Spider-Noir
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
It's June and another big week in the run-up to the midterms. Primaries in half a dozen states, including California, where new congressional maps are in place and a chaotic race for governor is wide open. We're also following gas prices and Iran. So far, talk of a peace deal is just talk. We'll keep you posted. Listen every morning, up first on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
One of the best bits in the animated movie Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse was the taste we got of a black-and-white 1930s film noir Spider-Man who talked in Dashiell Hammett dialogue and sounded like Nicolas Cage because he was voiced by Nicolas Cage. Well, if you like that taste, Prime Video is serving you up an all-you-can-eat buffet with Spider Noir, a new live-action series starring Nicolas Cage. But does the show get its blend of noir and superheroes right? I'm Glenn Weldon. Today we're talking about Spider Noir on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.
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Joining me today is filmmaker, pop culture critic, and iHeartRadio producer, Joelle Monique. Welcome back, Joelle.
Thanks, Glenn. Glad to be here.
Great to have you. Also with us is Daisy Rosario. She's the senior supervising producer of audio at Slate, where she works with shows like Death, Sex, and Money, and I See Why Am I, which I keep trying to call Icky Me, but it's not really catching on. Hey, Daisy.
Hey, I'm good. Happy to be here. Thanks.
Great to have you.
What is the premise of the Spider-Noir series?
In Spider Noir, Nick Cage is Ben Reilly, a down-on-his-luck private dick who used to be New York's only superhero, the Spider. But following a tragedy, he's hung up his mask.
Ruby once told me that with great power comes great responsibility. Well, she was the greatest responsibility I ever had. And I failed her. The Spider failed her.
That is, until a case involving a lot of noir-inflected analogs of classic Spider-Man characters, Black Cat, Sandman, Tombstone, and more, drags him back into the game. Brendan Gleeson turns up as a mob boss, and Lamorne Morris plays this universe's version of Spidey's reporter pal, Robby. The press materials say that this is not a spinoff of the Spider-Verse movies, and it's set in its own separate universe, but come on. In an unusual move, the series' eight episodes are presented in two formats, color and black and white. Trust us, go with black and white. Spider Noir is streaming now on Prime Video. We should mention Amazon supports NPR and pays to distribute some of our content. Joelle, we're going to start with you.
Is this the stuff dreams are made of?
Oh, maybe not dreams, but definitely not nightmares either. I think there's a lot of fun stuff to enjoy. Nicolas Cage, Nicolas Caging, all over this joint. He is over the top. It's why he's a star. He's... goofy, but somehow still affectionate and resonant. But I think overall, I had a really difficult time with the tone of the show. I love a good noir. To me, noir is all about secrets and trying to understand the human condition. And then usually there's a very intense crime involved. I felt the crime was kind of all over the place and didn't quite build in a way that was satisfactory. And I felt there was a lot of struggle to get the blend of like, when is it okay to be funny? And when is it okay to be like deep and darkly dramatic?
And it kind of trying to do both washed it out. I will say what I appreciated about the series is a lot of times, particularly when we're doing comic books within other genres, um, We want to make everything very sanitized. In other words, we do blind race casting and we're not going to address the struggles of the time period or that becomes the whole thing. It's just about the struggles of the time period, which becomes laborious.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:50
2
What is the premise of the Spider-Noir series?
1:50–6:28
3
How does Nicolas Cage portray his character in Spider-Noir?
6:28–12:01
4
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the show's tone?
12:01–14:29
5
How does the show balance humor and drama in noir storytelling?
14:29–17:41
6
What are the visual elements that stand out in Spider-Noir?
17:41–19:07