Fanboys Anonymous

Season 2 of Marvel's Luke Cage is set to premiere at 3am EST on Netflix, and per usual, this post will be documenting my running commentary of thoughts as I binge-watch every episode. I'll be adding notes almost as a stream of consciousness and when everything has concluded, I'll be wrapping everything up with a full season recap and review to see just how good or bad the overall package was and the hits and misses in a Reviewpoint podcast video.

I invite you to follow along and to leave your thoughts in the comments below just the same!






Episode 1 - "Soul Brother #1"

• So Luke Cage is a ninja now?
• Directed by Lucy Liu? Weird.
• LOL at the breakdown of the whole "he's a dark roast" and whatnot
• "The selfies, the groupies, the dick pics" - LMAO
• He came back again, too. Who is he? I'm guessing Danny Rand. I'm probably wrong.
• Shades was one of my favorite characters last season. I hope he keeps up that trend.
• LOL at the plastics exchange.
• Shades and Mariah are so gross together. Exactly what they should be. Good job, Theo and Alfre.
• It's good to see Claire again after missing her for a season. Even though I'd be okay with her getting killed off in order to make room for Jessica Jones and merging the shows to not have a full Jessica Jones season, I do like Claire.
• Who is this dude with the car? I can't remember. Am I supposed to be able to remember him?
• I really hope this exposition-heavy episode means there's less of a lag for this season. I don't want to be saying AGAIN that 13 episodes should have been cut down to 10....but I'm probably going to have to.
• Stephanie's cute.
• This young kid working at Pop's is so, so dead.
• Cockroach's pitch to Mariah was basically "I'm Black Ya'll" from CB4
• "I need my cape." / "Whatever, Power Man." - I liked that
• Shades always looks like he's trying so hard to be cool and failing. It makes me laugh.
• He fucking dabs!! LOL
• Well I'm turning on the subtitles to understand Bushmaster, that's for sure.
• Oh fuck. That knife to the eye part was pretty damn brutal.

Episode 2 - "Straighten It Out"

• I hope this whole "Judas bullet doesn't matter anymore" thing isn't as cliche as them creating a new thing just the same
• "I will deal with him when I'm ready." aka "I will give some resolution to this plotline at least a few episodes in the future. We need to stall.
• THE SHORT ARM OF THE LAW. ARTURO IS THE MAN.
• The Incident, eh? Yaaaaaaaaay reference! It's sad how little they give us to show connectivity. 
• Aw :( I wanted more of Arturo.
• Old woman wants to give Luke Cage some coffee hahaha.
• Obeah Man. Now I want to watch Meet Joe Black.
• I feel like if we cut out all the musical performances and lingering shots of Mariah looking at the musicians, we'd cut out a full episode of stalling.
• Oh my god, this scene has been like 5 minutes of nothing. It could have been accomplished in 30 seconds. We're only on episode 2 and I'm starting to feel the drag. Pleeease don't be one of those seasons.

Episode 3 - "Wig Out"

• Even with the subtitles, I'm having trouble understanding the Jamaicans. I'm glad Shades said the same thing before. Rhaatid.
• Whoa. Seet.
• Headed elsewhere. Nice.
• MORTY. LMFAO. DIP DIP YOUR TOES IN THE CONVERSATION? WTF?!
• Worldstar!
• I'd eat some piranha.
• I heard that Claire's place was a real hole in the wall, but c'mon.

Episode 4 - "I Get Physical"

• This show relishes in itself too much and spends WAY too much time taking something that could be done in a minute or so and dragging it out just so the music can tell you what you're supposed to be thinking. When done right, it can be really effective, but this is overboard.
• Totally thought the bad news was going to be that Nike dropped the deal because of the Bushmaster video.
• Wait a fucking minute, I'm still on episode 4???? This feels like it's not too far off from ending. Are they actually going to have a season where it has multiple mini-arcs instead of one big, over-elongated one? Probably not.
• Aaaand this whole legal drama is going to tie up a bunch of time.

