I haven't reviewed a show in a while and the answer as to why is pretty simple: I usually don't have much to say about a particular show. Sometimes, that's a good thing. I might not have anything to say because I don't find any obvious faults. Sometimes, that's a bad thing. The show might just be too boring to write a bunch of words on them. To its credit, Luke Cage has inspired me to write. Unfortunately, that's only because it's incredibly easy to find faults with this show.
The best part about Luke Cage is the music. That's not usually something you want to hear about a TELEVISION show, but I'll say that the music would possibly be the best thing about the show even if it was a really good show. In fact, it's probably got some of my favorite music on any TV show or movie ever. I'm still listening to "Long Live the Chief" everyday and I watched that episode like two weeks ago. (For those who don't like hip hop, there's also plenty to love like Nina Simone, Isaac Hayes, and The Delfonics - and look if you don't like rap at all, you probably aren't watching Luke Cage anyway if we're being honest.)
Luke Cage did not have material for 13 episodes - not even close. Like they maybe could have pulled off eight great episodes. Maybe. There's an entire episode dedicated to a flashback from when Luke was in prison, there's TWO whole episodes where Luke does nothing but recover from injuries, and the finale essentially is a recap of the season more than an episode (I was completely unengaged by the fight that took up about 20 minutes if you want an idea of how much the show had lost me.)
I don't really want to spoil this, but I'll put this in terms as vaguely as possible. At first, it appears that one man will be the "Big Bad" of the season, and by the middle of the season, a "Bigger Bad" ends up dominating the natural villain role. Problem: the first one was great. The second was TERRIBLE. Easily one of the most cartoonish, ridiculous villains I've ever seen. The first one was great because both Luke and him cared about the community of Harlem above all else. He was complex. You understood his motives. This is basic Storytelling 101 here.
The second Big Bad though? He does not give one single fuck about the community and only cares about Luke Cage, to the point of irrationality. He is so single-mindedly passionate about Luke Cage, that he does a bunch of stupid shit that makes you wonder how the hell he's supposed to be a composed businessman running the entire underworld of Harlem. The connection between him and Cage is also stupid. Cage is fucking up his business. That should be enough for him to want to take him down, but nope gotta make a contrived connection between them that doesn't actually work at all to make you care about the villain. I can't stress enough how much this second bad guy ruined the later episodes.
Watching Jessica Jones, I was concerned about Mike Colter being able to lead a TV show because he wasn't very good at the emotional moments. And.... nothing he did this season changed my feelings. He looks the part. He's good at playing intimidating, at being playful, and being charming. But he can't really channel emotions effectively into his performance. It's stilted. It's weird because he plays intimidating well, but when he has to play angry, it just doesn't work.
Similarly, they really botched up Misty, the police detective who gets caught up with Cage. Here is the clearest example of when TV shows tell and don't show. We see pretty much zero evidence that she has ever been a good cop from her actions during this season. But we are told that she's one of the best. There's a clear disconnect. She consistently does dumb things throughout the series that hinder investigations and don't pass a simple logic test. She does them for plot reasons, not character reasons.
I could go on, but I'll summarize my thoughts with this: it seems like the show had about seven good episodes and didn't really know what to do past that so they threw in a cartoon villain who was at odds with the realistic tone the show had set previously. Everything came tumbling down as a result. Shades and Mariah were interesting I guess, though I find them much less interesting than evidently everyone else (the overwhelmingly positive response to those two has bewildered me a bit - they're fine) I hope that Netflix allows these shows to air less than 13 episodes going forward because every single show - Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and now Luke Cage - seems like it would have benefited from about three less episodes each season. (Luke Cage is somewhat different from those shows in that it has considerably fewer good episodes.)
