Marvel Netflix Catch-Up
It's taken me a while, but last night, I finally finished Iron Fist S2. I'm now caught up on Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, with only Daredevil to go. As that was my gateway series, and the one I'm most attached to, I've left it for last and avoided spoilers as far as possible. That might not last - I usually have to read plot summaries to get my anxiety down to a level where I can actually watch things with characters I love - but I'm going to give it a try.
In that spirit, I'm putting everything under a cut, so assume spoilers. I've tried to put some white space between them in the hopes that if you only want to read one, you can!
I decided I would tackle them in chronological order. Having enjoyed but not loved The Defenders (too much angsty Matt, not enough Teamy Stuff), I went in not expecting much.
In all honesty, I was deeply underwhelmed by both Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. The acting in all of them was pretty good, and the individual scenes were well-written (mostly). But overall, I didn't feel like either gave the heroes an active role. Luke Cage in particular felt very passive to me, pushed and pulled by the situation, rather than active.
Jessica Jones was the better of the two for me, as Krysten Ritter's performance remains superlative. This time, though, I felt the supporting players stepped up to meet her, which I really appreciated. Both Malcolm's and Trish's stories carried me along, although ultimately I thought his was more convincing. His growth felt realistic, his choices right, and I liked where they took him. The actor is superb, and I could pretty much watch him all day. Trish... Eh. I liked the concept, but it felt too heavy handed for my taste. Yes, we get it. She's an addict, and she's jealous. I'm not sure they gave her enough of an initial push for me to really buy into the rest of the story, not after her devotion to Jessica in the last series. If you buy the beginning, then the rest follows naturally, but for me, it just wasn't enough. There didn't seem to be a precipitating event, which I felt she needed, but that's definitely a YMMV thing. I do like the idea of something that sort of grows and grows, and before she knows it, it's out of control, but somehow, it just wasn't enough for me. Or maybe I just love Trish, and didn't want to see her end up that way.
The ending, in true JJ-style, was devastating, and as lots of people have said, I'm hoping for a reconciliation if there's a third season. Or at least a better understanding between the two of them. What I did like was seeing JJ be properly professional through all of this, as I have a competency kink a mile wide.
I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole Hogarth story line, which felt largely pointless if I'm honest. It didn't move her on in any way, just gave a reason for her to still be in the show. While I'm not sure it belonged in *this* series, I did think the way it played out was brilliant, and Carrie Ann Moss gave a chilling performance, particularly in the final scene with Inez, which was pitch-perfect. I'd watch a Hogarth series, definitely.
One thing these series have all been good at is intertwining the worlds together. Having characters pop up between series is great, and I loved seeing Misty and Foggy in this. I also liked how they resolved Jessica's powers' origin, by effectively saying yes, she *is* special. It doesn't work on everyone, and it happened to work on her. That was a good way of explaining it that I definitely liked.
Overall, I thought it was a solid B+. Not stellar, and occasionally stretching the bounds of the believable, even on its own terms (the Jessica-and-her-mom-happen-on-a-truck-fire scene had me rolling my eyes), but pretty good overall.
For me, this was the weakest of the three shows I've watched so far. I felt like it was really Mariah's series, with Luke along for the ride. While last season, Alfre Woodward's performance worked for me, I found parts of it too much this time, and wanted her to dial it back a fraction when she went big, because she was absolutely magnetic when she went for restrained intensity.
The main issue with characters like Luke Cage, who don't really have a 'dark' side, like Jessica or Daredevil, is that they tend to work best when put a personally difficult position due to outside forces. Captain America is the best example of this, which is why The Winter Soldier is so good, and is the best part of Civil War. He has his absolute moral code, that he does not bend for the world around him. With Luke, they decided to go in the opposite direction, and have him be forced to severely compromise to get anywhere. When they do that, for me, they gut the character. I also felt that Mike Coulter didn't really sell me on Luke's anger issues. I kept being told they were there, but I just wasn't seeing it. His deadpan delivery is wonderful, as is his intensity when he turns it on, but the characters around him kept talking about an explosive, obvious anger that only really came out once, so that it felt to me like it was out of nowhere. Maybe I just missed something in the earlier episodes, but I was not convinced.
And without being convinced, a lot of the rest of the story fell flat. Misty was incredible as always, and has become my second favourite character in the Netflix-Marvel universe. Her journey was more interesting to me than Luke's. In fact, everyone's journey was more interesting to me than Luke's. Because of his powers, he's always had the ability to effectively walk in and take control, so having him do it just wasn't interesting to me.
I thought the actor playing Shades gave the performance of the series, unstable, calculating, emotional and manipulative all at the same time. He did a great job in selling the character and I bought it. I didn't buy Mariah's daughter at all, and you'll notice there's no mention of Bushmaster above. He felt like a pointless baddie, given a terrible, rushed ending, and don't even get me started on the accents. It unbalanced the series too much for me, and I just didn't enjoy it at all. The best episode of the series was the one with Danny Rand, thanks to the chemistry between the actors, which remains brilliant. Finn Jones remains an uninteresting choice for the role, but he's grown a lot, and I liked getting the taster of the new, more mature Danny in this series.
