Of course its amplified for story telling purposes. If you have a bulletproof good guy you have to have a bulletproof bad guy. Besides its more about the reality that Mable and Cottonmouth represent aka the insurmountable real life issue of organized crime in impoverished neighborhoods. Its all allegory, LC is the hero that is needed, and CM is the villain that needs conquering. LC has to overcome both the bad guy and the "good guys", CM has the support of both... I personally know a few kids that I have worked with over the years that have shown me or coworkers wads of $100 bills worth several years of my salary. This isn't every kid, just the business savvy ones. But through drugs and women they at 17-20ish can makes 10s of thousands of dollars in a couple days. A friend of mines little sister used to make 10-20k a weekend selling drugs at raves on the weekends as a "hobby".
I like Luke Cage... can't wait for Iron Fist and then the Defenders. I wish they can have the Thunderbolts on Netflix, too.
Spoiler I guess. I think I'm just comparing it too much to Wilson Fisk and The Purple Man who were very different and masterfully done. I'm now finished and Diamondback is a little cheesy and over the top with his constant quoting of Bible verses. I wish we could have spent more time in Seagate, had a little more time with Pop and gotten a little more interaction with Luke Cage and the citizens. I liked the little Method Man bit. I thought that was kind of cool. And now that I'm done, another jump is the obviously crooked Mariah somehow talking the Mayor of New York City into arming his law enforcement with explosive rounds over the course of a couple days. I know the "desperate times cause for desperate measures" argument, but man. That was quick. I really am nitpicking a bit cause I like the show. I enjoyed it a lot. But the villains left me wanting a lot more. They were pretty lazily crafted and one-dimensional imo, more inline with the Marvel movie universe villains (outside of Loki).
I have mixed feelings on Luke Cage. In a lot of ways it's my favorite setting. I thought they tackled some legitimate social issues in impoverished areas. I thought Cottonmouth was a tremendous villain. I hated Diamondback and wish he wasn't introduced in this season. I thought Colter was wooden. I thought the actress who played Mariah was hit or miss. I think most of the actors struggled making their "street" lingo sound legit. I thought the actress who played Misty was good, but I wanted more opportunities for her to be great. She deserved the chance to stand on her own and fight her own battles more. Iron Fist looks great. I think it has the opportunity to be the best yet.
I liked the whole Method Man thing and I think they needed more of the Luke Cage interaction with people.
The bullet hole hoodie scene was easily my favorite of the series and might honestly be my favorite of the Marvel Netflix stuff. That was a POWERFUL message and I'd love to see that as a real life silent protest. That hit me harder than I thought it would.
I also realize I came off hard on Diamondback. He was sort of cartoonish, but I didn't mind that. What I minded was our lack of backstory between he and Cage. I thought that was handled really poorly. I'd rather we had the opportunity to explore Cottonmouth/Mariah/Shades more since they seemed to have an awesome dynamic going.
I liked Diamondback, but like you I thought they needed to give it more time. Spoiler You can't set up a villain, then just kill him at the midway point of the show and build up another villain in time. It's one of the things that Daredevil and JJ have over their movie counterparts. They can build up an actual villain as opposed to the movies "Villain of the Week" type thing. I said in other posts, I just don't buy Cottonmouth being able to be that blatantly bad with no one able to pin anything on him. I mean, Kingpin got away with what he did because no one knew he even existed really. I agree with the hoodie scene. It was powerful, and it wasn't anti-cop as much as it was anti-violence period.
I hear you. Spoiler: Spoiler While parts of Cottonmouth were over the top, I don't mind that honestly. I don't mind over the top villainy as long as it fits the tone. I thought what they had going with Cottonmouth was spectacular. He was deep and had fantastic motivations. I loved him as a villain. He was struggling against his nature and struggling to make his way in this world. That's why some of this actions were so outlandish. I thought he and Mariah and Shades should have been the only villains in this season. Save Diamondback for Season Two. For so many reasons. 1. It gives you time to explore his relationship with Luke. We didn't get ANYTHING that showed them being close when they were younger. We didn't get the jealousy, we didn't get the odd father/son and father/half-son dynamic, we didn't get to see Luke and Stryker getting into trouble. Heck we don't even get to see what gets them both put in jail! 2. When you have more time, you can set up how and why Diamondback got to be the way he is. He goes from bitter sibling to maniacal killer. Why? What exactly happened to him in jail? How did he even get this weapon connection to Hammer? 3. Why is Stryker in NY? Cage is about to go back to Georgia where he's from to deal with his past. Shouldn't his past be down there waiting for him? Wouldn't that make more sense? 100%. It would make such a great silent protest.
Spoiler It would have made more sense for Stryker to be in Georgia. But whatever. They went with the DC model of overstuffing. Also, you've mentioned Shades a couple times. Did you like his character? I thought his acting was so, so, so, so bad. The other 3 people here at work that have seen it all thought he was the dumbest character in all the Defenders MCU. None of the 3 watched Sons of Anarchy either. I thought maybe his role in that show was clouding my judgement as it pertains to his ability to come off as a convincing bad a**, but they didn't know who he was and couldn't stand him.
I was cool with him to be honest. He was over the top at times, sure, but that was the general vibe of the show. They wanted that kind of feel I think. Spoiler: Spoiler The worst in the show to me was EASILY "Zip". He overacted every millisecond he was on the screen. Every single moment he was on the screen was cringe worthy.
