil is literally comic book violent, and the characters are drawn in pretty broad strokes, and there's no complicated sexual stuff, so, you know, whatever. [Yeah, yeah, awesome parenting, but I'm hoping that some of you either remember being 13 or have some experience parenting a 13-year-old and know that you pick your battles.]

Jessica Jones was and is a hard no because of the intense psychosexual violence, as well as the sudden and arbitrary acts of extreme personal cruelty, depicted and implied.

Luke Cage is a weird one. Like I said, I think the racial and social content is more problematic for a younger audience than the sex and violence. I have been having some interesting conversations about the show with my son and his friends who are watching it.

Edited November 3, 2016 by Margherita Erdman

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Rafael: Now I got it all figured out. I thought you didn't have a boyfriend because you love the brothers and not many brothers can get with a girl who carry a gun and kick their ass. But that's not the reason.
Misty: Oh, so now you an expert?
Rafael: The reason is you're a Celtics fan living in New York City.
Misty: I like the Pistons.
Rafael: Oh shit!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Noooooooo, not Pop!!

I knew it was just a matter of time before Cottonmouth took out Tone. Even in the first episode, there was tension between them when Tone demanded to know what was going on and Cottonmouth just said that it was above his paygrade. It would have been bad enough that Tone went against Cottonmouth's orders, but he did it at Pop's which was supposed to be Switzerland. I think that even if Pop hadn't been killed, Cottonmouth still would have thrown Tone off the roof just for violating the neutrality of the barber shop. But killing Pop was way over the line, even for Cottonmouth.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 10/1/2016 at 11:20 PM, thuganomics85 said:

Of course, now the script has flipped again with Cottonmouth finding out where he lives from Scarfe (because that creep has a tracker on Misty's car, apparently)

I'm 99% sure Scarfe said that he found Luke's address using the GPS on Misty's phone, which makes more sense since she didn't drive to Luke's place after they left the club. When she left his place, there was a car waiting for her which I assumed was an Uber.

The hilarious thing is that after the first episode, I made a comment about how the last few roles I've seen Frank Whaley play are law enforcement. I almost added that hopefully this time he wouldn't turn out to be some sort of crazy jerk (because he's been one or both in the things I've seen him in recently). So OF COURSE he's on the take and killing Chico and who knows what else! Such a shame because I really liked his partnership with Misty.

Loved Luke basically strolling through Cottonmouth's Fort Knox and batting guys away like flies.

Poor Genghis Connie! But good to know that Cottonmouth has absolutely no fucks to give.

Edited November 4, 2016 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Squabbles: Strategy's the name of the game if you want to whip some serious ass. Stay on your center line.  Head, chin, chest, stomach, and if you have to, get at them nuts. Stay inside your man's shoulders.
Luke: You used to box?
Squabbles: I used to live on 42nd Street back in the day. Five Deadly Venoms, Clan of the White Lotus, Five Fingers of Death.
Luke: You think you can fight because you watch kung fu flicks?

Luke: You'd choose Jet Li over Bruce Lee? Nah, you can't oversee my training.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Cottonmouth: Koko, this ain't PS 154. You ain't gotta raise your hand, man.
Koko: I've been reading this book.
Cottonmouth: Ha, you reading now?

Man: I can't believe that bitch shot me.
Cop: Got a name on that bitch who shot you?
Man: I ain't say I got shot.
Cop: No snitching, huh?

Luke: Where'd [Aisha] get the gun?
Woman: Yo, I plead the eighth.
Luke: You mean the fifth.
Woman: Yeah, that shit. I plead the fifth. 

Misty: Don't you get tired of hanging out near crime scenes?

Shades: You can't let this dude drive you stupid. 

Edited November 5, 2016 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Kel Varnsen]

On ‎2016‎-‎11‎-‎03 at 11:41 AM, Margherita Erdman said:

So — Daredevil was a no for my son at first, just to be on the safe side, but then it became clear that most of his friends were watching it, not to mention a family friend was deeply involved in its production and to my Asperger's-type son it felt disloyal and hypocritical to avoid it (especially when said family friend has a son his age who had of course seen it all), so I finally caved and in the end decided that while violent, Daredevil is literally comic book violent, and the characters are drawn in pretty broad strokes, and there's no complicated sexual stuff, so, you know, whatever. [Yeah, yeah, awesome parenting, but I'm hoping that some of you either remember being 13 or have some experience parenting a 13-year-old and know that you pick your battles.]

Daredevil is a weird version of comic book violence. It is not like what you would typically see where people get bashed in the head and get back up and keep fighting or get shot with no blood, there are actual injuries and blood and people getting killed.

And I wouldn't worry too much about your son watching it.  When I was his age I saw Terminator 2 in theatres. And I am pretty sure before I was 12 I had already seen Commando, Die Hard 2, Rambo, and the original Robocop.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I didn't read the comics so I liked finally getting Luke's backstory. When Luke turned around at the end and announced his name to the reporters, I thought well, so much for keeping your head down! Does that mean the Agents of SHIELD are going to come looking for him since it's public knowledge that he has powers?