Finished Luke Cage S2
It took two months to get through 13 episodes. A lot of the writing is repetitive and sloppy, like they knew they didn't have enough actual plot and so decided to make up for it with lots of characters repeating conversations to other characters, or having flashbacks to scenes we already knew about. That said, the final two episodes did a lot of work and were well done, esp. in terms of what they did for various characters. Some cinematographic shots were straight up fucking incredible.
What particularly struck me as the season wore on though is how I became much more invested in minor characters. The relationship between Shades and Comanche was really interesting and had a lot of reverberations throughout the season. (I'm tempted to go look for fic.) D.W. spends an inordinate amount of time being comic relief and then speaks literal truth to power at the end.
I'm more frustrated in what we didn't get with Luke though. Like, every character is bent on telling him who he is--or isn't--and by the time he "decides" in the final minutes it isn't altogether convincing. The scenes that felt most like development doubled as appreciation for the NYC skyline; in ep 8 (?) Iron Fist visits and takes him by Columbia to see the city from above to see the bigger picture, so Luke starts periodically going back there to think. It's pretty but it didn't quite work with the rest of the writing.
...That said, Luke's real superpower is making me not want to punch Danny Rand on sight. This is no mean feat.
Anyways, they left things in a really interesting place, and I hope S3 pays off on that.
What particularly struck me as the season wore on though is how I became much more invested in minor characters. The relationship between Shades and Comanche was really interesting and had a lot of reverberations throughout the season. (I'm tempted to go look for fic.) D.W. spends an inordinate amount of time being comic relief and then speaks literal truth to power at the end.
I'm more frustrated in what we didn't get with Luke though. Like, every character is bent on telling him who he is--or isn't--and by the time he "decides" in the final minutes it isn't altogether convincing. The scenes that felt most like development doubled as appreciation for the NYC skyline; in ep 8 (?) Iron Fist visits and takes him by Columbia to see the city from above to see the bigger picture, so Luke starts periodically going back there to think. It's pretty but it didn't quite work with the rest of the writing.
...That said, Luke's real superpower is making me not want to punch Danny Rand on sight. This is no mean feat.
Anyways, they left things in a really interesting place, and I hope S3 pays off on that.