Luke Cage - General Discussion

[catrice2]

On 10/20/2018 at 5:32 PM, HunterHunted said:

Yes, Marvel will have a wealth of characters available to them in a year, but they have not done right by characters of color and female characters in the 10 years of the MCU. So it's not that great to cancel your 2 shows with primarily minority casts. It's even worse when you consider the roles for actors of color in the film side of the MCU: the protagonist's quippy Black friend (Rhodey in the Iron Man films), the protagonist's quippy Black friend (Sam in the Captain America films), the protagonist's wise and thoughtful Black friend (Heimdall in the Thor films), the protagonist's quippy Asian friend (Ned in Spider Man), the protagonist's quippy Mexican-American friend (Luis in the Ant Man films), and the protagonist's serious straight man friend who is Asian (Wong in Doctor Strange).

They've had 3 directors/showrunners of color: Coogler for Black Panther, Hodari Coker for Luke Cage, and Melissa Tanchareon for Agents of SHIELD. Five properties with female showrunners/directors: Agent Carter, Captain Marvel, Jessica Jones, Agents of SHIELD, and Runaways. These are not good stats, especially because it looks like Marvel shoves their female and minority characters and decision makers off to the TV ghetto, neglects them, and cancels them.

But saying that they have a wealth of other characters to choose from in the future is not acceptable. It will be at least 2021 before we get a Black Panther sequel. Technically, Marvel can't do anything with any of the characters they are trying to reacquire the rights to until the deal is finalized, so at best 2022.

They canceled Agent Carter, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage. ABC has wanted to cancel Agents of SHIELD for years. I don't think they get how much residual goodwill from Black Panther that they're squandering. It really feels like a big fuck you to fans who care about diversity and representation.

And guess what? I don't want Moon Knight in place of Luke Cage. So we're supposed to get 1 headlining Black hero for the MCU? No Asian and no Latinx? But we get a couple of white ladies, who have had to dick around at the margins for years. Thanks.

This is not at all implying that Luke Cage was perfect or even not highly problematic; it was. But let's not pretend that Luke Cage didn't come out 2 years ago and trailblaze some of the themes that Black Panther would later explore. I don't think Coogler copied anything from Luke Cage, but the fact that Luke Cage was able to use rap and hip hop in its soundtrack and explore themes of Black identity, racism, class, and incarceration to some acclaim probably helped ease the minds of executives when Coogler wanted to do something similar. And even still you can tell in appearance of the Black Panther cast in Infinity War and the lack of merchandising that TPTB thought it was going to do Ant Man numbers.

Wasn't the director of Thor Ragnarok a minority?

[Dobian]

13 hours ago, millennium said:

Thank you, Netflix.   For the second time in a week.

The second seasons of both Iron Fist and Luke Cage were just awful.   Jessica Jones wasn't much better.

 

Funny, I liked season 2 of both Iron Fist and Luke Cage better than the first.  But season 2 of Jessica Jones was a pale comparison to season 1.

In Iron Fist, Danny was far less annoying, Colleen kicked ass, Colleen and Misty together were a highlight, Mary Walker was interesting, and Ward was enjoyable.  The only negatives for me: Davos was a horribly boring villain, and Joy was an absolute killjoy.

Luke Cage season 2 shined with its villains, both Bushmaster and Mariah, and Shades was awesome.  Season 1 was disjointed by switching from Cottonmouth  to Diamondback midstream.  The only negative to me for season 2 was the ending, Luke as Michael Corleone just doesn't work for me.

Edited October 22, 2018 by Dobian

[HunterHunted]

33 minutes ago, catrice2 said:

Wasn't the director of Thor Ragnarok a minority?

He is. I forgot about Taika. Thanks for the reminder.

[Taryn74]

1 hour ago, Dobian said:

Funny, I liked season 2 of both Iron Fist and Luke Cage better than the first.  But season 2 of Jessica Jones was a pale comparison to season 1.

In Iron Fist, Danny was far less annoying, Colleen kicked ass, Colleen and Misty together were a highlight, Mary Walker was interesting, and Ward was enjoyable.  The only negatives for me: Davos was a horribly boring villain, and Joy was an absolute killjoy.

Luke Cage season 2 shined with its villains, both Bushmaster and Mariah, and Shades was awesome.  Season 1 was disjointed by switching from Cottonmouth  to Diamondback midstream.  

Completely agree with all of this.  I'm especially disappointed about not getting more Iron Fist, but I was interested to see where they were going with Luke Cage too.  Bummer.

 

1 hour ago, Dobian said:

The only negative to me for season 2 was the ending, Luke as Michael Corleone just doesn't work for me.

I was interested in seeing where they were going with it, as IMO Luke has always been the most boring part of his own show, and at least this was something different.  Heh.