Episode 5 - "All Souled Out"

• Please don't be what I think you're going to be. Please don't be an unnecessary side story that takes up like 3-4 episodes' worth of time for no reason other than to stall.
• Hey there Foggy.
• At least they acknowledged that Danny could pay the 100 grand.
• You're on time out? Really? Fuuuuuuuuck this dude. 
• "Who's tougher, you or the green monster?" / "That's not his name." - I appreciate the reference, but why can't you say Hulk?

Episode 6 - "The Basement"

• It's 7:45am. I'm starting to get really tired. I hope this picks up and keeps me entertained, because right now, I'm thinking I've got this episode and maybe one more before I start falling asleep.
• Hey, Warriors reference.
• Shades is the man. Just give him the keys to the kingdom.
• I don't know if it's because I'm getting sleepy, or because this is in a real lull, but I have pretty much nothing to comment on.

Episode 7 - "On and On"

• Ha. Piranhas. I get it.
• Alright, so, theories on Tilda's dad? Seems too easy to go with the cop.
• Oh great, let's have the same "You should stop being so focused on Mariah" speech again. It's not like we didn't get the gist of this the last time. 
• Also, that teeth sucking thing is always on the captions. 
• That's cold, Shades. Not cool, man. 
• If you're going to do this shit with the music taking focus and playing full songs every single episode, can you not pick songs that repeat the same goddamn line over and over again? Jesus that got annoying.

Episode 8 - "If It Ain't Rough, It Ain't Right"

• Zzzzzzzzz
• Wait, did I really just go through a whole episode with nothing at all to say?

Episode 9 - "For Pete's Sake"

• Holy shit. I'm actually excited to see Danny Rand. After that terrible season of Iron Fist, it shows how boring this season of Luke Cage has been that I'm excited to see Rand of all people. I'm really disappointed with how slow this is. If it were just a few episodes, I feel like it would be great, but it's just going at a snail's pace.
• Oh my god. Can something happen? I hate to sound like someone who comes off wanting action 24/7, but it's not even like these conversations are going anywhere but in circles!! How many times can we have the SAME conversation?
• I'm really struggling here. This isn't a show you can binge from 3am until 4pm, and I'm the type of person who usually doesn't struggle too much to stay awake for 24 hours straight. 
• Black Mariah. Finally, the name pops up. 
• Way to go both sympathetic and horrible with Mariah. I both feel bad for her and want her to bite the dust. 
• Here we go again with a repetitive song. Bushmaster. Bushmaster. Bushmaster. Bushmaster. Bushmaster. I get it. His name is Bushmaster. They've said it a million times each episode.

Episode 10 - "The Main Ingredient"

• I'm taking a break before this episode begins. I need it. Sorry.
• "Power Man and Iron Fist, that's got a good ring to it." - Ha. I get it. References. 
• Convenient that they just dropped the whole being broke thing out of nowhere. Lame.
• TURK! I was waiting on him. 

Episode 11 - "The Creator"

• So it turns out I actually fell asleep during this episode and had to go back and get caught up. That's how boring I've been finding this. A good way for me to sum things up this season is that while they might do something and then do another thing, almost none of it leads anywhere that couldn't have just been a much straighter line.
• Also, fuck yeah, Shades. Take down Mariah. You deserve to rule Harlem.

Episode 12 - "Can't Front On Me"

• I really just want this to end. Sorry for not having anything to say. It's the same stuff over and over and over again.

Episode 13 - "They Reminisce Over You"

• How is there still a whole episode left?
• Oh my god, it's nothing but the resolution of the stuff that should have been solved a long time ago.
• How is there still 25 minutes left?
• How is there still 11 minutes left?
• So we just left the whole Bobby thing, and ugh, you know what, screw this. This season was awful. I'm so ready to put it behind me.