Spoilers Black Lightning - Season 1

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by dahj, Jan 16, 2018.

  1. cylkoth

    cylkoth Commodore Commodore

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    And Dexter Morgan's dad on Showtime's Dexter. He also killed The Phantom once. He's been everywhere...
     
  2. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Thank heavens! lol I spent so many years holding those in the flat of my hand being careful not to crease the covers that it's just plain wrong to see one folded in someone's pocket.
     
  3. dahj

    dahj Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Wait till flexi-screens become a thing... ;)
     
  4. Shaka Zulu

    Shaka Zulu Commodore Commodore

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    For me living in Toronto, I can see the CW shows on TV from Buffalo (WNLO, channel 23) over the air just fine.

    Let's hope so.
     
  5. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Black Lightning
    Episode three: "Black Jesus"

    Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning:
    Jefferson's "Black kids OD-ing is not newsworthy" was a direct and necessary comment on how the media sells white drug abuse (e.g. opioids) as a sympathetic crisis but spent generations writing off drug use in the black community as a problem of thugs, losers and criminals.

    Jennifer Pierce & Anissa Pierce: Anissa is too eager to get into a fight (the drug dealer scene). That's not going anywhere good. Anissa thinking "marching and praying" (which she mocks) is not helping is--of course--the set up for her leading her father to disaster.

    Jefferson & Lynn not understanding Jennifer's dedication to Khalil is...understandable; they are so focused on their kids' futures, that they suffer from good-intentioned tunnel vision. Still, they are correct in that she cannot sacrifice her responsibilities (or opportunities) for someone who is...grounded, so to speak.

    Tobias Whale: The fact his sister is not an albino, yet he's so divisive in his ideas on black people illustrates how disturbed he is.

    Buying Khalil off / getting him to blame Black Lightning is a somewhat clever scheme. Even Jefferson is beginning to blame himself. Of course, where Khalil goes, Jennifer will not be far behind, as in finding herself in the hands of Tobias.

    Lady Eve: plays into Tobias' warped identity issues by turning his cherished albinism against him with the African folk tale.

    "Green Light" drug enhances strength and apparently revives the dead, if the Lady Eve embalming scene is any indicator.

    Henderson: The "vigilante" / "more harm than good" dinner debate with Anissa seemed patterned on the dinner scene between Peter Parker and Captain Stacy from the first Andrew Garfield Amazing Spider-Man film.

    NOTES:

    The episode title--in addition to its meaning to the episode--is a reference to black identity beliefs regarding Jesus Christ (re-emerging as a larger interest in the late 1960s) , but the belief by some (not just those of African descent) that Jesus' mother, and actual racial make up of the region meant he was not white (as depicted throughout film history and centuries of graven images otherwise called objects of idolatry and/or art), but of some African appearance, as opposed to the "well....he was not white, but probably middle eastern looking" defensive arguments of the Bill O'Reillys of the world.

    Ms. Fowdy's sniping at Jefferson about not being his secretary was out of line, as vice principals do carry out the requests of the principals.

    GRADE: B+
     
  6. The Realist

    The Realist Vice Admiral Admiral

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    No disagreement here, with Pierce or with you. I invite you to consider, however, that this kind of overt political statement is the very sort of thing you consistently criticize and disdain when it's addressed to women's concerns in Supergirl.
     
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  7. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Well, I've been hoping for an episode that had more Black Lightning appearances than just one action scene at the climax, and this one delivered. BL did a lot this week. And he's got a nifty new power too.

    Nice bit of realism -- Anissa starts beating up bad guys and has to call an ambulance because she almost kills one of them. She's got to learn to measure her use of force. She could use a mentor... perhaps a family friend who's a tailor specializing in superhero costumes...?

    I was kind of hoping Anissa would come to her parents and reveal that she has superpowers, in the same way Jennifer confided in them about being ready to have sex. That would've been a nice sidestep of the usual secrecy cliche. Looks like that isn't happening just yet, though.

    In the climactic fight, when they played the Black Lightning theme song under the action, I noticed a lyric something like "He's Superman, Robin, and the Bat all at once." I wonder, does that song exist in-universe? And if so, is it referring to fictional characters or real superheroes?
     
  8. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    ♫Black Lightning's back come to shock the haters.♫

    What was Lady Eve doing there in the beginning? I didn't quite get that.
    EDIT: I guess preparing a guy for the morgue while he's still alive? Pretty cold.

    I'm curious what Gambi's game is, I don't think that's going to end well.
     
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2018
  9. Snaploud

    Snaploud Admiral Admiral

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    I think it's pretty much inevitable that the school board will try to replace Jefferson with the vice principal (despite Jefferson's claim that they would choose somebody from outside the community). I hope they aren't setting up Jefferson to feel "betrayed" by her taking the job.
     
