I finished watching it tonight, and I really enjoyed it. It felt much more complex than the last first season which I liked and it had some great villains. Thoughts?
Open Spoilers after this post
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I thought parts of it were a bit tedious, and the fight scenes with Luke were repetitive and poorly choreographed except for the ones with Danny and the ones with Bushmaster. The acting was good, but there was just too much filler. Could have been a very good 8-episode season, but 13 was too many.
I’m glad that Mariah’s purge apparently satisfied the creators desire to kill off all the villains as is the standard for non-comics superhero media, because I definitely want more Bushmaster and Shades - Defenders 2, or Luke Cage 3, or both…I don’t care, they need to bring both those boys back.
Which is kind of weird, because I didn’t like Shades at all last season - I don’t know if it’s just that they’ve given him a bigger role, so Theo Rossi’s natural charm had more chance to come through, or if they were actually writing him better. But he changed from ‘meh’ to one of the highlights of the season.
Saving characters seems to be a bit of a theme with this season - his one episode crossover appearance made Danny much more likeable than his own entire series and Defenders combined.
I completely agree that Danny Rand was much more likeable this time around. Then again, I think everyone was a bit better. All the characters were given much more complexity which is something I liked. Mariah in particular was handled very differently than you usually see with villains. Not by making her sympathetic, which is what is often done, but by making her vulnerable at certain points in the story.
I also enjoyed that there was a real adult relationship between Luke and Claire that did not simply mend itself by some mortal peril they experienced. The show writers took some decisions that slowed down the action, but I feel strengthened the story.
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I assume Mariah’s poisoned fruit will bring Luke 90% of the way to evil before he finds his way again in season 3. It would be trite, but I hope Claire somehow saves him. It would have been his dad, but that won’t happen now (hopefully they don’t recast that role).
Nice Godfather homage with the door closing at the end.
I enjoyed it.
Could really do with out the “Dude singing on a stage montage scenes” towards the end of every episode.
I’m not finished but I like it more than S1 so far. Compelling villains really help these shows, and Bushmaster delivers a lot more than stupid Diamondback. STOKES. MARIAH STOKES.
Luke is canonically supposed to get with Jessica Jones, so I figured that his current relationship was doomed.
I like the dude singing montages, especially when done good. Though I have a memory that S1 told you who it was in the subtitles, whereas now so far only GFK was mentioned by name. Thankfully Wikipedia to the rescue.
Speaking of subtitles, I see that all of the Jamacan dialogue was subbed in standard English. So if someone said (for instance) “me go look for me brethren” the subs would say “I’m going to go look for my brother.”
They hooked up in S1 of Jessica (I think that was it), so that was probably the nod in that direction. I doubt they’ll go back to that well - it would seem to require both of them to show up in each other’s series too often.
I liked it a ton more than season 1. Danny Rand was much more tolerable here, and I’m always willing to watch Coleen Wing, even if they just have her reading the phone book.
This show is great, and the music is amazingly good. I’d never heard of Gary Clark Jr before, but jeez o pete that guy can play and sing.
Ditto better season than season 1 in all respects. Ordinarily I have issues when storylines become more of the villian’s than the hero’s, but in this case, honestly, I welcomed it. Theo Rossi is one of the more compelling actors on my radar. I had no idea until I read his Wiki that he was on Sons of Anarchy – I never watched an episode, so I wouldn’t had known that otherwise.
And god yes, the music! I wish Marvel would come out with an album featuring both seasons!
I won’t post spoilers, but re the final episode ending: Is that canon?
I agree that it was overall excellent, better than season 1. I think Bushmaster’s story just kind of faded away, however, which was a shame. All of the “villains” this season (Mariah, Shades, Bushmaster) were truly charismatic. You couldn’t take your eyes off them.
One letdown: Tilda. Totally generic screen presence.
I was prepared to be underwhelmed by the relationship between Shades and Comanche, but I thought it played out beautifully.
I did think the idea that Luke is the new sheriff of Harlem (which made sense) and that therefore he’s suddenly by definition a crime lord came a bit out of left field. I think there’s a story there, but it felt to me like we kind of skipped over it, or maybe got the most abbreviated cliff notes version possible.
I think what they were going for was that instead of beating up gangsters, he was cutting deals with them and giving them VIP seats at his club. Even if he doesn’t break any laws himself, it makes him tolerant of criminal activity, to a certain degree. That’s OK if you’re just an underworld “sheriff” and arbitrator - but not if you’re a superhero.
Yeah, I agree that that’s what’s implied, I just think it happened quickly and somewhat clumsily.
If Luke tells the Italian bosses “no more drug in Harlem”, does that count as being bad, because he’s not killing or arresting them and is implicitly giving them the go-ahead to sell drugs other places? Or is he going to say “drug in Harlem are OK, but no violence, and I get a 15% cut”?
I finally finished the season. I had watched the first ep and found the writing to be so cringeworthy that I was not going to watch more but the early posts in this thread were so positive that I decided to keep with it. And for several middle episodes it definitely improved. But man by the last few …
Am I really the only one who found the writing to be horribly hamfisted and forced with dialogue that was completely unbelievable and too much that went beyond normal superhero suspension of disbelief?
Even worse the messaging … show it, don’t have the characters lecture it. That’s how Jessica Jones Season one was so effective in its messaging.
The main thing that bothered me about the writing is that if they deleted every time somebody said “nigga” the season would have been 7 episodes long.
I’m getting near the end. Overall I liked the season. I have some small complaints however.
Alfre Woodard’s scenery chewing got a bit much sometimes. I had to keep reminding myself she’s an award winning actor. I also started to get a bit uncomfortable with her frequent use of the N-word. And did we need a repeat of last season’s “I never wanted it” speech?
The whole “you’ll never be complete until you reconcile with your father” nonsense is … bullshit cliche.
Okay, a black villain named Bush … master. From Jamaica … with an over the top accent … and voodoo based powers … and that teeth sucking thing … really hitting some stereotypes, no? Still, he was good.
So Misty and Nandi have been rivals since … the high school basketball team? Gimme a break. That’s too cheesy. Besides, Misty is twice her age, right?
Okay so things immediately get stupid when Danny Rand shows up. Like first of all what’s with the “This is my fight. You stay out of it” insane nonsense when you’re facing a magical-powered opponent who keeps beheading everyone and has voodooed you at least twice? With the number of super-powered folks destroying the overall housing stock in the MCU’s New York, you’d think you’d be making calls every time some badass showed up.
And then, who the fuck puts his hoodie hood up during a fight and takes it down after?
Hmm … Mike Colter doesn’t have much emotional range does he?
Did you seriously take Rosario Dawson out of half the season? Seriously?
These were my biggest complaints about this season. I was really getting tired of Woodard’s character (though I like the actress in other things). And I, too, started missing Rosario and was wondering why they sidelined her character. I did enjoy that we got more Misty Knight, though, and maybe that was the trade-off.
Why would you say that? The characters are explicitly within a year of each other; Nandi is original to the series, meaning that there’s no comics canon to that effect; and Antonique Smith is two years older than Simone Missick.