Grade - C
Showing posts with label Rosario Dawson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rosario Dawson. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Daredevil Season 2 Review
I have a confession to make: I remember very little about season one of Daredevil. I don't know how quick that season jolted out of my memory, but it definitely was gone by November when I was considering my top ten dramas of the year. I ended up writing about 20 shows and Daredevil didn't even get a mention. Its Netflix counterpart, Jessica Jones, got a mention because I remembered it, although I couldn't honestly tell you which show was better because - again - I didn't remember the first season of Daredevil at all.
The second season is less a cohesive season and more a series of mini-arcs. For example, the first four episodes are about the Punisher, the next four are about Elektra, the rest about The Hand and Black Sky. It's a little more complicated than that, but that's the basic framework of the season. I don't remember a lot about the first season, but I do know that the entire season was pretty focused on Wilson Fisk and Matt Murdock.
It's hard to make Charlie Cox unlikable. He's an effortlessly charismatic performer. With that said, I felt like Matt Murdock was pretty unlikable for most of this season. Probably due to my fatigue at superheroes in general, I just find his moralizing tiring. When you watch a superhero who has a code of not killing, one of the things you just have to accept is that they "know" how not to kill someone when they are literally bashing their skulls and kicking their ass. That's not to mention the probable long-term brain damage more than a few of the guys he fights are facing going forward. You just kind of have to put that part out of your brain or it will drive you nuts.
Still though man... he basically spends this whole season telling both the Punisher and Elektra not to kill and it's just not really a debate I'm interested in at all. There's just certain moments where it stretches credulity. There are scenes where both characters' lives are threatened by multiple people and instead of fighting the bad guys, Daredevil decides it is better to make sure the one helping him doesn't kill the bad guys. It defuses the tension because the bad guys are so incompetent that they can't even beat two superheroes who are fighting each other.
Speaking of the Punisher and Elektra, both characters are unqualified successes. Jon Berthal surprised the hell out of me with his portrayal - Shane on Walking Dead should not go on his acting resume though I don't think that was his fault. Elodie Yung as Elektra is captivating whose chemistry with Cox allows for their mutual attraction and backstory to be believable. (That said, I had a major problem with one of their last scenes of the season of which I will not talk about because most of you haven't finished.)
The binge-nature of watching Daredevil comes at a curse at times. The Matt-Karen romance suffers from this. When a new episode airs every week and not all at once, it's not that atypical for a TV relationship to only last three episodes. But here it's jarring how quickly they break up. Plus, the show ended it in the worst way. Karen has been shown to be a reasonable, thoughtful woman. She walks in on Matt with a woman in his bed, but there was also an old blind man there and I feel like that's going to raise some questions. Matt wasn't even in a compromising position. But she assumes the worst, because the plot needed it to happen and that romance felt like filler and pointless.
While I was never a huge fan of Matt's constant sermonizing to the Punisher about how he shouldn't kill, it at least kind of worked in a way where I imagine I'm on a lonely island with that opinion. But it came off worse when he did the same to Elektra. It was like a rehash of his conversations with the Punisher except this time it's a man telling a woman he knows what's best for her.
If there was a rule that there can never be too many ninjas, Daredevil breaks that rule and then breaks it again. It just lowered the stakes when he and Elektra could fight 10 ninjas at once. Then they did again the next episode. Then they did it again. And again. And about two more times. And about five times in the last episode. So many ninjas.
Another curse of the binge-watch? Holy crap did Black Sky make absolutely no sense to me. What is Black Sky? Why is important? Why does it matter? What power do you hold? The purposeful mystery of the Black Sky unfortunately was too much. You need to answer some questions. We need to know why it's a big deal. Why were they trying to kill Elektra before, but then later in the season, they started not trying to kill her even though both times they presumably knew she was the Black Sky? If she can just tell The Hand what to do, why doesn't she just become Black Sky and make them good? Seriously I don't get it! And Stick is so well-acted by Scott Glenn, that nobody notices how much a mess his character motivations are. He wants her to make Daredevil kill for some reason, but then he wants to kill her because she's Black Sky but he's known that all his life, except later he doesn't want to kill her even though nothing has changed.
