Luke Cage Season 2 Impressions

I'm curious what others think of season two. I liked it more than season one. I think Diamondback is probably the worst villain in the entire MCU besides Thor 2's villain. His motivation was silly/horrible, his costume was awful, and everything else too. The first half of season one was pretty good. I like all of season two, but I think all these Netflix Marvel shows would be better if they were 10 episodes each. I was surprised that I saw some bad reviews for this season (worse than season one) I think IGN gave it 5/10 or something silly like that.

Bushmaster and Mariah were very good villains. Luke Cage is likable, but I think he still lacks some depth. The show randomly giving him anger issues didn't feel right to me. In season one he's kinda similar to Cap at his core (always do the right thing), in this season they tried to give him a Bruce Banner/Hulk vibe at times. This felt like a better follow-up to Defenders than Jessica Jones, since this has way more cameos and mentions of those events. I thought the use of Danny was very smart and needed since a lot of us didn't like his show. The action scenes were way better this season too.

I'll put spoiler tags on the more specific or later episodes reveals.

Claire leaving felt forced and makes me question if they really belong together. Luke was wrong for hitting the wall, but that making her leave the country for weeks/months felt silly and like she's not really "down" like she proclaimed. I also think Luke has WAY more chemistry with Misty and even Tilda than Claire.

I hope the show isn't going to have or tease Luke "Breaking Bad" next season. Compared to everyone else in his life he's had godly powers for years and that hasn't corrupted him, I don't think money/power will either. I didn't see anything wrong or even that morally gray with what he was doing. This felt a little forced, similar to Iron Fist having a no kill rule even though he kept calling himself a living weapon every 10 minutes. Iron Fist killing people makes sense for his character and Luke, from what we've seen, should be able to have power and it not corrupt him. Obviously drama is needed for a TV show, but make the drama feel organic.

Yeah I liked it a lot, better than Season 1. I agreed that like most Netflix shows it's a 10 episode plot stretched to 13 episodes. Bushmaster was a great villain. Some of the musical performances were epic.

Danny Rand is definitely more engaging outside of his own show. And Luke Cage is among the most likeable hero from the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far for me. I’m digging this season like I’ve been digging Jessica Jones.

I’m not reading to avoid spoilers, but I’ll say this much:

I thought Luke Cage season 1 had style and character going for it, but the plot was just bad and the filler was the worst in all the Marvel Netflix run.

Three episodes in so far, and some plot points are slightly puzzling, but I’m generally way more into it that I thought I’d be.

I also like that they’ve gotten SLIGHTLY more creative with the action. Luke is basically a terminator fighting street toughs, so the action can suffer. They’ve made a few cool decisions in the combat scenes so far to help this.

So yeah, in the very short term, I’m digging it. I hope the Marvel lull doesn’t hit me too hard. I’m just used to these shows having more runtime than plot at this point.

I'm enjoying it so far. Not as good as the Pre-Diamond Back Season one, but waaaay better then the Post Diamond Back season 1... which suuuuucked.

Luke having Anger Issues seems weird, and all of his Spider-Man 3 publicity stuff is super awkward as well. As always the supporting characters are what propel the show. Damn I miss cotton mouth though.

9 Episodes in. I feel like the show is starting to drag a little, but I’m still enjoying it WAY more than season 1, which I think was the worst Netflix-Marvel season so far (I know, unpopular opinion).

If Alfre Woodard doesn't get at LEAST an Emmy nomination, then there is no justice in the world. She killed it. She took that character through an incredible range of emotions - between her face and body language she didn't need to speak half the time. I thought everyone did a great job (Stan help me I even enjoyed Danny Rand's scenes...), but Alfre was a cut above.

The part where Mariah returns to her burnt out home and starts moaning to Shades was the most embarrassing/ham acting I've ever seen.

There was alot of bad acting in the second season.

The only thing I liked really was Bushmaster.

I really liked the second season, Alfre Woodard did a fantastic job although there were scenes that could have used another take, like the scene in the burning house where she went "oh no" and "i'm gonna kill you!" that sounded so bad.

Bushmaster was a fantastic character with some good acting and it showed that Luke is in some need to get some actual fighting lessons, seeing him walk in door openings in slow motion and cable-hoisting dudes in to the air gets rather stale.

I thought it was worse than season one. I felt as though Mariah's arc was completed in the first season and to have her go through it again in season 2 was tiresome. I thought Bushmaster's acting was great but he wasnt a very interesting character either and to have one of the only threating things to Luke rendered useless for reasons got rid of a lot of tension. Much like the first season a lot of the momentum was lost in the last batch of episodes. In the first season it was when Cottonmouth died and in season 2 it was after Bushmaster blows himself up. The endings to both seasons were also very anti-climatic. They might set up something decent in season 3 but these superhero shows are defined by the antagonists as much as the protagonists and if all this leads to Diamondback returning I might have to check out.

