Spoilers Luke Cage - Netflix (Season 1)

So, am I the only one that greatly preferred Diamondback to Cottonmouth? I thought everything was better; the actor, the performance, the character, the connection to our hero, the physical threat...

 

Well if you have no idea what blaxploitation is, you're free to look it up yourself. I'd have given you the same answer if you asked why Star Trek was a sci-fi show or a Nightmare on Elm Street was a horror movie.

 

Yes.

 

But Cottonmouth was just some random gangster who had no connection to the hero whatsoever

 

Cottonmouth was the whole reason Cage wasn't sweeping the barber shop and taking up the mantle of hero. He was interesting because he and Cage were idealogically opposed, he didn't just simply hate Cage. His background had pathos and I guess it's subjective but I thought the actor was more nuanced in his performance.

 

I agree it was a more nuanced performance. I just preferred Diamondback's OTT hatred and drama. There was real emotion and pain and bitterness in every line he said, in every look. He was more than what was on the page.

 

The long lost family member who turns out to be the villain is a tired soap opera trope and they did nothing to raise its standing here. Think of how much more effective that plot could have been if Diamondback had been rotting in prison, satisfied only in the fact that he framed his "untouchable" half-brother and seeing him on the news as an adored "superhero" is what finally cracked him. Carl got their father's name, Carl got the perfect life, Carl got the protection from the law, and now even after he was sure Carl was rotting in a concrete hell, Carl got free, Carl got the superpowers and Carl got to be the hero again.

It would need to be a very different season, but ending it on the reveal of a Diamondback who has violently cut through the criminal underworld from the other side and ascended to the top of the pecking order, and on Luke having defeated Cottonmouth and Mariah (for now) but broken and defeated and getting hauled off half-dead as Carl Lucas the criminal rather than striding out to their car head high would have me much more interested in the next season.

 

Actually, when I first read your post, my first thought was that you sounded like you didn't know what the blaxploitation movies were. This was especially true when I read your rather defensive response to my question which wasn't challenging you but simply asking for clarification. I don't know, have you seen any of those old movies, or are you relying solely on the information and opinion in the article you posted?

Perhaps the original character that appeared in the old Marvel comics was supposed to be their answer to the blaxploitation movies, but the Netflix series is not. The blaxploitation movies played heavily on black racial stereotypes, the ghetto drug dealer, junkie, pimp, etc, vs. the superstud Mandingo(s) cop or "average" good guy(s). All of these characters were written as superficially as they could have been written.

The Netflix series goes in depth to give a rounded perspective of all of the main characters. That is the main difference. Even Diamondback, who I thought was badly presented was given enough background to show that he was much more than a stereotype. The blaxploitation movies almost always ended with the black hero winning. The Netflix season 1 ends with the hero headed back to prison and the criminal mastermind, Mariah, flourishing.

Really, the only thing the Netfilx series has in common with the blaxploitation movies is the nearly all black cast, with a few "token" appearances by whites. Yeah, it's a crime story, but then so was Daredevil. Imagine all of the DD characters are black. Would you then call that an updated blaxploitation show as well?

 

Yes, I have seen the movies of that era. In fact, I can almost guarantee that I've seen more of them than you have considering that of the 20 or so classic movie posters I have framed in my house, six of them are blaxploitation films. And yes, I remember them quite fondly as well.

Nope, because it wouldn't have been if that was the only change.

If you can't see the (admittedly toned down, hence "modern sensibilities" conditional of my original post) similarities between Luke Cage and figures like Shaft or Dolemite, or Misty Knight and characters like Cleopatra Jones or Foxy Brown, I just can't help you. Especially not with the music choices made in the series. Not much one can do to convince someone who's being willfully obtuse.

 

I'm trying to look past the presentation which is admittedly tough but it's hard for me to see it as "blaxploitation". There's elements there for sure but I don't get that overall feeling from it. The music in the clubs doesn't permeate the soundtrack like I think of with blaxploitation. Usually the hero is funky and anti-establishement like Foxy Brown, Cleopatra Jones, Superfly, or Shaft but Luke is clean cut and conservative, Misty is an establishment police officer, Claire a serious, dressed down nurse. There is crime but the gunrunning doesn't feel like the drugs, prostitution and other crime in those movies and I didn't feel that it wallowed in it. There are corrupt police but they aren't just targeting blacks with their actions.

 

As daunting a specter as the presence of your 20 movie posters, 5 of which are from blaxploitation films represents, I'm going to have to go ahead and continue to be willfully obtuse. Yes, I saw a bunch of the first wave of the films. By the time the second wave began to hit, I bailed because the movies were just so bad.

Anyway, what you wrote before, and what I initially questioned you about, was that the show was a modernized version of a blaxploitation movie. Now you've apparently changed that to "similarities" between certain characters. Can't say that I blame you. You know, the only difference between Luke and DD is physical.