I'm being more negative on this review than I am on the season, but just bare with me for a little more negativity. Foggy: he's another character where I feel like I'm supposed to be on his side, but he just comes across as so smug and superior. Also I feel like the show wants me to think he's some fantastic lawyer, but here's the evidence this season: one decent opening statement and making Samantha Reyes look foolish on multiple occasions. But Reyes does nothing smart at all this season and seems dumb so that latter part isn't really an accomplishment. Also, I don't think Karen is a very good writer (lol at her getting a writing job for a reputable newspaper with presumably no degree, no experience and no material), although her investigative skills are great.
On to the bright sides of this season, there are a few fights that live up to the hallway fight of season one. The staircase fight and the prison"fight" both shine and if you've seen both, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. In fact, those fights are so good and so well-filmed, that the fights in the last climactic episode come as a bit of a letdown.
Also, and I've mentioned this already, but pretty much everyone seems perfectly cast. Whatever my problems with this season, none of it is due to the actors. I've already praised Cox, Bernthal, and Yung, but it's easy to forget how good Deborah Ann Woll is in this. She doesn't have a showy part or get to kick ass like the others, but she consistently kills with her performance. Also Vincent D'Onorfio comes in, dominates his scenes, and makes you wish he was in more episodes. Maybe season 3?
Anyway, I feel like I'm just going to have to accept that these superhero series are going to have plot holes, questionable character decisions to further the plot, and things that make no damn sense if you think about it for too long. With the exception of characters making decisions that seem out of character, I'm willing to accept most of these things. Daredevil's second season is ultimately guilty of being too ambition. It juggled 1) the central hero's moral conflict with killing due to his Catholic faith 2) two vigilantes who have no qualms with killing 3) an ancient, evil cult ninja organization 4) a conspiracy by the DA against the murder of Frank Castle's family (a good example of how dumb Reyes is) and 5) a law firm that is for people who have nowhere else to turn. That's too much.
Grade (Man I have even less idea of what to grade this than normal so don't be mad at the grade): B
The second season is less a cohesive season and more a series of mini-arcs. For example, the first four episodes are about the Punisher, the next four are about Elektra, the rest about The Hand and Black Sky. It's a little more complicated than that, but that's the basic framework of the season. I don't remember a lot about the first season, but I do know that the entire season was pretty focused on Wilson Fisk and Matt Murdock.
It's hard to make Charlie Cox unlikable. He's an effortlessly charismatic performer. With that said, I felt like Matt Murdock was pretty unlikable for most of this season. Probably due to my fatigue at superheroes in general, I just find his moralizing tiring. When you watch a superhero who has a code of not killing, one of the things you just have to accept is that they "know" how not to kill someone when they are literally bashing their skulls and kicking their ass. That's not to mention the probable long-term brain damage more than a few of the guys he fights are facing going forward. You just kind of have to put that part out of your brain or it will drive you nuts.
Still though man... he basically spends this whole season telling both the Punisher and Elektra not to kill and it's just not really a debate I'm interested in at all. There's just certain moments where it stretches credulity. There are scenes where both characters' lives are threatened by multiple people and instead of fighting the bad guys, Daredevil decides it is better to make sure the one helping him doesn't kill the bad guys. It defuses the tension because the bad guys are so incompetent that they can't even beat two superheroes who are fighting each other.
Speaking of the Punisher and Elektra, both characters are unqualified successes. Jon Berthal surprised the hell out of me with his portrayal - Shane on Walking Dead should not go on his acting resume though I don't think that was his fault. Elodie Yung as Elektra is captivating whose chemistry with Cox allows for their mutual attraction and backstory to be believable. (That said, I had a major problem with one of their last scenes of the season of which I will not talk about because most of you haven't finished.)
