Luke Cage Season One Review with *Live Tweets*

I posted the full review on Instagram, but I'll repost the full review below (hence the hashtags) with a link to the live tweets I did while watching the series with the other diverse folk on Twitter as well. Check it all out below.

#HoodiesUp #SweetChristmas it's my #LukeCage 🔅Spoiler Free🔅 Season One Review! Yo I totally, totally enjoyed this show! Like all the other Marvel/Netflix shows this one is totally unlike the others. (Since I wanted to publish this review on IG in its entirety I had to break it up in the comments below. You'll know the end by the "###") #DanksReview

A video posted by Dankwa Brooks (@dankwa) on Oct 5, 2016 at 2:06pm PDT

THE SHOWRUNNER, THE VIBE

In separate interviews #showrunner #CheoHodariCoker describes the show as "the Wu Tang-ification of the Marvel universe”, as having "a '90s hip-hop vibe." and ""The Wire of Marvel television" I can say all statements are absolutely TRUE! 

I'll throw in a badass #blaxpoitation vibe too! Lots of time when Cage takes a "Step in the Arena" (the #Gangstarr inspired title of episode 4) you can hear Cage's #leitmotif (theme song) and you know some ass-kicking is coming! 

This show not only OOZES in #BlackCulture and #BlackHistory it's also #UnapologeticallyBlack ✊🏾The characters talk how black people talk and act like black people act. The nuances of black culture and black life are EVERYWHERE in this show. The literary 📚references/discussions📚 alone are rooted in black history/culture. 

#MikeColter is a great solid Luke Cage. He plays Cage as the strong, silent type. He's strong and silent, but can definitely be smooth when it comes to the ladies.👌🏾He really just wants to lay low, but the love of his people, his community forces him into action. For those that don't know Luke Cage has unbreakable skin and super strength so yeah he does some superhero type shit, but it's all grounded in reality—a black reality—in a black Harlem. 

HARLEMWORLD

I joked that this show could be called "Harlem featuring Luke Cage" because that's how much of a character Harlem is. As @djolder said on Twitter "one thing #LukeCage did in the span of a single episode that neither DareDevil nor Jessica Jones managed was create a sense of community" Harlem and its residents are a real vibrant part of the series and remains so the entire season. Most of the villains on the show love Harlem first and foremost. 

OH THE VILLAINY 

Speaking of villains, like the other Marvel/Netflix shows, the villains are about the best thing on the show, from #MariahDillard to #Cottonmouth to #Shades, they all BRING IT! Their portrayers #AlfreWoodard, #MahershalaAli and #TheoRossi consistently kill it! 

THE WOMEN OF LUKE CAGE

 #ClaireTemple re-emerges in this series and has A LOT to do and #RosarioDawson continues to do it well! #MistyKnight (played by the fantastic #SimoneMissick) who spawned the #MistySoLit hashtag before the show even premiered is a HUGE part of the show. Shit, the show could also be called "Luke Cage & Misty Knight" LOL. She's definitely the standout she was predicted to be. Actually the show has SEVERAL female characters that make an impact, not just hanging around. They affect the story. 

IN THE END

I think this season is gonna become a hood pop culture classic, in other words—a hit in these streets. That's the true way to reach the culture. Much like 'Scarface' (1983) some of the characters in Luke Cage are energetic, bombastic and audacious—which also make them great and memorable. As #PopCulture critic JOHN POWERS said "If there's any quality that makes a piece of pop culture last, it's energy." All I kept thinking watching Luke Cage was "the streets gonna love❤️this!" And with all the Black History drops that's exactly how it's supposed to be. Marvel/Netflix has another distinct hit on their hands and this time it's also #ForTheCulture 👊🏾###

I also •LIVE•TWEETED• the season @notherbrother on Twitter. You can check out the thread starting with the tweet below. 

#SweetChristmas here we go! #LukeCage Season One! Put ya #HoodiesUp and lets go! pic.twitter.com/GMcijyP4Mi

— Nother Brother Ent. (@NotherBrother) September 30, 2016

RELATED 
The biography wirtten by Luke Cage showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker 
Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G. - Cool Black Review

Marvel's Luke Cage is the most popular digital series in the US

Usher Uncensored Interview August 2016 [AUDIO]

August 22nd Usher appeared on the Howard Stern Show where he talked about being at "Puffy Flavor Camp" where music executive L.A. Reid sent him to hang out with Sean "Puffy" Combs to learn the music business, training for his movie Hands of  Stone, and being a mentor to Justin Bieber.

O.J. Made In America - Live Tweets and Review

"O.J.: Made in America" is a 2016 American five-part documentary miniseries directed and produced by Ezra Edelman for ESPN Films and their 30 for 30 series.