Overall, I'm giving it a C+. Mariah and Shades were interesting, but I found Luke's journey unconvincing and I just couldn't get properly caught up in it.
This series is actually why I decided to pick up the Netflix series at all, as
In that spirit, I'm putting everything under a cut, so assume spoilers. I've tried to put some white space between them in the hopes that if you only want to read one, you can!
I decided I would tackle them in chronological order. Having enjoyed but not loved The Defenders (too much angsty Matt, not enough Teamy Stuff), I went in not expecting much.
In all honesty, I was deeply underwhelmed by both Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. The acting in all of them was pretty good, and the individual scenes were well-written (mostly). But overall, I didn't feel like either gave the heroes an active role. Luke Cage in particular felt very passive to me, pushed and pulled by the situation, rather than active.
Jessica Jones was the better of the two for me, as Krysten Ritter's performance remains superlative. This time, though, I felt the supporting players stepped up to meet her, which I really appreciated. Both Malcolm's and Trish's stories carried me along, although ultimately I thought his was more convincing. His growth felt realistic, his choices right, and I liked where they took him. The actor is superb, and I could pretty much watch him all day. Trish... Eh. I liked the concept, but it felt too heavy handed for my taste. Yes, we get it. She's an addict, and she's jealous. I'm not sure they gave her enough of an initial push for me to really buy into the rest of the story, not after her devotion to Jessica in the last series. If you buy the beginning, then the rest follows naturally, but for me, it just wasn't enough. There didn't seem to be a precipitating event, which I felt she needed, but that's definitely a YMMV thing. I do like the idea of something that sort of grows and grows, and before she knows it, it's out of control, but somehow, it just wasn't enough for me. Or maybe I just love Trish, and didn't want to see her end up that way.
The ending, in true JJ-style, was devastating, and as lots of people have said, I'm hoping for a reconciliation if there's a third season. Or at least a better understanding between the two of them. What I did like was seeing JJ be properly professional through all of this, as I have a competency kink a mile wide.
I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole Hogarth story line, which felt largely pointless if I'm honest. It didn't move her on in any way, just gave a reason for her to still be in the show. While I'm not sure it belonged in *this* series, I did think the way it played out was brilliant, and Carrie Ann Moss gave a chilling performance, particularly in the final scene with Inez, which was pitch-perfect. I'd watch a Hogarth series, definitely.
One thing these series have all been good at is intertwining the worlds together. Having characters pop up between series is great, and I loved seeing Misty and Foggy in this. I also liked how they resolved Jessica's powers' origin, by effectively saying yes, she *is* special. It doesn't work on everyone, and it happened to work on her. That was a good way of explaining it that I definitely liked.
Overall, I thought it was a solid B+. Not stellar, and occasionally stretching the bounds of the believable, even on its own terms (the Jessica-and-her-mom-happen-on-a-truck-fire scene had me rolling my eyes), but pretty good overall.
For me, this was the weakest of the three shows I've watched so far. I felt like it was really Mariah's series, with Luke along for the ride. While last season, Alfre Woodward's performance worked for me, I found parts of it too much this time, and wanted her to dial it back a fraction when she went big, because she was absolutely magnetic when she went for restrained intensity.
The main issue with characters like Luke Cage, who don't really have a 'dark' side, like Jessica or Daredevil, is that they tend to work best when put a personally difficult position due to outside forces. Captain America is the best example of this, which is why The Winter Soldier is so good, and is the best part of Civil War. He has his absolute moral code, that he does not bend for the world around him. With Luke, they decided to go in the opposite direction, and have him be forced to severely compromise to get anywhere. When they do that, for me, they gut the character. I also felt that Mike Coulter didn't really sell me on Luke's anger issues. I kept being told they were there, but I just wasn't seeing it. His deadpan delivery is wonderful, as is his intensity when he turns it on, but the characters around him kept talking about an explosive, obvious anger that only really came out once, so that it felt to me like it was out of nowhere. Maybe I just missed something in the earlier episodes, but I was not convinced.
And without being convinced, a lot of the rest of the story fell flat. Misty was incredible as always, and has become my second favourite character in the Netflix-Marvel universe. Her journey was more interesting to me than Luke's. In fact, everyone's journey was more interesting to me than Luke's. Because of his powers, he's always had the ability to effectively walk in and take control, so having him do it just wasn't interesting to me.
I thought the actor playing Shades gave the performance of the series, unstable, calculating, emotional and manipulative all at the same time. He did a great job in selling the character and I bought it. I didn't buy Mariah's daughter at all, and you'll notice there's no mention of Bushmaster above. He felt like a pointless baddie, given a terrible, rushed ending, and don't even get me started on the accents. It unbalanced the series too much for me, and I just didn't enjoy it at all. The best episode of the series was the one with Danny Rand, thanks to the chemistry between the actors, which remains brilliant. Finn Jones remains an uninteresting choice for the role, but he's grown a lot, and I liked getting the taster of the new, more mature Danny in this series.
Overall, I'm giving it a C+. Mariah and Shades were interesting, but I found Luke's journey unconvincing and I just couldn't get properly caught up in it.
This series is actually why I decided to pick up the Netflix series at all, as