  10. The Realist

    The Realist Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I was a bit confused by that also. I considered your interpretation, but the guy had autopsy stitching on his torso, so it's hard to see how he could not be dead. So I reached the same tentative conclusion as TREK_GOD_1, that she was reviving him? Though that's more fantastical than the show has gone to date, plus I don't know that it would serve it well going forward to establish a world where death isn't consequential and permanent. Seems at odds with its overall tone and approach.
     
  11. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I missed that in the recap by @TREK_GOD_1. It's probably a more sensible reading but it's so fantastic as you point out that I didn't even consider that might be happening. Talking about albinism and godhood in that scene is probably a sign as well, I need to rewatch that scene when I get a chance.
     
  12. dahj

    dahj Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Not to mention this episodes addresses the three strikes laws with Two Bits in danger of doing 30 years for a minor crime, shitty health care system with Khalil's mom having to work extra shifts to pay medical bills, and anti-gay hate groups attacking the gay bar.

    It's even more liberal-per-minute than Supergirl... ;)

    Well it seems that the show is going to put both Jefferson's and Black Lightning's standing in the community in jeopardy, but I don't think it'll go so far as him losing his job.

    I've got no idea what Lady Eve was doing there, but it was scary and creepy and she already seems deliciously evil with the little screen time she had so far.

    I see BL's got the Detective Mode upgrade from the Arkham games. :D

    Gambi's keeping more secrets. Did he recognize Anissa? We only see him watch the footage from after she puts the hood on, so I'm guessing no. Grace doesn't know yet either, right? I'm assuming she was knocked out during all the ass-kicking. Those were two very close calls, so next week someone better find something out... :techman:
     
  13. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    It's possible he suspects. I mean, he seems to be the expert in how BL's powers work, so he might have been aware of the possibility that they'd be hereditary.

    I'm wondering if Gambi will end up in a position like Alfred vis-a-vis Batman and Batgirl in the third season of the '66 TV series -- knowing both of their identities but keeping them secret from each other as he assists them both in their crimefighting.
     
  14. dahj

    dahj Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Hmm, she didn't visibly shoot any lightning, so that'd be a big jump, especially since the focus of their investigation here was a drug that gave people slightly-super strength(though not concrete-stomping-level strong).
     
  15. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I didn't get the sense that what happened to Grace was indicative of anything more than a couple of bigoted and clearly intoxicated yahoos picking that exact moment to act on a personal beef they had with her specifically.
     
  16. dahj

    dahj Vice Admiral Admiral

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    They've been harrasing the bar for weeks, to the point of getting a restraining order.
    They also made comments about burning the "lesbian whorehouse" to the ground.

    It clearly wasn't just a "moment."
     
  17. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Depends on how metahuman powers are understood to work in this reality. Thunder & Lightning's powers are hereditary in the comics, so we know that metas don't have to have the same powers as their parents.


    Gambi likened Green Light to PCP combined with crack. PCP is well-known for enabling people to manifest what appear like superhuman feats of strength and endurance, simply because it hyperstimulates them and dulls their sense of pain and bodily injury so that they can push themselves beyond safe limits and remain conscious and mobile after sustaining an amount of damage that would normally incapacitate them. Nothing we saw here is inconsistent with the normal effects of PCP, at least as they tend to be depicted in fiction. So I'm not convinced the drug is giving anyone superstrength. (The reference to crack was probably in connection with its ability to addict users after a single use.)
     
  18. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    :techman:

    He was probably on PCP. Broke every bone in his hand and wouldn't feel it for hours. There was this guy once, you see this scar...
     
  19. Morpheus 02

    Morpheus 02 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I was hoping Jefferson & Lynn could talk and compare it to their situation 9 years ago.
    But doesn't what Tobias talk about reflect what some people in the community think about others in their community.

    They did a good job casting, as his sister looks like him (minus skin tone).

    And the scheme is a good one -- especially as the actor is really selling it.

    Well, i think Ms. FOwdy 's response is understandable..she's a near-peer rather than"lower" in the "food chain".

    As someone else posted, she might be angling for his job. I suspect, perhaps next season, she will get his job, but the school will protest, and he will get his job back within the span of 3 or 4 episodes.

    ;)
    The smile when Anissa left...i was wondering was it simply Jefferson thinking how great it was she was defending him without knowing it, or does he suspect something? (Like it sounded like him when he first discovered his powers).

    I agree it would be great if she would just be open with her parents...if she had no problem with her sexuality, that should open the door for he rpowers.
    At this point , does it matter? COuld they simply be referencing the most famous heroes in the DC universe?

    If a person can have electrical powers, and some other kind of powers (we know there are superheroes somewhere), i don't think it would be that crazy.

    That would be a little weird... now, Gambi had in a previous episode some video footage that he erased. Was that also Anissa?

    Umm, also, in addition to the addictive nature of crack, i am sure there is also a connection with how crack has been the scourge of the black community since its introduction.
     
  20. jamesraykenney

    jamesraykenney Ensign Red Shirt

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    Is Kingsman in the DC universe? Could he be working for them? It would explain a lot.