Luke Cage Season 1 finale discussion: You know my Steez

Hello everyone and welcome to the final Luke Cage season 1 catchup discussion post. The season has gone past quickly but on the whole I have very much enjoyed this season. The protagonist is great, as was the supporting cast, and it was nice to have a change of location to Harlem rather than being in Hells Kitchen like both Daredevil and Jessica Jones. I will say that this season did dip with the switch from Cotton Mouth to Diamond Back in a similar way that the second season of Daredevil dipped when focus shifted from primarily the Punisher to the hordes of Hand ninjas.

The episode was actually quite unusually structured as the “big boss battle” came at the beginning of the episode. At first I thought that the fight may span the whole episode, littered with flashbacks that mirror the fight in some way. I’m glad it didn’t though as there wasn’t much variety in the fight choreography, but on the other hand who doesn’t like seeing guys get launched into stuff? I was waiting for Diamond Back to escape the ambulance or the hospital but it didn’t happen. He stayed out of the way right until the end so that the (more interesting) Cotton Mouth case could take centre stage. He did however leave a lasting impression with a teaser for a future return (eye roll) at the end of the episode as the doctor who made Luke looks to be working on him too. Do we need to see the fight again though? He’d just be given the same powers Luke has (like the suit did) and would lose again like he did here. Unless he calms down and gets a good overhaul I don’t need to see him again. Sorry Diamond Back.

Although I called the Shades messaging Candace thing beforehand, I was still left surprised as I underestimated Shades. I just thought he was going to kidnap her and try and convince her to come back on his and Mariah’s side…that did not happen! He just shot her straight in the head without flinching! It made me feel disappointed in him and I don’t know why because he wasn’t looking to be redeemed in any way. He’s a villain but I still felt that he let himself down somehow by just killing an innocent girl in cold blood.

When you step back and look at it, this was actually quite a sad end to the season. Mariah and Shades remained free and took over the club, rubbing it in the faces of everyone who liked Cotton Mouth by taking down his signature office picture in the process. Candace died, and Luke ended up going back to prison for a crime he didn’t do in the first place! Claire’s tease of getting her lawyer friend probably helps set up the Defenders so I’m sure he won’t be in prison for long but it still was an unlucky way Luke to end the season.

A strong enough first season and I look forward to seeing more of Luke Cage. Next up on my timetable for this slot is season 1 of Iron Fist. I know it has had some criticism but I will very much go into it with an open mind. But until then, thanks for reading my catchup thoughts!

DD Rating: 9/10

Luke Cage Season 1 episode 12 discussion: Soliloquy of Chaos

Hello and welcome to the latest Marvel Netflix catchup post, this time covering Luke Cage 1×12, Soliloquy of Chaos. A lot went on in this episode, and it produced a number of scenes and threads that were both enjoyable and interesting. One of those moments was a simple bit of light-heartedness: the scene where Cage stopped an armed shop robbery. It was a simple scene you would expect early on in a superhero show or movie to act as a kick starter for their super hero career. Luke was a bit late to the party and still argues that he’s no hero, but this kind of stuff continued boosting his popularity with the people of Harlem.

A character that I had grown fond of over the course of this season was Shades, who left me both disappointed and proud at different points of the episode. The disappointment came when he was in the prison cell when he was determined to keep quiet and remain loyal to Diamond Back, even though we knew that Diamond Back already planned to kill him upon release. You just wanted him to co-operate even though you knew he wasn’t going to. He spoke of loyalty and not to test his which just made you feel all the more bad for him. The proud feeling soon swooped in though as he took out Diamond Back’s hit men and promised to take him down. I still fear that his union with Maiah is going to cost him in some way but I’ll root for them. They said the enemy of my enemy is my friend and I don’t like Diamond Back (at all) so of course I’ll root for them, even more so if they actually help Luke in the process.