[Kel Varnsen]

On 10/09/2018 at 6:01 PM, Taryn74 said:

I agree!  I'm very interested to see where they take Luke as the overseer of the crime lords of Harlem.

Not sure I get people accusing Luke of being a crime boss. He shut down Mariah as boss of Harlem. After that do people thing he should keep smashing all criminals until he shuts down crime world wide? Because if he is not going to do that then negotiation seems pretty reasonable. 

Also related to that DW is super annoying about this. And related to this every time I heard about DW I thought of the show Arthur that my kids used to watch. Someone with better video editing skills to me needs to make a video of Luke walking down the street to the Arthur theme song.

[Taryn74]

57 minutes ago, Kel Varnsen said:

And related to this every time I heard about DW I thought of the show Arthur that my kids used to watch. Someone with better video editing skills to me needs to make a video of Luke walking down the street to the Arthur theme song.

Ha!  I had the same problem.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Discuss any past or future projects here!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Mahershala Ali (Cottonmouth) has been nominated for a Golden Globe!

Best Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture: Mahershala Ali (“Green Book”)

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Mahershala Ali wom another Oscar!

[rmontro]

Just finished watching season 2.  Too bad it got cancelled because the story appeared to be going somewhere.  I'm not sure how what Luke was doing translated into being a "crime boss", but I do understand why he was banned from the barber shop.

I was expecting a big showdown with Bushmaster in the finale, but it was a pleasant surprise that they avoided that.

What happened with Shades is a good lesson, and I feel bad to say this but it is true:  Never trust the police, they will lie to you all day if they think it will get them what they want on you.  And how crappy was his lawyer, the deal should have been made in exchange for his testimony, not on a conviction.  Of course he was a snake anyway, so no one will care.

The show was well written, Mariah was a great villain, Colter was likable, Luke Cage was likable, Misty was likable, even Bushmaster was likable.  That said, I have a new attitude about these Marvel Netflix series.  They're a bit of a chore to watch.  The pace is painfully slow at 13 episodes (I think the remaining shows have 10, which is a smart move).  And aside from Daredevil, there are no costumes, so they don't feel like superhero shows.  I think if they just added a little more of a fun level, instead of being so real and gritty all the time, they might be more enjoyable.

The episode with Luke and Iron Fist together was a good example, it was more fun.  They make a great buddy combination.

[Kel Varnsen]

1 minute ago, rmontro said:

Just finished watching season 2.  Too bad it got cancelled because the story appeared to be going somewhere.  I'm not sure how what Luke was doing translated into being a "crime boss", but I do understand why he was banned from the barber shop.

I didn't really get that. It seemed like he decided to negotiate with other NYC crime bosses, for like peace treaties, to keep Harlem safe. The other option seems like it would be fight every boss and gang in the city forever. Is that really a better choice?

[Hanahope]

was there an old forum that discussed the individual episodes?  I looked in the Vault and didn't find one.  Just curious, as I just started S2 and wanted to see the prior discussions.

[Raja]

Just now, Hanahope said:

was there an old forum that discussed the individual episodes?  I looked in the Vault and didn't find one.  Just curious, as I just started S2 and wanted to see the prior discussions.

It looks like they merged all the topics into a single thread so didn't vault a forum 

[Hanahope]

The GOT kiss of death poison strikes again.

[tv echo]

‘One Piece’ Director Marc Jobst Talks Adapting the Best-Selling Manga and His ‘Daredevil’ Memories
BY BRIAN DAVIDS    AUGUST 31, 2023
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/one-piece-director-adapting-manga-netflix-marc-jobst-interview-1235577459/ 

Quote

In the aforementioned Luke Cage’s “Wig Out,” you were tasked with deepening the bond between Jessica Henwick and Simone Missick’s characters. And the last we saw of Colleen and Misty in the episode was when they walked off into the bokeh. Were you directing those moments with a potential Daughters of the Dragon spinoff in mind? It seemed like seeds were being planted.
Yes, absolutely. There was some relationship building in the episode, starting with the boxing ring training. That culminated in Colleen deliberately leading Misty into a fight to get over her self-pity, knowing that Misty would rise to it, which she did. The two of them going off into the smoke and bokeh as a definite twosome was a nod to the potential of Daughters of the Dragon.
*  *  *
You worked with the late great Ron Cephas Jones [pictured above with Mike Colter, Rosario Dawson and Jobst] on both your Luke Cage episodes. Do you have a lasting memory from your interactions?
Yes, oh yes. This man could listen. He had no need to be loud and to prove himself and to jazz about. He just listened respectfully and humbly, and then delivered performances that, without trying, somehow had gravitas.