Marvel's Luke Cage

[takewithfood]

Trailer is out!  BOOM:



First season will be available September 30th on Netflix!

~TWF

[Gris]

Looks great as expected, I like the cast. I'll miss the dynamic with Iron Fist, though. That said...

[takewithfood]

Oh yeah, I meant to post that but plum forgot. Thank you!

I'm still a little skeptical of Lorras as Danny Rand, but this series hasn't let me down yet.

~TWF

[takewithfood]

Full trailer is out:



~TWF

[Gris]

Looking very good, also the nods on the flashback are quite funny.

[takewithfood]

Hey, so it's been up for a day. I'm on episode 3, so far so good. Doesn't come out of the gate as fast or as flashy as Daredevil or Jessica Jones, but its building.

~TWF

[WildKnight]

Haven't finished yet (I have 4 or 5 episodes left, something like that), but so far its my favorite of the Marvel TV shows yet.

[Gris]

Watched the first two, liked the slow build up. I'm enjoying that certain omnipresence of music (or at least more blatant than in the other series) and the depiction of the character.

[takewithfood]

Yeah, the atmosphere, music, and cinematography are excellent, especially in the first couple episodes. I'm on Ep 7 now, like the steady build-up, and the fact that I have no idea where they're going with all this. Daredevil and Jessica Jones had that, too: the sense that the story isn't just writing itself, and you aren't really sure how it's going to end.

~TWF

[WildKnight]

Oct 2, 2016 9:24:15 GMT -5 takewithfood said:

Yeah, the atmosphere, music, and cinematography are excellent, especially in the first couple episodes. I'm on Ep 7 now, like the steady build-up, and the fact that I have no idea where they're going with all this. Daredevil and Jessica Jones had that, too: the sense that the story isn't just writing itself, and you aren't really sure how it's going to end.

~TWF

... yeah, I have exactly the opposite opinion of Daredevil and Jones. Particularly Jones. I could have told you what Jessica Jones was going to be all about after the first episode. Every moment of that show was like having my teeth pulled without anesthetic while someone stood around trying to tell me that it was the greatest orgasm I've ever had.

Daredevil was also very predictable, but to a lesser extent, if only because it wasn't painfully hollow and shallow to watch and the action sequences weren't a total bore like they were with Jones.

Cage is the first one of these things that feels like it understands (or even cares) that you don't tell a "gritty" or 'street level' story *just* by dimming the lights and muting the color pallets, then making everybody kind of a dick so that its difficult to care if the ostensible protagonist even wins (particularly in Daredevil Season One, when the Kingpin often seemed to have some good points...). Cage actually presents us with a pretty clear dynamic, and then adds complexity by making a spectrum within each category (a villain that knows he's a bad guy and a villain that thinks of herself as an idealist, a protagonist that wants to save the neighborhood and a protagonist that just wants to lay low and be left alone, and a whole lot of people caught in the middle reacting a whole bunch of different ways...)

Cage just strikes me as a whole lot more intelligently written and three dimensional.

[takewithfood]

Man are you ever black and white and prone to ridiculous exaggeration, WK. I have missed you. ^__^

~TWF

[WildKnight]

Oct 2, 2016 11:15:55 GMT -5 takewithfood said:

Man are you ever black and white and prone to ridiculous exaggeration, WK. I have missed you. ^__^

~TWF

At no point were my exaggerations ridiculous.

But seriously... I really do think you're way off base in saying that what works so well for Cage is building off of Daredevil and Jones. Neither of those shows had a hint of subtlety and, Jones in particularly, attempted to hammer home its "message" in a way that wasn't that dissimilar from a literal hammer to the skull of the viewer. The writing on cage is just smarter *shrugs*

[takewithfood]

Oct 2, 2016 12:21:30 GMT -5 WildKnight said:

Oct 2, 2016 11:15:55 GMT -5 takewithfood said:

Man are you ever black and white and prone to ridiculous exaggeration, WK. I have missed you. ^__^

~TWF

But seriously... I really do think you're way off base in saying that what works so well for Cage is building off of Daredevil and Jones.

Pretty sure you misunderstood me. Go back and re-read.

~TWF

[WildKnight]

Oct 2, 2016 9:24:15 GMT -5 takewithfood said:

Daredevil and Jessica Jones had that, too: the sense that the story isn't just writing itself, and you aren't really sure how it's going to end.

~TWF

This. I don't get any of this from Daredevil or Jones... particularly DDS01 or Jones. 8)

[takewithfood]

Well, compare a show like Daredevil to something like Arrow, or Legends of Tomorrow, or even Agents of SHIELD. The 13-episode format and serialized plot structure make Daredevil a completely different kind of show. The writers have the freedom to advance the plot at their own pace, going slowly where they want to emphasize detail, and then hit you with explosive reveals and jarring plot twists when they want a big payoff. Prominent characters can and do die, themes evolve, and characters deal with more serious consequences in these Netflix shows. It's how they're built.

I'm still only a little over half-way through Luke Cage, so I can't speak too steadily about it, but already the show has taken some huge turns that you basically never see in other shows, particularly its prime-time, network TV competitors. Surely you see that.

No, these Netflix shows aren't quite as off-formula as, say, Season 1 Game of Thrones - they still have the predictable lead-up to a 1-on-1 showdown between the main character and the villain, for example - but most other details are pretty amorphous throughout the series. I think they all maintain a lot of suspense, and in general I just love serialized plots where the story isn't neatly wrapped up with a bow every 22 minutes.

~TWF