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Marvel's Luke Cage |OT| Bulletproof While Black - September 30th on Netflix

Why do shows more often have interesting villains than protagonists? Cottonmouth has a range of emotions. He is conflicted. He plays a mean set of keys. He enjoys music and art. Luke Cage, by contrast, is a robot. I find myself rooting for the villain because I, strangely, relate to him more.

A better show has a relatable protagonist. If the villain is more relatable you have a problem.

How many shows have you seen?
 
D

Deleted member 10571

Unconfirmed Member
I think the show's great, and I also like the Cage character in this a lot. Don't really understand all the negativity in here.
 

Joyful

Member
only 6 episodes in and I like it so far.
read a few posts about how misty is hot though and she does nothing for me
rosario is my one true love
 
I mean what's wrong with a MC being a smooth player and attracting women.

If a blind guy like Murdock can attract all types of women why can't Cage? So I necessarily wouldn't knock a character down just for that reason.
 

IKizzLE

Member
Man fuck, misty knight is gorgeous as all fuck. If my wife could look like that, I'd be ready to die any day cuz i already made it as big as I can get.
 

Jobbs

Banned
I mean what's wrong with a MC being a smooth player and attracting women.

He's not a smooth player. He's boring. He stands here and all women all fall in love with him for no real reason. The detective in episode one had a bit of a back and forth with him, but mostly there's nothing believable about every woman loving him.

He's just a terrible character in a great show. I accept that. I want to watch this show but without him in it.
 
Cage is a different sort of character. He's reserved and stoic. You cant give him shit for not being like every other character. That would be boring.

I'm hoping they make Danny Rand quite extroverted because then you've got

Matt - Painfully moral to a fault, self-destructive, careless
Jessica - Acerbecic, damaged, untrusting
Luke - Stoic, calm, holding his cards to his chest

Nice mix of personalities for Defenders.
 
He's not a smooth player. He's boring. He stands here and all women all fall in love with him for no real reason.

He's just a terrible character in a great show. I accept that. I want to watch this show but without him in it.

Then it wouldn't be a Luke Cage show.....

I mean the first episode literally showed how smooth he was, but okay. Anyway you do you.
 

Sblargh

Banned
I binge watched it yesterday on "one sitting" that lasted the entire day. Probably not a good idea, but clearly I have nothing better to do with my life and, so, here I go criticizing other people's job without having one.

Some thoughts:

Mike Colter is kind of the weak link. He is not BAD, in fact, I think he nails the more sensitive side of Luke very well, but overall every other actor and actress is just acting amazeballs around him. There is some really great acting on this show, but it kind of throws a spotlight on how the main character itself is just doing his job.

I like the "Marvels" vibe that appear sometimes of people feeling inferior and weak due to superheroes walking around.

Netflix shows department keeping the tradition of delivering the best villains in the busisness. All with interesting backstory, motivations and different kinds of evil-ness.

Luke himself got a very interesting backstory. He's also probably the purest hero on the MCU right now since Captain America was exposed on Civil War. Luke is just a good person trying to do the best because he believes in being good.

The social comments that hyped the series are there, but, hum...
it kind of annoys me how "the system is broken" is used to point out impunity and cops not being able to do their jobs thanks to pesky limitations like civil rights while a big part of the problem is exactly the opposite, isn't it? It's too many people getting unfairly thrown in the system or worse because judicial system is used as a form of social higiene to remove undesirables, due process and human rights being seen as an impediment to this enterprise. So the show is this weird mix of: Prison is horrible and abusive; it's far too easy to turn the police into a violent mob seeking revenge, which ends up with violence against innocent minorities, BUT we need more vigilantism anyway because the bad guys keep using their "lawyers" and "right to remain silent", those dastard villains!
 
He's not a smooth player. He's boring. He stands here and all women all fall in love with him for no real reason. The detective in episode one had a bit of a back and forth with him, but mostly there's nothing believable about every woman loving him.

He's just a terrible character in a great show. I accept that. I want to watch this show but without him in it.
Dude do you not get how attractive Mike Colter is
 
I honestly believe this is the most boldest and striking TV show Marvel has put out.

The fact that I'm surprised how black this show is even though I'm black says a lot and others have said this as well. Its been awhile since I've been so invested in a show.

Its going to be nice to see all these different heroes from Marvel TV shows have their personalities collide together in Defenders.
 

Alienous

Member
Mike Colter really gives a stitled performance. It's like showing any kind of emotional range causes him physical pain. There are floor tiles that are more charismatic than him.

Only on episode 2 though, so maybe he gets better.
 

SpaceWolf

Banned
I already really liked Claire as a character, but in this series her enduring ability to be totally fucking awesome hits an all time high.

Best wingman a superhero could ask for.
 

Apt101

Member
Wrapping up episode 3. I like how they made their own homage to/put their own spin on
the "hallway scene", like Daredevil. How are they going to find a villain to take on Cage at this point? Mental powers? Another invincible person?
 
Poor Claire, she has worse luck than John Mcclane.
Everywhere she goes there's a metahuman power struggle.
At this rate, she's probably going to take a vacation to Europe, her plane is going to be diverted to Latveria and she'll end up fighting Doctor Doom.
 

Sanctuary

Member
I just can't understand why the critics went gaga over this show. It's easily the weakest of the Marvel Netflix originals so far. The music cues and some of the performances are downright Gotham levels of cheese, and most of the time, any scene that's supposed to be shot for dramatic effect just comes off entirely staged. Aside from a few main characters
(Luke, Pops, Mariah and Claire, because Misty turns out to be super annoying in the end)
, the show is woefully miscast too.
Cornell
is super annoying too with his obviously forced laugh in just about every scene, and most of the other villains are ridiculous to watch also. Each time any of them would appear on screen, I just wanted that scene to end. Aside from
Mariah
.

