Just
finished the first season of Marvel’s latest Netflix offering, and I’m loving
the continued expansion of the Netflix branch of the MCU. It’s not a perfect comic-book show, but it
has a ton of great stuff going for it, and I’m definitely a fan (a few spoilers.)
Luke
Cage, an ex-police officer turned convict turned fugitive (falsely accused, by
the way,) has been laying low ever since experiments performed by a shady
prison doctor gave him superpowers. His
body is bulletproof and he possesses super-strength, but he prefers to keep his
head down, working two jobs and being ostensibly unremarkable. However, when a close friend is caught in the
crossfire of some bad blood between gangsters, Luke finds that he has to step
up and see justice done. On behalf of
his friend and the people of Harlem whose lives are at the mercy of capricious
crime lords and corrupt politicians, he sets out to clean up the streets.
We’ll
start with what doesn’t quite work for me so I can spend the rest of the review
gushing. There are times when the
dialogue is a little corny, the big grudge match with the ultimate villain
feels a bit trite, and most unfortunately, I’m not 100% sold on Mike Colter’s
performance as Luke. When the character
was introduced on Jessica Jones, I
thought Colter seemed a bit flat, and while he’s definitely better here and has
more to work with, the performance isn’t an instant knockout for me like so
much of the MCU’s acting is.
That
said, I still absolutely love this series.
I love the lived-in vibrance of Harlem as shown onscreen, a place where people
pay tribute to the past, strive in the present, and dream toward the future. Luke
Cage makes its mark on Marvel’s movie/TV world with its own unique
aesthetic (including its topnotch soundtrack.)
Mahershala Ali and Alfre Woodard are pitch-perfect as Cottonmouth and
Mariah, two very different sides of the forces lining up against Luke. In a show with lots to recommend it, the
complex relationship between these two characters is one of my favorite things
about it.
One of my favorite things. I can’t leave out Simone Missick’s awesome
Misty, an astute police detective fighting crime/corruption in her own way as
she tries to unravel the mystery of Luke, and Rosario Dawson’s fantastic Claire
Temple really gets a chance to come into her own in the MCU. I’d thought that she essentially “belonged” to
Daredevil and made appearances in the
other Netflix shows, similar to how Rhodey is in Age of Ultron and Civil War
but is still primarily an Iron Man
character. However, Luke Cage marks Dawson’s most prominent appearance to date. Once Claire shows up early in the season,
she’s in it for the long haul, proving herself to be a valuable ally for Luke
as she pursues her growing desire to make a difference in the world by helping
people with abilities. Thrilled to see
her have so much to do and making decisions more than ever on her own
terms. So much goodness – I may find the
phrase a bit hokey when Luke says it, but “sweet Christmas” is definitely an
apt description for this series.
Warnings
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