View this post on Instagram

I finally, finally finished #nfotd #30For30 #OJMadeInAmerica—all FIVE PARTS and I'm gonna say it—give this man, #EzraEdelman, the OSCAR for Best Documentary Feature right now! I've seen some excellent—PHENOMENAL #documentaries and this EXTRAORDINARY 7+ hour #documentary was compelling and engrossing all-the-way-through. I know it's long, but Mr. Edelman tells one HELL of a story with the backdrop of fame, celebrity, race, law enforcement and justice! I •LIVE•TWEETED• this extraordinary work @ www.Twitter.com/DankwaBrooks and when Oscar time comes up next year, remember I told you so!

A post shared by Dankwa Brooks (@dankwa) on Jun 22, 2016 at 5:51pm PDT

As I watched this mini-series I live tweeted it. All the tweets are linked below.

Warning: Explicit Language

LIVE TWEETS of Parts 1-3 in a Twitter thread linked below

Next up on my #nfotd mini-series summer 2016. LOL #OJMadeInAmerica. I'll try to tie all •LIVE•TWEETS• to this tweet pic.twitter.com/hbnSs4oy09

— Dankwa Brooks (@DankwaBrooks) June 14, 2016

LIVE TWEETS continuation of Parts 3-5 in a Twitter thread linked below

OJ to #JohnnyCochran & the defense team "guys if THIS jury convicts me, maybe I DID do it!" #OJMadeInAmerica Part 3 pic.twitter.com/iVRH2eOB5w

— Dankwa Brooks (@DankwaBrooks) June 18, 2016

And of course the documentary did go on to WIN the Oscar. Watch it below

Tracy Morgan Uncensored Interview August 2016 [AUDIO]

August 16, 2016 marked the first Stern Show appearance from Tracy Morgan since the 2014 traffic accident that nearly took his life. The comedian has had countless hilarious on-air moments with Howard throughout the years but on this day, he was prepared to open up about how fortunate he was to be alive.

 On June 7, 2014, a Sprinter van carrying Tracy and three other comedians was rear-ended by a Walmart tractor-trailer while driving on the New Jersey Turnpike. Morgan suffered several injuries including a broken nose, a broken leg, and several broken ribs. His friend James "Jimmy Mack" McNair was killed. "It's hard for me to talk about this," Tracy told Howard. "I'm used to being funny but I know this is a different show right now."-HowardStern.com

 Hear Tracy's full interview with Howard (below).

The Captain America Trilogy

Blog Post #22

Let’s be clear, the Captain America trilogy is GREAT and that NEVER happens. Most times sequels are ok or just bad, but they managed to keep each sequel great. The first movie Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) was far better than I thought it would be. This is what I said about it in another post Ranking the Solo Avengers Movies 

“When I heard that Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) would be set in the past I thought *YAWN* I'll wait until he catches up to the future, but I was pleasantly surprised. They took what was essentially an origin story and infused it with good ole fashioned nostalgia and action. The movie was a little long, but they had a lot of story to tell and in the end I thought they told it well. This movie had the most heart of all the solo Avengers pics and you could really feel for Steve Rogers before and after he turned into Captain America through this underdog piece. Another nice prequel to Avengers and a great introduction to the leader of the Avengers.”

 The sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) came after the mega hit The Avengers (2012) and this is what I said about it.

"They say that #CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier is the best #Avengers solo pic yet and well...IT IS! Everything about this pic succeeds. Everything! All the major players get in some major action! The story is also fantastic! The #script is really good and gives equal plot and action. The plot is just intricate enough to be interesting, but not too intricate to be confusing. That's all I want to say for this picture is EXCELLENT! The only solo Avengers picture I can say that about (and the all were pretty good to great!). #CaptainAmerica2 I salute you!"

I’ve seen “Winter Soldier” several times since then and it always holds up! While “Civil War” was great and had one of the best superhero fight EVER, I still think Winter Soldier just had a tighter driven self-contained plot. Civil War had a lot going on and while it wasn’t all over the place, it still seemed like A LOT.

Maybe because Winter Soldier was SO game changing that I feel it’s like “Empire Strikes Back”. It changed the whole nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Civil War changed it as well, but it was foreshadowed in Avengers: Age of Ultron and seems like a set up for the next Avengers sequel. Winter Soldier was mostly just what it was about.

People are calling the latest film Civil War not only the best in the trilogy, but one of the best superhero movies ever! I can agree with the latter, but not the former.

As I posted online

"I call "Empire Strikes Back" on the #CaptainAmerica trilogy tho" meaning I thought #CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier was the best of the trilogy. YES better than #CaptainAmericaCivilWar and Civil War was f*cking awesome!"

RELATED:
Another Cool Black's Mad Meditation "Ranking the Solo Avengers Movies" click the graphic below to read it!

Ice Cube - Howard Stern Show - April 2016 [AUDIO]

After 17 years since Ice Cube first appeared on the Stern Show, he returned (April 12, 2016) with a  interview that saw him discussing N.W.A.'s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, how he maneuvered from an explosive career in music to becoming a successful filmmaker, and why Paul Giamatti makes the perfect villain.

Listen to the entire interview below

You can catch segments of the interview from Howard's interview with Ice Cube below.