By the end of the those old movies, we almost never knew more than 2 things about the hero; he or she, could kick ass, and liked sex. At the end of season 1 of Luke Cage, we know loads of things about all of the main characters and what motivates them. In the old 70's movies the main villain almost always was "the Man" aka, a white person. Even if the main villain was black, there was always some "sinister white dude" who needed killing. LC's main villain was black and was driven solely by his own demons. And to his credit, the over the top D'back never blamed all of it on "the man", like so many of the those old movies.

I don't feel like going through all of myriad of differences right now, although I will agree with Mr. Adventure about the music. Rafael Siddiq is an 80's performer and Delphonics are 60's. I'm not familiar with the lady who sang in the season finale. I'm sure you;re saying that all of the aforementioned is "modernization". So I'm asking you to set aside the modernization and list the reasons you feel Luke Cage is a blaxploitation show.

 

Why? You'll just continue to be an asshole about it.

If you don't understand how or why it's clearly a modern-day version of blaxploitation, no amount of explanation is going to fix that. The fact that you think "blaxploitation" is synonymous with "hating whitey" really says it all, especially when they were actually a celebration of of the subculture rather than nothing but spoofs thereof (though the spoofs like Dolemite were also later folded in with the genre).

 

Luke Cage is as much blaxploitation as Daredevil is a Bruce Lee flick. Elements yes, and that's about it.

 

Agreed. I see the 'black', it's the 'sploitation' that I don't see.

 

I'm guessing you're not fully aware of what "exploitation" means, or how it was being used in reference to the genre.

But yeah, there's nothing blaxploitation about the series. What, like when a strong, black action hero just trying to live his life witnesses great injustices in his community, he is convinced to step up and do something about it by a respected leader of that community. And helped by a strong, black, female detective working both with and against him when she's not wanting to... err, buy him coffee (when all of the other women aren't also wanting to buy him coffee), all with some low key but groovy music playing whenever a fight scene starts up? Nevermind all the (current) cultural archetypes all over the place. Sweet Christmas! Definitely not within the genre at all. You've convinced me.

Toned down like most things Marvel and modernized, but yeah, sorry... it was clearly created in the spirit of the blaxploitation genre. Especially since -- again -- Luke Cage himself was from the very beginning, and they chose to celebrate that fact rather than ignore it.

 

Why be so aggressive about this? I don't think everyone is willfully playing dumb just to taunt you but see it differently. It's more interesting to hear you lay out your reasons than just say how clearly wrong everyone is.

 

I just finished the show today. after having a bit of a quality dip after episode 7, the show picked back up around episode 11 and the last few episodes were pretty good. Luke had some great moments (I liked his final fight with Diamondback, and how everyone in the crowd was supporting him), and even Misty turned out to not be a complete idiot in the end. The very end was really annoying, though. Is The Defenders going to start with a prison break, or is Luke Cage only going to appear in The defenders via prison conversations with Claire (and maybe Murdock so they can technically can say he crossed over with a hero)?

But, besides that ending, the last few episodes of Luke Cage wrapped up the first season fairly well. I hope he gets another season, this one was the second best Netflix season so far in my opinion (to be fair there have only been 4 seasons of the various shows, and I hated two of them, but Luke Cage would still be a good show even with stronger competition).

 

After Luke's arrested, Bobby Fish finds the folder full of evidence that's supposedly able to exonerate him. Presumably the Defenders will start with Matt Murdock using that evidence to get Luke released.

 

Just finished the show and overall while I feel Daredevil and Jessica Jones were superior shows, Luke Cage is a solid enough addition to the MCU Netflix line-up. I felt the show improved in the 2nd half thanks to Diamondback just because Luke faced a threat he couldn't walk through. While we know the main character is not going to die until at least the end of a story, it was getting a little boring watching Luke walk through bullets. The final few episodes made the show feel like a comic book show and the final fight while a little too Rocky V for my tastes was pretty decent to watch. I presume Murdoch will get Luke out of jail using the evidence found by Bobby at the start of "The Defenders".

The show definitely tackled issues that the other MCU properties ignore and the street element of the stories in the Netflix MCU shows can be a breathe of fresh air but Luke for a while seem to stray away from comic book territory and I hope a better balance is found in season 2.

Daredevil S1 - A-
Daredevil S2 - B+
Jessica Jones - B
Luke Cage - B-

 

But even if they clear him of the crimes he was originally put in prison for, its still a crime to escape from prison, even if he was an innocent man going in. Realistically, he probably shouldn't be getting out until around the time Daredevil season 12 airs. Since they're going to have to BS their way out of him not being imprisoned for breaking out of prison and being on the run for years, they might as well have done it at the end of this season instead of having to either waste time during The Defenders or completely ignoring the issue.