Brief Story Line
Set in the 1930s New York, Ben Reilly (Nicolas Cage - The Croods: A New Age, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies etc) was working as Private Investigator and assisted by his trusted secretary Janet Ruiz (Karen Rodriguez - The Hunting Wives TV series etc). Secretly Ben was also a superhero called the Spider who fought against crimes in the city. But after something happened 5 years before, Ben stopped becoming the Spider which made mob boss Finn Byrne aka Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson - Paddington 2, The Banshees of Inisherin etc) was able to control the city.
One day Ben got a task which involved well known night club singer Cat Hardy (Li Jun Li - Sinners, Wu Assassins TV series etc). But things gotten complicated as Cat was protected by her bodyguard Flint Marko (Jack Huston - Ben-Hur 2016 remake, Boardwalk Empire TV series etc) who worked for Silvermane. Meanwhile people with super power started to appear in the city and Ben's best friend and famous reporter Robbie Robertson (Lamorne Morris - Bloodshot, Woke TV series etc) was in the midst of it. As he investigated the case, Robbie also met with Lonnie Lincoln (Abraham Popoola - The Rig TV series, Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey etc) who might have info on the super powered.
With imminent danger from people with powers, Ben might have to reconsider his retirement and return as the Spider to save the city once again. So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
Well that was very entertaining. I loved watching this series which had a strong classic movie feel especially since the main character was a private detective during that period and enhanced with the appearance of female lead who was a night club singer and piqued the detective's interest. Plus the series was available in black & white color which made it even greater if you want to experience that oldies feel. Obviously it would have been rather cliché and standard if the focus was only on that part, but since it is a superhero story, the plot became more complex with superhero fighting villain. The wonderful combination between superhero and noir was what made me enjoyed the series a lot.
Now the casting of Nicolas Cage was pretty smart to my opinion as he was able to portray this aging & tired private eye/superhero quite perfectly. In fact he was praised for his performance here by critics which led to a very high critical rating for the series. Funny thing was Nic Cage already appeared (in animated version) as Spider-Noir previously in Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse, although in that movie his real name was Peter Parker and not Ben Reilly. The series itself was set in the Sony's Spider-man Universe (SSU).
Other cast also did great job here particularly Karen Rodriguez and Li Jun Li who were convincing in their roles. In addition to the names above, there were also supporting cast like Lukas Haas (Cash Out, The Violent Heart etc) as Silvermane's right hand man Winston, Andrew Lewis Caldwell (Geography Club etc) as one of the super powered person Dirk Leyden, Michael Kostroff (The Wire TV series etc) as New York's mayor Alfred Morris, Amanda Schull (12 Monkeys TV series etc) as Ruby, Amy Aquino (Picket Fences TV series etc) as Doctor Faber and plenty others.
The story was definitely a plus point here for me. The writing was amazing with the characters written nicely and the plot made interesting. The dialogues were intelligently done with lots of sarcastic & witty remarks that made me laughed. The series was created and developed by Oren Uziel (writer of Freak of Nature, The Cloverfield Paradox etc). I also liked the action sequence and seeing a different kind of Spider-man during the 1930s with unique costume. And the availability of 2 versions was great too as it gave us the choice to enjoy whichever type we want. I myself switched the two several times to experience it and I found that black & white gave the classic feel while the colored version felt like watching old movies which were given colors at latter stage. However, the computer graphics were more obvious in color especially when the old buildings and surroundings were shown. Whatever version that you want would totally depend on your own preference, but it's nice to be given the alternative.
In the end, this was the sort of series that I thought was brilliant, fun, entertaining and a joy to watch. It has great story telling, wonderful acting supported by some greatly done spider-man fights too. It managed to nicely combine superhero and noir genre which should please fans of both like myself. Having only 8 episodes with duration just between 43-49 minutes also made it the perfect 1 day binge. This is also the kind of series that grew better as it progressed which was why I could not stop watching it last night. Oh btw there was no mid or post end credit scene in the finale, so there is no teaser for subsequent season. Not sure if this is going to be renewed as it's too early to tell, but I do hope they do it as I would surely watch it. So if you like all the things I said about the series, I am sure you would have great time like I did. But if you prefer a full action superhero series that does not give classic feel, then you might not really enjoy it. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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