Real life stories of N.W.A. and Straight Outta Compton [VIDEOS]

Great interviews by DJ Vlad (pictured above) with people who were down with the members of N.W.A. back when they got started.

Vladimir Lyubovny better known as DJ Vlad is a disc-jockey and executive vice president at Loud.com, part of the SRC/Universal family. He is also CEO of VladTV.com - a video website that many refer to as "The TMZ of Hip-Hop."–Wikipedia

Watch the playlist of FIVE (5) interviews below. (Each video will play automatically after each other)

Ryan Coogler Discusses Landing the Black Panther Directing Gig

Ryan Coogler

By Chris Tilly Ryan, IGN

Ryan Coogler has been talking about landing the Black Panther gig, revealing how much the character means to him, both professionally and personally.

Marvel announced that Coogler would be directing the forthcoming blockbuster earlier this week, so when IGN grabbed some time with him at the Creed junket, we asked how it felt to be working for the superhero studio:

“Oh it’s exciting man, it’s so exciting,” he enthused. “I think even more-so than it being a Marvel movie is that it’s a story that has a lot of meaning and significance to me as a filmmaker, as an artist, and as a film fan. It’s really exciting to be able to do something that’s this unique.”

We also asked Creed star Michael B. Jordan what he thinks about the news.

“Oh man I’m super excited,” he exclaimed. “I’m a big comic book guy, and Black Panther is a character that’s so interesting – T’Challa’s amazing, Chadwick Boseman’s a really amazing actor, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what they do together.”

Jordan added that he thinks Coogler will ground Black Panther's fantastical story in a degree of realism.

“I think what he brings to all films is a sense of humanity and groundedness to it,” he replied. “I think these Marvel films are so larger than life that I think it’s kind of cool to get a grounded superhero version of that. Of course with all the larger-than-life elements Marvel will be Marvel, especially with the Black Panther being involved with Civil  War, Captain America and that whole kind of thing, I mean I don’t know that much about it, but there’s so much real estate to play with and Ryan I’m pretty sure will find a nice way to tie it all together.”

RELATED
Our post
Everything you need to know about Marvel’s Black Panther

On our parent blog, the 'Nother Brother Entertainment blog you can read the reviews of Coogler's last two films Fruitvale Station (2013) and Creed (2015) here 

Finn's Backstory Revealed in Star Wars Related Book

There's a lot of talk in the black filmgoing community about the mystery that is Finn (John Boyegea) in the new Star Wars films. Much of it was excellently elaborated in the piece Why John Boyega As Finn Is One Of The Best New Characters In Star Wars, but below is excerpts from actual canon Star Wars materials, meaning it's really related to the franchise and not "fan fiction" etc. It's from the below book

I haven't read it, but someone on imgur has and put the info their site. You can read their info below. WARNING: Spoilers and Explicit Language

Star Wars Meta/Spoilers: Finn & The Stormtroopers

by imgur

Stop here if you are one of the 3 people yet who haven't seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Greg Rucka’s Star Wars novel Before the Awakening is A) Quite good and B) Explains much about Finn’s stormtrooper training and social circle leading up to the movie. 

In a nutshell: 

- Finn was trained in a squad of four boys: Him (FN-2187), Nines, Zero and Slip. 

Nines and Zero have nicknames based on their alphanumerical designations (Zero’s is FN-2003, Nines ended in 9s, etc.). Slip was called slip because he was a fuckup. 

- Turns out, most troopers have nicknames

- Why does FN-2187 not have a nickname? Because nobody really likes him. An older trooper tells him straight to his face: he’s an outsider. It just happens to some troopers. 

- Why is this extra tragic? Is it because Finn’s a shitty trooper? NO. He’s actually top of his little trooper class. He’s the fucking bomb -- with a blaster, with tactics, with hand-to-hand weapons. Phasma’s got extremely high expectations for him. (what a fuckin mary sue amirite)

- So why is this actually extra tragic? What’s Phasma’s one problem with him? Finn cares too much. He cares about keeping his squad alive.

- He cares about going back for his friends more than the mission objective SOUND FAMILIAR? 

- So Phasma tells him to stop coddling Slip or face consequences. He does. 

- And then: the skirmish on Jakku. A trooper dies and Finn loses his final shred of faith in the First Order. Who is that trooper? SURPRISE IT IS SLIP. Basically Finn’s brother, even if he never really fit in with his squad.

- And then: the first thing Poe does is give him a nickname based on his alphanumerical designation JUST LIKE HIS TROOPER FAMILY, NINES AND ZERO AND SLIP, WHO NEVER LIKED HIM ENOUGH TO GIVE HIM ONE. 

FN-2199 aka TR-8R

IN CONCLUSION the trooper in the gifset above who recognizes Finn on sight (and who has been meme-nicknamed TR-8R) is likely Zero or Nines. (It was confirmed by StarWars.com that "TR-8R" is indeed FN-2199 aka Nines-Cool Black)

RELATED
 Why John Boyega As Finn Is One Of The Best New Characters In Star Wars

Why Finn Will Probably Become A Jedi In Star Wars Episode 8

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