Also fuck Danny Rand.

Would like to add that the Jamaican patois was awesome throughout. We need more Jamaican leads just so I can hear people ask wah gwaan more.

I liked it, by and large, and it left me wondering what they do next. Kudos for having the best villains since Kingpin, and man oh man, Misty Knight needs her own show.

@hobozero: So, the accents were all way off. I thought it sounded weird (I was in Jamaica when the show aired). Sure enough, there’s some outrage over the accents.

I also thought the cultural references were a little sloppy and pandery. While snapper, jerk chicken, ox tail, rastafari obeah, rum and Red Stripe are all very much Jamaican things...I’m not sure if the references were a little forced.

I wonder if it’s like a bunch of frenchman in berets and striped shirts eating cheese, baguettes, and drinking wine. I’d be curious to hear some takes on that, frankly.

Dug the show. Much better than Season One.

I think the character arcs worked and made sense, and the 13 episodes were more justified than usual with Marvel/Netflix productions.

The ending...I dug that.

The show had some moments where they assumed a stupid audience, though. Explaining nightshade as a poisonous plant, explaining various current event references and plot-points. I won’t spoil them, but I groaned as they revisiting scenes, explainging them, when they were already very on the nose.

That complaint aside, pretty good season on the Marvel/Netflix scale, and WAY better than season one (Luke Cage Season One and Defenders were the two low points of this run of shows, to me).

Every Netflix Marvel show is 3 episodes too long.

I really enjoyed this season of Luke Cage, but I think it hit a good peak/moment around episode 10, then it just kept going.

The show could be more tightly paced and effective in a shorter time frame (which I think is true for most of their Netflix shows. I haven't watched any Iron Fist - and don't intend to, and didn't make it past 2 episodes of The Defenders. I've watched everything else though).

I don't know why Shades is cool, but he is a cool character.

Bushmaster was a great villain and they did the prowrestling thing where a heel is technically in the right but goes about getting justice in the worst way possible. This is the first second season of one of these Marvel shows where it actually got better. The ending reminded me of those last two seasons of Angel where he is given the keys and resources to run the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart.

Just throwing it out there but Angel is up there on the list of best spin-offs ever. Now I want to rewatch it and see if it holds up.

I did think of the Angel connection too when Luke was wearing the suit and stuff. I wouldn't say that "the villain is right but going about it wrong" is a pro-wrestling thing. I didn't get a WWE vibe from Bushmaster... or Killmonger.

You think LC season 1 and Defenders were worse than Iron Fist? Iron Fist was hardly watchable to me. The executive/boardroom stuff was too much and felt like a soap opera, the action was bad, Danny would be a calm monk one minute then a temper tantrum kid a few minutes later, SMH.

On the accent stuff I wouldn't be surprised if they dumbed it down just so it was easier for the audience to understand. I remember Little Jacob and Badman in GTA IV and if their accents were authentic, I could barely understand them.

Finished this last week. Ehhh not so good. Maybe better than the first season I guess? Wasn't a fan of the first season or this Luke Cage character in general.

Bushmaster was definitely good though. That actor looked like a villain but also cool. I couldn't understand half the crap the Jamaicans were saying but I also loved it? Felt like I was playing an old Grand Theft Auto game with Yardies or something.

Didn't like the show for a multitude of reasons. Only kinda liked one song from the whole thing. Ending was dumb.

But yea, Bushmaster. I don't know anything about the comics or anything, but just based on watching all this modern super hero junk.. that dude did awesome.

@deathstriker: Yeah. I thought Iron Fist was okay. Not a popular opinion, but I liked the tone of those show and the protaganist’s arrested development. I found it to be a fresh change of pace.

The action scenes were garbage, but frankly, I’m not sure there are good Netflix/Marvel actions scenes in anything but Daredevil and Punisher.

I don’t recall the action in Jessica Jones being great, and Luke Cage is basically a terminator, which doesn’t make for interesting fights. Bushmaster being fun to watch in combat was a huge help this season.

@seikenfreak: I don’t follow comics either. Bushmaster is the best Villain these shows have produced since Killgrave, though. That dude did alright (accent aside).

I have generally enjoyed Season 2 but, Iron Fist aside, the episode after the second Bushmaster/Cage showdown had some staggeringly dumb shit in it. It was like someone with only a passingly familiarity with the shows and characters took over. Everyone acted like an idiot and the show spelled everything out like the audience was moronic.