FrankTrollman wrote:On the TV side... gosh even the stuff I liked like Luke Cage has pacing problems so severe that I want to chew my leg off to escape.
-Username17
Yeah, I'm not a MCU completionist so Luke Cage season 1 is when I punched out on the TV universe. It was a television heartbreaker, really, because there was some inspired cinematography and tchotchke in there but it failed to keep me hooked because the pacing exacerbated the following problems and giant fucking spoilers:
1. Most of the empathy I had for Luke himself ended up being imported in from Jessica Jones rather than built by or enhanced by the series proper. Aside from the barbershop Luke doesn't really seem like he has normal human interactions. That shtick works for Batman because Batman stories rarely involve wanting to give up or refuse the cape for literal hours of run time and at the end of the day you can count on him to punch the Joker in the mouth. The women in the series had to do a lot of the moral heavy lifting for Luke and since it's not their show we're stuck waiting for him to shit or get off the pot. Also, I grew up with a home life that we will mercifully summarize as being "not great" and I binge watched Jessica Jones to catch up for Cage's release. When you have that sort of priming the scenes where Luke basically feels like he's negging Misty or just plain expressing low key but wholly unwarranted prickliness towards her feels super weird. Would I characterize him as an abuser? Not really, no, and Misty sure seems like she can take care of herself. But Luke came off like a fuckboy
and I doubt that is what they were going for.
Admittedly, I may also be even further biased by my suspicion that Simone Missick in a shelf bra and a little blue dress could convince me to try to fight crime in under 5 minutes.
2. Pacing the series as a slow burn that swaps out primary villains halfway through really made me feel like the writers had outsmarted themselves. Alfre Woodard can act and her character is fine, so I ain't mad at her. And I think Mahershala Ali's narrow eyed intensity was perfect for Cottonmouth, a man who is never satisfied with his lot in life. But again, this is a long ass series with long ass episodes, so I question if we really needed Cottonmouth around for so long if Mariah was just going to beat his ass with a stanchion.
3. Diamondback. The first and only time in my life that I've felt disappointed by a big black dude who introduced himself by yelling "Can you dig it?"