The binge-nature of watching Daredevil comes at a curse at times. The Matt-Karen romance suffers from this. When a new episode airs every week and not all at once, it's not that atypical for a TV relationship to only last three episodes. But here it's jarring how quickly they break up. Plus, the show ended it in the worst way. Karen has been shown to be a reasonable, thoughtful woman. She walks in on Matt with a woman in his bed, but there was also an old blind man there and I feel like that's going to raise some questions. Matt wasn't even in a compromising position. But she assumes the worst, because the plot needed it to happen and that romance felt like filler and pointless.
While I was never a huge fan of Matt's constant sermonizing to the Punisher about how he shouldn't kill, it at least kind of worked in a way where I imagine I'm on a lonely island with that opinion. But it came off worse when he did the same to Elektra. It was like a rehash of his conversations with the Punisher except this time it's a man telling a woman he knows what's best for her.
If there was a rule that there can never be too many ninjas, Daredevil breaks that rule and then breaks it again. It just lowered the stakes when he and Elektra could fight 10 ninjas at once. Then they did again the next episode. Then they did it again. And again. And about two more times. And about five times in the last episode. So many ninjas.
Another curse of the binge-watch? Holy crap did Black Sky make absolutely no sense to me. What is Black Sky? Why is important? Why does it matter? What power do you hold? The purposeful mystery of the Black Sky unfortunately was too much. You need to answer some questions. We need to know why it's a big deal. Why were they trying to kill Elektra before, but then later in the season, they started not trying to kill her even though both times they presumably knew she was the Black Sky? If she can just tell The Hand what to do, why doesn't she just become Black Sky and make them good? Seriously I don't get it! And Stick is so well-acted by Scott Glenn, that nobody notices how much a mess his character motivations are. He wants her to make Daredevil kill for some reason, but then he wants to kill her because she's Black Sky but he's known that all his life, except later he doesn't want to kill her even though nothing has changed.
I'm being more negative on this review than I am on the season, but just bare with me for a little more negativity. Foggy: he's another character where I feel like I'm supposed to be on his side, but he just comes across as so smug and superior. Also I feel like the show wants me to think he's some fantastic lawyer, but here's the evidence this season: one decent opening statement and making Samantha Reyes look foolish on multiple occasions. But Reyes does nothing smart at all this season and seems dumb so that latter part isn't really an accomplishment. Also, I don't think Karen is a very good writer (lol at her getting a writing job for a reputable newspaper with presumably no degree, no experience and no material), although her investigative skills are great.
On to the bright sides of this season, there are a few fights that live up to the hallway fight of season one. The staircase fight and the prison"fight" both shine and if you've seen both, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. In fact, those fights are so good and so well-filmed, that the fights in the last climactic episode come as a bit of a letdown.
Also, and I've mentioned this already, but pretty much everyone seems perfectly cast. Whatever my problems with this season, none of it is due to the actors. I've already praised Cox, Bernthal, and Yung, but it's easy to forget how good Deborah Ann Woll is in this. She doesn't have a showy part or get to kick ass like the others, but she consistently kills with her performance. Also Vincent D'Onorfio comes in, dominates his scenes, and makes you wish he was in more episodes. Maybe season 3?
Anyway, I feel like I'm just going to have to accept that these superhero series are going to have plot holes, questionable character decisions to further the plot, and things that make no damn sense if you think about it for too long. With the exception of characters making decisions that seem out of character, I'm willing to accept most of these things. Daredevil's second season is ultimately guilty of being too ambition. It juggled 1) the central hero's moral conflict with killing due to his Catholic faith 2) two vigilantes who have no qualms with killing 3) an ancient, evil cult ninja organization 4) a conspiracy by the DA against the murder of Frank Castle's family (a good example of how dumb Reyes is) and 5) a law firm that is for people who have nowhere else to turn. That's too much.
Grade (Man I have even less idea of what to grade this than normal so don't be mad at the grade): B
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