And of course we have to talk about Diamond Back’s suit. What the hell was that!? Where did he get it from? Did he nip over to Daredevil’s suit making guy. He now seemingly matches Luke’s powers and if they were to have dove more into those without powers getting on an equal playing field to fight then it would have been more interesting (like the equalists in Korra). But apart from the drill bullets it really didn’t come up that much – he just wanted to torture Cage. Taking on the copycat villain trope will at least make for more of an equal and entertaining end fight but it feels a tad unimaginative. I get that he’s jealous of Luke but I thought he’d go down the “take away his powers” route. Clearly I was wrong.

I am very much looking forward to the finale and hoping Diamond Back and Mariah get their comeuppance. I’d take even just one of them getting it (as long as it is Diamond Back: I do not like the guy). Thanks for reading!

DD Rating: 8.25/10

Luke Cage Season 2 episode 11 discussion: Now you’re mine

Hello everyone and welcome to another Luke Cage catchup post with episode 11 of season 2, Now you’re mine. After the shoot-out kicked off at the end of the last episode, episode 11really dealt with the aftermath. The episode focussed on those inside trying to escape while the police dealt with the hostage situation inside. I liked how the episode was contained with everyone involved in the same problem. It made a change from flicking around different locations.

One guy I felt really bad for is Shades. I have really enjoyed him so far, but he basically got screwed over by Diamond Back in this episode. He’s a smart guy and always follows a plan to keep things organised and controlled as much as possible. We saw this in how focussed he was with Mariah when covering up Cotton Mouth’s death. He seemed to be getting on less and less with Diamond Back as the episode went on as it was clear that the new guy in charge had not thought things through properly. He just kept making presumptions that he could guarantee were actually true. Shades kept warning him that they would get caught if they carried on like this, and in a cruel twist of irony Shades did indeed get arrested while Diamond Back escaped.

Diamond Back has become so infuriating but I can’t tell if that makes him a good villain or not. I really dislike him because he has hardly any logic whatsoever. He is also very harsh; slagging off Luke’s mother for example, he just needs to calm down. And how is this Luke’s fault anyway? What I would like to know is how his childhood even worked. Did he know as a child growing up who his dad was? Was this common knowledge? It’s all still quite hard to properly understand what he keeps banging on about.

But…Diamond Back was not the most foolish character in the episode. That has to go to the guy (Sugar, I believe he was known as) who was overseeeing the hostages. If he had seen any tv or film group hostage situation ever then he should have known that any sort of movement or medical emergency is an escape plan in disguise! Especially when they need to move to a different room. Don’t fall for it! Meanwhile a real medical emergency was going on downstairs with Misty bleeding badly from the gun shot wound. Cue some more gruesome scenes of Claire dealing with lots of blood and sticking things into people in a painful looking manner. This show has made me look away and shudder multiple times this season.

Overall a solid episode with some real tension being built up through the episode. As much as I dislike Diamond Back, you have no clue what he’s going to do next, but you do know that nobody is safe when he’s around. I am very much looking forward to the last couple of episodes.

DD Rating: 8/10

Luke Cage Season 1 episode 8 discussion: Blowin up the Spot

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Luke Cage catchup with 1×8, Blowin up the Spot. After taking a summer break mid-way through the season I am back and am pretty sure that I’ve caught back up so I remember what I need to. Last episode ended with quite frankly, the shocking death of Cornell Stokes aka Cotton Mouth. I say shocking because he had been the lead antagonist to this point and looked set to be so for the remainder of the season. But he got his head caved in with a mic stand and his reign of villainy came to an end.

The Cotton Mouth situation meant that you go in to the episode wondering who was going to fill the villainous hole that the musical gangster had left. His murderer, Mariah Dillard seemed to be a contender who has now been somewhat taken under the wing of Pitbull (the rapper not the breed of dog) lookalike Shades. Their relationship is a bit weird and I’m not sure if Shades fancies Mariah, but I can guarantee you that feeling isn’t mutual. Even if they do get together, I would not be surprised to see her drop Shades and have him framed for something (maybe even her cousin’s murder) before the season is up.

