Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Reviews #11 - Luke Cage Season 1 (2016)

Review: Luke Cage is the third Marvel character to get his own Netflix series after being introduced on Jessica Jones. As with Daredevil and Jessica Jones, Luke Cage has its own unique feel to it. This series takes place for the most part in Harlem and has a 70s blacksploitation feel to it. The music very much helps accentuate that feeling. There is also a good amount of live music sung by known artists.

            The story itself is about Luke Cage cleaning up some crime in Harlem. The storyline changes a bit in the second half of the season and goes in a different direction while still somewhat keeping the initial focus. Mike Coulter does a fantastic job as the titular character. He plays Luke as calm and cool but gets angry when the time is right. The show has a large cast of supporting characters. Simone Missick as detective Misty Knight becomes a stronger character as the season goes along. Her character is a good folly for Luke as she is at times an ally and an adversary. On the villains side it is hit and miss. The main villain Cottonmouth, played by Mahershala Ali, is sometimes an intelligent criminal mastermind, but then he’ll fly off the handle and do something stupid. His cousin Mariah (Alfre Woodard) is the super fake politician you love to hate. Theo Rossi as Shades is the most interesting one. He’s like the devil, whispering in everyone’s ear to do evil acts.

            The action on this show is smaller scale. There isn’t much grandiose superhero fighting. It keeps in line with Daredevil and is hand to hand without being overly superheroey. Granted Luke Cage has bulletproof skin and is super strong, but everything happens with guns and hand to hand fighting and not flying and eye lasers.

            The show splits in 2 sections. Unfortunately, I found the first half better than the second. The first part focuses on Cage trying to take down Cottonmouth, whilst the second part looks into Cage’s origin and brings in another villain. The second half was less strong primarily because it felt like it was a different show. There were long stretches that took the characters away from the elements that made the show what it is. It wasn’t that bad but it was a sidetrack that took us away from the action.

            Overall it is a good show but not quite as strong as Daredevil and Jessica Jones were. The season does end conclusively but it does leave some open ends for another season that are quite interesting and I do look forward to the show’s eventual return.


Score: 7/10

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