Why do shows more often have interesting villains than protagonists? Cottonmouth has a range of emotions. He is conflicted. He plays a mean set of keys. He enjoys music and art.

Haha, what? He literally displays two emotions on the show: hubris and rage. That's about the limit of what's on display on the show, unless you're talking about
the flashbacks that use an entirely different actor.
. His character might be shown to be "multifaceted" just like most every other person on the planet, but the actor's portrayal is just downright abysmal. It has to be the script too, because I've seen this guy do great in plenty of other shows.

The writing and editing are just completely all over the map in terms of quality here.
 
Binges watch this in 1 day. Loved all the characters and capable they are. Cottonmouth was great!
Too bad episode 7 happened but it was also so good with his character. Also the ending was sort of a miss for me. It sort of feels like a setup for another season.
 

strafer

member
First episode done.

Holy shit, this show is dope.

Mike is a beast.

Also, Cottonmouth reminds me of Louis Gossett Jr.

Nice to see good ol Thea Rossi.
 

TheContact

Member
Great show I'm only 2 episode deep though. I really enjoy cottonmouth as a villain. The councilwoman mentioned something about
Fisk; I haven't watched daredevil.
Are the stories connected?

Some of you guys are doing spoiler tags wrong. Please label what episode you have spoiler tags up to before the spoiler tag.

Right way: episode 1 spoilers
spoilers

Wrong way:
episode 7 spoilers
 
Just finished it! Instead of throwing a Netflix party, my friend hosted one for me and I watched all of it in one go at his place. Writing this up now before I crash.

While I enjoyed it, I thought it was easily my least favorite season of the Marvel Netflix shows. I think it's worse than Daredevil Season 2 because while at least DD S2 is rambling and incoherent and mad, it had crazy awesome bits in the middle of its stupidity. I thought Luke Cage was pretty ho hum from the start to the end. I enjoyed some crazy cool beats (episode 9 spoilers
like the ACID BATH THAT WAS AWESOME
) and there were some great character moments (overall spoilers
like literally everything to do with Shades and his quest to find a competent villain
), but it still wasn't enough to make the show pop.

And yeah, the villains bit REALLY bothered me because they were so in your face and aggressive in how ineffective and terrible they are. They certainly aren't boring though, because they're just so... bad at everything. Except for Shades, tho

Overall, I enjoyed it but the show was pretty alright when the bar for quality is much higher. Would strongly recommend for completion's sake, though!
 

Sanctuary

Member
and there were some great character moments (overall spoilers
like literally everything to do with Shades and his quest to find a competent villain
), but it still wasn't enough to make the show pop.

And yeah, the villains bit REALLY bothered me because they were so in your face and aggressive in how ineffective and terrible they are. They certainly aren't boring though, because they're just so... bad at everything. Except for Shades, tho

I thought he was the most miscast of the villains by far, and not once did he ever seem to fit the "guy behind the guy" persona. He had no real presence and everything about him was too on the nose. He actually seemed about as bad as Wes Bentley's Blackheart.
 

Apt101

Member
Watching ep 5. I can tell these writers loved the comics, they're hitting all the high notes of the character.
"What's my name?"
.
 

shingi70

Banned
It's easily the weakest of the Netflix Marvel pilots. The main thing that was missing was momentum - something both Daredevil and Jessica Jones had. This felt sluggish, didn't give the title character enough to do, and also didn't have a very good hook at the end.



Opposite - Netflix and Marvel are 0/3 for me. So far they've all been bland and lacked character.

I mean, I'm not asking for X-Men TAS level hype, but they really should try for something more propulsive and gripping next time.


If disagree and say this had the best pilot of all three shows, but then this series speaks to me more than Daredevil or JJ does.
 

MartyStu

Member
If disagree and say this had the best pilot of all three shows, but then this series speaks to me more than Daredevil or JJ does.

Same here. The best part is that most of the hokey-ness was kept to a 5-min section of the episode near the beginning.

Once cottonmouth comes into play, it is goddamn beautiful.
 
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Deleted member 10571

Unconfirmed Member
Its so smart how they started with super lowkey Jessica Jones, went to a street level hero with Daredevil (without him being DD for a whole season), and then started the "real" superhero shit with Cage. Never understood the order, but now it makes sense to me.

Diamondbacks Hammertech
suit is looking a bit silly though.
 
So i just finish watch it and while it not bad it just boring .
None of the Marvel \ Netflix shows have been as good as DD season 1.
The villains rather boring , the action not that good and i could not find any characters to care about .
 

LiamR

Member
Finished it yesterday.

I was really enjoying it up until
Diamondback came to the forefront and Cottonmouth was killed off. Diamondback's motivations felt so weak and I found it difficult to care about his rivalry with Luke. The final fight was unbelievably goofy too. Although I dig the Hammer references, that suit was a step too far for me (yeah, I get that it's trying to pay homage to his comic book outfit).

Surely, I can't be the only one who felt this way?
 

Eidan

Member
He's not a smooth player. He's boring. He stands here and all women all fall in love with him for no real reason. The detective in episode one had a bit of a back and forth with him, but mostly there's nothing believable about every woman loving him.

He's just a terrible character in a great show. I accept that. I want to watch this show but without him in it.
Haha he's handsome and big. It's not some incredible leap to believe a lot of women want to get coffee with him.
 
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