The other contender came in the form of who I originally thought was some crazed assassin hired by the late Cotton Mouth to kill Luke Cage. He seemed pretty wild when he tipped that ambulance. Not only was he revealed to be a childhood friend of Luke’s out for revenge, but was also revealed to be the mysterious Diamond Back that Shades and Cotton Mouth had spoken about previously.

By the end of the episode he seemed to be the more likely to take the main villain spot, especially as he can get in to physical altercations with Luke, or at least more so than Mariah. He was wild eyed, taunting Luke and spitting out bible references left, right and centre, which leads to my initial (it may well go away) concern about him. He all seems a bit over the top for the netflix corner of the MCU. The fact that he gave me that impression while the huge bald Kingpin and the mind controlling Killgrave didn’t says something about the portrayal of Diamond Back. Those other villains felt grounded despite their unusual quirks and abilities. It just felt like the actor was trying to act a little too crazy for crazy sake. Also the brother reveal fell a bit flat and didn’t help the over the top nature of his début.

Apart from that I thought the episode was a strong continuation. We got more of an insight into Luke’s abilities and how they can become a problem if he does somehow get injured. Claire remained helpful and I do enjoy her as a character. Hopefully she meets Iron Fist and is the reason for the Defenders forming, but that’s just my fantasy booking. Misty is also growing on me as a character. You can tell that she is really attached to her job but she needs to calm down a little bit, even though I felt that Claire was being a bit unnecessarily aggressive towards her near the end of the episode.

DD Rating: 7.5/10

Luke Cage season 1 episodes 5 and 6 discussion: Just to get a rep and Suckas need bodyguards

Hello everyone and welcome to another double dose of Luke Cage catchup. I will say that I am rather enjoying this show so far and am also growing fonder of Luke with each episode as he wasn’t really doing much for me in Jessica Jones. These episodes also gave us the Luke Cage debut for unlucky doctor to the superheroes Claire Temple, who is now three for three in Marvel Netflix shows. She looks to be hanging around to, which is of course a good thing, as she was nothing more than a one off guest star in Jessica Jones. We need more of Claire!

Luke really seems to be embracing his powers and is taking it to Cottonmouth head on. The pair of funeral speeches were both really well done and exemplified the mind sets of both characters. There is also something just so enjoyable about seeing Luke Cage completely no-sell bullet shots and punches and we got to see both of these in abundance. What is funny as in these kinds of shows and films, the bad guys and their soldiers normally get criticised for being such poor shots and being unable to hit the heroes. The villains in this show are just so unlucky: they are the most accurate shooters in TV history as they always hit Luke, only for him to be unaffected because of his bullet proof skin.

Detective Scarfe however was not bulletproof, and ended up taking a serious of shots from Cottonmouth himself. I really did like the character, even when he was revealed to be dirty. He and Misty were opposites in many ways but they made a good detective duo. I just wish they got more screen time together. He also got the chance to somewhat redeem himself, helping to bring Cottonmouth down with all of the notes and records he made. Luke must have been so annoyed though as he was carrying the wounded detective around for the whole episode, only for him to die right at the very end. A question I do have is why didn’t Cornell just finish him off in the first place. He has no problem with killing people and could have easily made sure he was dead. He was worried what would happen if Scarfe lived but clearly not enough to have just finished the job in the first place.

Although he seems to be working to get the money he lost back, the threat of Diamondback still looms over Cornell. Will we ever get to see Diamondback? Or is he going to end up being a villain for another season (or show?) For some reason I also fear in the back of my head that Diamondback is going to just turn up and kill Cottonmouth at some point. I hope not as I am really enjoying Cottonmouth as the villain at the moment. I am also liking Shades as his allegiance is not completely clear: his nickname is very fitting in that regard.

Now I don’t like Mariah at all but I had to side with her when reporters were being rude and pushy towards her. I generally hate the portrayal of journalists in tv shows but this woman was very sneaky in how she went about exposing her. You are supposed to be on the journalist’s side when exposing one of the villains but for some reason I wasn’t. The reporter just cam across as too smug or unlikeable for it to properly work. I’d say it was my one real problem that I had with two really strong episodes.

DD Rating: (5) 8.4/10   (6) 8/10